Since the Massachusetts Department of Education (DOE) will be conducting a Coordinated Program Review of Harvard’s special education program in the near future, some people believe an independent special education audit is redundant. To answer this question, I spoke to David LeBlanc, director of DOE’s Audit and Compliance Department. He explained that DOE does not conduct an “audit” and does not look at financial issues. Instead, DOE examines programs to ensure that state and federal mandates are satisfied. For example, it may check to see if deadlines for notifications, evaluations, and meetings are met. DOE has no interest in seeing if a town provides services efficiently.
A subgroup of the Special Education Task Force has been working on guidelines for an independent audit and has produced a working document that details the proposed audit’s scope. Its introduction says, “The requested audit is not intended to replicate, supersede or otherwise replace any State or Federally required program audits. The goal of this audit will be: ‘To evaluate the Special Education program to determine if the scarce resources of the Town and School District are being allocated appropriately and in the best interests of the total student populations while complying with State and Federal requirements.’ ”
An independent audit will not be redundant. Why would anyone want that? The types of issues an independent audit will examine may be specific: “How much money are we failing to get back from the state (“circuit breaker” funding) because we fail to file ‘Authorization for Pricing Requests’ whenever we pay for students to attend non-approved out-of-district schools?” Broader issues might also be considered: “Are there ways to service some out-of-district students in less restrictive placements by providing in-district programs or by using C.A.S.E.?”
Given that the special education budget is over $3 million, the cost of the audit will be less than 1 percent. Even a slight improvement in efficiency should more than recoup this. Hopefully, there will be an added benefit—restored confidence in our School Committee and administration.
Margot Holtzman
Bolton Road
