Report 2017-102 Recommendation 3 Responses

Report 2017-102: California Community Colleges: The Colleges Reviewed Are Not Adequately Monitoring Services for Technology Accessibility, and Districts and Colleges Should Formalize Procedures for Upgrading Technology (Release Date: December 2017)

Recommendation #3 To: Community Colleges Chancellor's Office

To comply with statutory reporting requirements on its efforts to serve students with disabilities, by June 2018, the Chancellor's Office should establish and report on a system for evaluating state-funded programs and services for disabled students, including its gathering of outcome data, staff and student perceptions of program effectiveness, and data on the implementation of the program.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2020

The Chancellor's Office, on June 15, 2020, submitted a legislative report on Disabled Student Program and Services (DSPS) in response to Education Code section 67132(b). The report reflects the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years and contains data on the four elements mandated by legislation, staff and student perception of program effectiveness, data on the implementation of the program, physical accessibility requirements and outcome data.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From December 2018

The Chancellor's Office has established a system for evaluating state-funded programs and services for disabled students. The "CCCCO DSPS Program Plan" establishes a survey that collects implementation and outcome data as well as faculty and staff perceptions of program effectiveness. This evaluation process was presented to the community college system at our annual conference, California Association for Post-secondary Education and Disability (CAPED) October 18-22.

The plan includes the following Each college will be required to complete the staff and student survey every two years and the entire evaluation plan will be completed for each college every five years as required by Section 67312. This will become the basis for the biennial legislative report.

After all initial survey data is received in June 2019, a group of experienced practitioners will review the reports and calibrate the results using a uniform scale. Those colleges that fall significantly below the mean will be identified for follow-up by means of counseling or direct on-site technical assistance as the circumstances warrant. Districts/colleges not selected for follow-up assistance will be deemed to have successfully completed the evaluation process for the current cycle. A summary of the data will be incorporated into the 2020 legislative report.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented

The Chancellor's Office has not yet fully implemented this recommendation. As it indicates in its response, the Chancellor's Office expects to receive initial survey data from the districts in June 2019, and further expects to report on that data to the Legislature in 2020.

1-Year Agency Response

The Chancellor's Office has established a system for evaluating state-funded programs and services for disabled students. The "CCCCO DSPS Program Plan" establishes a survey that collects implementation and outcome data as well as faculty and staff perceptions of program effectiveness. This evaluation process will be presented to the community college system at our annual conference, California Association for Post-secondary Education and Disability (CAPED) October 18-22.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

The DSPS Program Plan provided to us by the Chancellor's Office shows the survey that the Chancellor's Office proposes to use to collect data on program effectiveness. However, the program plan does not address how it plans to report on the data it collects, as we recommended it should do.

6-Month Agency Response

A thorough analysis of the issues has been conducted. During a meeting with all college disability directors 2/28/18 the three colleges who participated in the audit shared their experiences and passed on the guidance that they received from the auditors to all colleges. Also during the meeting, focus groups were convened to discuss what current policies exist with regard to producing alternate media and tracking complaints. The Chancellor's Office staff circulated amongst all participants to gather first-hand the issues the colleges are dealing with. In addition:

- The plan to evaluate state-funded programs and services for disabled students is in progress. The findings from the meeting 2/28/18 were summarized and will be included in the next biennial report to capture staff perceptions of the program. We discovered that the majority of our colleges have an annual student survey so we will collect the student perceptions of the program that way.

- A survey used to gather data on what the colleges are already reporting on and the cycle of each college's reaccreditation visit, will form the basis of the plan that each college will follow to contribute to future biennial program reports.

- A task force was chosen to piece together the components being measured into a cohesive, sustainable plan that each college can execute regardless of fluctuations in funding. This task force met May 4th in Sacramento. The group consists of practitioners who have a research background as well as a student with disabilities. It also demonstrates a cross-section of colleges from the small, single college districts to large multiple college districts. There was a follow up meeting May 18th where the group discussed the options for program evaluation. The next meeting is June 6th where it is expected that a complete draft will be proposed. The final meeting is June 15th which will include the plan on how to disseminate the guidance to the field.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

A thorough analysis of the issues has been conducted.

During a meeting with all college disability directors 2/28/18 the three colleges who participated in the audit will share their experiences and pass on the guidance that they received from the auditors.

A plan to evaluate state-funded programs and services for disabled students is underway. The findings from the meeting 2/28/18 will help inform the data gathering.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2017-102

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.