Report 2015-112 Recommendation 23 Responses
Report 2015-112: Student Mental Health Services: Some Students' Services Were Affected by a New State Law, and the State Needs to Analyze Student Outcomes and Track Service Costs (Release Date: January 2016)
Recommendation #23 To: Mt. Diablo Unified School District
To ensure that the licensed staff it hires are qualified at the time of hire and throughout their employment, Mt. Diablo should follow its formal procedures to ensure that staff possess required licenses when hired and that their licenses remain current while employed.
1-Year Agency Response
The district has submitted through the secure portal documents that demonstrate the Personnel Clerk has engaged in a process by which she tracks the licenses and credentials of each staff member providing mental health services.
The Personnel Clerk maintains a spreadsheet manually by which she tracks the license expiration dates. In addition, the district has submitted screenshots from our data management system which indicates that the license expiration date, along with license number have been added to our system which also generates alerts when licenses and credentials are due to expire. The credential information was already existing at the time of the audit.
In addition, the district has submitted evidence that letters are sent to notify staff of upcoming license expiration dates in order to ensure that they get renewed and the staff is eligible to continue to provide mental health services to students.
The process for this check was submitted in an earlier response.
At this time, all licenses are reviewed per that process.
- Completion Date: September 2016
- Response Date: January 2017
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented
6-Month Agency Response
The District has directed the Fiscal Clerk to monthly select five files for audit to ensure the District has updated licenses and credentials for all staff. This process was implemented in January of 2016.
- Completion Date: January 2016
- Response Date: July 2016
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented
Mt. Diablo did not submit evidence demonstrating that its fiscal clerk is conducting the review of licenses and credentials that it discusses in its response.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
- Auditee did not address all aspects of the recommendation
60-Day Agency Response
MDUSD staff has been directed to procure copies of all license and credentials per existing practice but in addition, copies of such documents will be maintained in student files in definitely. This practice is fully implemented.
In addition, MDUSD is working to develop a field in our employee data base which tracks license expiration date, similar to our current practice of tracking credential expiration dates. This is anticipated to be fully implemented by the start of the 2016/2017 school year.
- Estimated Completion Date: November 2016
- Response Date: March 2016
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Partially Implemented
All Recommendations in 2015-112
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.