DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT   

FY 2022 October 1 Data Collection

The Exceptional Student Services (ESS) Special Education (SPED) October 1 Data Collection (ODC) child count is a key process that is consequential for federal reporting, determining federal allocations and providing information for the state to make educational determinations over time. Public education agencies (PEAs) are required to verify the count of students receiving SPED services over October 1. Verification will be completed through the web-based ESS October 1 Data Collection application, available through the ESS Portal via ADEConnect.

The October 1 Data Collection consists of three phases:

• Phase I: Verification & Personnel
• Phase II: Reconciliation
• Phase III: Non-Reconciliation (if applicable)
   

For a complete ODC timeline, please review the ESS Data Management Important Dates document.

Phase I: Verification

The ESS ODC application will open on Wednesday, October 6, 2021. PEAs must login to the application to submit the October 1 verification and personnel counts. All technical assistance documents and FAQs will be available by accessing the “Help tab” on the home page of the ESS ODC application.

Please note that October 1 is the count date, not a due date or deadline.

October 1 falls on a Friday this year. If October 1 is a non-session day for your PEA (i.e., fall break), be mindful of the following information. To ensure an accurate count, include students who were enrolled on the last day school was in session before October 1 as long as they are known to have continued in special education on the first day school was in session following October 1 (whether it be in your school in your PEA or another PEA). The PEA that should count the student is the PEA the student was enrolled in prior to October 1.

Resources

ODC Manual – This manual includes documentation of the entire process of ODC, including frequently asked questions.

Please note the Important Dates document shows that Phase II of the October 1 Data Collection is due earlier this year than previous years. Ensure your SPED data in AzEDS is accurate and passing integrity regularly to ensure a smooth Phase II submission.

IDEA Conference (Conference Registration | Recording coming soon)

Special Education October 1 Processes, Report Out, and Upcoming Changes

This session will review the current processes of the child count requirement, report out on different perspectives in SPED placements and elaborate on significant upcoming changes moving forward.

To access ESS Data Management ODC training videos, please visit our ODC or YouTube webpages.

We highly encourage all PEAs to subscribe to ESS Data Management Alerts to receive ODC and other important SPED data reporting announcements.

Please join us at our monthly Special Education Data Updates (SEDU) webinars to discuss a variety of ESS data topics, updates, and live Q&A. Please visit the  Data Management website under Training Opportunities for more information.

For questions regarding ODC requirements or anything else, please email us at [email protected].

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT   

New AzEDS Portal Report: SPED50 – SPED Concurrency Report

The ESS Data Management team is pleased to announce that a new report is now available in the AzEDS Portal, SPED50 – SPED Concurrency Report. This report will help PEAs find concurrent SPED data in AzEDS along with the concurrent PEA, Site, and dates reported to aid in determining the accurate reporting for the student. This report will only show Primary SPED LRE data reported by your PEA that overlaps with Primary SPED LRE data reported by another PEA (Concurrency).

The report will display the following:

• State Student ID
• Student Last Name
• Student First Name
• School Site of your PEA
• LRE Entry Date of your PEA
• LRE Exit Date of your PEA
• Concurrent School Site of the overlapping PEA
• Concurrent LRE Entry Date of the overlapping PEA
• Concurrent LRE Exit Date of the overlapping PEA
• Concurrent PEA
   

If any exit dates are blank in this report, AzEDS translates this as the LRE continuing to the end of the Fiscal Year.

If the concurrent PEA does not show this information on their SPED50 report, this would indicate their LRE data is Orphan Data (SPED data missing Enrollment) and they should review their SPED99 – Orphan Data report.

For any questions about this report, please contact ESS Data Management at [email protected].

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

New LRE Decision Tree Documents now available

A new series of LRE decision tree documents have been made available on the ESS Data Management website. These documents will provide a roadmap and assist in determining the correct LRE code for students with disabilities. Each LRE decision tree has been separated into 5 categories:

• Preschool No Early Childhood Program
• Preschool with Early Childhood Program
• Public School
• RTC
• Secure Care
   

These LRE decision tree documents can be found on the ESS Data Management website in the AzEDS reporting section under Tools and Resources.

Please contact [email protected] with any questions regarding these new tools.  

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

Update to ASDB Student Reporting

Due to the passage of HB2863 during the Spring 2021 legislative session, the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind (ASDB) is now considered a local education agency (LEA) for the provision of free and appropriate public education (FAPE), for the submission of data and other required reports, and for the provision of courses of study that lead to graduation with a regular high school diploma for all students enrolled in their campus locations. This status change began July 1, 2021 (fiscal year 2022).

This memorandum addresses specific areas of responsibility that will impact both ASDB and public education agencies (PEAs) that place eligible students at ASDB through the IEP and voucher process.

Updated ASDB Student Reporting guidance from ESS Data Management is available here.

If you have questions regarding the guidance, please e-mail [email protected]

Special Education Directors,

Due to the passage of HB 2863 during the Spring 2021 legislative session, the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind (ASDB) is now considered a local education agency (LEA) for the provision of free and appropriate public education (FAPE), for the submission of data and other required reports, and for the provision of courses of study that lead to graduation with a regular high school diploma for all students enrolled in their campus locations. This status change began July 1, 2021 (fiscal year 2022).

This memorandum addresses specific areas of responsibility that will impact both ASDB and public education agencies (PEAs) that place eligible students at ASDB through the IEP and voucher process.

For questions on data reporting, please contact ESS Data Management at [email protected]. For any items pertaining to the institutional voucher, please contact the ESS Vouchers Unit at [email protected].

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

Special Education Data Updates

The Exceptional Student Services Data Management team will be hosting our next Special Education Data Updates live webinar on Wednesday, June 16th from 2pm – 3pm. This session will cover a variety of data topics that will include:

• Reminders
• Trending topics
• Topics requested by you
• Q&A

Registration is required to attend: Register for Special Education Data Updates webinar. 

For questions, please contact ESS Data Management via email at [email protected].

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT 

New Integrity Rule for FY 2021: -10134 

A new integrity rule for FY 2021 will be introduced into the integrity process on SPED data shortly.  This new rule is a continuation of our effort to further validate SPED reporting to ensure clean data for the state.   

A new one-sheet Integrity Tool is available on our AzEDS SPED Reporting webpage for troubleshooting tips. It has been added to our SPED Integrity Rules Reference document and referenced on the FY 2021 & 2022 ESS Data Reporting Updates document. 

Integrity Rule -10134 

This rule will validate any students enrolled at an Arizona State School for the Deaf and Blind (ASDB) to have a corresponding SPED Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) reported. 

Please contact [email protected] with any questions regarding this new rule.   

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

FY 2021 Special Education Year-End Data Checklist

This alert serves as a reminder to all PEAs that special education data should be reviewed for accuracy and edited if necessary, before the end of the fiscal year.

AzEDS is considered the system of record for the 2020-2021 school year and will close for current year data submissions at 5:00 PM on July 15, 2021. Data for all public education agencies (PEAs) must be complete and accurate in AzEDS for FY 2021. Data found to be inaccurate after the statewide data recalculation is subject to a data correction process (this may also meet the criteria of A.R.S. § 15-915) and must be corrected with the assistance of ADE School Finance personnel. ESS Data Management encourages our customers to strive for complete and accurate AzEDS data entry. Please see below for some helpful tips when submitting your data.

Reviewing AzEDS data:

Special education exit information must reside in AzEDS for all special education students: each student participating in your PEA's special education program must have both an exit date and exit reason in AzEDS, including students who stay in special education through the last scheduled day of school.

All students enrolled for membership must also have a year-end status or withdrawal code in AzEDS. Student records missing this information will fail AzEDS integrity processing. Students who are enrolled for membership through the last scheduled day of school must have a year-end status; students who withdraw before the last scheduled day of school must have a withdrawal code. Special education data coordinators may need to work with personnel at their PEA who submits membership information to AzEDS to ensure that the students' special education exit information and year-end or withdrawal status align.

Refer to the SPED Exit Validation Matrix to see which exit codes align with which withdrawal and year-end status codes.

Refer to the AzEDS SPED Codes document for a full description of all exit codes/reasons.

Review the SPED Participation Report (SPED72) for all schools in your PEA for Fiscal Year 2021 (July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021).

Ensure that every student who participated in special education at your school(s) is listed on the report and that the students' data are accurate.  

Ensure that every student who participated in special education at a Non-Public Organization (approved private day school, residential treatment center, head start or other) with your PEA as the District of Residence (DOR) is listed on the report, and that the students' data are accurate.

Review the Student Data Integrity Report (INTEG15) to identify any student records failing State SPED integrity and FED SPED integrity. If possible, ensure that you have enough time to upload corrections to AzEDS and verify whether the uploaded data corrected the errors.  Troubleshooting documents to aid in resolving integrity errors can be found on our webpage under SPED Integrity Error Tools.

ESS Data Management encourages public education agencies (PEAs) to begin reviewing AzEDS data as soon as possible.

ESS Annual Data requirements:

The ESS Annual Data Collection (ADC) application extracts student exit data from AzEDS. Refer to the Exit instructions within the ADC application to ensure that all students' exit data are complete and accurate in AzEDS and aligns appropriately with withdrawal or yearend status by 5:00 PM on July 15, 2021 to ensure the data will be complete and accurate on the exit reports in ESS Annual Data.

Disciplinary data for all special education students must be submitted to the ESS Discipline Data Collection (DDC) application by 5:00 PM on July 15, 2021 for inclusion on the discipline reports in the ESS Annual Data application.

If you have any questions, please direct them to ESS Data Management.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT     

ESS Annual Data Collection application is now open.

We are pleased to announce the ESS Annual Data Collection (ADC) application is open and available to all public education agencies (PEAs). PEAs are expected to complete this data collection requirement electronically, utilizing ADEConnect to access the online application via the ESS Portal for FY 2021. 

Timelines:

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) requires Annual SPED Data Collection information in order for Arizona to receive Part B IDEA funding. Therefore, failure to promptly submit your PEA’s data may cause an interruption of your federal funds and may also impact your PEA Determination. 

• Open Date: Monday, April 26, 2021 
• Exit & Discipline Data Submission Due Date: Thursday, July 15, 2021 by 5:00 PM 
• Data Certification Begins: Wednesday, July 21, 2021 
• ADC Due Date: Wednesday, August 4, 2021 

Training:

Training modules are intended to help PEAs and school personnel who are involved with special education data collection and reporting. Training modules relevant to this data collection are posted on the Training Videos webpage.

For questions pertaining to the ESS Annual Data Collection, please contact ESS Data Management at [email protected].

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

FY 2021 Annual Special Education Data Collection

GENERAL INFORMATION

On Monday, April 26, 2021 the Exceptional Student Services (ESS) Annual Special Education (SPED) Data Collection application for FY 2021 will be available to all public education agencies (PEAs). PEAs are expected to complete this data collection requirement electronically, utilizing ADEConnect to access the online application via the ESS Portal. 

Note: 

• If you belong to a cooperative, please do not ask your Cooperative Coordinator to submit your data. It is each PEA’s responsibility to submit individual data.
• If your PEA does not have data that qualifies for inclusion in this online application as determined by AzEDS, it is expected that you will click the “No Students Served” button on the home page to certify with signature. 

ADECONNECT

ADEConnect requires an email address and password, which is also used for other electronic data submissions to the Arizona Department of Education. You can access ADEConnect and support information at the following link: https://home.azed.gov/Portal/, however, PEAs are encouraged to access through their Student Information System (SIS). It is recommended that the SPED Director request access for all users.

The request will need to go through the PEA Local ADE Connect Entity Administrator. ESS Data Management will provide secondary approval.

TIMELINES

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) requires Annual SPED Data Collection information in order for Arizona to receive Part B IDEA funding. Therefore, failure to promptly submit your PEA’s data may cause an interruption of your federal funds and may also impact your PEA Determination.

 Open Date: Monday, April 26, 2021

• Exit & Discipline Data Submission Due Date: Thursday, July 15, 2021 by 5:00 PM
• Data Certification Begins: Wednesday, July 21, 2021
• ADC Due Date: Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Updates for FY 2021 Annual SPED Data Collection Reporting

The Annual SPED Data Collection consists of the following sections: Exit and Discipline report required by all PEAs. Preschool Transition and Parentally Placed Private School Students reports are required by districts only (if applicable). 

There are minimal changes to the Annual SPED Data Collection this year; however, all data requirements are subject to change as federal guidance is received. The following updates will be incorporated in the online application:

• Instructions and FAQs posted on the home page will have changes outlined in bold. PLEASE READ!
• There are no changes to the Exit and Parentally Placed Private School Students reports.
• Modifications have been made to Preschool Transition to remove the COVID line item.

Exit Data Extract from AzEDS

Given that AzEDS is the system of record for FY 2021, the exit data report will be refreshed nightly. This data will be finalized after the FY 2021 Statewide Recalculation scheduled for July 15, 2021. 

Discipline Data Extract from DDC

ESS Discipline Data Collection (DDC) is available through ADEConnect via the ESS Portal. PEAs are expected to submit discipline data for special education students, either manually into the DDC application or by uploading data to DDC via an export from their SIS. The discipline report will be refreshed nightly, based on data extracted from DDC.

Discipline for Tuitioned-Out Students

As the district of residence (DOR), it is the PEA’s responsibility to manually enter the discipline data for tuitioned-out students. For purposes of this data collection, “tuitioned-out” refers to students who reside in your PEA and are tuitioned-out to one of the following: Approved Private Day Schools, Approved Private Residential Treatment Center, Head Start, Public Consortium, and Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind (ASDB).

ASDB STUDENTS

As the DOR, PEAs that voucher preschool students to ASDB are responsible for reporting preschool transition data for their students. The home district receives the referral from AzEIP and is ultimately responsible for the IEPs of its students. DORs will also be responsible for reporting discipline and exit data for voucher students to DDC and AzEDS. If your PEA has discipline data to report for voucher preschool students to ASDB this data must be manually entered under the school identified as “Tuitioned-out School” found on your PEA’s School list.

Data Certification

The data certification process will commence on Wednesday, July 21, 2021, and electronic signatures are due to ADE/ESS by Wednesday, August 4, 2021 by 5:00 PM. During this time period, PEAs will have the opportunity to complete any outstanding agency reports, review exit and discipline reports, proceed with the data certification process, make any required exit data corrections, complete Section E of the Discipline report for students without disabilities (if applicable), and submit the required electronic signature. Signatures will only be accepted from the SPED Director, business manager or superintendent/charter school administrator attesting to the accuracy and the validity of the data submitted.

TRAINING

Training modules are intended to provide assistance to PEA and school personnel who are involved with special education data collection and reporting. The following training modules relevant to this data collection are posted on the Training Videos webpage:  

1.  An Overview of the ESS Annual Data Collection reporting requirements;
2. Exit and Discipline School Reports;
3. Print Reports 101; 
4. Agency Reports, an overview of the Preschool Transition and Parentally Placed Student reports;
5. Discipline Data Collection, an overview of the data submission requirements for purposes of the Discipline report (note that this webinar was held on April 12th and a recording of this webinar will be available under its own section soon); and
6. Data Certification, an overview on the steps required to close out this data collection requirement.  

 The target audience of these training modules will be the novice user. However, these modules are also available to advanced users who wish to review a “refresher” on this data collection.

If you have any questions, please direct them to ESS Data Management.