Special Education
Improved Timeliness and Better Use of Enforcement Actions Could Strengthen Education's Monitoring System Gao ID: GAO-04-879 September 9, 2004The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) ensures the education of the nation's disabled children. As a condition of receiving IDEA funds, states must provide educational and related services that facilitate learning to students with disabilities based on their individual needs. The Department of Education (Education) is responsible for ensuring state compliance with the law. In recent years, questions have been raised about Education's oversight of IDEA. GAO agreed to determine how Education monitors state compliance with IDEA for children aged 3-21, the extent and nature of noncompliance found, and how Education has ensured that noncompliance is resolved once identified. GAO analyzed Education monitoring documents, interviewed state and federal officials, and visited 5 state special education offices.
To monitor compliance with IDEA provisions that affect children aged 3-21, Education annually reviews special education data submitted by all states and uses a risk-based approach to identify those states in need of further inspection. This monitoring system relies upon collaboration with states, as each state is responsible for assessing and reporting its performance on the provision of special education services. However, some of the data used by Education, such as information about how parents are included in their children's education and students' experiences after they leave school, are weak in that they are not uniformly measured or are difficult for states to collect. In states Education visited for further inspection from 1997-2002, the department identified roughly equal amounts of noncompliance for failing to adequately provide services to students as noncompliance for not adhering to IDEA's procedural regulations, according to GAO analysis. Education found a total of 253 compliance failures in 30 of the 31 states visited during this period, with an average of approximately 8 across the 30 states. GAO found 52 percent of compliance failures to be directly related to providing student services, for instance counseling and speech therapy. The remaining 48 percent involved a failure to meet certain IDEA procedural requirements. Once deficiencies were identified, Education has sought resolution by providing states with technical assistance and requiring them to develop corrective action plans that would ensure compliance within 1 year. However, GAO found that most cases of noncompliance had remained open for 2 to 7 years before closure, and some cases still remain open. GAO's examination of Education documents showed that a considerable amount of time elapsed in each phase of the correction process, including Education's issuance of noncompliance findings and approval of correction plans. On occasion, Education has also made use of sanctions to address longstanding issues with noncompliance, but in these cases, too, resolution has been protracted. States expressed concerns about the standard 1-year timeframe Education imposes for correction, and Education officials acknowledged that it is sometimes not feasible for states to remedy noncompliance and demonstrate effectiveness in that length of time.
RecommendationsOur recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director: Team: Phone:GAO-04-879, Special Education: Improved Timeliness and Better Use of Enforcement Actions Could Strengthen Education's Monitoring System
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Enforcement Actions Could Strengthen Education's Monitoring System'
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Report to the Ranking Minority Member, Committee on Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions, U.S. Senate:
United States Government Accountability Office:
GAO:
September 2004:
Special Education:
Improved Timeliness and Better Use of Enforcement Actions Could
Strengthen Education's Monitoring System:
GAO-04-879:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-04-879, a report to the Ranking Minority Mentor,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, U.S. Senate:
Why GAO Did This Study:
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) ensures the
education of the nation‘s disabled children. As a condition of
receiving IDEA funds, states must provide educational and related
services that facilitate learning to students with disabilities based
on their individual needs. The Department of Education (Education) is
responsible for ensuring state compliance with the law. In recent
years, questions have been raised about Education‘s oversight of IDEA.
GAO agreed to determine how Education monitors state compliance with
IDEA for children aged 3-21, the extent and nature of noncompliance
found, and how Education has ensured that noncompliance is resolved
once identified. GAO analyzed Education monitoring documents,
interviewed state and federal officials, and visited 5 state special
education offices.
What GAO Found:
To monitor compliance with IDEA provisions that affect children aged 3-
21, Education annually reviews special education data submitted by all
states and uses a risk-based approach to identify those states in need
of further inspection. This monitoring system relies upon collaboration
with states, as each state is responsible for assessing and reporting
its performance on the provision of special education services.
However, some of the data used by Education, such as information about
how parents are included in their children‘s education and students‘
experiences after they leave school, are weak in that they are not
uniformly measured or are difficult for states to collect.
In states Education visited for further inspection from 1997-2002, the
department identified roughly equal amounts of noncompliance for
failing to adequately provide services to students as noncompliance for
not adhering to IDEA‘s procedural regulations, according to GAO
analysis. Education found a total of 253 compliance failures in 30 of
the 31 states visited during this period, with an average of
approximately 8 across the 30 states. GAO found 52 percent of
compliance failures to be directly related to providing student
services, for instance counseling and speech therapy. The remaining 48
percent involved a failure to meet certain IDEA procedural requirements.
Once deficiencies were identified, Education has sought resolution by
providing states with technical assistance and requiring them to
develop corrective action plans that would ensure compliance within 1
year. However, GAO found that most cases of noncompliance had remained
open for 2 to 7 years before closure, and some cases still remain open.
GAO‘s examination of Education documents showed that a considerable
amount of time elapsed in each phase of the correction process,
including Education‘s issuance of noncompliance findings and approval
of correction plans, as shown in the following figure.
Time Taken to Complete Phases of Correction Process:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
On occasion, Education has also made use of sanctions to address
longstanding issues with noncompliance, but in these cases, too,
resolution has been protracted. States expressed concerns about the
standard 1-year timeframe Education imposes for correction, and
Education officials acknowledged that it is sometimes not feasible for
states to remedy noncompliance and demonstrate effectiveness in that
length of time.
What GAO Recommends:
GAO recommends that the Secretary of Education issue guidance to states
for collecting data on key outcome measures. GAO also recommends that
the department improve response times throughout the monitoring process
and impose realistic timeframes and firm deadlines for remedying
noncompliance. Education disagreed with one recommendation and was not
explicit about its intentions for the others.
www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-879.
To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on
the link above. For more information, contact Mamie Shaul at (202) 512-
7215 or shaulm@gao.gov.
[End of section]
Contents:
Letter:
Results in Brief:
Background:
To Monitor Compliance with IDEA, Education Uses a Risk-Based System
That Relies Upon State-Provided Information:
Noncompliance Education Found Was about Equally Split between Failures
Involving Services to Students and Procedural Deficiencies:
Education Has Sought to Bring States into Compliance by Providing
Technical Assistance and Requiring Corrective Action Plans, but
Resolution Has Been Prolonged:
Conclusions:
Recommendations for Executive Action:
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology:
Site Visits:
Monitoring Report Analysis:
Analysis of Compliance Documentation:
Analysis of Enforcement Documentation:
Appendix II: IDEA-Related Sanctions 1994-2003:
Appendix III: Comments from the Department of Education:
Appendix IV: GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments:
GAO Contacts:
Staff Acknowledgments:
Related GAO Products:
Tables:
Table 1: Most Commonly Cited Noncompliance Findings Related to the
Provision of Services in Education Monitoring Reports, 1997-2002:
Table 2: Most Common Findings of Procedural Noncompliance in Education
Monitoring Reports, 1997-2002:
Table 3: Results of Education Monitoring Visits, 1997-2002:
Figures:
Figure 1: States That Received Monitoring Visits, 1997-2002:
Figure 2: Time Taken to Correct Noncompliance through Technical
Assistance and Corrective Action Plans:
Figure 3: Time Generally Taken for Corrective Process in Closed Cases
Where Sanctions Were Imposed:
Abbreviations:
CIFMS: Continuous Improvement and Focused Monitoring System: IDEA:
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: IEP: Individualized
Education Program: NCLBA: No Child Left Behind Act:
OSEP: Office of Special Education Programs:
United States Government Accountability Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
September 9, 2004:
The Honorable Edward M. Kennedy:
Ranking Minority Member:
Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions: United States
Senate:
Dear Senator Kennedy:
In the 2003-2004 school year, states received more than $9 billion
under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) toward
educating the approximately 6.5 million eligible children aged 3-21
with disabilities in the United States. IDEA funds are used to provide
both educational services and related services, such as counseling,
speech pathology, and occupational therapy, that facilitate learning.
As a condition of receiving IDEA funding, states agree to comply with
certain requirements regarding the educational and related services
provided to disabled children. These requirements include the
development of an individualized education program (IEP) that outlines
the specific services to be provided to each student based on
individual needs. For students over the age of 14, IEPs must include a
statement of transition services to be provided to students to help
them obtain the educational and vocational skills needed to improve the
likelihood of self-sufficiency once they leave school. Similarly,
infants and toddlers served under the act must have individualized
family service plans in place that include steps to be taken to support
the child's transition to preschool or other services.
When IDEA was reauthorized in 1997, Congress placed a new emphasis on
state and local accountability for complying with IDEA and improving
educational outcomes, such as graduation and other measures of
postsecondary success, for disabled students. The reauthorized law made
each state's annual federal funds conditional on its success in
providing a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive
environment. States were also required to establish goals for student
performance and to provide the Department of Education (Education) with
progress measures toward accomplishing those goals. With the enactment
of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) of 2001, Congress further
emphasized states' obligations to educate disabled children by
requiring them to fully include disabled children in statewide
achievement systems. With few exceptions, disabled students are to be
assessed against the same state academic standards as nondisabled
students, their aggregated scores are to be publicly reported, and
schools are to be held accountable for their performance.
Education has responsibility for oversight of IDEA and for ensuring
that states are complying with the law. Education both provides states
with technical assistance in implementing IDEA and monitors their
compliance with its requirements. However, questions have been raised
about the effectiveness of Education's oversight. Specifically,
concerns have been raised that Education has not held states
accountable for ensuring that students with disabilities receive the
services to which they are entitled and that Education's efforts to
remedy noncompliance have been ineffective. In response to these
concerns, you asked us to examine Education's oversight of IDEA,
focusing on Part B, which provides services to children age 3-21. Our
review did not include Part C of IDEA, which provides services to
infants and toddlers from birth up to age 3. This report presents
information on (1) how Education monitors state compliance with IDEA,
(2) the extent and nature of noncompliance in those states Education
selected for review, and (3) the measures Education has used to remedy
noncompliance with IDEA and the results of those measures.
To address these study objectives, we analyzed Education monitoring
reports, documents, and guidance issued to states. We interviewed
department officials and examined available documentation on
Education's current monitoring system, instituted in 2003, as well as
its previous systems. Specifically, we reviewed the monitoring reports
of the 31 states, territories, and other jurisdictions[Footnote 1] for
which Education had most recently completed monitoring visits, which
took place from 1997-2002. We analyzed Education's findings of
noncompliance in these states and categorized them as service-related,
if the failure directly affected the provision of an IDEA-required
educational service, or procedural-related, if the infraction involved
a more process-oriented failure. In cases where Education found
noncompliance, we analyzed enforcement documents, such as corrective
action approval letters, evidence submitted by states demonstrating
compliance, and correspondence from Education acknowledging when
noncompliance had been resolved. In cases where noncompliance resulted
in sanctions, we reviewed departmental enforcement documents, including
special condition letters and compliance agreements, from 1994-2003.
This longer period of review enabled us to obtain a more comprehensive
view of Education's use of sanctions for resolving noncompliance.
Additionally, we conducted site visits to 5 states-California, Georgia,
Kansas, New Jersey, and Texas-that were selected to reflect differences
in such factors as special education population size, previous
noncompliance issues, date of last monitoring visit, and geographic
location. In each state we analyzed state monitoring documents and
interviewed state special education officials and members of the
special education community, including administrators, parents, and
advocates, who were involved in the monitoring process. Furthermore, we
interviewed federal officials regarding the monitoring and enforcement
process, as well as representatives from the National Council for
Disability and national education organizations.
We conducted our work between September 2003 and August 2004 in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
Appendix I explains our methodology in greater detail.
Results in Brief:
Education monitors all states for IDEA compliance through a review of
state performance reports and uses a risk-based approach to select some
states for further inspection each year; however, some data used to
make these selections are weak. Education's monitoring system relies
upon collaboration with states, as each state is responsible for
collecting information about its own special education programs in
particular topic areas, assessing its performance, and reporting its
findings to the department annually. Using the data states reported,
Education reviews state performance in those areas it considers most
closely associated with improving students' educational outcomes, such
as increased parental involvement and placement in regular educational
settings, rather than on more process-oriented IDEA requirements.
According to Education, the department selects a limited number of
states for on-site inspection based on selected measures, such as
graduation rates and dropout rates. Because Education relies heavily on
state-reported data, it has taken steps in recent years to ensure that
states have adequate systems in place to collect and report special
education data. Despite these efforts, some of the data elements
Education uses to make monitoring decisions are weak. For example,
graduation rates are not uniformly collected or reported. Similarly,
information about parent involvement and student transitions into
elementary school and post-secondary programs are difficult to collect
and are, therefore, reported inconsistently across states. Education
officials acknowledged that the variability in state reported data has
limited their ability to make comparisons across states. Officials in
some states we visited attributed these variations in part to
inadequate guidance from Education and asked for more guidance on these
measures. Inconsistent reporting of state data could negatively affect
Education's ability to focus its monitoring activities on those states
with the greatest deficiencies.
Cases of noncompliance identified by Education were about equally
related to state failure in providing disabled students with services
and failure in meeting IDEA procedural requirements, according to our
analysis of state monitoring reports issued between 1997 and 2002.
Education found a total of 253 compliance failures in 30 of the 31
states that it visited during this period, with an average of 8 across
the 30 states. Slightly more than half of Education's findings were for
failure to provide a service or facilitate the provision of a basic
service to a student with disabilities. Most commonly cited was the
failure to ensure related services that facilitate learning, such as
counseling, speech pathology, and assistive technology. The remaining
noncompliance findings Education identified involved a failure to meet
certain procedural requirements under IDEA, such as failing to complete
paperwork or to meet timeliness requirements.
Education has endeavored to bring states into compliance through state
corrective action plans and technical assistance, but cases of
noncompliance have generally continued for years before being fully
resolved. To resolve the range of deficiencies Education identified in
its monitoring visits, the department required states to (1) develop
corrective action plans, (2) institute remedies, and (3) demonstrate
the effectiveness of the remedy within 1 year. We found that all of the
7 cases of noncompliance from 1997 to 2002 that have been fully
resolved took from 2 to 6 years for closure to occur, and the remaining
23 cases-some dating back as far as 1997-have still not been completely
resolved. However, Education officials told us that most of these
states are making progress. Our examination of Education documents
showed that each phase of the monitoring and correction process took a
considerable amount of time, including Education's issuance of its
findings report and the approval of the state correction plan. On
average, Education took about a year to issue a monitoring report
following its site visits, and generally 1 to 2 years passed before
states' corrective action plans were approved. Infrequently, in cases
of serious or longstanding noncompliance, Education has taken more
severe action by using sanctions such as making grant renewals
conditional on correcting noncompliance, but resolution has been slow
in these cases as well. In addition, states that we examined rarely
resolved noncompliance within the 1-year compliance deadline specified
by Education for correction. State officials raised concerns about this
1-year time period, and Education officials acknowledged that
resolution could be difficult to accomplish and substantiate within a 1-
year period for some deficiencies. Education officials explained that
the nature of some problems, for example personnel shortages, requires
longer-term solutions. In such cases, Education may pursue 3-year
compliance agreements that allow states to plan their remedial actions
over a longer period.
To improve special education monitoring, we are recommending that
Education develop additional guidance for collecting data on key
outcome measures. To strengthen enforcement of IDEA, we are
recommending that Education improve its response times throughout the
monitoring process and that it impose realistic timeframes and firm
deadlines for remedying findings of noncompliance, including making
greater use of compliance agreements when appropriate.
In its comments on a draft of this report, Education expressed general
agreement with the deficiencies we found and asserted its belief that
changes made to the monitoring system in the past few years have
already begun to effectively address these deficiencies. The department
discussed a variety of actions it was taking but did not explicitly
agree or disagree with most of our specific recommendations. Because we
could not determine whether the actions Education discussed will result
in the needed improvements, we did not delete these recommendations. In
the case of our recommendation about compliance agreements, Education
disagreed, saying that the department lacks the authority to initiate
them because the compliance agreement process is voluntary on the part
of the states. While we agree that Education cannot compel states to
enter into these agreements, we continue to believe that Education does
have the authority to initiate compliance agreements and that this
action could result in beneficial outcomes.
Background:
IDEA is the primary federal law that addresses the special education
and related service needs of children with disabilities, including
children with specific learning disabilities, sensory disabilities,
such as hearing and visual impairments, and other disabilities, such as
emotional disturbance and speech or language impairments. The law
requires states to provide eligible children with disabilities a free
appropriate public education in "the least restrictive environment,"
that is, in an educational setting alongside nondisabled children to
the maximum extent appropriate.
School districts are responsible for identifying students who may have
a disability and evaluating them in all areas related to the suspected
disability. In addition, they must re-evaluate children at least once
every 3 years, or sooner if conditions warrant a re-evaluation, or if
the child's parents or teacher requests a re-evaluation. Under IDEA,
students receive special education and related services tailored to
their needs through an IEP, which is a written statement developed by a
team of educational professionals, parents, and interested parties at
meetings regarding the child's educational program.[Footnote 2]
If the IEP team determines the child needs extended year services,
schools are required by regulations governing IDEA to provide such
services beyond the normal school year. Further, the act requires that
states have in place a comprehensive system of personnel development
designed to ensure an adequate supply of special education, regular
education, and related services personnel to provide needed services.
IDEA seeks to strengthen the role of parents and ensure they have
meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their
children. In particular, IDEA regulations require that parents receive
prior notification of IEP meetings and that the meetings be scheduled
at a mutually agreed upon time and place. The act affords parents other
procedural safeguard protections, such as the opportunity to examine
their child's records and to present complaints relating to the
identification, evaluation, educational placement of the child, or the
provision of a free appropriate public education.[Footnote 3] Under
IDEA, disputes between families and school districts may be resolved
through due process hearings, state complaint procedures, or mediation.
The Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs
(OSEP) is responsible for administering IDEA. Education authorizes
grants to states, supports research and disseminates best practices,
and provides technical assistance to states in implementing the law.
Education is also responsible for monitoring states' compliance with
IDEA requirements and ensuring that the law is enforced when
noncompliance occurs. Education reviews states' systems for detecting
and correcting noncompliance in the state, including noncompliance at
the local level. In the event of noncompliance, Education has the
specific authority to employ six sanctions: (1) imposing restrictions
or "special conditions" on a state's IDEA grant award;[Footnote 4] (2)
negotiating a long-term compliance agreement with a state requiring
corrective action within 3 years; (3) disapproving a state's
application for funds when the application does not meet IDEA
eligibility requirements; (4) obtaining a "cease and desist" order to
require a state to discontinue a practice or policy that violates IDEA;
(5) withholding IDEA funds in whole or in part depending on the degree
of the state's noncompliance; and (6) referring a noncompliant state to
the Department of Justice for appropriate enforcement action.[Footnote
5]
Education's system for monitoring state compliance with IDEA has been
evolving for more than 5 years. This evolution is, in part, in response
to the stronger accountability and enforcement provisions[Footnote 6]
in the 1997 amendments to IDEA that emphasized the importance of
improving educational outcomes for disabled children, including
improving high school graduation rates, increasing placement in regular
education settings, increasing participation in statewide and
districtwide assessment programs, and improving the outcomes of
services provided to students with emotional and behavioral disorders.
In 1998, Education implemented the Continuous Improvement Monitoring
Process, which focused its monitoring efforts on states with the
greatest risk of noncompliance and placed increased responsibility on
states for identifying areas of weakness. In 2003, Education
implemented the Continuous Improvement and Focused Monitoring System
(CIFMS), which, among other things, added new state performance
reporting requirements to its monitoring system. Officials of some
special education advocacy groups with whom we spoke, including the
National Association of State Directors of Special Education, commented
favorably on these changes. However, the National Council on
Disability, which had published a 2000 study critical of Education's
enforcement of IDEA, continued to question whether Education has taken
effective actions to remedy the problems reported.[Footnote 7]
To Monitor Compliance with IDEA, Education Uses a Risk-Based System
That Relies Upon State-Provided Information:
Education uses a risk-based system to focus its monitoring efforts, but
some data it uses are weak. Education's monitoring system relies upon
states to collect information about their special education programs,
assess their own performances, and report these findings to the
department annually. In addition, the department selects a limited
number of states for further inspection based on a subset of measures.
Because this system relies heavily on state data, the department has
taken steps in recent years to ensure that states have adequate data
collection systems in place. However, some of the data are not
uniformly measured or are difficult for states to collect. Education
officials acknowledged that data variability limits the usefulness of
the reported information. Some officials in states we visited
attributed these variations in data in part to inadequate guidance from
Education and expressed a desire for more direction on how to measure
and report these data.
States Conduct Their Own Performance Reviews and Submit Annual Reports
to Education:
To assess their own IDEA compliance, states conduct annual special
education performance reviews and report their findings to Education.
To conduct these reviews, states have undertaken a variety of
activities. In particular, states collect data from local districts,
including local graduation rates, student placement rates, and parental
involvement information, and analyze these data to identify areas of
noncompliance at the local level. Additionally, states obtain input
from the public about local special education programs through hearings
and surveys. States also review dispute resolution processes, including
state complaint systems, to determine the type of problems generating
complaints and ensure that complaints are being resolved in a timely
fashion. In recent years, Education has required states to include
groups of stakeholders in the review process, such as parents,
advocates, teachers, and administrators from the special education
community. State and local officials work with these stakeholders to
identify areas in which they may be out of compliance and create
detailed improvement plans to remedy these problems. Several state
officials we interviewed said the inclusion of stakeholders has been an
improvement in the self-evaluation process. For example, officials in
Texas told us that working with stakeholders has helped them better
understand the severity of particular problems and subsequently has
helped position the state to respond to these problems more
efficiently. Upon completing the review process, states are required to
create detailed improvement plans to address identified deficiencies,
which are submitted to Education annually along with the results of
their self-reviews through a uniform reporting format. Education
implemented this uniform reporting format in recent years to streamline
its review process, thereby improving the department's ability to
identify data gaps.
Education Reviews State-Reported Data to Identify Those States Most
Likely to Need More Oversight and Assistance:
Education reviews state-reported data to assess states' improvement
efforts and identify those states most in need of further monitoring
and assistance. In recent years, the department has required states to
report on those requirements it considers most closely associated with
student results, a narrower array of issues than the department
previously monitored.[Footnote 8] These data are focused on performance
in five general categories: (1) the provision of educational services
in the least restrictive environment, (2) state supervision of IDEA
programs, (3) facilitation of parental involvement, (4) student
transitions from early childhood programs, and (5) student transitions
into post-secondary programs. Education has required states to supply a
variety of data for each of these categories. For example, under the
state supervision category, states report information regarding the
resolution of formal complaints, due process safeguards for students
and parents, special education personnel requirements, as well as other
supervision data. Officials in 4 of the 5 states we visited said that
Education's narrowed focus has improved the monitoring process by
concentrating attention on those areas most likely to affect results
for children.
Education evaluates the collected data for each state in several ways,
including assessing how the measures have changed over time and
comparing data for special education students to those for general
education students. Education has identified areas of IDEA
noncompliance through these screens. For example, based on its data
review Education can determine if states have been resolving complaints
within IDEA-established guidelines or whether waiting lists have been
preventing students from receiving IDEA-guaranteed services.
Additionally, according to Education, the department uses selected
measures, such as state-reported data on graduation rates, dropout
rates and rates of placement in various educational
environments[Footnote 9] to determine which states warrant further
monitoring and intervention activities, including onsite
visits.[Footnote 10] States that rank low relative to other states on
these measures may be selected. In conducting site visits, Education
reviews state records, makes visits to selected districts for on-site
examination of student records, and assesses state special education
systems, such as complaint systems and student assessment programs.
Following these visits, Education issues a report of findings and, when
noncompliance is found, requires states to produce a corrective action
plan.[Footnote 11] Education policy tells states to implement a remedy
and provide evidence of its effectiveness within 1 year of Education
approving the state corrective action plan. As shown in figure 1,
Education carried out monitoring visits in 31 different states between
1997 and 2002, visiting between 2 and 8 states per year.
Figure 1: States That Received Monitoring Visits, 1997-2002:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
While Education Has Taken Steps to Improve States' Data Reporting
Systems, Some State Performance Measures Are Weak:
Because Education has relied heavily on state-reported data, it
suspended its usual monitoring visits in 2003 in order to conduct
visits to verify the reliability of state systems for collecting and
reporting special education data.[Footnote 12] After reviewing selected
data from all states, Education selected 24 states for onsite
examination of their data collection procedures and protocols.[Footnote
13] Following the data verification visits, the department provided
states with technical assistance to address any identified
deficiencies. According to Education documents, most of the visited
states had data collection systems in place, several of which were of
high quality; however, some states needed to better monitor the
accuracy of their data and train their data entry personnel. Education
officials said that selected states will receive monitoring visits in
the fall of 2004.[Footnote 14]
While Education has facilitated improvements in state data collection
systems, some of the data are weak. Education has allowed states
flexibility in measuring and reporting some performance measures used
for site visit selection, such as graduation rates and dropout rates;
consequently these data have not been calculated in a uniform manner
across states.[Footnote 15] For example, special education students in
Arkansas may receive a standard diploma even if they have not met
regular graduation requirements, while special education students in
Delaware must meet regular graduation requirements to graduate with a
standard diploma. State education officials we talked with said that
comparisons of these rates might not be valid because of the wide
disparity in how graduation rates are measured and, therefore, should
not be used by Education to make judgments about the relative
performance of states.
Other types of information that Education has used to evaluate state's
performance, such as student transitions and parental involvement, are
weak because they have been difficult to gather or because states have
been unclear about how to measure them. States have used a variety of
methods to report these data; consequently, Education has not compared
states' performance in these areas. Officials in all 5 states we
visited noted that student transitions data were particularly difficult
to collect because several different agencies were involved in the
process and it was often difficult to track students once they left
school. Officials in 4 of the 5 states we visited also expressed
confusion about how to report parental involvement. For example,
officials in one state were unclear about whether they should report
the percent of parents notified of meetings or the percent of parents
who attended meetings, while officials from another state believed that
the measures they used to report parent involvement did not adequately
describe parent involvement.
Officials in 2 of the 5 states we visited attributed their difficulty
in collecting and reporting these measures in part to inadequate
guidance from Education, and officials in 3 of the 5 states we visited
expressed a desire for greater guidance from the department on how to
collect and measure these areas. In our review of Education guidance,
we found the direction provided to states in terms of what to measure
and report to Education in these areas was vague, as Education does not
specify how states should demonstrate performance. For example,
Education provides states with 17 potential sources for indicators to
measure student transitions into postsecondary programs but does not
specify which of these indicators should be reported to Education in
annual reports.
Education officials with whom we spoke acknowledged difficulties with
student transition and parent involvement data and said that they are
taking steps to improve data quality. To help address data
deficiencies, Education has funded the National Center for Special
Education Accountability Monitoring, which assists states, local
agencies, and the department in the development of data collection
systems.[Footnote 16] In working with state special education
directors, special education advocates, Education officials, and
others, the center has found that reliable data sources often do not
exist for several of the data elements collected by Education.
Noncompliance Education Found Was about Equally Split between Failures
Involving Services to Students and Procedural Deficiencies:
Our analysis of Education monitoring reports for states visited between
1997 and 2002 showed that failures directly affecting services to
children were about as common as failures involving violations of
procedural requirements.[Footnote 17] Education identified a total of
253 noncompliance findings in 30 of the 31 states visited during this
period, with an average of approximately 8 findings per state. Our
analysis showed that 52 percent of the findings involved state failures
to directly ensure that students were receiving required special
education services. As shown in table 1, the most common finding of
service noncompliance was failure to adequately provide related
services intended to assist learning, such as counseling, speech
pathology, and assistive technology. Another common deficiency
Education cited was failure to adequately outline the activities and
training planned to prepare a student for life after exiting school. Of
the 12 states that were cited for not having adequate special education
or related services personnel, some acknowledged that a personnel
shortage had prevented them from always making timely evaluations,
which could have resulted in delayed services, late placement
decisions, and limited provision of extra help that would be needed to
teach special education students in regular education settings.
Table 1: Most Commonly Cited Noncompliance Findings Related to the
Provision of Services in Education Monitoring Reports, 1997-2002:
Number of states cited: 24;
Noncompliance related to the provision of services: Related services,
such as counseling, speech pathology, and assistive technology, were
not ensured or adequately provided.
Number of states cited: 17;
Noncompliance related to the provision of services: Student transition
statements were inadequate or missing.
Number of states cited: 14;
Noncompliance related to the provision of services: Student placement
in the least restrictive environment was not ensured.
Number of states cited: 13;
Noncompliance related to the provision of services: Extended school
year activities were not ensured.
Number of states cited: 12;
Noncompliance related to the provision of services: Lack of personnel.
Number of states cited: 4;
Noncompliance related to the provision of services: Regular education
settings lacked accommodations and/or supports.
Number of states cited: 4;
Noncompliance related to the provision of services: Timely evaluation
of student needs was not ensured, resulting in delay of services.
Source: GAO analysis of Education data.
[End of table]
The remaining 48 percent of Education's findings were for compliance
failures that we classified as procedural in nature, that is,
activities that did not directly provide or immediately facilitate a
service to students. According to our analysis, Education's most common
finding of procedural noncompliance with IDEA was failure to invite
some of the appropriate parties to student transition meetings where
parents, school personnel, department representatives, and the students
themselves determined what educational and vocational training they
would need before they left school. Other procedural failures, shown in
table 2, often involved the completeness of paperwork or timeliness of
meeting other IDEA requirements. For instance, the department found
that in several states, notices sent to parents regarding upcoming IEP
meetings related to student transition did not include required
information such as the purpose of the meeting and the list of who was
invited. Similarly, some states did not produce written complaint
decisions in a timely manner that outlined how complaints were resolved.
Table 2: Most Common Findings of Procedural Noncompliance in Education
Monitoring Reports, 1997-2002:
Number of states cited: 16;
Noncompliance related to procedural requirements: Agencies and/or
students not invited to IEP meetings related to student transitions.
Number of states cited: 12;
Noncompliance related to procedural requirements: States did not ensure
that local education agencies corrected noncompliance.[A].
Number of states cited: 11;
Noncompliance related to procedural requirements: Complaints were not
adequately resolved within timelines.
Number of states cited: 11;
Noncompliance related to procedural requirements: Incomplete notice
provided to parents regarding IEP meetings related to student
transitions.
Number of states cited: 10;
Noncompliance related to procedural requirements: States did not
identify local education agencies' noncompliance.
Number of states cited: 5;
Noncompliance related to procedural requirements: Assessment
modifications not adequately provided.
Source: GAO analysis of Education data.
[A] We could not determine from Education documents whether the
underlying compliance problems that the local education agencies failed
to identify or correct were service-oriented or procedural in nature.
For this analysis, we classified these failures to identify or correct
deficiencies as procedural.
[End of table]
Education Has Sought to Bring States into Compliance by Providing
Technical Assistance and Requiring Corrective Action Plans, but
Resolution Has Been Prolonged:
When Education has identified noncompliance, it typically has offered
technical assistance to states and required them to create corrective
action plans; however, states have generally not resolved the
noncompliance in a timely manner. Most cases of noncompliance have
remained open for several years before closure, and some cases dating
back as far as 1997 have not yet been completely resolved. Education's
process for correcting deficiencies consisted of several phases, each
of which took a considerable amount of time to complete. For example,
on average, 1 year elapsed from Education's monitoring visit to
issuance of its report findings. The department has also made limited
use of sanctions to address longstanding issues with noncompliance, but
in these cases, too, resolution has been protracted. Further, we found
that the 1-year compliance deadlines specified by Education were often
missed. State officials commented, and Education officials confirmed,
that this standard 1-year timeframe for correction may not, in some
cases, provide an adequate period of time in which to implement a
remedy and demonstrate its effectiveness. To address noncompliance
situations that are expected to take more than 1 year to correct, 3-
year compliance agreements may allow states to plan their remedial
steps over a longer period.
To Effect Compliance, Education Typically Provided Technical Assistance
and Required State Correction Plans, but Most Cases of Noncompliance
Remained Open for Years without Resolution:
To resolve the deficiencies identified in 30 of the 31 states visited
from 1997-2002, Education offered technical assistance to states and
required them to develop corrective action plans and submit them to the
department for approval. The department assisted states in achieving
compliance through informal guidance and, in some cases, follow-up
visits to confirm states' actions. Education officials answered
questions regarding policies and best practices as well as referred
states to regional resource centers and other technical assistance
providers if needed. Also, Education required states to create
corrective action plans and submit them to the department for review
and approval. The plans were expected to include strategies to remedy
deficiencies and demonstrate the effectiveness of the remedy within a
year of the approval date of the plan. For example, Maryland was cited
for failure to ensure that students with disabilities were educated in
regular education settings to the maximum extent possible. To address
this violation, one of the steps in the state's correction plan was to
create professional development activities and training materials that
emphasized inclusiveness and making appropriate placement
determinations. During the 1-year period of correction, states were
required to submit periodic updates to document evidence of improvement
for Education's review.
Although corrective action plans have a 1-year timeframe for completion
according to Education policy, our analysis showed that most cases of
noncompliance addressed through this method remained open for years. We
found that only 7 of 30 states with findings of noncompliance visited
from 1997 to 2002 had completely resolved their deficiencies as of May
2004.[Footnote 18] Closure of these cases, that is resolution of all
deficiencies, took from 2 to 7 years from the time the deficiencies
were first identified during a monitoring visit. Of the remaining 23
cases, about half have been unresolved for 5-7 years. Education
officials told us that for almost all of these outstanding cases,
states have made progress toward correcting the noncompliance, and 11
states are close to completion. Table 3 lists the dates of Education's
monitoring visits, reports, and case closures for the 31 states
monitored in the time period 1997 to 2002.
Table 3: Results of Education Monitoring Visits, 1997-2002:
State: Connecticut;
Date monitored: 2-3-97;
Date monitoring report issued: 6-11-97; Date noncompliance was closed:
2-99.
State: Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands; Date monitored: 3-6-
97;
Date monitoring report issued: 7-21-97; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: American Samoa;
Date monitored: 3-10-97;
Date monitoring report issued: 7-25-97; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Missouri;
Date monitored: 4-28-97;
Date monitoring report issued: 1-8-98; Date noncompliance was closed: 5-
04[A].
State: Oregon;
Date monitored: 4-28-97;
Date monitoring report issued: 1-8-98; Date noncompliance was closed: 5-
03.
State: Virgin Islands;
Date monitored: 5-19-97;
Date monitoring report issued: 6-29-98; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: California;
Date monitored: 6-8-98;
Date monitoring report issued: 4-6-99; Date noncompliance was closed: 7-
02.
State: North Dakota;
Date monitored: 9-21-98;
Date monitoring report issued: 9-14-99; Date noncompliance was closed:
5-04.
State: Nebraska;
Date monitored: 10-5-98;
Date monitoring report issued: 4-19-00; Date noncompliance was closed:
3-04.
State: Washington;
Date monitored: 10-5-98;
Date monitoring report issued: 12-22-99; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Arizona;
Date monitored: 1-25-99;
Date monitoring report issued: 5-22-00; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: New Mexico;
Date monitored: 12-7-98;
Date monitoring report issued: 1-7-00; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Utah[B];
Date monitored: 12-7-98;
Date monitoring report issued: 12-2-99; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not Applicable.
State: Massachusetts;
Date monitored: 4-6-99;
Date monitoring report issued: 6-21-00; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Wisconsin;
Date monitored: 2-22-99;
Date monitoring report issued: 10-18-00; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Montana;
Date monitored: 4-12-99;
Date monitoring report issued: 4-7-00; Date noncompliance was closed:
12-03.
State: South Dakota;
Date monitored: 5-17-99;
Date monitoring report issued: 12-20-99; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Bureau of Indian Affairs;
Date monitored: 5-17-99;
Date monitoring report issued: 4-20-00; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Ohio;
Date monitored: 10-18-99;
Date monitoring report issued: 3-30-01; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Maryland;
Date monitored: 10-25-99;
Date monitoring report issued: 7-26-01; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Arkansas;
Date monitored: 1-10-00;
Date monitoring report issued: 8-25-00; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Colorado;
Date monitored: 1-10-00;
Date monitoring report issued: 3-30-01; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Louisiana;
Date monitored: 2-14-00;
Date monitoring report issued: 7-20-01; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Florida;
Date monitored: 2-28-00;
Date monitoring report issued: 4-23-01; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: New Jersey;
Date monitored: 9-25-00;
Date monitoring report issued: 9-14-01; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Pennsylvania;
Date monitored: 10-23-00;
Date monitoring report issued: 2-1-02; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Hawaii;
Date monitored: 2-12-01;
Date monitoring report issued: 6-5-02; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: District of Columbia;
Date monitored: 3-26-01;
Date monitoring report issued: 6-18-02; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: South Carolina;
Date monitored: 2-11-02;
Date monitoring report issued: 1-6-03; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Illinois;
Date monitored: 4-22-02;
Date monitoring report issued: 12-31-02; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
State: Texas;
Date monitored: 5-6-02;
Date monitoring report issued: 3- 10-03; Date noncompliance was closed:
Not yet closed.
Source: GAO analysis of Education's Web site, documents, and interviews
with department officials.
[A] Education was not able to provide documentation of the closure
date, but agency comments showed a closure date May 2004.
[B] UTAH DID NOT HAVE ANY FINDINGS OF NONCOMPLIANCE.
[End of table]
In analyzing the time taken to correct noncompliance, we found that the
correction process consisted of two phases, each of which frequently
took a year or more to complete, as shown in figure 2. The first phase,
Education's issuance of a findings report following its monitoring
visit, took a year on average, with a range of 4 to 21 months.
Officials in the 3 states we visited that were monitored since 1997
expressed concern about the timeliness of Education's monitoring
reports. Officials from 2 of these states said that the reports
contained out-dated information that did not reflect the current
environment in the state. In addition, state officials in 1 state said
that they delayed the development of their corrective action plans
until they received Education's findings report. Education officials
told us that staffing constraints and multiple levels of report review
contributed to the delays in issuing reports, but they did not provide
a goal of reducing the time needed to issue reports. Second, the time
from report issuance to approval of the corrective action plan
generally took an additional 1 to 2 years. During this time period,
states produced an initial corrective action plan that they revised, if
needed, based on review and feedback from Education.[Footnote 19]
Education officials acknowledged that this approval process can be
lengthy, but have indicated they are working to reduce the period for
corrective action plan approval to 6 months.
Figure 2: Time Taken to Correct Noncompliance through Technical
Assistance and Corrective Action Plans:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
Enforcement Actions Have Been Taken Infrequently; Resolutions Were
Protracted:
Although most instances of noncompliance were addressed without more
severe actions taken, occasionally Education took measures beyond
technical assistance and corrective action plans by imposing sanctions
on states. During the 10-year period from 1994 to 2003, Education used
three types of sanctions-withholding of funds, special conditions, and
compliance agreements. Withholding of all grant funds was attempted
once by Education, but the state successfully challenged Education's
action in court and receipt of the grant was not interrupted. The most
commonly used sanction was special conditions put on states' annual
grants stipulating that the problem must be resolved within 1 year.
During the 1-year period of correction, the states continued to receive
funds. In cases of noncompliance requiring longer-time periods to
correct, an additional tool available to Education was a compliance
agreement, which allowed a state 3 years in which to correct the
noncompliance while also continuing to receive funds. Compliance
agreements were used only for the Virgin Islands and the District of
Columbia. Education officials told us that compliance agreements were
used infrequently because they are voluntary and states must agree to
the arrangement. States that entered into compliance agreements were
also required to undergo a public hearing process to demonstrate that
they could not completely address their violations within 1 year.
In total, Education has taken enforcement action against 33 states for
noncompliance from 1994 to 2003. An action was taken against multiple
states for failing to publicly report on the performance of children
with disabilities on alternate assessments, as required by the 1997
reauthorization of IDEA. As a result of other compliance issues,
Education has imposed 15 sanctions against 11 states in this 10-year
period. Appendix II contains more details on enforcement actions taken
by Education from 1994 to 2003.
Education considers a number of factors in deciding to impose a
sanction, including the duration, extent, and severity of the
noncompliance, as well as whether a state has made a good faith effort
to correct the problem. We found that sanctions were imposed for a
variety of specific deficiencies--commonly for failing to provide
related services, place students in the least restrictive environment,
or have an adequate state system in place for detecting and correcting
noncompliance at the local level. In New Jersey, special conditions
were imposed to address long-standing noncompliance involving state
oversight of local special education programs. New Jersey officials
told us that the enforcement action caught the attention of senior
state officials and helped the special education department obtain the
resources needed to correct the problem within 2 years of the
imposition of the sanction. When considering the type of sanctions to
impose, Education officials told us that their primary consideration is
the expected time of resolution. In cases where officials believe the
problem can be addressed in 1 year, special conditions may be used. In
cases where resolution is expected to take longer, 3-year compliance
agreements may be pursued.
In cases involving sanctions, the resolution of compliance issues was
often prolonged - generally ranging from 5 to 10 years from the time of
problem identification to the imposition of the sanction to closure, as
shown in figure 3. In most instances, 4 to 9 years elapsed before
Education imposed sanctions,[Footnote 20] and an additional 1 to 3
years generally passed following the sanction before noncompliance was
closed. For example, Massachusetts received special conditions on its
grant award in 2000 for noncompliance that was first identified in
1991. Once the special conditions were imposed, Massachusetts remedied
the noncompliance in 1 year. Education officials indicated that the
reason why several years often elapsed before sanctions were used was
that Education preferred to work with states instead of imposing
sanctions if they demonstrated good faith efforts to correct
deficiencies and followed the steps outlined in their corrective action
plans.
Figure 3: Time Generally Taken for Corrective Process in Closed Cases
Where Sanctions Were Imposed:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
In addition to those cases that were closed, some ongoing cases have
been even more protracted. Although states that receive special
conditions attached to their grants are expected to correct problems
before the next grant year, in many cases problems were not fully
resolved and continued for years. In these cases, states received
multiple special conditions for some of the same issues of
noncompliance. For example, Pennsylvania received a special condition
on its grant for 3 consecutive years beginning in 1998 before achieving
compliance on all issues. At the beginning of the 1999 grant year,
Pennsylvania had resolved two of the five original issues of
noncompliance. Additionally, enforcement actions for California, the
District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands dating from 1997 and
1998 have not yet been completely resolved.
Compliance Deadlines Often Missed; State Officials Indicated--and
Federal Officials Acknowledged--Difficulties of Meeting Timeframes:
States we reviewed often did not meet the 1-year compliance deadline
prescribed by Education, and state officials said that some types of
noncompliance could not be corrected within 1 year, a problem that
Education officials also acknowledged. Our examination of Education's
records for a sample of 9 states with corrective action plans revealed
that none had completely corrected their noncompliance within 1 year of
approval of the plan, as required by Education.[Footnote 21] Likewise,
states receiving special conditions on their grant usually did not
completely resolve the noncompliance issue within 1 year, and some took
numerous years to make the correction. For example, California received
special conditions attached to its grant award in 2000 for various
deficiencies. The state did not complete the correction of this
deficiency within 1 year and as a result received an additional special
conditions letter in 2001.
Regarding the 1-year deadline, Education officials told us that some
states may not be able to correct deficiencies and demonstrate the
effectiveness of the changes within the year required of them. In
addition, they said that in many cases, a state may take corrective
steps within one year but that demonstrating the effectiveness of the
remedy may extend beyond 1 year. Officials in 3 states we visited also
raised concerns that some types of noncompliance could not be corrected
within 1 year. For example, Kansas officials said the state could not
demonstrate compliance with a requirement to change an IEP component
because IEPs are written year-round and thus every IEP could not be
changed within the 1-year deadline. Also, Education officials we
interviewed emphasized that some deficiencies take longer to correct
than others. They commented that states often could correct certain
procedural deficiencies within a year, but entrenched problems, such as
personnel shortages, generally take more than 1 year to remedy.
In cases of noncompliance that require longer periods of time to
correct, Education may pursue 3-year compliance agreements with states
that allow the states to continue to receive funds while they are
correcting noncompliance. This sanction requires states to establish
interim goals and engage in longer-term planning, with specific
compliance benchmarks and timelines. States that enter into compliance
agreements must demonstrate at a public hearing they cannot achieve
compliance within 1 year and that a 3-year time frame for correction is
more appropriate. However, this option has been rarely used. One state
we visited objected to a compliance agreement Education proposed. The
department did not pursue the compliance agreement and, instead,
imposed special conditions on the state's grant approval each year for
several years. Officials from this state said that they chose not to
enter into a compliance agreement because they considered the
additional reporting requirements and monitoring activities it would
entail to be too burdensome.
Conclusions:
Education has taken steps in the right direction since 1997 in focusing
its review of state support for children with disabilities on those
factors that most affect educational outcomes for disabled students,
such as increased parental involvement and placement in regular
education settings. In recent years, Education has invested
considerable effort to assist states in improving data reliability.
Furthermore, by reviewing this information through the use of a uniform
reporting format, Education is in a better position to make its local
site visits yield improvements where they are most needed. Despite
these efforts, some of the information states report about their
special education programs are weak and not comparable, which limits
Education's ability to select states for on-site visits that have the
most pressing problems. Education made 31 site visits between 1997 and
2002, visiting no more than 8 states in any 1 year. Given such finite
opportunities for inspection, it may be easy to miss areas where
children are not receiving educational and related services.
Aside from targeting the right states for visits, the lengthy
resolution process has been a problem in OSEP's monitoring system. In
many instances, noncompliance with the requirements of IDEA has
persisted for many years before correction. One reason for the delay is
that Education has allowed considerable time to elapse in the initial
phases of the correction process; specifically, the time from the first
identification of a problem to the imposition of the 1-year time frame
for correction. This considerable delay--sometimes taking up to 21
months between problem identification and the issuance of department
findings--could result in states postponing the implementation of
corrective plans. Although the initial phases of the correction process
can be lengthy, Education's 1-year deadline for states to correct
deficiencies is, at times, too short for states to achieve compliance.
Unrealistic timeframes may both discourage states from focusing on
achievable, albeit longer-term, plans for correction. These unrealistic
timeframes may also lessen the impact of the enforcement action itself,
as in the case where special conditions are imposed for infractions
year after year with few consequences to the state, but potentially
detrimental consequences to students with disabilities. The imposition
of appropriate deadlines, including the more frequent use of compliance
agreements that allow for better long-term planning and predictable
consequences when these deadlines are not met, could motivate states to
achieve compliance more quickly.
The combined effect of such prolonged reviews--lengthy timeframes for
the receipt of reports and the approval of corrective action plans--and
failure to hold states more firmly to a rapid resolution could directly
affect the progress of some of the nation's most vulnerable children.
Without some deliberate and specific improvements to its monitoring
process, Education may face difficulties in helping the nation's
disabled students realize their full potential.
Recommendations for Executive Action:
We recommend that the Secretary of Education:
* develop and provide states with additional guidance for collecting
and reporting three measures that Education considers key to positive
outcomes for students with disabilities: early childhood transitions,
post-secondary transitions, and parental involvement;
* expedite the resolution of noncompliance by improving response times
throughout the monitoring process, particularly in reporting
noncompliance findings to states, and track changes in response times
under the new monitoring process;
* impose firm and realistic deadlines for states to remedy findings of
noncompliance; and:
* when correction of noncompliance is expected to take more than 1
year, make greater use of Education's authority to initiate compliance
agreement proceedings rather than imposing special conditions on grants.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
We provided a draft of this report to the Department of Education for
review and comment. Education's written comments are reproduced in
appendix III. Recommended technical changes have been incorporated in
the text of the report as appropriate. The department discussed, but
did not explicitly agree or disagree with two recommendations,
disagreed with one recommendation, and did not directly respond to one
recommendation, the recommendation regarding imposing firm and
realistic deadlines.
In response to our recommendation that Education provide states with
additional guidance for collecting and reporting data on student
transitions and parental involvement, the department was not explicit
about its intended actions. While Education agreed with the need to
provide states assistance in these areas, it did not clearly indicate
whether it would develop the guidance we recommended. Education said
that it is funding several centers that are assisting states in
collecting data in these areas. We commend Education's efforts to
improve special education performance data. However, to maximize the
usefulness of these efforts, the department should formalize the
results of these activities in guidance. Therefore, we continue to
recommend that Education develop and provide states with guidance on
collecting and reporting student transitions and parental involvement
data.
Regarding our recommendation to improve the department's response times
throughout the monitoring process, Education acknowledged past problems
with timeliness but indicated that it had made improvements in recent
years. Education stressed that the reports we reviewed were based on
its previous monitoring processes, rather than the current process, the
Continuous Improvement and Focused Monitoring System (CIFMS). The
department said that timeliness had improved in several areas. For
instance, Education said that the time required to issue its data
verification monitoring reports has been about 4 months and that this
is a substantial improvement over the previous system. Education also
said that the CIFMS is resulting in the timely receipt of and response
to state improvement plans and that the department has a goal to issue
responses to all plans by September 30, 2004. However, we could not
determine whether, overall, Education's new CIFMS monitoring process
will result in improved timeliness. Education officials told us that
the data verification visits primarily focused on accuracy of state
data, not detecting noncompliance. Therefore, timeliness associated
with these visits may not be an indication of overall improvement. In
addition, the timeliness of the focused monitoring visits has not been
established since they have not yet begun. We believe that Education's
response times should be improved, but we could not determine the
extent to which changes already made might impact timeliness.
Therefore, we modified our recommendation to suggest that Education
track timeframes associated with various steps in the new monitoring
process to substantiate possible improvements.
In response to our recommendation that Education make greater use of
its authority to initiate compliance agreement proceedings when
appropriate, the department said that it cannot independently initiate
these proceedings because the compliance agreement process is voluntary
on the part of the states. We do not agree with this position. The
relevant statute specifically authorizes the department to hold a
hearing and directs it to invite certain parties, including the state.
While the department cannot compel a state to enter into a compliance
agreement, we think initiating proceedings to consider the merits of
entering into such an agreement could likely result in beneficial
corrective action discussions between the department and the state. It
could also result in greater reliance on the 3-year compliance
agreement or at least improve corrective action planning by the state.
While Education may impose other remedies such as partial or full
withholding of funding, issuing a cease and desist order, or referring
a state's noncompliance to the Department of Justice, we believe that
in many instances of noncompliance, the 3-year compliance agreement
could be the least onerous, and perhaps most helpful, tool to improve
state compliance with IDEA.
As agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce its contents
earlier, we plan no further distribution until 30 days after the date
of this report. At that time, we will send copies of this report to the
Secretary of Education and the House and Senate Committees with
oversight responsibility for the department. We will also make copies
available to other parties upon request. In addition, the report will
be available at no charge on GAO's Website at http//:www.gao.gov.
Please contact me on (202) 512-7215 if you or your staff have any
questions about this report. Major contributors to this report are
listed in appendix IV.
Sincerely yours,
Signed by:
Marnie S. Shaul:
Director, Education, Workforce and Income Security Issues:
[End of section]
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology:
As requested, our review focused on the Department of Education's
monitoring of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA),
Part B, those aspects of the law that regulate the provision of
services to disabled school-aged and preschool children.[Footnote 22]
In conducting our review, we examined Education's monitoring procedures
and guidance since Congress last amended IDEA legislation in 1997.
Additionally, we examined reports submitted to Education to document
compliance, including self-assessments, Section 618 data reports, and
improvement plans. We also reviewed compliance and enforcement
documentation and Education monitoring reports for the 31 states
visited for Part B monitoring since 1997 (see below for more
information). Because Education infrequently used sanctions, we
examined the previous 10-year period to capture a more comprehensive
picture of enforcement actions. Additionally, we conducted site visits
to 5 states, where we interviewed state officials and special education
experts. We also interviewed Education officials; representatives from
the National Council for Disability, an independent federal agency that
makes recommendations to the President and Congress on disability-
related issues; and representatives from national education
organizations.
We conducted our work between September 2003 and August 2004 in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
Site Visits:
We conducted site visits to five states - California, Georgia, Kansas,
New Jersey, and Texas. States were selected for variation in the number
of special education students served, geographic location, the date of
their last monitoring visit, whether they had received a data
verification visit, and whether they had been placed under sanctions by
Education for IDEA violations since 1993. Additionally, in selecting
states, we considered how states ranked on various Education risk
factors, including student placement rates, graduation rates, drop-out
rates, and level of state complaints. We conducted our site visits
between December 2003 and March 2004.
While in each state, we analyzed state monitoring documents and met
with officials at states' Departments of Education, including the State
Directors of Special Education and members of their staff responsible
for monitoring efforts. We interviewed these officials about their
experiences with Education's monitoring processes and gathered
information about the systems used by their states to monitor local
compliance with IDEA. Additionally, in each state we spoke with members
of the state stakeholder committees, which help state officials conduct
their self-assessments and create improvement plans. Stakeholders we
spoke with included parents of special education students, special
education and school administrators, and special education advocates.
Monitoring Report Analysis:
To determine the nature of noncompliance in those states selected by
Education for review, we analyzed the reports issued by Education for
the 31 Part B monitoring visits Education made between 1997 and 2002. A
2002 cut-off date was selected because at the time of our analysis,
Education had not yet issued a monitoring report for the one state it
visited in 2003. To analyze these reports, we reviewed the
noncompliance findings cited in these reports and divided the findings
into two categories; those relating to infractions that were service-
related and those relating to infractions that were procedural in
nature.
For our analysis, we defined a service compliance issue as an activity
that directly provides the student with a basic service required by
IDEA or is an activity that will immediately facilitate the provision
of a basic service required by IDEA. A procedural compliance issue was
defined as an activity that meets a process-oriented requirement of
IDEA. While the implementation of these process-oriented requirements
might improve the special education program immediately or over time,
the activity or process does not directly provide or immediately
facilitate a basic service to a student.
Analysis of Compliance Documentation:
To determine the results of Education's efforts to remedy
noncompliance, we reviewed Education documents and data pertaining to
the 30 states visited between 1997 and 2002 that were cited for
noncompliance in Education monitoring reports. Specifically, we
analyzed the 30 monitoring reports; and available Education documents
such as corrective action plans submitted by states in response to
report findings; notification documents from Education approving state
plans; state-submitted evidence of change in noncompliance; and, when
applicable, notifications to states when noncompliance had been
sufficiently addressed. To determine the length of time it took to
resolve cases of noncompliance through monitoring visits and technical
assistance, we analyzed these documents for dates and deadlines. We
computed the length of time for resolution from the date of the
monitoring visit until the date Education documented resolution of the
problem.
Analysis of Enforcement Documentation:
To obtain information about Education's enforcement efforts, we
reviewed all cases of enforcement action taken against states by
Education from 1994 to 2003. For our review, we viewed enforcement
actions as beginning at the time a sanction was first imposed,
regardless of how many subsequent times a sanction was used to
ultimately bring about compliance. That is, if a state received
multiple sanctions for the same infraction, such as several special
conditions letters in consecutive years, we viewed all of these
individual enforcement actions as one action. Likewise, if a state
received one 3-year compliance agreement, while another state received
three consecutive special conditions letters for the same infractions,
we treated both instances as one enforcement case.
For all enforcement cases, we analyzed available Education documents,
such as notifications of sanctions, including state grant award letters
subject to special conditions and compliance agreements; state-
submitted evidence of change to demonstrate compliance; and Education's
correspondence to states notifying them when noncompliance had been
sufficiently addressed, thus closing the enforcement cases.
Additionally, we examined past monitoring reports to determine when
Education first identified noncompliance that ultimately resulted in an
enforcement action. In those instances when noncompliance was not
identified through a monitoring visit, we used the date of the
enforcement action as the date that the noncompliance was first
identified for the purposes of our analysis. In all cases, we analyzed
documentation for dates and deadlines to determine the length of time
it took to resolve cases of noncompliance through sanctions.
[End of section]
Appendix II: IDEA-Related Sanctions: 1994-2003:
State: American Samoa;
Problem areas: Fiscal management;
Year and sanction type: 2003-Special conditions; Status: Not yet
resolved; year has not yet expired.
State: California (3 instances);
Problem areas: Provision of services to incarcerated youth; Year and
sanction type: 1997-Special conditions; Year and sanction type: 1998-
Special conditions; Year and sanction type: 1999-Special conditions;
Year and sanction type: 2000-Special conditions; Year and sanction
type: 2001-Special conditions; Year and sanction type: 2002-Special
conditions; Year and sanction type: 2003-Special conditions; Status:
Not yet resolved.
State: California;
Problem areas: Timely resolution of complaints; Year and sanction type:
1999-Special conditions; Status: Resolved in 2000.
State: California;
Problem areas: General supervision; identification and correction of
deficiencies, IEP violations, provision of related services and least
restrictive environment; Year and sanction type: 2000-Special
conditions; Year and sanction type: 2001-Special conditions; Status:
Resolved in 2002.
State: Connecticut;
Problem areas: Ensuring ability to request due process hearings; Year
and sanction type: 2002-Special conditions; Status: Resolved in 2003.
State: District of Columbia;
Problem areas: Eleven areas of noncompliance, including general
supervision; due process hearings; timeliness of evaluations and
placements; and provision of free appropriate public education in the
least restrictive environment;
Year and sanction type: 1998-3-year compliance agreement; Year and
sanction type: 2001-Special conditions; Year and sanction type: 2002-
Special conditions; Year and sanction type: 2003-Special conditions;
Status: Not yet resolved. Three findings remain open in July 2003:
timely implementation of hearing decisions, placement in the least
restrictive environment, and timely evaluations.
State: Guam;
Problem areas: Fiscal management;
Year and sanction type: 2003-Special conditions; Status: Not yet
resolved; year has not yet expired.
State: Massachusetts;
Problem areas: Ensuring IEP components are determined at an IEP meeting
with all required participants; placement of students in least
restrictive environment;
Year and sanction type: 2000-Special conditions; Status: Resolved in
2001.
State: New Jersey;
Problem areas: General supervision; identification and correction of
deficiencies;
Year and sanction type: 1999-Special conditions; Year and sanction
type: 2000-Special conditions; Status: Resolved in 2001.
State: Northern Mariana Islands;
Problem areas: Fiscal management;
Year and sanction type: 2003-Special conditions; Status: Not yet
resolved; year has not yet expired.
State: Pennsylvania;
Problem areas: General supervision; identification of deficiencies;
placement of students in least restrictive environment, provision of
extended school year and speech services; Year and sanction type: 1998-
Special conditions; Year and sanction type: 1999-Special conditions;
Year and sanction type: 2000-Special conditions; Status: Resolved in
2001.
State: Puerto Rico (2 instances);
Problem areas: Outstanding issues from 1993 compliance agreement
regarding timely evaluations and provision of services; Year and
sanction type: 1997-Special conditions; Status: Resolved in 1998.
State: Puerto Rico;
Problem areas: Fiscal management;
Year and sanction type: 2002-Special conditions; Year and sanction
type: 2003-Special conditions; Status: Not yet resolved.
State: Virginia;
Problem areas: Provision of services to students with disabilities who
were expelled or suspended long-term; Year and sanction type: 1994-
Attempt to withhold funds; action contingent on outcome of court case;
Year and sanction type: 1995-Attempt to withhold funds; action
contingent on outcome of ongoing court case; Year and sanction type:
1996-Attempt to withhold funds; action contingent on outcome of ongoing
court case; Status: Education was ultimately unsuccessful in court and
funds were not withheld. However, subsequent changes in IDEA rendered
the disputed issue moot, as all states were required by statute to
provide services to disciplined students.
State: Virgin Islands;
Problem areas: Fiscal and program management; general supervision;
qualified personnel; placement of students in least restrictive
environment; provision of transportation services; Year and sanction
type: 1998-Special conditions; Year and sanction type: 1999-3-year
compliance agreement; Year and sanction type: 2002-3-year compliance
agreement; Status: Not yet resolved.
State: Multiple States;
Problem areas: Participation and reporting on alternate assessments;
Year and sanction type: 2002-Special conditions imposed against 27
states[A];
Year and sanction type: 2003-Special conditions imposed against 11
unresolved states, plus 1 additional state, Ky[B]; Status: Sixteen of
27 states resolved in 2003; 11 remaining states + Ky. not yet resolved.
Source: U.S. Department of Education.
[A] Ala., Alaska, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Colo., Conn., Commonwealth
of the Northern Mariana Islands, Del., D.C., Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Ill.,
Mass., Maine, Mich., Miss., N.J., N. Mex., N.Y., Okla., P.R., S.C.,
Tex., Utah, Vt., Wash, and Wis.
[B] Alaska, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Colo., Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands, Del., D.C., Guam, Ky., Maine, Mich., P.R.,
and Utah.
[End of table]
[End of section]
Appendix III: Comments from the Department of Education:
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: OFFICE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND
REHABILITATIVE SERVICES:
August 6, 2004:
Ms. Marnie S. Shaul:
Director, Education, Workforce and Income Security Issues: Government
Accountability Office:
441 G Street, NW:
Washington, DC 20548:
Dear Ms. Shaul:
Thank you for the opportunity to review the July 2004 draft report
entitled, "Special Education: Improved Timeliness and Better Use of
Enforcement Actions Could Strengthen Education's Monitoring System"
(GAO-04-879). I am pleased to respond on behalf of the Department of
Education.
As noted in your draft report, the Department has "taken steps in the
right direction since 1997 in focusing its review of state support for
children with disabilities on those factors that most affect
educational outcomes for disabled students." The Department has taken
steps since the passage of the 1997 Amendments to the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to improve accountability measures
that drive and support increased compliance and improved results for
children with disabilities. The Office of Special Education Programs
(OSEP) began this process through the implementation of the Continuous
Improvement Monitoring Process (CIMP) between 1998 and 2002. OSEP
continues to review, revise, and improve its monitoring system and, in
2003, implemented the Continuous Improvement and Focused Monitoring
System (CIFMS).
The Department believes it is important that the final report emphasize
that GAO's analysis is based on reports developed under the LIMP
monitoring procedures and methodology implemented between 1998 and 2002
rather than the Department's current CIFMS, which is the current
process described in your report. OSEP developed and implemented the
new CIFMS largely in recognition of the same deficiencies in process
and timeliness noted by the GAO with the LIMP.
The CIFMS targets resources on performance issues most closely related
to improved results for children with disabilities and to those States
most in need of improvement on these performance issues. This targeting
of resources in CIFMS enables OSEP to work with States to improve both
performance and compliance. The CIFMS integrates self-assessment and
improvement planning into an Annual Performance Report (APR). This
integration reduces the reporting burden on States, reduces the number
of OSEP responses to States, focuses OSEP resources and improves
timeliness of these responses.
OSEP also has improved its timeliness for issuing monitoring reports
since implementing CIFMS. OSEP has conducted 29 verification monitoring
visits under the CIFMS since 2003 and has issued 24 verification
monitoring reports. The purpose of these visits is to evaluate State
general supervision and assessment systems for compliance with the law
and to evaluate whether State data systems are designed to produce
valid and reliable information. In some cases, these visits have
revealed problems in other areas as well. These visits have become an
important vehicle for providing State-specific technical assistance
about the issues under review. The timeline for issuing reports for
these visits under the new CIFMS is an average of 4 months, a
substantial improvement over the previous system.
The new CIFMS approach of incorporating improvement plans in the APRs
is resulting in the timely receipt of and response to State improvement
plans. We are currently reviewing the APRs that were due from each
State on March 31, 2004. Our goal is to issue all responses by
September 30, 2004. We have issued 9 response letters, with 40 more
under development.
The Department's new CIFMS is leading to more timely correction of
noncompliance. When noncompliance is identified through the
verification monitoring or APR review, a State is required to submit
documentation of correction within 60 days. Alternatively, if the State
cannot document correction, it must submit a plan within 60 days to
ensure correction within one year of OSEP's acceptance of the plan. We
also are working closely with those States monitored under the CIMP
with open noncompliance issues. Most of the States with outstanding
noncompliance issues have made considerable progress in correcting the
noncompliance. We anticipate resolving most of the noncompliance
identified through the CIMP by the end of the calendar year.
You discuss the need to improve States' data reporting systems and
provide technical assistance to the States about collecting performance
data. OSEP also identified this as a concern and is addressing this
through our investments in several OSEP-funded centers that provide
States with important technical assistance to improve their data
collection. Specifically, the National Center on Special Education
Accountability Monitoring is developing a parent involvement survey for
use by States. This survey is moving into the pilot-test phase and
should be available for State use next summer. Other centers are
working with OSEP to prepare model data collection and analysis
strategies for reporting in areas such as early childhood and secondary
transition, preschool and post-secondary outcomes, and dispute
resolution.
The Department is in favor of using the compliance agreement process,
as appropriate to an individual State's situation, and as a way for a
State to continue to receive federal funds while working to correct
noncompliance within a reasonable period of time not to exceed 3 years
from the date of the agreement. Because the compliance agreement
process is voluntary on the part of the State, the Department cannot
independently use our "authority to initiate compliance agreement
proceedings" as you recommend, however. We have attempted, in the past,
to make States aware of the benefits of entering into a compliance
agreement and will continue this practice.
We appreciate the acknowledgement in the draft report that the
Department continues in its efforts to improve accountability measures
in a way that drives and supports increased compliance and improved
results for children with disabilities. We note that the Draft Report
confirms our analysis of the deficiencies in the CIMP and we believe
the Department's new CIFMS is effectively addressing these deficiencies
in a way that promotes accountability for results in a timely manner.
As is customary, we are providing suggested technical and production
edits separately. We are available to discuss any of our suggested
changes with your staff if this would be helpful to you.
Sincerely,
Signed by:
Troy R. Justesen, Ed.D.
Delegated the authority to perform the functions of Assistant Secretary
for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services:
Enclosure:
[End of section]
Appendix IV: GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments:
GAO Contacts:
Deborah Edwards, (202) 512-5416, edwardsd@gao.gov Tamara Fucile, (202)
512-9895, fucilet@gao.gov:
Staff Acknowledgments:
The following people also made important contributions to this report:
Ellen Soltow, Summer Pachman, Behn Kelly, Susan Bernstein, and Walter
Vance.
[End of section]
Related GAO Products:
Special Education: Additional Assistance and Better Coordination Needed
among Education Offices to Help States Meet the NCLBA Teacher
Requirements. GAO-04-659. Washington, D.C.: July 15, 2004.
Special Education: Clearer Guidance Would Enhance Implementation of
Federal Disciplinary Provisions. GAO-03-550. Washington, D.C.: May 20,
2003.
Special Education: Numbers of Formal Disputes Are Generally Low and
States Using Mediation and Other Strategies to Resolve Conflicts. GAO-
03-897. Washington, D.C.: September 9, 2003.
School Dropouts: Education Could Play a Stronger Role in Identifying
and Disseminating Promising Prevention Strategies. GAO-02-240.
Washington, D.C.: February 1, 2002.
Student Discipline: Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. GAO-
01-210. Washington, D.C.: January 25, 2001.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Hereafter, we will use the term "states" to refer to states, U.S.
territories, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Bureau of Indian
Affairs.
[2] IDEA requires that the IEP team include (1) the child's parents;
(2) at least one of the child's regular education teachers, if the
child is participating in the regular education environment; (3) at
least one special education teacher, or if appropriate, at least one
provider of the child's special education; (4) a representative of the
public agency qualified to provide, or supervise, special education and
who is knowledgeable about the general curriculum and the resources
available from the public agency; (5) an individual who can interpret
the instructional implications of educational results; (6) at the
discretion of the parent or the agency, other individuals with
knowledge or expertise about the child; and (7) the child, if
appropriate.
[3] The procedural safeguards afforded parents include written prior
notice whenever Education proposes to initiate or change, or refuses to
initiate or change, the identification, evaluation or educational
placement of the child, and the provision of a free, appropriate,
public education to the child.
[4] The special conditions require correction of noncompliance during
the 1-year grant period.
[5] Education must provide the state education agency with reasonable
notice and the opportunity for a hearing before withholding funds,
disapproving a state's grant application, seeking a cease and desist
order, entering into a long-term compliance agreement, or making a
referral to Justice. According to Education, the type of hearing will
differ depending on which enforcement action is proposed.
[6] The 1997 amendments authorized the Education, at its discretion, to
withhold part of a state's IDEA funding, instead of just the entire
grant. Additionally, the amendments established the authority for
Education to refer noncompliant states to Justice.
[7] Back to School on Civil Rights, National Council on Disability,
Jan. 25, 2000. The National Council on Disability is an independent
federal agency that makes recommendations to the President and Congress
on disability-related issues.
[8] States are not required to report procedural data to Education that
are not closely related to student performance, such as information
about the distribution of procedural safeguard notices, local education
agencies' applications for state grants, and compliance with IDEA
confidentiality provisions. States are required, however, to monitor
state systems in these procedural areas to ensure that states and
localities are in full compliance with IDEA regulations.
[9] Measures of various educational environments are related to IDEA's
requirement that children with disabilities be educated in the least
restrictive environment, that is, educated with nondisabled children to
the maximum extent appropriate. IDEA requires states to report these
data, as well as graduation and dropout rates.
[10] Under Education's current monitoring system, CIFMS, these visits
will be called "focused monitoring visits" because they will focus on
specific critical indicators of performance, such as measures of
various educational environments.
[11] Plans addressing noncompliance may be called either corrective
action plans or improvement plans. According to Education officials,
corrective action plans address only noncompliance, while improvement
plans address noncompliance, as well as other performance issues.
[12] Education officials told us that they do not specifically look for
noncompliance during data verification visits, but if noncompliance is
detected they address it.
[13] Seventy-five percent of the 24 states were selected for site-
visits because the results of the audits revealed potential data
collection problems, while the remaining 25 percent were randomly
selected.
[14] These are the focused monitoring visits mentioned previously.
[15] For more information on variations in school dropout rates, see
GAO, School Dropouts: Education Could Play a Stronger Role in
Identifying and Disseminating Promising Prevention Strategies, GAO-02-
240 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 1, 2002).
[16] As of July 2004, the center is working with approximately half of
all states, including 2 of the 5 states we visited.
[17] For our analysis, we defined a service compliance issue as an
activity that directly provides the student with a basic service
required by IDEA or an activity that will immediately facilitate the
provision of a basic service required by IDEA. A procedural compliance
issue was defined as an activity that meets a process-oriented
requirement of IDEA. While the implementation of these process-oriented
requirements might improve the special education program immediately or
over time, the activity or process does not directly provide or
immediately facilitate a basic service to a student.
[18] We could not determine from the documentation Education provided
the nature of the issues that remain unresolved in the 23 states that
have not yet closed their findings of noncompliance. For the 7 states
that have closed their findings of noncompliance, Education issued
letters to the states indicating that all issues of noncompliance had
been addressed.
[19] In the 12 cases where Education's documentation included dates
needed to calculate this period of time, states took from 2 to 18
months to submit the initial corrective action plan.
[20] In the enforcement case against 28 states for failing to report
publicly on alternate assessments, the sanction was imposed in a
shorter period.
[21] We examined records for 17 states, but due to incomplete
documentation and other reasons, we were able to draw conclusions about
the timeliness of resolution for only 9 states.
[22] The 1997 amendments organized IDEA into four parts: A, B, C, and
D. Part A contains general provisions of the act, including the act's
purposes and definitions. Part B contains provisions relating to the
education of school-aged and preschool children, including eligibility
requirements, funding formulas, and educational placement and service
requirements. Part C pertains to services for infants and toddlers with
disabilities. Part D concerns national activities designed to improve
educational programs for disabled children.
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