Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
OATH's case backlog, closure rates, and strategies for managing increased caseload
2:25:44
ยท
3 min
Council Member Restler inquires about OATH's current case backlog, closure rates, and strategies for managing the increased caseload. Commissioner Rahman explains OATH's definition of backlog and their approach to case management and resource allocation.
- OATH defines backlog as unassigned cases, which is currently zero as all cases are assigned to hearing officers upon receipt.
- There is a significant discrepancy between cases sent to OATH and cases closed: 3,500 more cases sent than closed in FY 2024, and 6,000 more in the first four months of FY 2025.
- The average time to close cases has increased by 23%.
- OATH is managing the increased caseload through internal strategies and by requesting additional resources from OMB.
- OATH recently received approval to hire additional hearing officers and will continue to assess resource needs based on caseload.
Lincoln Restler
2:25:44
We will follow-up.
2:25:45
If you do have that data we would very much like to understand it.
2:25:47
I just, you all have a hard, let me do one more on this and then I'll give my The MMR showed there were about three thousand five hundred more cases sent to Oath than closed in FY twenty four and about 6,000 more cases sent to Oath than closed in the first four months of twenty five.
2:26:05
I know that when DOE started transitioning cases to Oath there was a backlog of like 16,000 cases, so I think it's relative.
2:26:12
I mean as I mentioned I think this is one of the worst corners of bureaucracy in all of city government, most dysfunctional.
2:26:20
Could you speak to what the current backlog is?
2:26:22
How many cases are still open for over six months, over a year?
2:26:27
How are you tracking that from a kind of global view?
Asim Rahman
2:26:34
Yeah, so I'm not sure if we're using the same terminology.
2:26:40
When we at Oath think of backlog, we are specifically talking about unassigned cases.
2:26:48
So case filed with DOE that just hasn't even been given to a hearing officer, that hasn't been as it's called assigned.
2:26:54
Assigned, okay.
2:26:54
So there was a backlog before Oath got involved.
2:26:57
Now there is zero backlog.
2:26:59
A case gets to DOE within I think a day or two, and I could be wrong, it might be within the same day, it gets assigned out.
2:27:05
And then we assign it to a hearing officer.
2:27:07
So that means that if the backlog is zero, every case is with a hearing officer.
2:27:12
It is just going to take time for those hearing officers to resolve those cases.
2:27:16
And that gets us to the question of how are we doing with completing cases within the legal timeframe.
Lincoln Restler
2:27:20
Right.
2:27:21
But we're seeing significantly more cases sent to oath than closed.
2:27:27
So 3,500 in FY twenty four, '6 thousand in the first four months of FY twenty five, Those are significant discrepancies.
2:27:34
How are we understanding the cases that you all have the capacity to close these cases in a reasonable timeframe at scale?
Asim Rahman
2:27:42
I understand.
2:27:44
That is part of our the strategies we have internally to look at the volume of cases we have, look at our hearing officer and staff capacity, determine how to proceed and assign those cases.
2:28:05
So there's an internal management component of it, but then there's a resource component of it.
2:28:10
And that involves the discussions we have with OMB when we show that the numbers have gone up, our staffing numbers have not changed much, there's only so many hours in the day, can we hire more hearing officers?
2:28:22
And then as I mentioned, we recently got approval to bring on additional hearing officers.
2:28:26
And if the numbers demand additional resources, we're going to continue to have those discussions with OMB.
Lincoln Restler
2:28:35
Okay.
2:28:35
I mean look we're seeing the average time to close cases has increased 23%.
2:28:39
We realize that it's faster than it was in the old system but still too slow.
2:28:45
So I think we want to work together to understand what those needs are and certainly with Chair Joseph trying to help advocate to make sure that families are getting the special education support that they deserve.
2:28:54
I'll do two more quick questions and then encourage you to enjoy the rest of your Friday afternoon.
2:29:03
Thank you for laughing, Gail.
2:29:04
I appreciate you always.