LIU: DOE'S $67 MILLION TECH LEMON HURTS SPECIAL EDUCATION
Online Database Required For Medicaid Reimbursement Is Riddled
- with Errors, Dissatisfied Users, Audit Finds; DOE Missed More
- Than $200 Million in Funds in the Last Two Years
New York City Comptroller John C. Liu announced on Monday that the Department of Education's (DOE) Special Education database application, which is vital for receiving federal Medicaid reimbursements — is rife with inaccuracies and technical glitches.
The DOE started using the database, known as SESIS, in 2010 in order to help its Special Education Program meet State and Federal reporting requirements for receiving Medicaid funds. Comptroller Liu's audit found that SESIS is not meeting its goal of providing a reliable and efficient online student database for instructors and administrative staff.
"After spending four years and $67 million dollars on this technology the Department of Education has stuck teacher and administrators with a costly lemon," Comptroller Liu said. "The City is losing hundreds of millions of dollars for Special Education because it can't file accurate reimbursement claims. Enough is enough, we've already seen that the DOE does not provide one quarter of the available direct student services; parents shouldn't suffer further belt-tightening and subpar service because the DOE can't manage its technology."
Errors in Student Information, Education Plans
DOE's reports show that SESIS has been plagued by errors in student data since the agency began transferring information over to it from two predecessor databases, the Child Assistance Program (CAP) and Automate the Schools (ATS). The Comptroller's audit found 100,346 errors in April 2013; 107,033 errors in March 2013; and 404,391 errors in September 2012.
In addition, hundreds of student records had to be manually deleted from SESIS because they were wrongly duplicated in the new system, including 483 student records in April 2013 alone.
Numerous errors were also found in student information in the older databases. For example, DOE tracks services that Special Education students receive through Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), which are vital to Medicaid reimbursement claims. During one three-month period — Dec. 26, 2012 to April 9, 2013 — 3,939 of the Individualized Education Programs had to be corrected in the CAP.
Survey of SESIS Users
The audit received 594 responses to surveys sent to 5,700 SESIS users, with the following results:
- · 77% who use SESIS were poorly trained, including:
- o 24% said they never received SESIS training.
- o 23% said training was unsatisfactory.
- o 30% said they received no training after they started using SESIS.
- · 34% had trouble accessing SESIS.
- · 60% were not fully satisfied and wanted changes made.
SESIS Users Comments
Some frustrated SESIS users responded to the surveys with the following comments:
- · "A lot of the info is missing or incorrect. We understand a lot of the problems come from CAP but something will have to be done to get SESIS to be more accurate. Annual Reviews this year were all out of date and soem [sic] students missing or inactive w/o reason."
- · "Data on SESIS does not match ATS and/or CAP. SESIS problems prevent ease of flow in doing IEPs & generate compliance & funding issues."
· "The trainer who came to our school didn't know how to use this software."
· "It%