Assessing Outcomes for Preschool Children with Disabilities

The Child Outcomes Summary (COS) is a team-based process to assess a child's functioning in three child outcome areas using a 7-point scale. A team of individuals who are familiar with the child consider multiple sources of information about the child’s functioning to determine the ratings. The documentation of the child’s performance across settings involves parent and other caregiver observations to complete the assessment. The child’s outcomes are reported within three areas:

• Positive Social-Emotional Skills
• Acquisition and Use of Knowledge and Skills
• Use of Appropriate Behaviors to Meet Needs

Purpose for Assessing Child Outcomes

Children's outcomes are assessed for several reasons:

• Federal Reporting: to determine whether federal funding for provision of early childhood special education is making a difference for young children with disabilities and their families
• State and Local Program Results: to know how well programs are serving children and families and how to help programs to improve
• Family and Community Member Information: to know how children and programs are doing
• Results are used to inform instruction at home and in the classroom

Reporting Child Outcomes 

Public Education Agencies (PEAs) will provide the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) with Child Outcomes Summary ratings for each outcome area upon entry of each child to a preschool special education program and will provide exit scores when the child leaves the program to enroll in kindergarten or is no longer considered a child with a disability. LEAs will also submit scores for each outcome area at the end of each school year. Data for child outcomes will be reported through the Arizona Education Data System (AzEDS) and reports such as the SPED11 Report will be available for districts to present the results. These COS scores on the 7-point scale will be used to calculate summary data such as Developmental Trajectories and Summary Scores for federal reporting.

Entry/Exit/End of Year Definitions

• Entry: the date a preschool-aged child who was eligible for special education with an IEP enrolled in the school district.
• Exit: the date a preschool-aged child who no longer needs special education, who has exited preschool to go to kindergarten, or who has moved out of the district.
• End of Year: represents the status of the child at the end of the school year. The child is not exiting from the program but rather is continuing on the following year as a preschool-aged student.

Entry/Exit/End of the Year Data Submission Timelines

•  Entry scores must be submitted without delay, and no later than 20 school days after enrollment in the program on all three outcome areas (Social Emotional, Knowledge and Skills, Behaviors to Meet Needs).
•  Exit scores must be submitted without delay no later than 20 school days after the last day of enrollment in the program, and no later than July 15th on all three outcome areas (Social Emotional, Knowledge and Skills, Behaviors to Meet Needs).
• End of Year scores must be submitted without delay no later than 20 school days after the last day of the program, and no later than July 15th on all three outcome areas (Social Emotional, Knowledge and Skills, Behaviors to Meet Needs).

Professional Development for Child Outcomes Summary Process