CALPADS Update FLASH #172

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

From:      California Department of Education (CDE) –
                California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) Team

Date:       March 16, 2020

Subject:  CALPADS Update FLASH #172

Window for Changing Charter School Reporting Status Moved to May and Will be Conducted Online

Charter schools may elect to report their CALPADS and California Basic Educational Data System (CBEDS) data directly to the CDE (independent of their authorizing agency) or have their authorizing agency report the charter school’s data (through their authorizing agency). Charter schools must use the same reporting method for CALPADS, CBEDS and for reporting data for students with disabilities (SWD). 

In previous years, charter schools requested a change to their reporting status during the month of June through the CALPADS/CBEDS Charter Reporting Status Change Form administered by the CALPADS Operations Office. This year, charter schools must indicate a change to how they report their data by updating their reporting status online on the Charter Schools Annual Information Update, administered by the CDE’s Charter Schools Division.

The Charter School Annual Information Update is conducted exclusively online during the month of May and will be prepopulated with the charter school’s current reporting status; if a charter school is not changing its reporting status, then no action is required on the reporting status field. The update will be available Friday, May 1, 2020 and will close on Friday, May 29, 2020.

Charter School Administrators will be sent an email from the Charter Schools Division when the Charter School Annual Information Update is available. The email will provide information on when the update will be available, instructions on how to access the update, and how to retrieve the school’s logon PIN.

Reminder that Charter Schools Must Report Data for Students With Disabilities and General Education Students in the Same Way

LEAs’ authorized charter schools must submit data for SWD and general education students in the same way, either directly to CALPADS or through the authorizing LEA. It is critical that charter schools submit their data for SWD and general education students consistently because LEAs and charters with inconsistent submissions will receive fatal errors from the CALPADS system and will be unable to certify their CALPADS Fall 1 and End-of-Year submissions. Specifically, LEAs will receive the following errors:

• SPED0002 – Invalid Reporting School – This compares the school of attendance in the file and the reporting LEA. For independently reporting charters, the reporting LEA would be the charter itself.
• SPED0443 – Invalid SELPA for Reporting LEA – This compares the reporting LEA to the SELPA code. For independently reporting charters, the reporting LEA would be the charter itself.

For more information, refer to the July 10, 2019 letter entitled “Charter School Reporting for Special Education Students” posted on the CALPADS Communications webpage under “Topic Specific Correspondence.” This letter outlines the two current reporting scenarios that require a charter school to make a reporting change, and the options the charter school has for implementing that change.