Report 2008-109 All Recommendation Responses

Report 2008-109: California Department of Education: Although It Generally Provides Appropriate Oversight of the Special Education Hearings and Mediations Process, a Few Areas Could Be Improved (Release Date: December 2008)

Recommendation #1 To: Education, Department of

To ensure that Administrative Hearings complies with state and federal law, as well as with the specifications in its interagency agreement, Education, in its oversight role, should continue to work with Administrative Hearings to ensure that it reports all the required information in its quarterly reports and that its database contains accurate and complete information for reporting purposes.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From January 2012

In order to ensure that the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) reports all the required information and complies with all reporting requirements dictated by law and the interagency agreement, since January 2009, the CDE has been routinely reconciling the data elements contained in the quarterly reports submitted by OAH to the data elements required by the interagency agreement between CDE and OAH. (See 2011-041 p. 27)

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

Recommendation #2 To: Education, Department of

To ensure that Administrative Hearings complies with state and federal law, as well as with the specifications in its interagency agreement, Education, in its oversight role, should require Administrative Hearings to maintain sufficient documentation showing that its administrative judges have received all required training and periodically review these records to ensure that Administrative Hearings complies with the training requirements.

1-Year Agency Response

Education entered into a new interagency agreement with Administrative Hearings effective June 26, 2008, for the period of July 1, 2008, through June 30, 2011, and it requires Administrative Hearings to provide Education with quarterly training logs for each administrative judge and mediator covering training taken during the previous quarter. To ensure the accuracy of training data, Education stated that on November 24, 2009, it reviewed Administrative Hearings' training records for 10 ALJs and a corresponding sample of training courses for the period July 1, 2009, through September 30, 2009. Based on this review, Education stated that it found only one exception in which the actual hours of training listed in the Administrative Hearings' First Quarter 2009-10 Special Education Training Report (training report) differed from the actual sign-in sheet for the ALJ. In this instance, the ALJ actually received 1.25 hours more training than was listed in the training report. According to Education, Administrative Hearings has taken immediate action to revise the training report to correct this discrepancy. (See 2010-406 p. 166)

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

Recommendation #3 To: Education, Department of

To ensure that Administrative Hearings complies with state and federal law, as well as with the specifications in its interagency agreement, Education, in its oversight role, should continue to monitor Administrative Hearings to ensure that it consistently issues hearing decisions within the timeline established in federal regulations and state law so that Education is not exposed to possible sanctions by the federal government.

1-Year Agency Response

According to Education, to ensure that Administrative Hearings consistently issues hearing decisions within the timeline established in federal regulations and state law, Administrative Hearings' compliance with the mandated timelines is a standing item on all monitoring meeting agendas. Education indicated that, between July 2009 and September 2009, Administrative Hearings was 100 percent compliant with these timelines. It also stated that it will continue to monitor Administrative Hearings to ensure that hearing decisions are consistently issued within the required timeline. (See 2010-406 p. 167)

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2008-109

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.