Charter Reporting Status Form Instructions

CALPADS/CBEDS Charter Reporting Status Change Form

Instructions

Charter schools may elect to report their California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) and California Basic Educational Data System (CBEDS) data directly to the California Department of Education (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 and CBEDS data.

Charter School Reporting Status Change Form

The Charter School Reporting Status Change Form allows new charter schools to designate for the first time (“initial designation”) or existing charter schools to request a modification (“change”) to how they report data to CALPADS and CBEDS.

After receiving a complete and signed copy of the Charter School Reporting Status Change Form, the California Department of Education (CDE) will make the changes to the reporting status in the appropriate state data systems, and notify the charter school and authorizing agency of the next steps.

Reporting CALPADS Data

Data required to be reported to CALPADS can be found in the CALPADS File Specifications section
on the CDE CALPADS System Documentation web page.

Special Education Data

Please note that all special education data is collected in CALPADS.

When making the determination to report data independently or with an authorizer, charters and their authorizing LEAs must consider the following:

If the charter is a LEA for special education purposes (individual member of a SELPA), the charter MUST report independently.

If the charter is NOT a LEA for special education purposes, the special education data submitted from the special education data system will need to be submitted in a manner consistent with how the charter and its authorizing LEA have agreed that the charter will report its data. These charters may elect to submit their CALPADS data through their authorizers OR independent of their authorizers.

Reporting CBEDS Data

Data required to be reported to CBEDS can be found on the CDE CBEDS web page.

New Charter Schools

• Must submit a Charter School Reporting Status Change Form once a County-District-School (CDS) code has been assigned. New charter schools should designate their reporting status by August 31, when possible. If the CDS code is assigned after August 31, submit the reporting status form as soon as possible after receiving a CDS code.
  • This reporting status must stay in effect for at least the initial reporting year (July 1 through June 30).
• Initial reporting status designation will be reflected in CALPADS on July 1 of the Academic Year (AY) in which the new charter school opened.
• Form Item 2
  • You may leave this field blank if you do not know the CDS code.
• Form Item 7
  • You may leave this field blank if you do not know the charter number.

Existing Charter Schools

• Must submit a Charter School Reporting Status Change Form to change the CALPADS and CBEDS reporting status from the previous academic year.
  • The CDE assumes a charter’s reporting status will remain the same unless a form is submitted requesting to change the reporting status. If there is no change to your reporting status, you do not need to submit a form.
• Must submit a CALPADS and CBEDS Charter School Reporting Status Form if they have been assigned a new CDS code under any of the conditions described on CDE’s Guidance for Issuing School Codes web page.
• No forms will be processed after Census Day – the first Wednesday in October.
• Requested reporting status changes will be reflected in CALPADS after the close of the End-of-Year (EOY) Amendment Window. This is because the EOY data submission period overlaps the next reporting year, and the charter must retain their current reporting status until the EOY Amendment Window closes in August. The Amendment Window close date can be found on the CDE CALPADS Calendar web page at CALPADS Calendar. For charters submitting a change request form before the EOY Amendment Window closes, the requested change will be reflected in CALPADS once the EOY Amendment Window closes. For charters submitting a change request form after the EOY Amendment Window closes, but on or before August 31, the requested change will be reflected in CALPADS on the first business day following August 31.

Annual Period for Changing/Designating Reporting Status

For existing charter schools, charter school administrators may change their reporting status during the annual reporting status change window, July 1 through August 31. Charter schools electing to change their reporting status for the 2025−26 school year must submit the Charter Reporting Status Change Form to the CALPADS Office at calpads@cde.ca.gov by August 31, 2025. Change requests from existing charter schools submitted after August 31 will not be accepted and these charter schools must continue to report data as they had in the previous year. Charter schools may re-submit the change request form during the next annual window to request a reporting status change.

New charter schools must also designate their reporting status by August 31, when possible. If a new charter school is not assigned a CDS code until after August 31, they must submit the reporting status form as soon as possible after receiving a CDS code. New charter schools, however, must have a reporting status by Census Day, the first Wednesday in October.

Form Submission

Submit a copy of the completed form to the CALPADS Operations Office at calpads@cde.ca.gov.