NEW BERLIN – The Unadilla Valley Central School District is making policy changes for the way it handles non-resident tuition (NRT) rates for special education students after a recent audit found it was out of line with the state regulations.

An audit conducted by the New York State Comptroller's Office revealed that for four of the last five school years, UV overcharged other contracting school districts for nonresidential students who receive special education services and it failed to adhere to the state’s NRT rate cap.

Consequently, UV overcharged seven school districts by a total of $183,250 since 2018.

Unadilla Valley Superintendent Brenton Taylor, who assumed district leadership in 2021, said auditors’ chief concern is one that preceded his role; the board had approved an NRT rate prior to his tenure as superintendent. He said the board is now pondering ways to stay under New York’s maximum allowable NRT rates.

“This is something that we wanted looked into when we met with the auditor because it was something that was done in the past, so we didn't have all the knowledge we needed,” said Taylor. He pointed out that the UV board, years ago, negotiated with contracting school districts to set a fair NRT rate consistent with the costs of educating non-resident students and was below the DCMO BOCES rate. The district also provided a tuition plan to contracting districts that outlined savings for them.