Office of Special Education Programs’ Differentiated Monitoring and Support

The objective of our audit was to evaluate the Office of Special Education Programs’ (OSEP) implementation of its differentiated monitoring and support (DMS) component under the results driven accountability initiative. We found that OSEP needs to enhance its implementation of the DMS component under the results driven accountability initiative to help ensure that it plans and conducts DMS properly and consistently across all States. Specifically, OSEP did not have sufficient policies and procedures for how personnel should perform and document the four phases of DMS (1) performing organizational assessments of States, (2) designating engagement levels for States, (3) issuing notices and charts to States, and (4) conducting and documenting tasks and activities for the DMS areas. To implement DMS, OSEP changed the way it monitored States to a method that is based on OSEP’s assessment of States’ needs in meeting performance standards and complying with legal requirements. Our review of OSEP’s DMS documentation in the results and compliance areas for the 12 States included in our review showed that OSEP did not: (1) include applicable or consistent data to assess risk for 6 of the 12 State organizational assessments we reviewed; (2) notify 1 of the 12 States on the applicable factors that contributed to the DMS engagement level designation; or (3) document monitoring, technical assistance, or support activities properly or sufficiently for 11 of the 12 States we reviewed.