External audit finds Fayetteville-Manlius special-education program largely compliant but flags capacity and 504 growth

An external audit presented to the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District board on Sept. 9 found the district’s special-education program is largely meeting legal and programmatic requirements but identified capacity and operational pressures the district should address.

Bob, the retired superintendent and consultant who led the review, told the board the system "is doing an exceptionally fine job" serving students with disabilities and that "there were no material compliance concerns that would cause myself or the audit team to be concerned about legal implications or potential pending lawsuits or litigation." He said the audit reviewed roughly 50,000 data points and included interviews with faculty, staff, service providers and parents.

The audit highlighted four focus areas for continued attention: compliance, capacity, common-sense understandings among staff, and leadership opportunities. On capacity, Bob said districts statewide are seeing shortages of evaluators and preschool special-education service providers for children roughly ages 2.5–5, and urged the district to "provide additional supports and resources" to smooth students’ transition into kindergarten.

The presentation included concrete counts: the audit team examined "14% of the active IEPs," identified about "234 504 plans with 25 pending" (which Bob described as roughly a 10% year-to-year growth in 504 plans), and noted "137 preschool special-ed placements with 19 pending." Bob also reported approximately "436 active IEPs with 23 pending" in the district’s school-age programs.

He recommended several operational changes to reduce stress during transitions and improve consistency, including moving IEP anniversaries onto a staggered "anniversary" calendar rather than concentrating reviews in a short window, expanding differentiated professional development and planning time for co-teaching models, and continuing ongoing coaching for administrators and service providers. He offered follow-up support from his consulting group during the coming school year.

Board members asked about audit methods and engagement. Bob said interviews were conducted individually and in small groups to protect confidentiality and that an evening parent session included about 10 parents; the board noted that the parent group had been meeting to develop a new transition program and that those parents were available for interviews.

What happens next: district leaders said some strategies identified in the audit were already underway — for example, a change to related-services scheduling — and that administrators and the board will use the audit to guide professional development and calendar planning in the coming months.