Special education database criticized

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

The state's database system for special education students with mental health needs is poorly run and doesn't meet requirements imposed by the federal court in connection with the Felix consent decree, State Auditor Marion Higa said in an audit released yesterday.

Higa said the Department of Education had failed to seek an estimated $14 million a year in potential Medicaid reimbursements for at least two years with data the system should supply.

But Higa agreed to change some of the report's harshest language after Schools Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto objected to hearing the Department of Education accused of "bad faith" and "disregard and abuse of the public's trust" in the audit's initial draft.

"We have been pursuing the possibility of trying to receive some of that Medicaid funding, but it takes legislative authorization and other things that need to be in place first," said DOE spokesman Greg Knudsen.

"That was one of the things with which we most disagreed with the auditor," Knudsen said.

Hamamoto said there might be an additional $10 million a year at most from Medicaid, in addition to the more than $62 million in federal grants the program has received in the past three years.

Higa said yesterday she removed the strong language after reviewing the documentation being cited.

But she said she was still concerned about the Medicaid issue, as well as reports from users of the data system in the schools that it was not user friendly, and that it appeared that technology experts, not special education personnel, were running the system.

The system, known as the Integrated Special Education Database, was developed to address the Felix consent decree's requirement that the state develop a seamless system of care for children requiring mental health services.

Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.