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CALPADS Update FLASH #76

To:            Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

From:       California Department of Education – CALPADS Project Team

Date:        July 11, 2013

Subject:  CALPADS Update FLASH #76

CALPADS System

Reminder of EOY Certification Deadline Extension to August 9

The EOY certification deadline has been extended to August 9, 2013 due to the downtime associated with the CALPADS system upgrade. LEAs that certify EOY 3 – Discipline by this deadline will receive a private preview of the discipline data during the amendment window. The discipline data certified by the close of the amendment window will be posted on DataQuest.

CALPADS Changes from the July Release

In addition to a number of fixes to defects, this release includes the following changes: 

• Academic Year 2013–2014 is now the default when running reports. To access prior year reports and data, change the Academic Year dropdown to 2012–2013.
• In addition to FireFox and Internet Explorer (IE) 8, IE versions 9 and 10 are now supported.
• CALPADS Code Sets 5.0 (XLS) is now available. Numerous codes were added or retired. Refer to the “Revision History” tab for details.
• Education Program Code 185 was added to capture Transitional Kindergarten participation. Additionally, two new validation rules were added to verify birthdates and grade levels for transitional kindergarten students:
• SPRG0263 - Invalid Age for Transitional Kindergarten Participant
• SPRG0264 - Invalid Grade Level for Transitional Kindergarten Program Participant

The changes included in this release will be specified in a Release Update, which will be available on the Release Updates link on the CALPADS Web page on Monday, July 15, 2013.

New Job Retention Practice

The CALPADS Project Team has implemented changes to the job retention practice. CALPADS previously archived all of the uploaded files after 60 days. CALPADS now archives jobs based on the job status and number of errors according to the table below. Once a job is archived it will no longer be available via the CALPADS “View Submission Status” screen; however, the posted data will still be available via the ODS and Snapshot reports. LEAs are advised to complete the jobs within the timeframes listed.

Tips to Facilitate CALPADS Processing

To facilitate the processing of your files, remember that files with validation errors may still be posted. If you only have a handful of errors, you have the option to proceed to the posting step as long as you remember to fix the error(s) in CALPADS (using online maintenance) and in your local SIS.

You may also want to consider uploading and posting files concurrently. There are just a few exceptions pertaining to the EOY submissions:

• The SENR file drives "ownership" of all other student records, so ensure the enrollment data are accurate before uploading any other student files. SINF and SPRG can be uploaded concurrently once the enrollment file is in a status of “Complete” (i.e., it’s posted successfully).

• The SDEM file needs to be posted first for EOY 1. Follow posting of the SDEM file with the CRSC file. Once these are both posted, the other two files (SCSC and SCTE) can be uploaded at the same time.

Changes to Direct Certification

New federal verification reporting requirements necessitate identifying students who are directly certified through SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and through TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families).The CDE is working with the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) and the California Department of Health Care Services (CDHCS) to expand the existing Direct Certification matching process to include new status codes in CALPADS to help you meet these new reporting requirements. Due to the staggered timing of updates to multiple agency systems, CALPADS will have these new code sets visible prior to their actual implementation by CDHCS. Therefore, when users see these values in the CALPADS user interface, there will be no results with these values until CDHCS has implemented the necessary changes in their systems. The CDE will inform the field when the new codes become active and will provide guidance on how to report them. A summary of the new codes is provided in the following table:

For technical support on extracting Direct Certification data from CALPADS, please contact the CALPADS Service desk via email at calpads-support@cde.ca.gov.

For further information on the new federal requirements, contact your School Nutrition Program (SNP) County Analyst.The SNP County Specialist list is available to your nutrition services staff in the Child Nutrition Information and Payment System (CNIPS) Download Form section, Form SNP21.

Reporting Summer School Discipline

LEAs should submit any offenses committed by students enrolled in a summer school program, even if that school is not the school where the student is primarily enrolled during the regular school year. The LEA should create a secondary enrollment for the student and submit the disciplinary incident to CALPADS.

LEAs should report the final disciplinary action taken for each student in a specific incident in the academic year in which the incident occurred and not necessarily the academic year in which the disciplinary action was carried out.

2013–14 Civil Rights Data Collection Now Open for Public Comment

The Department of Education (ED), in accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, published a notice in the Federal Register requesting public comment on the proposed 2013–14 and 2015–16 Civil Rights Data Collections (CRDC). Comments are due August 20, 2013. Since 1968, this data collection (formerly known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Civil Rights Compliance Report) has been an integral and important aspect of how the Office for Civil Rights undertakes its responsibilities under the civil rights laws it administers.

As with previous CRDC collections, the purpose of the 2013–14 and 2015–16 CRDC is to obtain vital data related to the requirement under the civil rights laws that public local educational agencies (LEAs) and elementary and secondary schools provide equal educational opportunity. ED has analyzed the uses of each data element collected in the 2011–12 CRDC and sought advice from experts across ED to refine, improve, and where appropriate, add or remove data elements from the collection. The proposed 2013–14 and 2015–16 CRDC redesign includes new indicators and removes data elements where appropriate. ED also made the CRDC data definitions and metrics consistent with other mandatory collections across ED wherever possible. The proposed additions and changes to the 2013–14 and 2015–16 CRDC reflect the need for accurate data to gain a deeper understanding about the educational opportunities and school context for our nation’s students.

More detailed information about the proposed data collection and how to submit a public comment are available in the Department of Education's notice in the Federal Register or in the notice of Mandatory Civil Rights Data Collection on the Federal Regulations Web site.