Another school accused in UCP funding scheme
A second charter school run by a Central Florida non-profit agency has been accused of trying to boost state funding by wrongly documenting that children with disabilities needed more intensive services than they actually did.
The two schools — both run by UCP of Central Florida, sometimes known as United Cerebral Palsy of Central Florida — are under investigation by the Orange County school district.
The non-profit, which runs the schools as part of its mission is to help youngsters with disabilities, said it has hired experts to conduct its own investigation as well.
UCP does not believe educa
tion plans were changed for “fiscal gain” but is committed to making sure its staff “act in a lawful, ethical and compliant manner,” read the emailed statement sent by Ilene Wilkins, the group’s CEO.
A former employee filed a complaint in January about what she called “unethical behavior” at UCP Bailes Community Academy, located near the University of Central Florida. The school pressured her and teachers to alter student education plans, so the children’s disabilities would appear more severe, and they could qualify for more money though Florida’s school funding system, she said.
“I wanted no part of it,” said the former employee. “Using that as a way to pad a budget isn’t appropriate.”
Like all charter schools, the UCP schools are publicly funded but privately run by a group that has been granted a contract, or charter, from a local school board. UCP runs six charter schools in Orange County and one each in Osceola and Seminole counties. Its six Orange schools have a combined enrollment of about 1,125 students.
UCP Downtown, located on Lake Underhill Road, has been under scrutiny since last fall because the Orange school district believes it wrongly altered six students’ Individual Education Plans and as a result received nearly $60,000 “to which it was not entitled,” according to documents from the school district.
UCP, in a letter to the district last month, denied any wrongdoing at that school and accused the district of a poor quality investigation. It said plans were changed because students needed more services, in part because of the academic challenges brought on by COVID-19.
The dispute has not been concluded but has resulted in UCP withdrawing its application for a ninth charter school, which was to be considered by the school board in late April.
In its statement Friday, UCP said it hired outside experts to review its operations after the first complaint was filed.
“We are in the middle of an exhaustive factual inquiry and quality control system review,” it said, adding that the agency does not believe it ever received the extra money OCPS said was sent to UCP Downtown.
“We continue to review our systems and look forward to a collaborative discussion with OCPS about our findings with a commitment to continuous improvement,” it said.
Individual Education Plans, often called IEPs, are required by federal law for children with disabilities and document what special education services they need. Florida uses a “matrix of services” to determine how much money schools receive to educate those youngsters, providing more funding for students with more significant disabilities as they typically require more intensive services.
At UCP Downtown, the principal is accused of changing the matrixes so that the school received from $8,846 to $12,291 more per child for six students.
At UCP Bailes, the former employee said she was pushed to review the IEPs of a number of students who were at lowest matrix level and to add more services to their plan. She did not do that and said she wasn’t sure if others changed the plans.
The UCP statement said it did ask its employees to review IEPs because to make sure all students “received all needed services.” Because of the pandemic, the state instructed public schools mid-year to make sure students’ academic needs were being addressed, it noted.
A spokesman for OCPS confirmed this month that
UCP Bailes was under review, too. But unlike with UCP Downtown, the district has not completed an investigation or documented any findings.
“The district has received a complaint regarding UCP Bailes, the allegations are being looked into, and the district does not have further comment,” wrote spokesman Michael Ollendorf in an email.
The former employee who complained about UCP Bailes said she was terminated about a month after she filed her complaint, with the school claiming she was absent too much. She called that charge “ridiculous.” She asked not to be identified as she is fighting her termination, convinced it was a retaliatory move.
The woman said she did not know UCP Downtown was under investigation because of a complaint similar to hers until late last month, when she read about it in the Orlando Sentinel.
The Sentinel story noted that OCPS found the matrix changes made a UCP Downtown suspicious, as they came just days before the state’s key October count of students, which is used to help determine state funding.
The former Bailes employee said she was hired at the school in early 2020 as a staffing specialist. That role is typically filled by an experienced special education teacher whose job is to make sure students with disabilities are provided appropriate services and that the school follows state and federal rules that govern the education of children with disabilities.
The woman said she had more than 20 years of experience in special education and school administration.
She was drawn to the UCP school because it educated youngsters with disabilities alongside those without. “That’s what’s beautiful about the model,” she said.