Objective

To determine if the State Education Department (SED) is effectively overseeing preschool special education in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations to promote timely access to services for children across New York State. The audit covered the period from July 2018 through January 2024.

About the Program

One of the most critical periods of growth in a child’s development occurs during the first 5 years of life. Quality early education programs can make a difference and increase a child’s opportunity for successful learning and later life accomplishments. Providing special education programs and services at an early age helps prepare a child with a disability to enter school ready to learn.

Preschool special education is overseen by SED’s Office of Special Education (OSE), which works to promote educational equity and excellence for students with disabilities. Preschool special education services for children 3 to 5 years of age can include but are not limited to: speech pathology and language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, specialized instruction, parent training, and counseling. As of October 5, 2022, SED reported 40,846 children in the State were receiving preschool special education programs and services.

The special education process begins when a child suspected of needing special education services is referred, in writing, to the school district in which the child resides. The child must next be evaluated by an SED-approved agency or a school district’s evaluation team after the district receives parental consent. Initial evaluations must be completed within a time frame that allows the Individualized Education Program (IEP), which details recommended services to be provided, to be developed within 60 calendar days of parental consent to evaluate a child not previously identified as having a disability. Every child has the right to receive all the services prescribed in their IEP, and services must begin as soon as possible following the development of the IEP, and within 60 school days of the receipt of consent to evaluate the child.

OSE’s Special Education Quality Assurance (SEQA) regional offices conduct reviews of compliance with the 60-day timeline for evaluations of preschool-age children and evaluate whether children transitioning from Early Intervention with an IEP have it implemented by their third birthday. These reviews cover 1/6 of the State’s school districts on a 6-year rotational basis to assess compliance with regulation requirements (i.e., every year, 1/6—approximately 118 of the 710 school districts—are reviewed).

Key Findings

• Preschool special education students may not be receiving all required services within required time frames or, in some cases, may not be receiving them at all. Students are waitlisted for services that districts are unable to furnish due to a lack of providers. We conducted a survey of school districts and found, of the 550 responses received, 455 (83%) school districts reported they maintain a waitlist for services. Of the 40 school districts we visited, 21 (53%) stated they maintain waitlists. Further, SED cannot adequately perform its oversight responsibilities to ensure that all preschool students with disabilities have access to their recommended services, as it is not aware of the current number of students enrolled in the preschool special education program, the services those students are receiving in real time, or how many school districts maintain waitlists for services.
• While SEQA retroactively reviews compliance with some time frames in the special education process, these reviews address only 1/6 of the State’s school districts per year, providing outdated data that may come too late to help students in need of immediate services.
• Discrepancies among various SED data systems and sources result in unreliable information regarding services provided, and lack of analysis of the information it does have limits SED’s ability to monitor when school districts are having issues such as unserved students or evaluations that are not occurring promptly due to a lack of providers.

Key Recommendations

• Develop a strategy to address the statewide shortage of preschool special education service providers and work with school districts to identify ways to obtain the necessary services.
• Increase monitoring of school districts, including but not limited to:
  • Timeliness of preschool special education events (i.e., evaluations).
  • Resolutions of potential non-compliance (i.e., waitlists and ensuring IEP implementation for all students).
  • Determining regional need for providers on a real-time basis.
• Develop and implement a risk-based method to identify school districts that warrant immediate review.
• Develop data integrity controls to provide greater assurance of the accuracy and completeness of data.