The Department's Administration of the Reasonable Accommodation Program. Inspection Report. ED-OIG/I24DC0165

Abstract

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, requires the U.S. Department of Education (Department) to provide reasonable accommodations for otherwise qualified employees with disabilities unless doing so poses an undue hardship. The objective of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) inspection was to review the Department's administration of its reasonable accommodation program. This included determining whether reasonable accommodation requests were processed timely and in accordance with applicable policies and procedures. OIG found that improvements are needed in the Department's processing of reasonable accommodation requests. OIG also found that the Department does not have adequate processes to track and report on reasonable accommodation requests. Also noted were issues with the quality of the data included in spreadsheets used by the Department to track and report on reasonable accommodation requests.