CONCORD, N.H. — The Legislative Performance Audit Oversight Committee wants to look at how local public schools are handling their special education programs.
The committee Friday had a wide ranging discussion on how best to design an audit of several school districts to receive the information it seeks centered around coding.
The committee discussed the topic several years ago and eventually asked for a performance audit of the Department of Education and its oversight of its dispute resolution process, which was found to need significant changes.
At Friday’s meeting, Rep. Keith Erf, R-Weare, said he would like to see an audit of school districts’ special education programs.
“We’ve never looked at local school districts, which is where many of the issues are,” Erf said. “Is it possible to audit local school districts at some level so we understand how special education is working at the local district level?”
The Legislative Budget Assistant’s office has never done a non-government audit, audit division director Christine Young said, but is allowed to do five non-government audits in five years under the statutes.
Rep. Gerald Griffin, R-Mont Vernon, noted the ideal would be a district whose school board invited the LBA to do the audit.
Rep. Lucy Weber, D-Walpole, said the thought had crossed her mind as well but any district that invited an audit is probably not experiencing the issues they want to investigate.
Difference in programs
There is a huge difference in auditing Manchester’s special education program than Roxbury’s, she noted.
Auditing just one school district is not likely to produce the information they are looking for additional study.
Erf said maybe they could do two audits, one from a large district and one from a small district.
They are looking for information on coding with the number of students growing tremendously, which is having a huge impact on budgeting, he said.
“It is not clear what is happening year to year,” Erf said, “but it is growing like crazy.”
He noted the performance audit of the DOE dispute resolution process does not address the fundamental issue of special education coding, which is parents’ concerns, both for excess and for the lack of coding.
He called it a black hole at the local school board level.
Going under the radar
Rep. Ken Weyler, R-Kingston, said they could look at the top 10 schools for special education costs and students and have the chairs of House and Senate Finance send a letter to the superintendent seeking additional information.
“We need to know what is so out of balance with the rest of the state and the country,” he said. “This may get some answers back, maybe not, but it might be worth a try.”
This has escaped the notice of the public, Weyler said.
Weber said that would be an interesting approach particularly from a finance point of view, but from an educational point of view, those districts with low numbers may not be coding kids that ought to be coded.
“These are the kids that are lost in the shuffle some parents complain about,” she said. “It is important to know where we are at either way.”
She said it would be interesting to see where all the school districts rank for special education from top to bottom.
The committee will explore the topic further at its next meeting.
The Legislative Performance Audit Oversight Committee will meet again June 6 in Room 100 of the State House.
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com. This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.