SARC Preparation Guide for Nonpublic Schools

Pursuant to Chapter 914, Statutes of 2004 (Assembly Bill 1858), and pursuant to Education Code (EC) Section 56366(a)(9), all nonpublic, nonsectarian (NPS) schools are required to prepare a SARC in accordance with EC Section 33126. This requirement applies to NPS schools but does not apply to NPS agencies. The law became effective January 1, 2005.

For the purpose of the SARC program, a local educational agency (LEA) is a school district or a county office of education or a direct funded charter (DFC) school or a NPS school.

The California Department of Education (CDE) has developed the new myCDEconnect unified system for the convenience of the LEAs to manage multiple program reports all in one location. In the myCDEconnect system LEAs can register for one or more programs, work on their program reports in one location, and do all of this through one login user account.

The various programs will be installed in the myCDEconnect system one at a time. Currently, the programs available in the myCDEconnect system are the School Accountability Report Card (SARC) and the California School Dashboard (CA Dashboard). During 2024, the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) eTemplate program will be incorporated in this unified system.

Register for a SARC User Account

Main Authorizers

For the SARC program, the Main Authorizers are the persons listed on the California School Directory in the categories of County Superintendent, District Superintendent, DFC School Administrator, and NPS School Administrator.

Main Authorizers do not register. The myCDEconnect system automatically registers them into the system and sends an email from noreply@mycdeconnect.org to their email address, as listed on the California School Directory, with their username and temporary password.

For new Main Authorizers, when the California School Directory is updated and a new Main Authorizer’s name and email address are displayed on the California School Directory, the system will automatically register that updated new Main Authorizer into the system within 24 to 48 hours and send an email with username and temporary password. The system will also automatically inactivate the user account of the previously listed Main Authorizer.

Main Authorizers receive the email registration requests for the approval/denial process from those registering to be a Coordinator and those registering to be an Alternate Authorizer for their LEA.

These user accounts provide the Main Authorizers with the capability to delete the user accounts of the Alternate Authorizer and Coordinators of their LEA, as needed. They also provide them with the capability to access all programs in the myCDEconnect system; and to input, edit, save, and post the reports of all programs in the system for all the schools in their LEA.

Coordinators

A SARC Coordinator may be an employee of the LEA or a third-party vendor contracted with the LEA that has been designated to prepare and process the LEA’s SARC reports on the myCDEconnect unified system.

How to register as a Coordinator:

• Step 1: Go to the myCDEconnect . In the top right menu select “Registration”.
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  Step 2: Select User Type button “Coordinator”; select the button “School Accountability Report Card (SARC)”; scroll to the bottom of the web page and select “Continue”
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  Step 3: Use the “Search for individual schools” if selecting one or more NPS schools; type the name of the NPS school, select the school; repeat until you have completed your list of NPS schools.
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  Once you have your completed list of school(s), scroll to the bottom of the web page, select “Continue”.
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  Step 4: Populate the requested registration information. All mandatory fields identified with an asterisk (*) must be completed in order to submit this form.
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  Scroll to the bottom of the web page, select “Submit".
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  Step 5: You have completed the registration process. You are advised to print this confirmation web page for your records.
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  Your registration request has been emailed to your Main Authorizer (and to the Alternate Authorizer, if designated).
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  If approved, you will receive an email from noreply@mycdeconnect.org with username and temporary password information. If denied, you will receive an email from noreply@mycdeconnect.org with denial notification.

Alternate Authorizers

An Alternate Authorizer must be an employee of the LEA, designated by the Main Authorizer of the LEA to act on behalf of the Main Authorizer in all required capacity for the programs on the myCDEconnect system.

The Alternate Authorizer will have all the same system responsibilities and capabilities as the Main Authorizer. Designating an Alternate Authorizer is an available option (not a requirement) for the convenience of the Main Authorizer, with a limit of 1 Alternate Authorizer per LEA.

The system will send all the same Coordinator registration request emails that are sent to their Main Authorizer to the Alternate Authorizer to enable them to also approve or decline Coordinator registration requests.

How to register as an Alternate Authorizer:

• Step 1: Go to the myCDEconnect . In the top right menu select “Registration”.
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  Step 2: Select User Type button “Alternate Authorizer”; scroll to the bottom of the web page and select “Continue”
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  Step 3: Type the name of the NPS school; select the NPS school.
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  Scroll to the bottom of the web page, select “Continue”.
• 
  Step 4: Populate the requested registration information. All mandatory fields identified with an asterisk (*) must be completed in order to submit this form.
• 
  Scroll to the bottom of the web page and select “Submit”.
• 
  Step 5: You have completed the registration process. You are advised to print this confirmation web page for your records.
• 
  Your registration request has been emailed to your Main Authorizer.
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  If approved, you will receive an email from noreply@mycdeconnect.org with username and temporary password information. If denied, you will receive an email from noreply@mycdeconnect.org with denial notification.

Note for All Users: If the email from noreply@mycdeconnect.org was not received in your regular email inbox, you may need to check your junk mail or have the SPAM email filter reviewed to check for any messages from noreply@mycdeconnect.org. If it is not in either of those inboxes, then please communicate with your technology person to ensure that your system will allow receipt of emails from noreply@mycdeconnect.org. Your technology person may need to “whitelist” this email address so your system will allow receipt of emails from noreply@mycdeconnect.org. To“Whitelist”: (1) use the IP Address: 149.72.170.114, 149.72.254.73 and (2) add to the SPF record: noreply@mycdeconnect.org.

Note for All Authorized Users (i.e., Main Authorizers, registered/approved Alternate Authorizers, and registered/approved Coordinators): when using the “Reset Password” link or the “Forgot Password” link, the email address, temporary password, and newly created password must be hand-typed in with no space before or after, is case sensitive, and must not be copy/paste in. The system will not acknowledge any of this information that is copy/paste in.

Become Familiar with the SARC Web Pages

Read and become familiar with the content found on the CDE SARC web page. In particular, the following links will provide valuable background information and will answer most of the questions you may have as you are completing the SARC:

• Blank 2022–23 SARC Template (DOCX)
• 2022–23 Data Element Definitions (DOCX)
• SARC Frequently Asked Questions
• SARC Legislation
• Williams Settlement and the SARC

Prepare the SARC

There are two methods available for schools/LEAs to submit their SARCs to the CDE: (1) use the online electronic SARC template available on the SARC Web Application located in the myCDEconnect system to complete and post the SARC or (2) upload an accurate uniform resource locator (URL) of the website address to where the SARC has been posted on the school/LEA website. The CDE does not accept SARC reports via email as attachments or as links. The online SARC Web Application system located in the myCDEconnect serves as the mechanism for each school/LEA to provide the CDE with its completed SARC. A username and password are required to access the SARC Web Application system.

The electronic 2022–23 SARC template is available on the online SARC Web Application and is partially pre-populated with some district and all state data. The electronic SARC template is designed to enable schools/LEAs to modify the pre-populated district data and input all remaining data (state data cannot be modified); and provides the schools/LEAs the flexibility to upload a photo of the school's principal and a custom principal's message. Additionally, using the electronic SARC templates provides graphical displays of some of the data shown on the SARC, and provides real-time translation of the information provided on the SARC in over 70 languages using the Google Translate feature.

In the electronic SARC template, for any table that does not apply to your school based on grade-level, you may select the checkbox "Do not display this table to the public" located at the top of each electronic table, then select the "Save" button, this will restrict this table from public view in the posted SARC. For example, an elementary school with grades kindergarten through grade six does not need to complete the table Graduation Rate by Student Group, as it pertains to high school grades nine through twelve. Therefore, the table Graduation Rate by Student Group may be restricted from public view in the posted SARC.

For schools/LEAs that are not interested in using the electronic 2022–23 SARC template, the CDE has also provided a blank 2022–23 SARC template in Word available on the CDE SARC web page.

The blank SARC template in Word has the letters DPC (data provided by the CDE) or DPL (data provided by the LEA) in the data cells of the tables. Please delete these letters from your blank SARC template and populate all required data elements. These letters do not apply to NPS schools. The CDE pre-populates a portion of the public school electronic SARC templates using the data that the public schools/LEAs are mandated by law to provide to the CDE during the school year. The NPS schools do not provide the CDE with data, therefore, CDE does not have the data to populate a portion of the NPS school SARCs, other than some district data and the state data.

While the CDE provides data where data are available, the schools/LEAs are ultimately responsible for the completion of their entire SARCs and for the accuracy of all data in their SARCs.

Determine the SARC Data Elements That Must be Reported by NPS Schools

In determining how to prepare an NPS school report card, review the template with two considerations in mind.

• First, if a particular reporting element is not applicable (such as graduation rate data for a school whose mission does not involve "graduation" in the conventional sense), this reporting element does not need to be included in the completed report card.
  
  
• Second, if there are no data or other information available for a particular reporting element (such as state assessment results in a case where the students are not required to be tested), this reporting element does not need to be included in the completed report card.

For NPS schools, the report card should include at minimum the school's contact information, a school description and mission statement, a narrative about opportunities for parental involvement, a description of the school's facility conditions and safety plans, information about staff qualifications, and a description of the educational materials that are used at the school. Additional information about the school that might be of interest to parents and the community may be added.

Post the SARC

The intention of the CDE Find a SARC web page is to make SARCs easily available for parents, guardians, and community members. After SARCs are locally prepared and approved by the school's local governing board, LEAs must submit their SARCs to the CDE via the SARC Web Application system located in the myCDEconnect. The NPS schools with access to the Internet must make their current SARCs available through the Internet. The CDE recommends that NPS schools also post their SARCs on their school's website.

Notify the Parents

Notify parents about the purpose and availability of the school's SARC. Provide instructions about how the SARC can be obtained both through the Internet, and on paper (upon request). The CDE recommends that schools have copies of their SARC available in the school office and at public forums, such as parent information events.