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Arizona Auditor General Home Page

We Make a Positive Difference

We help government work better by analyzing governmental operations and recommending improvements. Our fiscal year 2025 results:

239
Reports issued*
 
1,078
Recommendations made
 
$39.01 million
Waste, misuse, and inefficient spending identified
$38.90 million
Fraud and public money losses reported on
 
15
Criminal indictments assisted with

* reports include audits, reviews, investigations, alerts, and followups.

 

What's New

District paid 2 employees more than $104,000 for overtime work without ensuring the charges were reasonable and potentially wasted other monies on food and beverages, excess vehicles, and car wash...

District lacked effective controls to limit access to its campus; did not ensure its employees and Governing Board members complied with certain conflict-of-interest requirements; did not follow cash, credit cards...

In FY 2025, districts spent nearly $53 million less on instruction than the prior year, and for the third consecutive year, the State-wide instructional spending percentage (ISP) fell to a new low—52.1%. Although the State average teacher salary increased slightly to $65,613, average teacher salaries declined at 95 districts. Additionally, one-third of districts are potentially at higher financial risk because of declining student enrollment and related funding.

As part of their responsibility to prevent and detect fraud, Deer Valley Unified School District (District) officials took appropriate action by reporting to us alleged financial misconduct by Michelle Haworth...

This is an analysis of Arizona school district financial risk using the most current data available for 10 financial risk measures. We monitor each district’s overall financial risk of not...

Featured Reports

COVID-19 Spending Reports

Followup—Arizona school districts’ and charter schools’, and ADE’s discretionary, COVID-19 federal relief spending—through June 30, 2022...

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Arizona Auditor General Special COVID-19 Funding Report, November 2022...

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School District Financial Risk Analysis

As of January 2026, 9 of 207 analyzed Arizona school districts are at the highest financial risk, and 9 are approaching the highest-risk category. This represents an increase from last year’s report when our analysis identified 2 highest-risk school districts and 7 approaching the highest-risk category. 

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School District Spending Analysis

In FY 2025, districts spent nearly $53 million less on instruction than the prior year, and for the third consecutive year, the State-wide instructional spending percentage (ISP) fell to a new low—52.1%. Although the State average teacher salary increased slightly to $65,613, average teacher salaries declined at 95 districts. Additionally, one-third of districts are potentially at higher financial risk because of declining student enrollment and related funding.

View Analysis