Audit Report on the Provision of Vision Screening Services to Elementary School Students in New York City Charter Schools

This audit determined whether the New York City Department of Education (DOE) adequately monitored the provision of vision screening services to chartered elementary school students and whether the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) effectively provided vision screening services to kindergarten and first grade students in the charter schools. The scope period covered by this audit was school years 2007-2008 and 2008-2009.

DOE provides primary and secondary education to more than one million pre-kindergarten to grade 12 students in over 1,500 schools. The Chancellor is responsible for ensuring that these schools meet relevant laws, regulations, and requirements. In 1998, the New York State Charter Schools Act allowed the creation of independent public schools that operate based on the terms of five-year performance contracts, or “charters.” The Chancellor, through DOE’s Office of Charter Schools, is one of the entities or authorizers empowered to award charters in New York City. During school year 2008-2009, there were 78 charter schools in the City serving over 23,000 elementary, middle and high school students. DOE’s Office of Charter Schools authorized 41 of the 78 charter schools.

Charter schools must ensure that their students receive required health assessments and immunizations, that health records are properly maintained, and that nursing or comparable health services are provided to students. State Education Law requires all schools in the State to provide vision screening services to all new entrants within six months of admission to the school. DOE works with DOHMH to provide vision screening services. Health services in the schools are provided through the Office of School Health (OSH), a joint program of DOE and DOHMH, whose mission is to provide health care and preventative services to City schoolchildren.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

DOE did not adequately oversee the provision of vision screening services to chartered elementary school students in the City to ensure that they were conducted in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. DOE initially argued that the charter schools did not need to provide vision screening services to its students and therefore DOE did not need to oversee the schools’ practices in this regard. However, State law clearly requires all schools to provide vision screening services to all new entrants within six months of admission to the school. Despite DOE’s lack of oversight, we nevertheless found evidence that most of the new students in our sample of charter schools received vision screening services as required by law. For new entrants at the second grade or higher, we found that charter schools ensured that 92 percent of them received vision screenings.

DOHMH appears to be consistently providing vision screening services to kindergarten and first grade students in the chartered elementary schools. However, there is a need for improvement in DOHMH’s follow-up contacts with the parents of the students who failed their vision screenings. Although follow-up contacts were made for sample students who had the most serious eye conditions, little follow-up was done for those sample students who failed their vision screenings but had less serious eye problems.

On a related matter, the audit also found that since charter schools are not obligated to follow the Chancellor’s Regulations, students attending charter schools are not required to receive the same level of vision screening services as those attending public schools.

Audit Recommendations

To address these issues, the audit recommends, among other things, that DOE:

• Ensure that DOE-authorized charter schools provide the required vision screening examinations to all new entrants within six months of admission. Vision screening should also be provided to new entrants who transfer in from regular City public schools but have no record of receiving vision screening services.

• Consider requiring that the charter schools authorized by DOE or using DOE facilities follow the Chancellor’s Regulations with regard to vision screening.

In addition, the audit recommends, among other things, that DOHMH:

• Contact, or request that the schools contact, the parents of students for whom the E12S form has not been returned.