The Davis Board of Education as well as the Utah Legislature could be launching their own reviews of the Davis School District Title I funding scandal that could lead to examining policies in other districts.

The probe would explore the case in which three former Davis employees are accused of defrauding the district of millions of dollars in Title I funds — federal money that is meant to help low-income students.

"Clearly, there is a legislative concern, whether it is through having our auditors looking into it or even having the district" come into a Legislative Audit Subcommittee meeting, said House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy.

Curtis, co-chairman of the committee, said lawmakers will seek assurances not only that spending controls over Title I funds are in place in Davis District but that policies in other districts adequately safeguard the expenditure of federal taxpayer dollars.

"Clearly, anytime there is anything like this it warrants a thorough investigation and warrants a thorough review of the procedures."

Though nothing is official, school board leaders say they will most likely hold their own review to make sure safeguards are in place to prevent a repeat.

"The most logical next step will be to run a review of the process again to make sure that we are safe and don't have anything that reoccurs," said Marian Storey, board president.

An independent Davis School District audit released last year reported a number of "significant deficiencies" in the district's financial reporting.

Davis officials initiated the audit last year after discovering something was amiss with Title I funding.

The audit revealed that the district's failure to obtain proper approvals for small purchases, inadequate segregation of responsibility, inadequate supervision over purchases from vendors and failure to validate receipts from certain small purchases may have allowed the alleged fraud to take place.

Chris Williams, spokesman for Davis School District, said since the report, and following the audit's recommendations, the district has instituted new safeguards to alert officials to questionable activity sooner.

District officials now look at the frequency of orders with vendors as well as the amount of those dollars. Moreover, the schools themselves are responsible for how Title I money is spent at their site.

Susan and John Ross were indicted last week on 47 counts of mail fraud, money laundering, theft of government funds and copyright infringement and defrauding the district of $4.3 million in federal Title I funds between 2000 and 2005.