Kelly’s administration severs school reading grant with company after spending issues

Because of incorrect information released by the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF), earlier versions of this story reported that DCF would continue funding the program through the company.

Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration severed its relationship with a Washington, D.C.-based company that operates a reading program for Kansas schools, months after an audit raised concerns about high executive pay and inordinate travel.

The Kansas Department of Children and Families (DCF) and Hysell & Wagner LLC reached an agreement that resolves the issues surrounding the company’s spending, officials announced Monday. The firm will no longer operate the Kansas Reading Roadmap program. The state will directly fund the program.

The DCF cut the program’s funding in early August 2019 after learning that the company paid its executives above federal salary limits, that personnel took 38 trips throughout the U.S. with welfare dollars and that the firm had excessive administrative costs.

As a result, the state withdrew a $9 million annual grant funded through federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

A previous audit by former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration found the company received nearly $2.3 million in incorrect payments in 2014 and 2015.

Andrew Hysell, director of the Kansas Reading Roadmap, said last summer that DCF renewed the grant in June 2019, but then cut the funding after Hysell declined to sign a contract amendment that he contended would have forced some schools to wait for the program.

Both the DCF and Hysell & Wagner LLC declined comment on Monday’s announcement.

This story was originally published March 23, 2020 at 1:44 PM.