Reading First, a program under the No Child Left Behind Act, is intended to bring research-based reading instruction to struggling schools through the awarding of grants. In an audit of New York's Reading First plan, investigators concluded that the state erred in awarding grants to eight districts and a charter school that did not meet the minimum criteria for the program, and they recommended that the state return $118 million of the $216 million in federal money already awarded. New York state officials are disputing this report, maintaining that they administered the program the way the U.S. Department of Education demanded. This article details the confusion surrounding the implementation of the Reading First program and the U.S. Department of Education's management of the program.