Management Audit Committee Report - Court-Ordered Placements at Residential Treatment Centers - Appendix

APPENDIX E Methodology Summary of Methodologies This evaluation was conducted according to statutory requirements and professional standards and methods for governmental audits. The research was conducted from January through July 2004. General Methodology To compile basic information about the court-ordered placement system, we reviewed relevant statutes, rules, professional literature, legislative history, agency and provider literature, agency budget requests, previous studies and reports from 1979 to 2003, information from other states, and other relevant information. To gain further understanding, we interviewed a variety of past and present state agency officials and managers as well as other persons knowledgeable about the system. We interviewed service providers and toured seven residential treatment centers and one BOCES facility. DFS, WDE and WDH produced documents and electronic data We requested state agency documents and electronic data to gather specific cost and placement information on court-placed youth. We obtained copies of contact and payment authorizations, provider billing invoices, payment procedures, and other financial documentation from DFS, WDH, and WDE. In addition, we obtained data from DFS' automated case management system, WYCAPS, in order to analyze placement numbers and per-child costs for FY '99 – '04. We cross-referenced this data with similar data from WDE and WDH for FY '03 – '04. We analyzed ...