Report 2015-112 Recommendation 14 Responses

Report 2015-112: Student Mental Health Services: Some Students' Services Were Affected by a New State Law, and the State Needs to Analyze Student Outcomes and Track Service Costs (Release Date: January 2016)

Recommendation #14 To: Long Beach Unified School District

To better understand the effectiveness of the mental health services in its special education program, Long Beach should use the six performance indicators we identified to perform analysis annually on the subset of students receiving mental health services.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2020

The LBUSD has applied the performance indicators that has been given as a result of this audit to randomly review files and insure that students with mental health services are making progress with the treatment goals and the indicators that have been laid out.

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

Although Long Beach indicated that it had used the six performance indicators to perform an analysis of students receiving mental health services, it did not provide documentation to substantiate the analysis.


Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2018

We have applied the performance indicators that have been given as a result of this audit to randomly review files and insure that students with mental health service are making progress with the treatment goals and the indicators that have been laid out.

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

Long Beach did not provide documentation that supports its claim of full implementation. Accordingly, we continue to assess this recommendation as pending.


Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2017

We have used the six performance indicators to review the efficacy of mental health services. This has proven to be a helpful activity and has allowed us to make training modifications to monitor progress.

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

Although we made a specific request, Long Beach did not provide any documentation to support its claim that it has fully implemented this recommendation. Accordingly, we continue to assess the recommendation as pending implementation.


1-Year Agency Response

We have worked in tandem with service providers to evaluate the efficacy of the services that students are receiving. Teachers have been included in this process to insure that there is common understanding amongst those that are linking mental health resources to a student's IEP. Random review (led internally) indicates that student's IEP goal development and attainment is more clearly delineated in each IEP.

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

Although Long Beach states that it and service providers evaluated the efficacy of the services that students are receiving and that it performed a random review of student IEPs and found that goal development and attainment is more clearly delineated in those it reviewed, it has not taken steps towards using the six performance indicators to analyze the subset of students receiving mental health services.


6-Month Agency Response

We will be working on this with a selected work group of teachers.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending


60-Day Agency Response

The District is awaiting further clarification from CDE regarding how to monitor outcomes. Recent legislation has been proposed by the legislature that would effect this process.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending


All Recommendations in 2015-112

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.