Christine Young, director of audits for the Legislative Budget Assistant (LBA), and Jay Henry, performance audit supervisor, briefed the Joint Legislative Performance Audit and Oversight Committee on the status of ongoing performance audits and when field work and drafts are expected.

Special education: Young said the office is writing the report and currently has 25 completed observations but has identified 70 total observations after separating lengthy topics. She said a full draft report is expected in 2026.

Education freedom accounts: Young said field work and analysis are underway; the audit team identified 40 observations with 15 finalized, mostly related to eligibility. She said a draft report is expected by mid-spring with a presentation to the fiscal committee in the summer.

Doorways program: The audit office finalized the audit plan and, with help from the Department of Health and Human Services, isolated the program’s financial activity in the state’s systems for state fiscal years 2022 through 2025. Young said the team is awaiting vendor operational data for fiscal 2025 and expects field work to be completed by Thanksgiving; a draft is planned for January or February and a final report to the fiscal committee by March or April 2026.

Committee business and scheduling: members discussed meeting times and senator attendance; the committee agreed to hold the next follow-up meeting on February 6 at 10:00 a.m. The committee noted the value of follow-up reviews to ensure long-standing audit findings are resolved and requested future status reports as item completion approaches.