For superintendents
5 out of 6 districts fail their CalSTRS audit. Is yours ready?
83.4% of California school districts receive findings in a CalSTRS employer audit. The median impact is $5,885 — but the real cost is the 60-day emergency, the staff disruption, and the board conversation you weren't prepared for. Irys shows you what CalSTRS would find, before they find it.
Risk profiles built from 787 CalSTRS employer audit reports — 1,612 findings across 661 districts in 16 California counties. Public record, obtained via PRA 2131.
- Public-record data
- County-specific
- Board-presentable
/ 02 · The problem
You trust that CalSTRS reporting is handled. 83% of superintendents were wrong.
You have a payroll team submitting reports the way they have for years. You have no reason to think anything's wrong — until a CalSTRS audit report lands on your desk with findings. That happens to 83.4% of audited districts. The moment findings issue, it stops being a payroll problem and becomes a governance problem — and it's on your desk.
Here's the next 60 days: CalSTRS mandates a review going back 3 to 5 school years. Your payroll team — already running current-year reporting — compiles correction lists under deadline. That's 80 to 200 hours of unplanned work.
The exposure is larger than the report shows. CalSTRS samples 3–4 members; if the error is systemic, a 500-member district faces a median projected exposure of $1.2 million — a large district, $4.7 million.
Then the board meeting: explain what went wrong, how long it's been wrong, how much it will cost, and why no one caught it. 17% of districts with findings get audited again. That's the conversation to prevent.
Irys analyzes your reporting against the exact error patterns in 787 real audits. You see what CalSTRS would flag, before they flag it, and corrections happen on your timeline. Instead of explaining a finding, you present a proactive review: here's what we checked, here's what we found, here's what we fixed. A different conversation entirely.
/ 03 · The evidence
What 787 audits reveal about districts like yours.
Risk profiles built from 787 CalSTRS employer audit reports — 1,612 findings across 661 districts in 16 California counties. Public record, obtained via PRA 2131.
“The District must initiate a review of the extra-duty earnings reported to the DB Program from the 2011-12 school year through the current school year, and identify additional members whose earnings were similarly reported.”
83.4%
of audited districts receive findings (656 of 787)
$1.75M
conservative realized loss across 191 quantified findings
3.9×
cascade: 1 finding $3,137 → 3+ findings $12,224
60 days
to compile and submit corrections once findings issue
/ 04 · What you get
Know your risk. Fix it first. Show the board you did.
Tell the board “we checked” — with the data to back it up
A verified compliance posture built on analysis against 787 real audit reports: what was checked, what was found, what was corrected, and how you compare to county and statewide benchmarks.
See your county's audit reality — not the statewide average
Finding rates run from 52.9% to 96.7% by county. Irys builds your risk profile from your county's actual audit history, not generic statewide numbers.
Prevent the 60-day emergency before it starts
44% of findings mandate a retroactive self-audit back 3–5 years — 80–200 hours of unplanned work for your payroll team. Irys moves detection to before the audit.
Understand the full exposure — not just the audit sample
CalSTRS samples 3–4 members; your district has hundreds. Irys extrapolates to your full membership. The gap between sample and population is where the real risk lives.
Turn compliance into a governance strength
Most districts treat CalSTRS compliance as a payroll function. Irys makes it a leadership function — measurable, manageable, and demonstrable.
/ 05 · The path
From assumption to assurance in three steps.
-
01
Assess your district's risk
Irys maps you against 787 audits — your county's finding rate, your estimated membership, your projected exposure. You see the landscape before anything is scanned.
⚠ Needs product input #5 -
02
Scan your reporting data
Your reporting is analyzed against 10 finding categories and 1,612 real error patterns. Every flag includes the exposure, the affected members, and the correction needed.
⚠ Needs product input #2 -
03
Present a verified compliance posture
Corrections are made before audit season. You present the board a proactive review — data-backed, county-benchmarked, verifiable against public CalSTRS records.
/ 06 · Our Story
We started with a question no one could answer.
Across all CalSTRS employer audits, what exactly goes wrong, how much does it cost, and could it have been prevented? We obtained 787 audit reports through the Public Records Act. The answer: 83.4% of districts get findings, the exposure scales with workforce size, and almost every error was detectable beforehand. Irys turns that analysis into a data-backed answer to “are we compliant?”
Read our story/ 07 · Who we serve
For the leaders accountable when findings arrive.
K-12 School Districts
Superintendents managing compliance alongside instruction, budgets, and community expectations.
Large & Very Large Districts
Where membership runs into the hundreds or thousands, and per-member error rates multiply into seven-figure exposure.
County Superintendents
COE leaders who need county-wide visibility across the districts they support and advise.
/ 08 · Proof & answers
The questions a buying committee actually asks.
Is 83.4% really the finding rate?
Yes — 656 of 787 CalSTRS employer audits in our dataset contain at least one finding. The data comes from public records obtained via PRA 2131.
How do you know what CalSTRS looks for?
We categorized every finding across 787 reports into 10 error types. The top three — extra-duty earnings, special-compensation misclassification, and post-retirement reporting — account for the majority of findings.
What if we've never been audited?
CalSTRS audits on a rotating basis. The 83.4% rate applies to all audited districts. A clean history means you haven't been checked yet — not that your reporting is correct.
What does the $1.75M figure represent?
The conservative total of realized losses across 191 findings where CalSTRS explicitly quantified the impact — one primary impact per finding, not a gross sum.
How accurate are the projected-exposure numbers?
They're built from per-member error rates in 127 findings with explicit sample sizes, and assume the error is systemic across your full membership. These are potential-exposure estimates, not predictions — we report P25, median, and P75.
Is the data really from public records?
Yes — every report was obtained via California Public Records Act request (PRA 2131). The dataset, methodology, and source attribution are fully transparent.
Is this relevant for small districts?
Yes. A 200-member district faces a median projected exposure of $475K, and smaller districts often have leaner payroll teams with less CalSTRS-specific expertise.
How does this compare to what our financial auditor checks?
Different scope. CalSTRS audits target member-reporting accuracy — earnings classifications, post-retirement limits, one-time-payment categorizations — which your financial auditor does not cover.
Can I present this to the board?
The analysis is designed for governance-level communication — county benchmarks, probability-weighted risk, and before/after status.
What does it cost?
⚠ Needs product input #4
/ 09 · Book a demo
Be the superintendent who found it first.
Book a demo and we'll pre-load your county's risk profile so you see exactly where your district stands.
Built on 787 CalSTRS audit reports · 661 districts across 16 counties · every number a matter of public record.