Audit: Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind needs increased oversight, better planning

SALT LAKE CITY — A legislative audit released Tuesday suggested Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind need more oversight and better strategic planning.

The schools serve students with disabilities statewide who are deaf and/or blind. But its leadership structure has changed recently.

Passed during the 2025 legislative session, HB537 adjusted the schools’ governance structure to address “management and financial problems.”

Now, the Utah State Board of Education has increased oversight of the Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, being responsible for the administrative leadership and policy governance of the school.

“Essentially, the state board governs (the school) at both the statewide system and LEA (local education agency) levels,” said the audit.

Increased oversight

The audit said the school’s governance structure has “repeatedly” allowed insufficient oversight.

“(The State School Board) has not adequately governed (the Schools for the Deaf and the Blind) over time. Under the state board’s governance, (the Schools for the Deaf and the Blind) has repeatedly experienced financial and other problems over recent decades. (The schools’) problems have occurred in part because of its inadequate board governance structure, in addition to inattentive governance and bad management,” said the audit.

A 2004 audit of the Schools for the Deaf and the Blind found a deficit of about $200,000 in 1993. In 2025, the Schools for the Deaf and the Blind ended the fiscal year with a $1.5 million deficit, according to the latest audit.

“Rather than provide adequate financial oversight, it appears that the state board has historically involved itself sufficiently only to address emergencies,” said the audit.

To address these issues and others related to institutional oversight, the audit said the State Board of Education should:

• Adopt a centralized data management system for the Schools for the Deaf and the Blind with proper system controls and adopt automated data management strategies where possible.
• Coordinate with the Schools for the Deaf and the Blind to identify the best option for reconciling data sources.
• Consider specific characteristics of governance and optimize for increased time, attention and expertise if the Legislature decides to change the Schools for the Deaf and the Blind’s governance structure.

Improving strategic planning

Along with the need for more stringent oversight, the audit also said the Schools for the Deaf and the Blind should “focus more firmly on student learning and academic achievement.”

The audit noted that testing is a problematic venture for Schools for the Deaf and the Blind students due to their unique needs that make testing itself and comparing results to other students difficult.

At the same time, over the last five years, the Schools for the Deaf and the Blind’s campus students have consistently performed under 15% proficiency on standardized assessments.

There might be reasons for this, the audit said, as the state’s primary monitoring system for educating students with disabilities currently focuses more on procedural compliance than on educational benefits and academic achievement.

One solution, the audit found, is to recognize individualized education programs (IEPs) — individualized strategic plans for educating students with disabilities — as a strategic plan for student success.

Another “best practice” identified in the audit is the implementation of educational benefit reviews.

Education benefit reviews monitor IEPs to determine if they are working.

To this end, the audit said the Schools for the Deaf and the Blind should:

• Identify benchmarks and report relevant comparisons of its assessment data in its annual reports to support policymaking and strategic planning at all levels of the organization.
• Adopt an educational benefit review process to ensure a proper focus on students’ educational achievement

“(State School Board) and administrators at (Schools for the Deaf and the Blind) must ensure that every element of strategic planning at (Schools for the Deaf and the Blind), including IEPs, contributes to the educational benefit and long-term academic achievement of each of its students,” said the audit. “Adopting (educational benefit reviews) could help (Schools for the Deaf and the Blind) better focus on improving the academic achievement of its deaf and blind students and hopefully contribute to improved academic performance.”

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Related: Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind is over budget