tailieunhanh - Fiscal and Program Oversight of Special Education Providers State Education Department

In 1990, the Organic Foods Production Act (Act) established national standards for the production and handling of organic products and required the Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary) to issue regulations to implement the legislation. The Secretary delegated the functions of the Act to the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), and through regulations effective in October 2002, the National Organic Program (NOP) was created to administer these standards and to require mandatory certification of organic production. The Act also required the Secretary to establish the National Organic Standards Board (Board) to assist in the development of standards for substances to be used in. | New York State Office of the State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli Division of State Government Accountability Fiscal and Program Oversight of Special Education Providers State Education Department 2012-S-103 Executive Summary Purpose To determine whether the State Education Department SED provides adequate onsite fiscal and program monitoring of special education providers. The audit covers the period from July 1 2008 to November 2 2012. Background SED oversees special education programs for students with disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21. In addition to services provided by local school districts these programs include services delivered to about 75 000 preschool students by more than 300 for-profit and not-for-profit entities at an annual cost of approximately billion. Fifteen State Comptroller audit reports of private special education providers have identified widespread fraud and abuse resulting in million disallowances out of a total of million examined costs which were funded by the State and local governments. In addition six of these audits have been referred to law enforcement. In response to the audit findings the New York State Board of Regents has directed SED to identify necessary program reforms. Key Findings There has been no fiscal audit oversight of individual providers since 2007. There is also no system to ensure programmatic review of providers on any cyclical basis. In the past four years only about one-third of providers have been reviewed. Other fiscal oversight is limited to the desk reviews of self-reported information contained in the Consolidated Fiscal Reports CFRs that providers submit annually. Because of the lack of other fiscal oversight the Certified Public Accountants CPAs role in certifying the CFR has become a critical control in the process. However our audits have determined - and SED agrees - that CPAs are not fulfilling the responsibility and as a result the information is not sufficiently reliable. .