RALEIGH - Complaints from Triangle parents have helped trigger a new state audit that warns North Carolina's academically gifted students may be shorted of the money and services they're entitled to receive.

State Auditor Les Merritt released a report Thursday that found a lack of oversight on how North Carolina's 115 school districts run their Academically or Intellectually Gifted programs. It also found a lack of oversight of how money is spent on the programs.

As a result, Merritt said the state's 155,221 academically gifted students may not be receiving the services they need to excel in the classroom.

The state Department of Public Instruction is largely agreeing with Merritt's call for more oversight. He is recommending that DPI be given clear authority to monitor how funding for gifted programs is used and how the programs are implemented.

"The potential for students to be underserved exists," said Elissa Brown, DPI's consultant for academically gifted programs.

Merritt began the audit in May in response to parent's concerns that gifted program funds were being used for other purposes. Chris Mears, a spokesman for Merritt, said complaints had been received from around the state, including from at least one Triangle school system that he would not identify.

The audit is likely to raise concerns among parents of gifted children.

"It's fairly common that parents aren't satisfied with the level of AIG services provided to their children," said Tom Johnson, president of the Wake County Partners for the Advancement of Gifted Education, an advocacy group for gifted students.

Locally, Wake County and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system have two of the largest programs for gifted students, in terms of percentage. More than 23,000 Wake students, or 17 percent of the district, qualify for gifted services. More than 20 percent of students qualify in Chapel Hill.

Last year, the state provided school districts with $58.1 million for gifted programs. But the audit found that no one at the state level was monitoring whether those students were benefiting from the money.

The audit noted that four school districts had asked in 2007 to transfer state money from the gifted program to other uses. Of that group, one district transferred 99 percent of the money while another used the funds to hire teachers to work with non-gifted students.

The audit doesn't identify those four districts.

Mears said there's reason to think that some of the state's other 111 districts are also using the AIG money for other uses but aren't asking for state permission.

Joyce Gardner, director of Wake County's academically gifted program, said money has not been diverted for other purposes. She said Wake received $5.8 million from the state for its gifted program.

The audit also found that monitoring ends after a school district submits its plan every three years for how it will provide services to gifted students. Merritt warned that without the monitoring , nothing ensures that gifted students are benefiting from the money.

Gardner said Wake does frequent monitoring to make sure schools are meeting the district's academically gifted plan.

"Overall, the school district does a pretty good job of educating students," said Johnson, a Raleigh parent. "But there's certainly room for improvement for providing the best education possible."

Mike Kelley, a Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board member, said parents aren't always right about their complaints. But he said that shouldn't stop them from advocating for their children.

"The school system should be challenging every child," said Kelley, whose four children all were gifted students.