A new state audit has listed concerns with how Michigan's health department oversees the school services program.
The report covers an observation period from July 2022 through the end of September 2024. During that time, observers found state officials hadn’t been properly checking credentials for school-based services staff, like counselors and teacher aides.
Checking credentials can affect how districts receive federal reimbursement for those support services. The state health department works with the Michigan Department of Education and an outsider contractor to get that done.
Observers said the reviews were backlogged and sometimes took months to complete. There were also a handful of cases from the 2019-2020 school year where the state didn’t let districts know when they found staff without the right credentials.
“Without remedial action, when (Intermediate School District) staff are found not to hold appropriate credentials, the manual credential review process likely has little or no value,” the audit said.
The Office of the Auditor General blames vagueness in the state health department’s review plan and outdated interagency agreements for some of the issues.
The agency did not make anyone available for an interview on Friday.
In a preliminary response written in the audit, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said it will update its policies to include more oversight and a clearer review timeline.
“MDHHS will establish a written internal monitoring process to ensure that a comprehensive credential review is conducted and maintained by both MDHHS and MDE,” the department wrote.
The audit had two overarching goals: assessing how well MDHHS was monitoring school district’s compliance with federal requirements, and assessing how well the department was monitoring its contractor’s work.
While the report concluded the department was “sufficient, with exceptions” in the first area, the department was “not sufficient” in the second.
One main factor influencing that was a noted lack of oversight when it came to the contractor’s methodology.
“Significant deficiencies in MDHHS’s oversight of the (school services program) contractor resulting in the department’s overreliance on its contractor to adhere to contract terms and program requirements,” the audit said was a reason for the low rating.
Again, the agency accepted the finding and said it would update its systems and provide more training to fix the problems.
The department has 60 days to submit a plan to address the report's concerns.
