CALPADS Update FLASH #258

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

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

Date:      July 26, 2023

Subject:  CALPADS Update FLASH #258

End-of-Year Submission Deadline is July 28

LEAs are reminded that the 2022–23 CALPADS End-of-Year (EOY) submission deadline is July 28, 2023. Local educational agencies (LEAs) are required to approve their EOY 1–4 submissions by this deadline. Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) approval is encouraged, but not required, by July 28, 2023. Both LEA and SELPA approval is required by the close of the Amendment Window on August 25, 2023.

For LEAs that fail to meet July 28 deadline

Letters will be sent to the superintendents of LEAs that do not approve all of their EOY submissions by July 28.

Revision Processing Modification

When data are entered into CALPADS, either through file upload or online data entry, the processing for revisions and data discrepancies (DDs) is triggered. The current revision process kicks off after 60 minutes of inactivity by the user. The data discrepancy process for an LEA is triggered by a file submission. These two processes have no dependency on each other, so completion of the revision process does not necessarily coincide with the completion of the DD process. While subsequent revisions will eventually reflect all the processed DD results, revisions that complete before all the DDs are processed will reflect incomplete results, causing frustration and confusion on the part of users. Until a more comprehensive solution can be put in place, the California Department of Education (CDE) is: (1) monitoring and addressing any DDs that run long; and (2) adjusting the revision process to kick off after 120 minutes of inactivity to provide more time for the DD process to complete. These changes will lessen, but not eliminate, the number of revisions with incomplete DD results.

New Homeless Student Report on DataQuest:
LEAs are Reminded to Review Homeless Student Data

The data on homeless students that LEAs certify as part of their EOY 3 submission is used to identify the accountability homeless student group used on the California School Dashboard and DataQuest reports. Later this summer, the CDE will release a new DataQuest report – Homeless Student Enrollment by Dwelling Type, which will include three years of data on homeless students (2019−20, 2020−21, and 2021−22). This report will be updated with the 2022-23 homeless data that LEAs certify as part of their current EOY 3 submission. LEAs are encouraged to review their homeless data during the Amendment Window, not only to ensure an accurate homeless student group for accountability purposes, but also to ensure that the trends displayed on the new homeless report accurately reflect the status of our homeless students. This, in turn, will provide valuable insight to enhance policymaking, practice, and resource allocation strategies.

Reviewing Homeless Data in CALPADS

It is critical that both school districts and county offices of education (COEs) ensure that their homeless liaisons have access to the detailed, student-level report, Report 5.5 – Homeless Student List, in CALPADS. If homeless liaisons have access to the student-level report in CALPADS, they can ensure that the homeless students that they are serving are identified correctly in the local student information system (SIS) and in CALPADS. In addition, this will allow homeless liaisons to analyze homeless data, compare it to previous years, and compare it to other student groups within the LEA.

In order for both the county and district homeless liaison to view Report 5.5 - Homeless Student List, each must be assigned the EOY 3 Report role. In order for county homeless liaisons to view Report 5.5, the LEA CALPADS Administrator must add the county homeless liaison to their organization and assign the EOY 3 Report role. This will allow the county homeless liaison to view Report 5.5.

If you do not know who your district or county homeless liaison is, a list of COE homeless liaisons can be accessed on the CDE Resources for Homeless Children and Youth web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/hs/cy/. On that page, scroll down and look for the PDF link entitled List of Head Start Agencies and COE’s Homeless Liaisons.

• In case you have difficulty in finding that list: We are providing a link to the last-published (Oct. 2022, as of the time of the publishing of this Flash) PDF document here, for easy reference: Services for Head Start Families (List of Head Start Agencies and COE’s Homeless Liaisons): https://headstartca.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/COE-Homeless-Liaison-and-Head-Start-Listing-Final.pdf (NOTE: In the PDF link provided, this document was last updated Oct. 17, 2022. Please check the CDE Resources for Homeless Children and Youth web page at the URL listed above to be sure that you have the latest version of this document.)

C/A Report 5.4 – Homeless Students Enrolled Available During Submission Window Before LEAs Certify

The county office of education homeless liaisons are reminded that C/A Report 5.4 - Homeless Students Enrolled – Unduplicated Count by School displays homeless counts for each district within the county even before the LEA has Approved its EOY 3 submission. This will allow COE homeless liaisons to monitor homeless counts for each LEA within the county throughout the submission window. In order to review C/A Report 5.4, a CALPADS user must have the County role added to their CALPADS account.

Assessing Students for English Language Acquisition Status During the Summer: Important Reminders

Within 30 days of enrollment, LEAs are required to determine whether students new to California public schools are English learners (ELs) by assessing the students with the Initial English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) or the Initial Alternate ELPAC. LEAs that choose to assess incoming kindergarten students in the summer do so to even-out the workload and appropriately place and provide services to students identified as EL from the first day of school.

In order to assess students with the Initial ELPAC or the Initial Alternate ELPAC in the summer, LEAs must “pre-enroll” students in CALPADS by submitting the following files:

• A Student Enrollment (SENR) record with the student's actual start date (the expected first day of school).
• A Student English Language Acquisition (SELA) record with:
• English Language Acquisition Status (ELAS) of "TBD"
• ELAS Start Date of the current date
• Primary language other than English or American Sign Language.
• A Student Information (SINF) record with the student's address, if the LEA wants the student’s address to be printed on the Student Score Report (SSR) to facilitate mailing the SSRs to parents/guardians.

Once students have completed the Initial ELPAC or Initial Alternate ELPAC, their determined ELAS status of EL or Initial Fluent English Proficient (IFEP) is sent from the test vendor on a nightly basis to CALPADS, and displays back in the Test Operations Management System (TOMS) within 48 hours.

Benefits of Summer Testing

LEAs that pre-enroll students in order to assess them in the summer with the Initial ELPAC or Initial Alternate ELPAC are able to place them appropriately based on their ELAS from the first day of school. Not only does this benefit students, but it supports the efforts of all LEAs to begin serving EL students from the first day of school. While it is an increase in workload to exit pre-enrolled students who do not enroll at the LEA where they took the Initial ELPAC or Initial Alternate ELPAC, these students generally enroll in other LEAs who will have access to their ELAS in CALPADS and results in TOMS. Therefore, LEAs support each other by assessing eligible students only once during the summer.

Reporting Students who Become Reclassified Fluent English Proficient During the Summer

For students who are redesignated to Reclassified Fluent English Proficient (RFEP) after they have been exited for the school year, and for returning students, before they enroll in the next school year, LEAs should follow the guidance provided in Flash #219 (REVISED March 29, 2022) regarding which English Language Acquisition Status (ELAS) start date to use for the RFEP status, to ensure that students are included in a school’s RFEP count. If an ELAS start date is submitted to CALPADS for a date when the student is not enrolled in a school, the student will not be counted in any school-level RFEP counts. To ensure that all RFEP students are counted and credited to the appropriate school, the ELAS start date associated with the RFEP status must fall within the enrollment start date and enrollment end date for the appropriate student enrollment record (SENR).