Audit of Payments By The Administration For Children’s Services For Children With Disabilities In Residential Facilities

Audit Report In Brief

T his audit determined whether the payments made by the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) for children with disabilities in residential facilities were accurate, documented, and legitimate.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

In general, we found that ACS payments for children with disabilities in residential facilities were accurate, documented, and legitimate. Our review of ACS payments to the three Residential Treatment Centers (RTCs) in our sample—The Children’s Village, SCO Family of Services, and St. Cabrini—found that:

• The RTC requests for payments and attendance records generally reconciled to ACS payments—when RTC data did not match ACS data, payments were withheld until the discrepancies were rectified—and the correct level-of-care rate was used in calculating the payment rates for the sampled children.
• All of the files for the children sampled included the level of care recommended; the yearly permanency review by the State Court; the two most recent Uniform Case Records (UCRs) specifying the plan recommendations for the next six months; and level-of-care amendment approvals. Thus, we have reasonable assurance that the children listed on the attendance records for which ACS made payments were residing in and receiving services at the RTCs.

Audit Recommendations

Since we found no material weaknesses in ACS’s controls regarding its payments to residential facilities for children with disabilities, we make no recommendations in this report.