State Education Department

Home Therapy Associates of New York, Inc.: Reimbursable Costs for Preschool Special Education Services

Municipalities are required to provide educational and related services, such as speech therapy, to children with disabilities. The costs of these various services are reimbursed, in part, by the State Education Department. Municipalities that cannot deliver all the services prescribed for a student are to contract with approved private providers. We audited the reimbursable costs reported to the State Education Department for 2004 by one such provider: Home Therapy Associates of New York, Inc. (HTA).

During 2004, HTA reported total costs of about $5.5 million for preschool special education services. However, we identified material errors in the information reported by HTA. Specifically, we determined that HTA reported the costs the would have been incurred if all its authorized special education sessions had been provided, rather than the actual costs that were incurred for the sessions that were actually provided. As a result of these errors, the direct care costs claimed by HTA were overstated by $941,758 and the indirect care costs were overstated by $121,865. We recommended that the State Education Department review our audit disallowances, make certain other necessary adjustments in the costs reported by HTA, and recover all overpayments made to HTA for 2004 and prior years.

For a complete copy of Report 2006-S-65 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.