The State Education Department must take more extensive steps to ensure that tuition rates for students with special needs who are taught outside the public school system are reasonable, necessary and directly related to the special education program, according to an audit released today by State Comptroller H. Carl McCall. They must do a better job of ensuring that these are quality programs at a fair price. These center-based programs are set up to meet the educational needs of children with handicapping conditions.
Counties initially pay the tuition reimbursement for preschool programs.
School districts in which the student resides initially pay the cost for elementary and secondary school students. The counties and school districts are then reimbursed by SED at tuition rates set annually by the Commissioner of Education. McCall s auditors found a wide disparity of costs among providers sampled. However, SED s rate setting process does not include an assessment of the reasonableness of teacher and therapy staff levels or identification of significant cost variances among providers. McCall recommended that SED use the data it collects from these center-based programs to compare staffing ratios and program costs.