The system of care the state has created to provide educational and mental health services to disabled children as required by a federal consent decree "has not achieved the expected results," state Auditor Marion Higa said in a report released yesterday. State auditor critical of
Felix-class services
By Bruce Dunford
Associated Press"The system of care focused more on procedural compliance rather than on a system to effectively help the children," Higa said. "In addition, the system is largely based on treatments that cannot demonstrate effectiveness."
Higa's follow-up and management audit of the consent decree found that the departments of Health and Education do not provide a full picture of costs of complying with the consent decree and lack adequate financial management infrastructure to support the compliance effort.
"Costs reported by the departments are intermingled with other programs, are inaccurate and suffer from a lack of transparency," she said.
The 1994 consent decree was the result of a federal lawsuit filed in 1993 as a class action by special-needs student Jennifer Felix and six other children.
In May 2000, U.S. District Judge David Ezra found the state in contempt for failing to implement the required system of care, threatening to name a receiver to take over the system if all state public schools are not compliant by March 31.
The Department of Education said it generally agreed with Higa's recommendations, which it said would help it implement sound fiscal and program management practices.
The Department of Health also agreed with the recommendations but said Higa's report did not reflect changes already made.
The state has made progress in meeting Ezra's requirements for compliance based on service testing, and at a Nov. 30 hearing, Ezra complimented the state for its commitment to demonstrating results for the Felix-class children, said Health Director Bruce Anderson.
"Given these significant events, and given the purpose of reporting on follow-up activities, it is disappointing that this was not included in the report," Anderson said.
The release of Higa's report came one day after the Joint Senate-House Investigative Committee released its final report, which said despite good intentions to improve special-education and health services for Hawaii children with mental disabilities, the decree "has also unleashed a Pandora's box of unintended consequences."
The committee blamed unclear requirements for compliance, the extraordinary powers granted certain administrators without any apparent oversight, and the court's blocking the Legislature's access to information to fully understand the Felix consent decree programs and their funding.
Higa, whose agency comes under the legislative branch, worked closely with the legislative committee's six-month investigation.
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