Audit of the Department of Developmental Services (April 15, 2026)

This is a state performance audit of the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services, covering selected work from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2024.

“In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of certain activities of the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) for the period July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2024.”

Auditors mainly checked whether DDS fixed problems found in a prior 2021 audit, and also reviewed whether DDS handled individual support plans and self-determination properly.

“The purpose of our audit was to determine whether DDS implemented the recommendations from our prior audit report (Audit No. 2020-0234-3S), issued on June 29, 2021.”

DDS serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, so late reviews, reports, or action plans can delay responses to possible safety risks, abuse, medication mistakes, or other harm.

“When investigations are not completed within required timeframes, or extensions are created without reason, there is a greater risk that recipients of DDS services may be subject to safety risks, abuse, and/or mistreatment.”

If you or someone you care about receives DDS services, this report is about whether DDS and its providers respond on time when there are complaints, incidents, medication problems, or service-planning choices.

“During fiscal year 2024, the agency served approximately 43,000 adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout the Commonwealth.”

The auditor found five problems: late investigation paperwork or action plans, mishandled administrative reviews, late medication occurrence reports, late incident reports, and failure to document that all eligible people were offered the self-determination option.

“Below is a list of our audit objectives, indicating each question we intended our audit to answer; the conclusion we reached regarding each objective; and, if applicable, where each objective is discussed in the audit findings.”

DDS agreed with most concerns and said it has updated or will update policies, oversight, training, reporting, and follow-up; the auditor plans to check back in about six months.

“As part of our post-audit review process, we will follow up on this matter in approximately six months.”

The findings are significant because DDS had already been audited on several of these issues before, and the new audit found some prior recommendations were still not fully implemented during the audit period.

“DDS did not fully implement our recommendations during the audit period from our previous audit (Audit No. 2020-0234-3S).”

DDS means the Department of Developmental Services; MOR means a medication occurrence report, which is filed when medication is missed or given incorrectly; ISP means an individual support plan, which sets goals and supports for a person receiving services; self-determination means giving a person more control over service decisions.

“Self-determination is an approach where a recipient of DDS services is given control and an active role over the decision-making process for services provided to them to support their needs.”