An Audit Report on the Reading Program at the Juvenile Justice Department
September 2013
Report Number 14-001
Overall Conclusion
The Juvenile Justice Department (Department) has developed a program to improve the reading skills of students in the schools that its correctional facilities operate, as required by Texas Education Code, Chapter 30. However, while five of its six schools have implemented the reading program, the school at the Evins Regional Juvenile Center has not.
To strengthen its reading program, the Department should improve its:
- Monitoring of each school's implementation of the reading program.
- Monitoring of individual student progress.
- Tracking of students entering and exiting the reading program.
- Gathering of student feedback.
- Administration of reading assessments to students.
In addition, the Department accurately reported performance measures related to its reading program, but it should improve data input and information technology controls to help ensure the accuracy of those performance measures.
The Department also has implemented controls to facilitate recording accurate school attendance information. However, its schools did not consistently implement those controls. In addition, some schools reported attendance information that may not accurately reflect whether certain students received educational instruction.
Auditors communicated other, less significant issues to the Department separately in writing.