Fall 2020: Making Child Count Count! Ginger Elliott-Teague, PhD - PDF document

9/8/2020 Fall 2020: Making “Child Count” Count! Ginger Elliott-Teague, PhD Director of Data Analysis, Special Education Agenda • Update on file uploads • Child count review • Update on ECOs (early childhood outcomes) • Question/answer time 2 Special Education Child Count 2020 1

9/8/2020 SPED Child Count Reminders • Annual collection; this year: October 1, 2020 • Collects the following for State and Federal reporting: • Count of children currently served on IEPs/ISPs (snapshot) • Primary/secondary/suspected disabilities & related services, as appropriate • Child-level LRE (least restrictive environments) & ECE (early childhood environments) • Demographics, including gender, race and ethnicity • Why? • Funding! • Accountability and monitoring of compliance and equity. 3 Special Education Child Count 2020 Getting Quality Data: The Essentials Every student must have… • a valid STN • a date of birth • an accredited site code • a gender • finalized eligibility and IEP events • a valid enrollment status • an educational environment code • complete disability category …in their record in EdPlan, information (primary, suspected, AND etc.) and related services • a valid grade code Student must be enrolled in your • valid race & ethnicity entries SIS and in the Wave on Oct. 1. • EL status 4 Special Education Child Count 2020 2

9/8/2020 Additional Data Quality Checks • Students must have finalized eligibility & IEP events by Oct. 1 • Students in DD districts (who are categorized as DD) must have a suspected disability on their current MEEGs • No students age 10 or greater can have a disability category of DD • Students with grade PK must have an updated early childhood environment recorded and saved • NEW : Students in Kindergarten, regardless of age, will have an LRE 5 Special Education Child Count 2020 And… More Data Quality • Enrollment status must be selected on the personal page: • Public School, Residential Facility, Correctional Facility, Home/Hospital, Separate School, or Private School • All demographic data in EdPlan must be changed in the Student Information System record • All duplicate records must be resolved • Students not in the Wave in your district on Oct. 1 will not be counted 6 Special Education Child Count 2020 3

9/8/2020 Notes on LRE • LRE not collected for PK students: do not need to report shortened day for them • LRE collected for K and above, regardless of age • What can affect it? • Total service time: must be less than total hours of education • Shortened day • Enrollment status on personal page • LRE collected from services section of finalized IEP, not workspace • Must re-finalize to save changes for reporting purposes 7 Special Education Child Count 2020 Checking Your Child Count 1 4 2 Will open new browser tab called “BI launch pad.” Open _OK Reports folder. 3 Open _OK Reports Library folder. Open “ Child Count Report SY21 .” 5 8 Special Education Child Count 2020 4

9/8/2020 Internal Frames The Child Count Report tab includes all active, eligible students in EdPlan who have an IEP/ISP and have no known errors . • This list constitutes your “child count” list. • Check the accuracy of the information! (especially LRE) The Child Count Errors tab lists all active, eligible students with an IEP who have … • Missing/invalid STNs • Missing demographics • Missing or incorrect SPED data (disability, LRE/ECE) Note: An error exists if the column has an X for the student. 9 Special Education Child Count 2020 Checking Accuracy of Student Records • Site • Race/ethnicity • Disabilities • Related services • LRE (being revised to exclude contingency plan services) • ELL status 10 Special Education Child Count 2020 5

9/8/2020 Correcting Errors 1 • Start early! Once an error is fixed in the student’s record in the SIS or EdPlan, it will take 24 to 72 hours to show in the Child Count Report. • STN issues: Contact SES Data Team or PCG to resolve • Demographic data: update in your student information system! • Enrollment status: update on the student’s personal page 11 Special Education Child Count 2020 Correcting Errors 2 This indicates that the child has letters or symbols entered in the number field that records how many instructional hours per week a student receives (if a different amount per week than their peers). Correct in the Services page in the student’s record*: *You must re-finalize the IEP to save the information for the report. 12 Special Education Child Count 2020 6

9/8/2020 Correcting Errors 3 • All of the following errors must be fixed in the Eligibility Determination in EdPlan*: • Primary disability missing • Developmental delay errors • MD as secondary error: this indicates that the child has Multiple Disabilities listed as their Secondary Disability, which is not allowed by IDEA. *You must re-finalize the eligibility determination to save the information for the report. 13 Special Education Child Count 2020 Correcting Errors 4 • The “Over 21” error is a marker for students who cannot legally be included in the federal child count (but are counted for state aid). This cannot be fixed except by exiting the student. • ECE missing: this indicates that the child does not have an early childhood environment entered in the Early Child Data Collection in EdPlan. • Active in 2 districts: The district that is currently providing schooling and services should contact OSDE-SES to resolve this issue. 14 Special Education Child Count 2020 7

9/8/2020 What if… • A child doesn’t show up on either tab? • He or she has not completed the IEP process or is not enrolled. • A child is listed who shouldn’t be? • He or she has not been inactivated or dismissed. • I don’t have a child’s IEP finalized by October 1? • He or she will not be included in the FY21 SPED child count. • I don’t resolve an error prior to October 1? • It can be corrected by Oct. 15; otherwise the child will not be counted. 15 Special Education Child Count 2020 Certification • Child count data must be certified by the district superintendent by EOD October 16 to be considered timely . • Certification ensures that district leadership has reviewed the data and agrees to its accuracy. • Superintendents should not certify if they do not believe the district child list is accurate or if they have not reviewed the list. • If never certified, the count is used as reported in EdPlan. 16 Special Education Child Count 2020 8

9/8/2020 Completing Certification • Go to Single Sign-on, SPED Child Count application starting Oct. 2. • A draft child list will be available by Sept. 15 tentatively . • Click on the Reports tab and the Child List report, then “run.” • Review child list and confirm its accuracy. • If accurate, certify! If not accurate, review the EdPlan AR report and correct any errors. • Updates to Single Sign-on will be done M/W/F until Oct. 16. 17 Special Education Child Count 2020 Early Childhood Outcomes in Detail 18 Special Education Child Count 2020 9

9/8/2020 Purpose of ECOs • ECOs should serve as snapshots of current skill achievement, measuring where the child was before receiving services and then after, in comparison to their typically developed peers • Should be used to: • Monitor an individual child’s progress over time • Evaluate program and/or service quality across many children 19 Special Education Child Count 2020 New Guidance: Early Childhood Outcomes • Making collection and reporting changes to align with changes to child count data collection for 5-yr-olds in kindergarten • ECOs should now only reflect achievements made while receiving early childhood services, defined as “pre- kindergarten” (whether in a formal PK program or not) • NOTE: The ECO completion business rules in EdPlan will not change for a while. Please work around them for now… 20 Special Education Child Count 2020 10

9/8/2020 Guidance on Entry Ratings • Entry date should be IEP start date ( not the evaluation date when the ECOs were completed) • Always provide an entry ECO rating: • Any three to five year old who enters as a “PK” student and will be receiving services as a PK student for at least six months • Do not provide an entry ECO rating: • Children who are first placed on an IEP in Kindergarten or less than six months before ending participation in a PK program to enter KG • Children who will turn six in PK before receiving six months of services 21 Special Education Child Count 2020 Entry Scenarios • Samuel turns 4 in June, and joins your public PK program in August. The following February he is determined eligible for special education services and has an IEP… • If he will continue in PK as a 5 year old: entry ECOs required. • If he will enter KG as a 5 year old: entry ECOs not required.* * If EdPlan requires ECOs to finalize the IEP, enter the information. He will not be counted because will have less than 6 months of service. 22 Special Education Child Count 2020 11