CALPADS Update FLASH #161

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

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

Date:       September 10, 2019

Subject:  CALPADS Update FLASH #161

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Special Education Data Collection in CALPADS

Beginning September 10, 2019, CALPADS will accept data related to Students with Disabilities (SWD) that were previously submitted to the CDE through the California Special Education Management Information System (CASEMIS). However, some Special Education Data System (SEDS) vendors are still working to implement the required functionality within their systems and may not yet be ready to submit data to CALPADS. Therefore, local educational agencies (LEAs) should first check with their SEDS vendor to determine whether this functionality is available.

CASEMIS has been retired, and all data for SWD submitted by LEAs will now flow directly from their SEDS through an Application Programming Interface (API) to CALPADS. All special education data must be submitted through the API.

The CALPADS team has been providing training in the new functionality to targeted audiences. Special Education Local Plan Areas (SELPAs) have been receiving training and will continue to receive training during their monthly meetings focused on their role in the process. LEAs have been receiving training in conjunction with their SEDS vendors since data will flow between the SEDS and CALPADS, and error reports will be available within the SEDS. Finally, CALPADS Fall 1 submission training conducted by CSIS will now cover the new functionality related to data for SWD.

The purpose of this FLASH is to provide a high-level overview of the new functionality. LEA staff, which should include special education program staff, SEDS staff, and student information system (SIS), and CALPADS staff, should attend the appropriate training for more detailed information.

KEY Highlights

It is absolutely critical that LEAs provide leadership and support for their staff to work collaboratively to submit data for SWD, particularly special education program, SEDS, SIS, and CALPADS staff. This includes establishing clear policies, procedures, and timelines. Some of the key highlights discussed in this FLASH include:

• LEAs must first enroll SWD in their SIS and submit Student Enrollment (SENR) records to CALPADS in order to submit special education data for students.
• LEAs must enroll SWD and submit Special Education (SPED) records for those students to CALPADS in order for students to submit any necessary accommodation and designated supports to the Test Operations Management System (TOMS) for SWD.
• LEAs submit data directly from their SEDS into CALPADS. LEAs will be able to view error reports within their SEDS, but must log in to CALPADS to view special education certification and supporting reports.
• The special education data submitted to CALPADS will be used for federal reporting and monitoring as required by the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). LEAs should update CALPADS with data for their SWD on a monthly basis to support monitoring. During times of testing, the updates should be more frequent.
• The Fall 1 submission now includes three special education certification reports; LEAs must approve all Fall 1 reports (including the special education certification reports), and SELPAs must approve the special education certification reports in order to certify the submission.
• Charter schools must submit data for SWD and general education students in the same way, either directly to CALPADS as an independently reporting charter (IRC) or through their authorizing LEA.

Special Education Reporting and Monitoring Overview

The special education data submitted to CALPADS will be used to meet federal IDEA reporting and monitoring requirements. Since IDEA covers infants and toddlers, as well as students attending private schools, LEAs must acquire Statewide Student Identifiers (SSIDs) and submit data for some individuals who they have not reported on in the past. Specifically, LEAs are now required to obtain SSIDs for all Pre-K–12 individuals who have been referred to a district or county office of education (COE) for initial evaluation and for whom parental consent has been obtained to conduct the initial evaluation. This means that LEAs must obtain SSIDs for all children for whom the parent has consented to an evaluation, regardless if the child is found to be eligible for services. This includes:

• Infants and toddlers referred to COEs and districts.
• Preschool-age students referred to COEs or districts.
• School-age students referred that are attending K–12 public schools.
• School-age students referred that are attending private schools and are receiving services from a COE or district.

Students who are found to be ineligible for services would be given a Special Education Plan Type of “ineligible.” More detailed information regarding how to enroll/exit these students is provided in this FLASH under the heading entitled “Enrolling Students with Disabilities in CALPADS.”

Eligible students receive one of the following plan types:

• Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) – for individuals birth to age 3 receiving services.
• Individualized Education Plan (IEP) – for preschool students ages 3 to 5 years old or students attending a public school ages 6 through 21 (inclusive).
• Individualized Service Plan (ISP) – for students attending a private school and are receiving services from a COE or district.

Federal Reporting

As part of the CALPADS Fall 1 submission, LEAs and SELPAs certify Census Day (first Wednesday in October) counts of students by primary disability and special education plan type (IFSP, IEP, ISP), and the special education services offered by primary disability.  

As part of the new CALPADS End-of-Year (EOY) 4 submission, LEAs and SELPAs certify cumulative counts of students by primary disability and special education plan type, and special education services offered by primary disability. LEAs also certify data related to SWD’s postsecondary status and what they are doing one year after exiting secondary education.

LEAs and SELPAs will continue to certify discipline data for SWD that are submitted through EOY 3.

Monitoring

For individuals who accept special education services, LEAs are required to develop a plan, annually review that plan to determine if the goals are being met, and triennially review whether the individual continues to be eligible for special education services. To facilitate monitoring, LEAs report for SWD the type of plan they have (IFSP, IEP, ISP), the type of meeting held (initial evaluation, annual, pending, triennial), the date the meeting was held, and any amendments to the plan that occur during the year. From these data, the CDE monitors whether LEAs are holding the required meetings within the required timeframes.

The tables below summarize the meeting types required for different plan types that are submitted to CALPADS for monitoring purposes.

Table 1a: Required Meeting Types for Given Referred Students

Table 1b: Required Meeting Types for Given Students

The CDE also collects data to monitor whether LEAs are providing students a Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE), the services students are receiving in their education/service plans to support them to meet their plan goals, and whether students receive postsecondary transition planning.

To facilitate monitoring, LEAs should update CALPADS on a monthly basis. Prior to monitoring, CDE staff will review the most recent data in CALPADS to facilitate the monitoring visit.

Determining the LEA Responsible for Reporting SWD Data and the District of Special Education Accountability

Since SWD often attend school in one LEA and receive services from another LEA or COE, it is sometimes unclear which LEA is required to report special education data. It is critical to determine which LEA is the “Reporting LEA” responsible for reporting special education data to CALPADS. The Reporting LEA is where the student “attends school” or receives the majority of their instruction. The Reporting LEA has historically been referred to as the “District of Service.” However, this term causes confusion because if an LEA or COE is only providing services to a SWD and is not providing a majority of the student’s instruction, that LEA or COE does not report any data for that student to CALPADS. Therefore, we are moving away from using the term “District of Service.”

For accountability purposes, generally the Reporting LEA and the District of Special Education Accountability (DSEA) are the same, and generally the DSEA and the District of Geographic Residence are the same. However, this scenario does not always hold true. The Reporting LEA may not be the DSEA, which is the LEA ultimately responsible for the student and is held accountable for the student on the California School Dashboard (Dashboard).

The following table provides the most common scenarios for determining which LEA is responsible for reporting SWD data, and which LEA will be held accountable on the Dashboard. A document detailing a comprehensive list of scenarios will be posted on the CDE CALPADS web page in the near future.

NOTE: The school that a SWD attends will always be held accountable for that student; that is, the student’s data for all the accountability metrics on the Dashboard will be included in calculating the school’s indicator. However, if the school’s district is the Reporting LEA, but is not the DSEA, the student’s assessment data will be included in the DSEA’s academic accountability metrics on the Dashboard, and will not be included in the academic accountability metrics of the Reporting LEA. Beginning in 2019–20 (2020 Dashboard), the SWD’s data will be included in all the DSEA’s accountability metrics on the Dashboard.

Determining When to Obtain an SSID and Enrolling/Exiting SWD in CALPADS

Determining When to Obtain an SSID

Beginning in the 2019–20 academic year, an SSID must be obtained for all individuals once parental consent is obtained for the individual to be evaluated for special education program eligibility, regardless of whether or not they are later found eligible for services or attend a specific school within the reporting LEA. 

For students who are being evaluated for services but who are not currently enrolled in a school at the LEA, the enrollment start date should reflect the parental consent date.

Enrolling SWD in CALPADS

The following table summarizes for students in each grade level the enrollment status that should be used, and which files at a minimum (Student Enrollment [SENR], Student Information [SINF], Student Program [SPRG], Student English Language Acquisition [SELA], Special Education [SPED] file) must be submitted to CALPADS:

*ADA= Average Daily Attendance

Based on the following factors:

• District of Geographic Residence
• Where the student attends school and receives the majority of educational instruction
• Where the student receives related special education services
• The district that provides the majority of educational instruction and may be providing special education services

The CDE will be posting a comprehensive scenarios table that will help LEAs determine, for students in grade level categories of Infant/toddler, Prekindergarten, and K–12, the following:

• District of Education Accountability
• Reporting LEA
• Enrollment Status Code to be used by the Reporting LEA
• School of Enrollment

Exiting SWD in CALPADS

Once an SSID is obtained after parental consent, an initial enrollment record is created in CALPADS for a SWD, and:

The Special Education Program Exit Date and Reason Code fields on the SPED file should never be populated unless a student was determined to be eligible, began receiving services, and then subsequently exited the program. An exit from a school does not necessarily mean an exit from special education.

Special Education Data Submitted to CALPADS

Beginning September 10, 2019, LEAs are no longer able to submit any special education related data on the Student Program (SPRG) record. Specifically, Education Program code 144 - Special Education was retired on June 30, 2019, and SPRG fields 3.21- Primary Disability Code and 3.22 - District of Special Education Accountability have also been removed from the SPRG record. The CDE has been working with SEDS vendors to enable LEAs to upload these and other special education data directly from SEDS into CALPADS. The special education data will be uploaded through the following two files which are included in CALPADS File Specifications (CFS), Version 11.0, posted on the CDE CALPADS System Documentation web page:

• Student Special Education Program (SPED) File
• Student Services (SSRV) File

LEAs previously submitted the data contained in these files to the CDE through CASEMIS. The SPED file primarily contains data that enables the CDE to meet federal reporting requirements and monitor whether LEAs are meeting federal IDEA requirements related to identifying, evaluating, and referring students to services within specified time frames, reviewing education and service plans annually and triennially, and ensuring students are receiving a Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). The SSRV file primarily contains information on a student’s IFSP/IEP/ISP including the type of service the student is to receive, the provider and location of the service, and the frequency and duration of the service.

LEAs will also submit special education related data in the following files, but these files will also be used by LEAs to submit data for general education students. The file formats for all of these files are included in the CFS, Version 11.0; however, since these files are not yet available, they will be discussed in future communications

• Student Test Settings (STSE) File
• Postsecondary Status (PSTS) File
• Student Incident (SINC) File*
• Student Incident Result (SIRS) File*
• Student Offense (SOFF) File*

*For a detailed description of the three new files, SINC, SIRS, and SOFF, that replace the Student Discipline (SDIS) file, please refer to CALPADS Update Flash #159.

Roles of CALPADS Users

The CALPADS Administrator is responsible for:

• Continuing to submit the SENR and all other files for all students, which includes SWD.
• Creating roles within CALPADS for the Special Education Data Coordinator, which is based on local policies and practices. At a minimum, those roles should include the following:
  • SPED View and Edit*
  • PSTS View and Edit
  • STSE View and Edit
  • Student Search
  • Fall 1 Reports

*The SPED View and Edit roles include viewing and editing data submitted on the SPED and SSRV files.

• Providing CALPADS support to anyone in the LEA who has a CALPADS account, including the Special Education Data Coordinator.
• Working collaboratively with the Special Education Data Coordinator to ensure SEDS and SIS enrollment and student demographic data are aligned, and to identify and update data in one of the systems if data are discrepant. See the “Addressing Data Discrepancies in Local SIS and SEDS” section in this FLASH.
• Creating a review and approval timeline with the Special Education Data Coordinator and the SELPA Director(s) that will ensure the Fall 1 and EOY submissions are approved by the certification deadline.
• Approving for the LEA, all Fall 1 and EOY reports in CALPADS, including special education reports.

The Special Education Data Coordinator is responsible for:

• Receiving the appropriate CALPADS roles to do required tasks.
• Populating SWD data into SEDS and transferring that data to CALPADS via the API.
• Resolving validation errors within the SEDS.
• Communicating with the CALPADS Administrator when a student does not have an enrollment in CALPADS.
• Reviewing special education certification reports within CALPADS and communicating to the CALPADS Administrator when reports are ready for approval.
• Reviewing discrepancy reports with CALPADS staff to determine whether student demographic data need to be updated in the SEDS or SIS. See the “Addressing Data Discrepancies in Local SIS and SEDS” section in this FLASH.
• Working with the SEDS vendor.
• Working as an intermediary with the CALPADS Administrator and SELPA Director.

The SELPA Director is responsible for:

• Submitting a SELPA CALPADS Administrator application to the CDE in order to receive a CALPADS account. Once approved, the CDE will assign the following roles to no more than two SELPA CALPADS Administrators per SELPA (Only the CDE will be able to create roles for SELPA Directors):
  • SPED Edit* (only if SELPA will submit data for all its member LEAs)
  • SPED View*
  • STSE, PSTS for SWD students Edit and View
  • SELPA Approval
  • SELPA Reports
  • SENR, SINF, SPRG, SDIS View
  • Student Search

*The SPED View and Edit roles include viewing and editing data submitted on the SPED and SSRV files.

• Reviewing special education certification reports in CALPADS.
• Working collaboratively with the Special Education Data Coordinator and the CALPADS Administrators to create an approval timeline to help ensure the Fall 1 and EOY submissions are approved by the certification deadline.

Certification Process

Special education data will be part of the Fall 1, EOY 3, and EOY 4 submissions. SELPAs are required by law to review and approve SWD data for LEAs within the SELPA. Therefore, the CALPADS certification process has been modified to incorporate SELPA review and approval of the special education certification reports. For the Fall 1, EOY 3, and EOY 4 submissions, an LEA’s submission is certified once the LEA has approved all reports, and the SELPA(s) have approved all special education reports for the submission.

The Fall 1 certification deadline is December 20, 2019. While LEAs and SELPAs should collaboratively set a review and approval schedule to ensure the submission is certified by December 20, 2019, the CDE suggests that LEAs approve their Fall 1 submission by December 6, 2019, to provide SELPAs time to review and approve the special education reports. Should the SELPA disapprove an LEA’s special education submission, the LEA will receive an email and must then work with the SELPA to address the issues. Once addressed, the LEA must again approve the submission, and the SELPA must again review the submission for approval. If the SELPA approves the special education reports, then the submission is certified.

Following the certification deadline, the Amendment Window opens, during which time LEAs may further amend their data. However, the LEA must approve all certification reports and the SELPA must approve the special education certification reports by January 24, 2020 in order for the submission to be certified. 

For Fall 1, LEAs and SELPAs must review and approve the following reports:

• 16.1 – Students with Disabilities – Education Plan by Primary Disability Count
• 16.2 – Students with Disabilities – Count by Federal Setting
• 16.5 – Students with Disabilities – Student Services by Primary Disability

As with all CALPADS aggregate reports, LEAs may also view student-level-detail reports that display the students that make up the aggregate reports.

NOTE: It is critical that charter schools submit their data for SWD and general education students consistently because LEAs and charters with inconsistent submissions will receive fatal errors from the CALPADS system and will be unable to certify their CALPADS Fall 1 and End-of-Year submissions. See the section entitled “Charter School Reporting of Special Education Data” in this FLASH.

Addressing Data Discrepancies in Local SIS and SEDS

Student Enrollment

Over the past few years, the CDE has communicated to LEAs in various correspondence  that in order to help ensure a successful CASEMIS to CALPADS transition, it is critical that staff who maintain the LEA’s SEDS and staff who maintain the LEA’s SIS work together to ensure that the data in the two systems match. An automated integration of these two systems would be the most efficient and effective solution. Short of an automated solution, it is important that LEAs have clear business processes in place which result in alignment of these data. It is particularly important that SWD are enrolled in the SIS and that the data on those students are in the SEDS with the correct SSID. If the SSIDs do not match or if a SWD is not enrolled in CALPADS through the SIS, the LEA will not be able to submit special education data for that student.

Student Demographic

The demographic data for all students that are submitted to CALPADS through the SENR and SINF files are considered the authoritative source of data and will be reflected in all CALPADS special education reports. LEAs do submit students’ race/ethnicity in the SPED file; however, these data are not used in the CALPADS reports. CALPADS will provide LEAs with a discrepancy extract that displays the race/ethnicity for SWDs that are reported to CALPADS through the SEDS and SIS. If the data are discrepant, the LEA should update their local system(s) appropriately.

Charter School Reporting of Special Education Data

LEA’s authorized charter schools must submit data for SWD and general education students in the same way. Previously, some charter schools submitted their CALPADS data directly and data for their SWD through their authorizing LEA or vice versa. Beginning September 10, 2019, the data for both populations must be submitted the same way, either directly to CALPADS or through the authorizing LEA. (See the June 20, 2019 letter entitled “Upcoming Transition of Data for Students with Disabilities in CALPADS.”)

Charter schools that previously submitted their CALPADS and CASEMIS data differently were informed that they needed to choose one reporting option, and inform the CDE of the chosen option by July 15, 2019. (See the May 29, 2019 letter entitled “Charter School CALPADS and CBEDS Data Reporting Policy.”)

It is critical that charter schools submit their data for SWD and general education students consistently because LEAs and charters with inconsistent submissions will receive fatal errors from the CALPADS system and will be unable to certify their CALPADS Fall 1 and End-of-Year submissions. Specifically, LEAs will receive the following errors:

• SPED0002 – Invalid Reporting School – This compares the school of attendance in the file and the reporting LEA.  For independently reporting charters, the reporting LEA would be the charter itself.
• SPED0443 – Invalid SELPA for Reporting LEA – This compares the reporting LEA to the SELPA code. For independently reporting charters, the reporting LEA would be the charter itself.

For more information, refer to the July 10, 2019 letter entitled “Charter School Reporting for Special Education Students” posted on the CALPADS Communications Web page under “Topic Specific Correspondence.” This letter outlines the two current reporting scenarios that require a charter school to make a reporting change, and the options the charter school has for implementing that change.