Verificación del Módulo

Regional cooperatives do not use the same systems to track resources, meaning that students potentially may not receive the resources they need. Specifically:

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Education staff services—The regional cooperatives use different systems to keep track of student needs, such as the need for an educational interpreter, and the availability of educational staff such as interpreters, teachers, and therapists. Each regional cooperative uses either a computer program such as Microsoft Access or hard copy forms to manage its student caseload.

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Equipment inventory—The regional cooperatives use different systems to track and manage the educational equipment provided to the students in local school districts, such as braille writers and educational books. Some regional cooperatives use a hard copy inventory tracking system, and others do not use an inventory tracking system at all. Additionally, ASDB lacks a state-wide inventory system to track equipment owned by all of its regional cooperatives.

Consistent tracking could help ensure that students have access to all the educational services and equipment they need. For example:

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Providing resources when students move across cooperatives—Regional cooperative officials reported that students move from one cooperative to another, and because the regional cooperatives do not use the same computer programs to track educational services, it can be hard to transfer the services to the student’s new school.

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Identifying underused resources—Because there is no state-wide inventory of equipment resources, some regional cooperative officials reported that they informally call one another if they need equipment that might not be in use by another regional cooperative. Without a state-wide inventory, equipment could be going unused in one region that could benefit students in other regions.

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Training staff—Regional cooperative officials also stated that a single computer program used by all regional cooperatives would make it easier to train staff and IT support staff on how to use the program to track these services.

ASDB could use systems it has developed or is developing for other programs to better track and manage educational services and equipment in the regional cooperatives. Specifically:

ASDB lacks a state-wide inventory system to track equipment owned by all of its regional cooperatives.

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ASDB is developing an in-house computer program to track and manage the schedules of the education services in the birth to 3 program discussed in Finding 1 (see pages 9 though 25). This program administers these services throughout the State. Once developed and tested, the regional cooperatives should use this program to track and manage the educational services that are provided to students by the regional cooperatives.

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As of January 2012, ASDB purchased and implemented an inventory system to

track on-campus assets. The regional cooperatives should use this same system to track and manage the inventory of the equipment provided to the students in the regional cooperatives.

Recommendations:

2.1 To ensure its fees more fully reflect its costs, ASDB should develop a structured approach to evaluate current fees and implement new fees that would cover all costs related to the services provided by the regional cooperatives that are not covered by legislative appropriations, and ensure that specific fees are appropriate for the services. In developing this approach, ASDB should do the following:

a. Assess the efficiency of its operations to ensure costs are as low as possible and document the results of its assessment. As ASDB assesses the efficiency of its operations, it should continue seeking to minimize costs where possible;

b. Determine whether to consider costs independently for each regional cooperative or in combination on a state-wide basis, and develop and implement a method for tracking and allocating relevant ASDB costs; c. Identify the actual costs for specific fees, including membership fees, fee-

for-service costs, and additional supplemental service costs to help ensure fees are appropriate and equitable. In addition, fees should take into account factors that affect the cost of the specific service; and d. Develop and implement policies and procedures for using the method to

develop appropriate fees.

2.2 ASDB should develop a systematic way to determine whether and how much to pay school districts for services the districts provide to students for whom ASDB receives Arizona Department of Education voucher monies.

2.3 ASDB should provide more oversight to ensure that advisory councils play an appropriate role in the regional cooperative program by:

a. Modifying its policy to remove the provision that advisory councils will recommend a fee structure;

b. Determining and implementing the appropriate structure for the advisory councils, such as a single state-wide advisory council composed of participating school district representatives and parents and representatives of local private service organizations, or regional advisory councils that include parents and local private service organization representatives; and c. Ensuring that its councils adhere to the advisory role and responsibilities

outlined in ASDB policy.

2.4 ASDB should establish a single, consistent system for managing and tracking regional cooperative resources by:

a. Expanding the use of ASDB’s in-house computer program for tracking and managing birth to 3 program educational services, once the program has been developed and tested, to track and manage educational services provided to students in the regional cooperatives; and

b. Using ASDB’s inventory system for on-campus assets to track and manage the inventory of equipment provided to students in the regional cooperatives.

ASDB needs to improve its information

In document Estudio de auditoria energética para una entidad del sector público (página 97-101)