The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission will meet Monday, Dec. 12, to hear staff present findings and recommendations from their studies of Virginia’s community services board system and high school dual enrollment program costs.
The meeting will be held at 10 a.m. in the Shared Committee room in the Pocahontas Building (Room E007, Ground Floor, 900 E. Main St.) in Richmond and will be livestreamed on the Virginia Senate’s video stream.
The report and presentations will be uploaded to JLARC’s website (jlarc.virginia.gov/calendar.asp) following the meeting.
Community services boards’ (CSBs) behavioral health services
JLARC directed staff to review Virginia’s CSBs’ behavioral health services. CSBs primarily are intended to serve as a single point of entry into Virginia’s publicly funded system of behavioral health services. CSBs provide emergency and non-emergency services to individuals experiencing serious behavioral health conditions.
For this study, JLARC staff reviewed behavioral health trends and outcomes for individuals served by CSBs, the adequacy of CSBs’ behavioral health staffing, Medicaid funding for CSBs’ services, state oversight of CSBs, and CSBs’ emergency services and discharge planning for patients in state-operated psychiatric hospitals.
CSBs’ behavioral health services are intended for Virginians with mental illness or substance use disorders. CSBs also serve individuals with developmental disabilities, but those services were not part of JLARC’s review.
Costs of Virginia’s dual enrollment program
Participation in dual enrollment courses, which allow high school students to earn college credit, has increased 54 percent from the 2012–13 school year to 2021–22. Most dual enrollment courses are taught at high schools by high school teachers. The state recently implemented several changes to increase the quality and transferability of dual enrollment credits.
JLARC directed its staff to determine the costs incurred by community colleges and school divisions to provide dual enrollment courses that are offered on high school campuses. For this study, JLARC staff conducted comprehensive surveys to gather school divisions’ and community colleges’ dual enrollment-related expenses and revenues and reviewed credentialing and staffing of dual enrollment teachers.
SOQ funding formula review: status update
The 2021 General Assembly directed JLARC staff to review the state’s K–12 education funding formula and assess the costs to implement the state’s standards of quality (SOQ). JLARC staff will present findings and recommendations from the study in June 2023 and will provide an update on the study at JLARC’s December meeting.
Virginia Employment Commission follow up
JLARC staff will present a brief follow up on VEC’s processing of unemployment insurance claims. JLARC reviewed the operations and performance of VEC in 2021, and the 2022 General Assembly implemented recommendations from that study.
Ongoing oversight: VRS, economic development incentives, Cardinal, and SOQ state spending
In addition to studies mandated by the General Assembly, JLARC staff have several ongoing oversight responsibilities. In December, JLARC staff will release brief reviews related to VRS oversight, spending and performance of the state’s economic development incentives, implementation of the state’s Cardinal Human Capital Resources Management system, and state spending on the K–12 standards of quality.
