The city Department of Education can’t fully document whether special needs children are getting all the services it pays for, a new audit charges.
City Comptroller Scott Stringer found serious flaws in a sample of invoices charged by a non-profit that bills for millions of dollars a year in speech therapy for hearing-impaired children.
The comptroller’s office conducted the audit of Strivright, Inc., also known as the Auditory Oral School of New York. Since 2010, the city DOE has paid the group more than $40 million in services to kids in public and private schools.
In a sample of 43 schools, Strivright billed the DOE for 483 sessions without service providers signing in and out, as required by contract, to document their presence, the audit found.
In one case, a Strivright provider billed $586.74 for 14 sessions at two schools closed for a holiday.
At 11 schools, Strivright’s providers billed for services for 12 students who were not enrolled.
Most of the sessions were for 30 minutes, at rates of $42 to $54 each.
Some service providers apparently billed for travel time between schools, the audit found. Others billed for periods of five to eight-and-a-half hours straight, although the contract requires a half-hour break after five hours.
The Comptroller has asked the DOE to recoup $93,936 from Strivright, which countered that taking the breaks would have interfered with students’ schedules and educational plans.
In a written response, Strivright’s executive director, Samuel Bravmann, insisted that “100 percent” of the sessions were provided and signed off on by a school designee.
But Stringer took a hard stance. “This audit shows a callous disregard for taxpayer dollars and worse, some of New York’s most vulnerable children. We need to be doing everything we can to ensure that services we pay for are actually provided,” he told The Post.
The DOE would not say whether it would investigate possible overbilling.
“Strivright is one of many vendors that provide critical services to our students with disabilities. We are considering the comptroller’s recommendations,” DOE spokeswoman Danielle Filson said.