Background and Guidance for the Form
The use of the Advance Data Collection for the Uniform Management Information and Reporting System (UMIRS) Form (DOC; 70KB; 1p.) by local educational agencies (LEA) is voluntary, but the California Department of Education (CDE) strongly suggests that LEAs will find it helpful to use this form to collect, in advance, the federally required suspension, expulsion, and truancy data which are reported on the UMIRS page of the Consolidated Application, Part I (ConApp). The UMIRS page was new in Spring 2004, and many LEAs found that completing the page required a large amount of work. Using this form in advance will greatly reduce the time necessary to complete the ConApp page.
The UMIRS page of the ConApp requires separate data from each school site on suspensions, expulsions, and truancy. The form is generally self-explanatory, but information about the formal reporting of the data may be found on the UMIRS page of the ConApp (select Part 1 and then "instructions"). As this form will be used on a voluntary basis by LEAs in a manner determined internally, questions from school sites about the form should be addressed to the LEA staff person coordinating the use of the form.
Guidance Regarding Identifying the "Most Severe" California Education Code Section
The ConApp and this form require that only one California Education Code (EC) Section be reported for each suspension or expulsion action — the code section of the most severe offense. CDE therefore suggests that you may wish to revise your internal procedures and/or forms for reporting suspensions and expulsions so that they identify that "most severe" EC section. This will make the eventual reporting of the action on the ConApp much easier.
It is not possible to definitively state that violation of a given EC section is always "more severe" than violation of another, because individual events' circumstances vary so greatly. Identification of the "most severe" offense is discussed in detail in the ConApp instructions referenced above, but the table below from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook provides some guidance. Use of this table is not mandatory. If a "48915" offense is involved in the suspension or expulsion, it is always required that a section 48915 offense be reported on the UMIRS page of the ConApp and on this form.
Severity-of-Offense Hierarchy
- Homicide
- Forcible rape
- Robbery/extortion
- Assault with a deadly weapon
- Battery
- Possession of a weapon
- Sexual offenses (other than forcible rape)
- Sale or furnishing of drugs
- Possession of drugs for sale
- Possession/sale of alcohol
- Use of drugs/alcohol
- Possession of paraphernalia
- Destructive/explosive device (bomb threat included)
