All school districts have an intense aversion to being the subject of a news article on the front page of the local newspaper. Front page articles are generally reserved for sensational kinds of articles, especially stories involving financial malfeasance related to diversion of income by a school employee. One effective internal control is to address the first point of contact over receipt of mail in individual school district offices. The key is to achieve segregation of responsibilities for collection and deposit preparation functions from those for recording cash receipts and general ledger entries. Have an administrative assistant or secretary in the office (that is not assigned bookkeeping or other financial system roles and responsibilities) open the mail as soon it is received, keep a log of receipts and put a restrictive endorsement on incoming checks as soon as received. Also, there should be a comparison of recorded receipts on a test basis to bank statements to verify timeliness of deposits (daily). These internal controls are highly recommended for all school districts, especially small enrollment districts that have limited opportunities for segregation of duties.