Q&A
Discussion on fraud control measures in special education cases
1:28:52
ยท
135 sec
DOE officials outline fraud control measures implemented in special education legal processes:
- Requiring notarized affidavits from families before initiating the ARRIS process for enhanced rate reviews
- Pushing for parent testimony and presence at virtual hearings for IESP cases
- Noting a significant drop in due process filings, potentially due to the new affidavit requirement
- Facing challenges with hearing officers' discretion in requiring parent presence at hearings
Althea Stevens
1:28:52
And having gone through the whole process and, like, that you can't provide these services?
1:28:56
And what are the steps that you have to take in order to prove that you can't get those services in dealing?
Liz Vladeck
1:29:02
So first of all, we've got this ARRIS process that I mentioned earlier, which is the administrative process that's supposed to expedite our review of whether we should have to pay an enhanced rate, we won't initiate that process without a notarized affidavit from the families.
1:29:17
It's my view, anecdotal, that that has been effective because the drop off in due process filings, all those cases did not move over to ARRIS.
1:29:27
And I think that's because many of those cases, the parents would were not aware enough to sign an affidavit.
1:29:33
Additionally, when we are litigating cases, when we're in front of a hearing officer, we are pushing as hard as we can to have the parent actually need to testify, to be present, to appear at these hearings, which are virtual, by the way.
1:29:47
So we're not asking parents to take hours a half day off of work and go to a location.
1:29:52
We get a tremendous amount of pushback in these IESP cases, which we had never had with Carter cases and tuition cases.
1:30:00
And in that setting, we are at the mercy of the hearing officers who work for Oath.
1:30:05
The hearing officers have the discretion to decide to say, I wanna see a parent or DOE.
1:30:10
Shut up.
1:30:12
So that's I'm trying not to filibuster you.
Althea Stevens
1:30:15
Yeah.
1:30:15
You are, and you're doing much better than you were doing before.
1:30:17
So thank you.
1:30:18
I appreciate it.
Kamillah Hanks
1:30:18
Great.
Althea Stevens
1:30:19
Because I I need to sing this.
1:30:20
I I can't it's too many words to stress me out.
1:30:22
But, and I and I'm I'm finishing up, because I'm I'm still confused on so you're saying that you've seen the drop in cases, but how are we ensuring that we're filling those gaps?
1:30:32
Because there's some things that's that's being put in here that are not necessarily us ensuring that we can provide the services that are necessary, and have the staffing or whatever it is that it is.
1:30:41
And do you think it's it's because it's lack of staffing, like, what do you guys think the issue is?
1:30:46
And then how can we work together to kinda, like, build that out to see, like, concrete steps so that this isn't an option?
1:30:52
Because we've we've created a space for parents to sue us because we didn't have the services.
1:30:59
So how do we then take up that space to say, we have all these services and then do the work and outreach to ensure that parents know about it?
Christina Foti
1:31:06
That's right.