CALPADS Update FLASH #264

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

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

Date:      December 20, 2023

Subject:  CALPADS Update FLASH #264

Special Education Data Submission Updates

Certification of Service-related Snapshot Reports

In an effort to reduce the data reporting burden on local educational agencies (LEAs) for Fall 1, the Special Education Division (SED) and the Educational Data Management Division (EDMD) have conferred with representatives from Special Education Local Plan Areas (SELPA) and have made the decision to:

1. Disable Certification Data Discrepancies (CDD) related to the Special Education Services (SERV) file.
2. Convert Snapshot Reports 16.15 – Students Services Count and 16.16 – Students with Disabilities – Student Services List to supporting reports for Fall 1 rather than reports required for certification.

While the services data are not required for certification, LEAs should continue to send up services data for monitoring purposes. SED and EDMD will be working with SELPA representatives over the next few months to discuss whether the service-related reports will be required to be certified as part of the End-of-Year 4 (EOY) submission.

Secondary Enrollments in CALPADS for Students with Disabilities

As part of the CALPADS special education data collection redesign project, a decision was made that only LEAs with primary enrollments for a student with disabilities would be able to submit the new file types:

• Students with Disabilities Status (SWDS)
• Special Education Meetings (MEET)
• Special Education Plan (PLAN)
• Special Education Services (SERV)

LEAs that attempt to submit the SWDS, PLAN, or SERV files for students with Secondary Enrollments (Enrollment Status Code 20) will receive a fatal GERR0005 (LEA does not have ownership) input error.

This decision was made to simplify the generation of snapshot reports and data validation for the redesign effort. LEAs are reminded that CALPADS is a longitudinal data system where primary enrollments are based on:

• Where the students attend school and receive the majority of instruction and related services.
• Where the staff that are serving the students are employed.

Therefore, in cases where a student is attending school at one LEA, but another LEA is providing special education services only, the primary enrollment should be with the LEA where the student is attending school. Please refer to the CDE Reporting Data for Students with Disabilities web page for more information: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sp/cl/swdreporting.asp

New Webinar Posted

The Creating and Maintaining Statewide Student Identifiers for Students with Disabilities in CALPADS webinar is now available on the California School Information Services (CSIS) YouTube channel at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QV1TCJsS4s