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New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today released an audit finding that the New York City Department of Education (DOE) does not effectively record, follow up, resolve, and close school bus related complaints.

The audit – which can be viewed at www.comptroller.nyc.gov – covered the period of July 2006 through April 2008, and discovered a wide range of shortcomings at DOE’s Office of Pupil Transportation (OPT).

“DOE has fallen asleep at the wheel and allowed ineffective management of school bus complaints to put the health and safety of school-age children at risk,” Thompson said. “Their ineptitudes are not only reprehensible, but directly translate into a lack of assurance that complaints regarding unreliable or unsafe transportation of children are being sufficiently addressed.”

DOE currently is responsible for transporting pre-kindergarten (pre-k) students and, as a result, handles both school-age and pre-k complaints. According to its Call Recording System, a total of 376,257 school-age complaints were recorded from July 1, 2006 to January 15, 2008. The number of pre-k complaints during that same period totaled 815.
OPT is responsible for ensuring that clean, safe, and reliable bus service is provided to and from school for students who are New York City residents. In order to accomplish this, OPT maintains a Customer Service Unit (CSU) to address transportation concerns raised by callers and to assist in the resolution of complaints.

The CSU consists of approximately 65 agents responsible for recording all complaints received by telephone into the Call Recording System, which tracks and manages complaints. Agents are available to speak directly with callers Mondays through Fridays generally from 5:00 AM to 7:00 PM.

Agents are instructed to: (1) identify the issue, (2) decide which of the approximately 40 categories the issue falls under and record the category into the system, (3) describe the issue fully and clearly in the system, and (4) provide an assigned complaint number to the caller that is automatically generated from the system.

“This audit exposes many shortcomings and ineffective use of resources at OPT,” Thompson said. “When it comes to the safety of our school children, we cannot afford to take these concerns lightly.”

Using a test sample of 159 randomly selected complaints from categories related to child safety and reliability of transportation, auditors examined: categorization and referral of complaints; resolution of complaints; timeliness of resolving and closing complaints; and whether the same complaint had been recorded into the system more than once and assigned different complaint numbers. The audit also included a telephone survey of parents who had lodged complaints.

Auditors determined that OPT does not have adequate procedures for resolving complaints in a timely manner. Eight of the 159 complaints in the audit sample were still pending resolution. Auditors calculated that the length of time these complaints were pending resolution ranged from at least three months (101 days) to nearly a year (343 days).
Of the 151 complaints in the sample that were closed, 22 concerned allegations of misconduct by bus drivers or escorts, and almost all of these were resolved within a timely manner because DOE has specific regulations for dealing with these types of complaints.

“On the other hand,” Thompson said, “there were no regulations or procedures governing the length of time to resolve the remaining 129 complaints in our sample that were closed, which ranged from the same day to an entire year. So, obviously, when the proper regulations are in place, these cases can be appropriately addressed. It is unfortunate that the DOE has shown a lack of motivation to implement the proper controls.”

Thompson’s audit also found that OPT has not developed formal procedures governing the closing of cases in the Call Recording System once they are resolved. As a result, cases were not always closed promptly when they were resolved. For the 151 complaints reviewed in the sample that were closed, the number of days between the dates cases were closed and the dates they were resolved ranged from the same day to 203 days.
“In fact, one of the parents we surveyed stated that after one of her complaints was resolved, six different CSU agents continued to call her since the case had not been closed in the system,” Thompson said. “This is a complete waste of valuable resources, and can be easily corrected.”

Thompson’s audit also raised concerns about OPT’s inadequate resolution of complaints. Specifically, 45 (30%) of the 151 complaints in the sample that were closed were not adequately resolved. Examples – identified in the audit - outline complaints deemed “too far gone” and closed out in the system, and resolution descriptions that referred to additional supporting documentation that DOE could not provide.

Furthermore, half of the parents who participated in the audit survey were dissatisfied with OPT’s resolution of their complaints. Thompson said that without correct procedures in place indicating what constitutes a successful resolution, there is an increased risk that complaints may be inappropriately deemed resolved and closed without further action taken.

Thompson’s audit also found discrepancies in OPT’s ability to: clearly categorize and rank the seriousness of complaints; handle complaints consistently; track complaints that are received by mail or e-mail; and, appropriately handle informational and transfer calls that do not require follow up.
As a result of the audit Thompson made 17 recommendations, namely that DOE should:

• Develop and implement adequate written procedures that are sufficiently detailed for all of its units when following up, resolving, and closing school bus related complaints.
• Ensure that complaints received are recorded fully and clearly, as required by the Customer Service OPT Overview, to avoid ambiguity and to ensure timely resolution.
• Ensure that complaints are adequately resolved and require that resolution descriptions in the Call Recording System be detailed and clear. In addition, an authorized individual should be responsible for periodically reviewing the resolutions to ensure that they comply with guidelines established by OPT.
• Develop a tracking system to capture written complaints and ensure that they are recorded promptly, fully, and accurately. Information relating to the resolutions to these complaints should also be recorded.

In its response, DOE agreed with 15 of the 17 audit recommendations.
“In response to our audit, the DOE has repeatedly stressed that it is in the process of correcting its shortcomings regarding safety on school buses and indicated that it would welcome an audit once new controls were in place,” Thompson said. “But I felt it was vital to assess the effectiveness of DOE’s operations, and then provide recommendations to further strengthen the process. In the end, the goal is to help students and parents to know that their children are safe and secure and the system is running smoothly.”

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