ORO VALLEY, Ariz. — Arizona’s Auditor General says the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind graduated students whose records did not show they had met graduation requirements, and could not document required background checks for a group of employees.
The performance audit, dated Sept. 28 and posted by the Auditor General, was done with contract auditor Sikich. In a sample of 40 graduates from the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, reviewers found 25 files that lacked enough evidence the students had completed every requirement, the Arizona Daily Star reported from the audit. The agency’s own summary says those students may have left unprepared for more school or for work.
Staff screening was a second finding. For a sample of 30 employees who worked at ASDB at any point in fiscal years 2022 through 2024, the school could not show background-check records for 19, according to the Star’s account of the report. Five certificated employees applied for a fingerprint clearance card within seven working days of being hired, which the audit said conflicted with state timing rules. Five non-certificated employees had cards that expired after they were hired. For one non-certificated worker in a job that requires a card, the school could not show an application within seven working days of the start date.
The audit also said ASDB did not investigate some complaints, including safety complaints, in a timely way, did not finish all required staff evaluations, and could not show that every substitute and every staff member met qualification rules. On the move off the Tucson west-side campus, reviewers said the school did not assess how relocation would affect students, did not take stakeholder input, and did not get formal board approval before deciding to go. ASDB opened a new Oro Valley campus last month.
Superintendent Annette Reichman said in a statement carried by KVOA that the audits found no evidence of fraud or intentional wrongdoing. She said the school will keep meeting its duties as a state agency and will change policies so the findings are addressed. Auditor General Lindsey Perry’s office plans to look again in six months.
Former parent Derrall Peach, whose daughter attended ASDB, told KVOA the findings left him doubting that administration would change. The audit does not accuse individual teachers of harming students. It says missing files and a relocation made without a documented impact review left families and the board without a clear record.