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].

Special Education Directors,

The ADE/ESS Secondary Transition Team is excited to announce a virtual professional learning opportunity on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 from 2:30–3:30 p.m. for school administrators, school counselors, Career and Technical Education (CTE) staff, and special education staff. Please share with any other stakeholder who is interested in this topic.

CTE Recruitment for Inclusion of Students with Disabilities: Innovative Strategies from a Panel of Your Peers

How do you increase the inclusion of students with disabilities in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs? Join ADE CTE and Exceptional Student Services staff as they host a conversation with Arizona school districts about their innovative ideas and best practices for CTE recruitment. ADE will also share a resource with recruitment strategies collected from educators, counselors, and administrators statewide during the last year. Prepare to build your recruitment toolbox with fresh ideas used throughout Arizona.

Please register for this webinar in advance. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Please email Amanda Nolasco, ADE School Counselor Specialist, with any questions regarding this professional learning opportunity.

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.  

Special Education Directors,

ADE/ESS is updating our contact lists of designated Lead Speech-Language Pathologists, Lead Occupational Therapists, Lead Physical Therapists, Lead Assistive Technology Specialists, and Lead School Psychologists. We intend to use the contact lists to:

• Keep related service providers informed of relevant PD
• Facilitate opportunities for developing discipline-specific professional learning networks or communities of practice
• Develop a pool of expert, experienced, school-based practitioners we may call upon for such things as surveying the need for particular topics in PD and providing content expertise to inform or review guidelines and policies developed by ADE/ESS
   

Thank you for filling out this brief survey, even if your district or charter does not currently have any designated Lead Related Services positions.

If you have questions, please email the ESS Recruitment and Retention Inbox.

Special Education Directors,

The ADE/ESS Secondary Transition (ST) Team is excited to launch a variety of webinar sessions for the upcoming 2021-22 fall semester.

• Transition Tuesdays
• Transition 101 Series
• Getting Centered on Out-of-the-Box Thinking: Person-Centered Planning for Transition-Aged Students
   

Please view the attached marketing flyers that provide detailed information about each webinar series. Registration will be required for all events, and the registration links are available for all sessions on both the corresponding marketing flyers and the ADE Secondary Transition webpage. If requesting accommodations, please register no later than 3 business days before the scheduled webinar.

Feel free to join any session that will make a positive impact on your secondary transition professional practices.

On behalf of the ESS Secondary Transition Team, we want to say welcome back to a new and exciting school year. We look forward to seeing you virtually this fall semester.

If you have any questions regarding any one of the webinars, please email the ST Team.

Special Education Directors,

Are you looking for Occupational Therapists and/or Occupational Therapy Assistants?

In October 2021, ADE/ESS will be recruiting for OT personnel on behalf of all public education agencies (PEAs) at the Arizona Occupational Therapy Association’s annual fall conference. ESS will operate a booth in the exhibit hall to promote the advantages of working in a school setting and distribute flyers listing all current and anticipated OT vacancies in Arizona public schools. We will also run a banner ad on the conference website directing OTs to the Arizona Education Employment Board.

If your PEA would like ESS to promote OT opening(s) at ArizOTa, please post them on the ADE job board as soon as possible. The banner ad will be visible on the ArizOTA website well before the convention dates, so please post quickly!

Post your OT/COTA vacancies at the Arizona Education Employment Board.

If you have questions, please email the Recruitment and Retention Inbox.

HB 2862 allows a school district or charter to adopt an Instructional Time Model (ITM) to meet instructional hour requirements through things like remote instruction, project-based learning, mastery-based learning, weekend courses, and evening courses.

School districts and charters should use the Instructional Time Model Template for School Districts and Charter Schools to report Instructional Time Models to the department.

For more information about ITMs, please review School Finance – Initial Guidance on HB 2862 and the Instructional Time Model (ITM): Frequently Asked Questions document (updated as of August 31, 2021). Additionally, we held an ITM webinar on 8/12 and you can view a video recording of the webinar at this link. 

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,

ADE/ESS is pleased to announce the availability of the school year 2021–2022 Programmatic Monitoring Manual on the Program Support and Monitoring (PSM) web page. The newly revised manual can be found on the PSM web page under “Resources.”  Please see this memo for more information.

For questions about the Programmatic Monitoring Manual or the ESS programmatic monitoring process, contact your public education agency’s ESS/PSM Program Specialist: Find Your Specialist.

Special Education Directors,

ADE/ESS and The Interpreter Mentorship, Education & Training (IMET) Program are excited to offer two different training opportunities for educational interpreters. Please review both of the linked flyers for information on each opportunity. Information on how to apply can be found in the flyers and in the body of this post.

EIPA MENTOR TRACK

Participants will attend weekly meetings, alternating between language coaching and interpreter mentoring. Meetings typically take place in the evenings using virtual platforms. Accepted participants must be available to meet during late afternoon or evening meeting session times offered. Every effort is made to set meeting times based on submitted availability. Participants can expect to commit approximately 8-10 hours per week on mentor sessions, assessments, assignments, and reflection reports. The EIPA Track has been specially designed for the work and exam for educational interpreters. This mentorship track costs are covered by the ADE and offered at no cost to the participant, with an opportunity to earn the EIPA exam fee with demonstrated commitment and participation.

LANGUAGE LAB

Participants will attend biweekly meetings in small groups with a language coach who is Deaf. Meetings typically take place in the evenings using virtual platforms. Accepted participants must be available to meet during late afternoon or evening meeting session times offered. Every effort is made to set meeting times based on submitted availability. Participants will meet for 12 sessions and can expect to commit approximately 5-6 hours per week on sessions and assignments. During the sessions participants will gain valuable exposure to language coaches who are Deaf, ASL, and Deaf culture. They will work on various language development activities and have an opportunity to explore their questions. The goal of the language labs is to improve expressive and receptive ASL proficiency. Costs are covered by the ADE and offered at no cost to the participant. Space is limited.

The deadline for both parts of the application process is Tuesday, August 3, 2021 11:59 pm. Space is limited so apply early!

ADE/ESS is excited to offer these opportunities to work with your teams to support Arizona students!  Please contact Jennifer Harvey [email protected] or Christy Hegebush [email protected] for questions or assistance.