# Audits and Auditors

(a) Contractors shall submit to the California Department of Education (CDE) Office of External Audits an acceptable annual financial and compliance audit. 

(b) All audits shall be performed by: 

              (1) A Certified Public Accountant who possesses a valid license to practice within the State of California; 

              (2) A Public Accountant licensed on or before December 31, 1970 and currently certified and licensed by the State of California; or 

              (3) A member of the CDE staff of auditors. 

(c) Non-school district contractors shall submit the audit by the fifteenth day of the fifth month following the end of the contract period or earlier if specified by the CDE. 

(d) The audits for school districts and county offices of education shall be submitted to the State Controller by November 15, or by December 31 if an extension has been approved by the applicable county superintendent of schools. 

(e) If, for any reason, the contract is terminated during the contract period, the audit shall cover the period from the beginning of the contract through the date of termination. 

(f) Public agencies may have their audits prepared by in-house auditors if the public contractor has internal audit staff that performs auditing functions and meets the tests of independence found in Standards for Audits of Governmental Organization, Programs, Activities, and Functions issued by the Comptroller General of the United States. 

(g) Subcontracts which are required to have approval from the Child Development Division prior to their execution as specified in section 18028 of this Division shall be audited in accordance with the requirements stated in section 18032 of this Division.


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://title5.caqualityearlylearning.org/accounting-and-reporting-requirements/audits-and-auditors.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.