The ADE/ESS Assistive Technology (AT) Team is pleased to announce our 2024—2025 AT National Presenter series kickoff presentation, Assistive Technology Consideration and Assessment Made Easy, with Penny Reed, PhD. This presentation is intended for special education administrators, special education teachers, general education teachers, OTs, PTs, SLPs, and assistive technology specialists.

Date/Time:                 Thursday, October 17, 2024, 8:00 AM – 3:45 PM (Seats are limited; register now!)

Fee:                                Free - lunch on your own

Where:                          ASU Chandler Innovation Center
                                        249 E. Chicago St., Chandler, Arizona 85225

Penny Reed, PhD, is an independent consultant in AT services and provides training on various topics related to AT, focusing on improving the delivery of AT services. Dr. Reed has a BS in elementary education, an MS and PhD in special education, and certification as both a principal and special education administrator. She was the director of the Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative (WATI) for many years and serves on the Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology (QIAT) Leadership Team. She is a founding member ofthe QIAT Consortium,the National Assistive Technology in Education Network, andthe Coalition for Assistive Technology in Oregon. Dr. Reed has authored and co-authored numerous articles and manuals, including her most recent publication, Best Practices in Special Education: A Framework for Assistive Technology (2022), with Gayl Bowser.

Workshop Description:

Are you confused about your responsibility to provide assistive technology devices and services?
Are you frustrated with delays in obtaining AT assessments from sources outside your district or the cost of those assessments?
Are you looking for an efficient, effective way to determine a student's need for assistive technology?
Then this workshop is for you.

Assistive Technology Consideration and Assessment Made Easy

This activity-packed workshop will present a team-based model for completing assistive technology (AT) consideration and assessment. It begins with a brief overview of the laws related to the provision of AT services in schools, including AT Consideration and Assessment. Participants will examine and discuss AT Consideration forms to determine what works for them. Then, an AT Assessment process will be explained. Specific, easy-to-follow forms will be provided. Participants will use the forms for guided practice in completing the AT Assessment process. The training will end with pointers for implementation planning. It would be most beneficial if participants could attend as a team.

Register for Assistive Technology Consideration and Assessment Made Easy.

If you have questions about this training, please email [email protected].

For immediate release: August 15, 2024
Contact: [email protected]
 

Horne blasts “Save Our Schools” leader for supporting biological boys using girls’ locker rooms and showers

Social media post reveals stance

PHOENIX – State schools chief Tom Horne says “Save Our Schools” leader Beth Lewis owes her membership and Arizona educators an explanation for her support for having biological boys with male genitalia shower in girls’ locker rooms and using girls’ restrooms.

In a social media post last week, Lewis criticized three grandmothers who visited with Horne to share their concern that new federal Title IX guidelines would allow biological boys to use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms.

Horne stated, “Beth Lewis mocked three grandmothers who visited with me last week and posted on X, asking, ‘Why do Tom Horne and these Grandmas care who my kids are sharing a bathroom with?’ Lewis’ position is astonishingly reckless toward the safety of vulnerable school children. I can assure her that there are countless parents and grandparents who are justifiably concerned about this because of the serious danger it poses to girls.”

He added, “Lewis owes her membership an explanation for this. These changes to Title IX regulations are outrageous since they allow biological boys to expose themselves to girls in bathrooms and locker rooms and invade the girls’ privacy. They will also cause unbelievable management challenges for campus administrators, teachers and coaches that will make their jobs much more difficult. Further, there will also be damage to public education parents as remove their daughters from schools that allow this.”

Horne also noted that the federal court in the ongoing Louisiana v. USDOE, described the impact of the new Title IX regulations stated: “Tennessee, for example, tendered a comment identifying numerous instances of males attacking females in public restrooms that were designated for females only. In Tennessee's view, the new rules would further enable such conduct…” In intimate spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms, Students retain “a significant privacy interest in their unclothed bodies. This necessarily includes “the right to shield one's body from exposure to viewing by the opposite sex.” Id. After all, in the words of former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the integration of an all-male military institution “would undoubtedly require alterations necessary to afford members of each sex privacy from the other sex in living arrangements.”

Horne concluded, “The courts see the tragedies that have already occurred because of policies such as the new Title IX regulations. Beth Lewis and SOS have no excuse for not understanding that as well.”

###

For immediate release: August 12, 2024
Contact: [email protected]
 

Horne announces waiver offer from federal government to avoid reverting funds

Word came late last week and will be submitted

PHOENIX – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne announced today the U.S. Department of Education (USED) contacted the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) late last week to offer a waiver to recoup approximately $29 million federal Title I dollars that had been under-utilized during the Hoffman administration. The department has submitted that waiver request that will cover State Fiscal Years 2021, 2022, and 2023.

On August 8, USED contacted ADE Title I staff to encourage the department to apply for what is known as a Tydings waiver to allow excess funds that had accrued due to under-allocations that began in Federal Fiscal Year 2020. Prior to the August 8 notification, no requests had been mentioned by USED to ADE.

Horne stated, “I will always fight for more money for schools, so I am happy to submit this waiver request to the federal government. The under-utilization of about $29 million in federal funds began in Federal Fiscal Year 2020, but continued under the previous superintendent and the employee who incompetently handed these allocations no longer works at this department.”

He added, “The governor today is repeating false allegations. These dollars should have been sent to districts and charters years ago during the Hoffman administration, but they were allowed by previous staff to accumulate and potentially revert. In reality she is asking to investigate Kathy Hoffman’s administration, but the problem is being corrected by my administration.”

With the approval of this waiver request, the department will be able to increase funding to the most underserved districts and charters.

###

ESS Data would like to inform you of important dates and reporting updates for fiscal year (FY) 2025. The FY25 Important Dates document is on the ESS Data Management web page. This email also outlines important changes for SPED data reporting for FY25, including new and upcoming changes within AzEDS and ESS applications overseen by ESS Data Management.

FY25 reporting updates:

AzEDS:

API

• Complete: LRE I (Services Provided in a regular classroom) no longer active
• Complete: Add parent relationships
  • Surrogate Parent
  • Self
• Complete: Student Parent Association is changed to Student Contact Association
• Complete: StudentDisciplineIncidentAssociations table is deprecated

Integrity Rules

• Complete: -40099: SPED Need Developmental Delay (DD) must be Primary
• Complete: -40100: SPED Need Multiple Disabilities (MD) or Multiple Disabilities Severe Sensory Impairment (MDSSI) must be Primary
• Complete: -40101: SPED Need Preschool Severe Delay (PSD) must be Primary
• In Progress: -4XXXX: For each day a SPED Need is reported, an LRE must be reported
• In Progress: -52005: Incident Date must be within Fiscal Year Reported – to be removed

AzEDS Portal:

• In Progress: Disc10/Disc72: Add Services Provided and Parent Declined Services column
• In Progress: DISC72: Identify if a student has special education services during the time of the incident
• In Progress: INTEG55: Add State Student ID

ESS Data Management Website Updates – In Progress:

• AzEDS SPED Codes
• Concurrent Need and Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) Code Eligibility Matrix
• Concurrent PEA and Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) Code Eligibility Matrix
• Discipline Data Guidance
• SPED Integrity Rules Reference
• New Integrity Tools
  • 40099
  • 40100
  • 40101

Data Surveys – In Progress:

• Update home page

For any questions regarding the upcoming FY25 data reporting updates or the important dates, please email ESS Data Management.

For immediate release: August 6, 2024
Contact: [email protected]
 

Horne calls for Azcentral / Arizona Republic to retract false story about federal funds

Information was withheld showing errors began prior to Horne taking office

PHOENIX – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has sent a letter to the News Director of Azcentral.com and The Arizona Republic demanding the retraction of a story falsely blaming the Horne administration for the reversion of $29 million in federal funds.

The letter states, in part, “The story is false, and the reporter responsible for writing it dishonestly and, apparently with intent, withheld information given to him in advance of the story that clearly shows the story is false. This is unacceptable and cannot stand.

In an email from our communications director to Nick Sullivan at 9:41 a.m. on Friday, August 2 - three days prior to the story’s publication - your reporter was told, “The reverted funds represent federal school improvement dollars allocated in federal Fiscal Years 2021 and 2022 during the prior department administration. (That means the dollars had to be allocated by July 1, 2022, before I took office.) …

That should have either been the end of the story, or at least placed the responsibility on the administration that was in office at the time these errors were made. Instead, your publication printed a story claiming that my administration caused this problem, which is absolutely false.”

A full copy of the letter is attached.

###

For immediate release: August 6, 2024
Contact: [email protected]
 

Horne statement on dishonest Azcentral report on grant funds

PHOENIX – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne issued the following statement in response to today’s reporting on Azcentral about reverted federal grants:

Horne said, “The mishandling and failure to notify districts of correct allocations with time for them to properly plan and spend the money resulted from an error by an employee of my predecessor before I took office. This person told the schools they had smaller allocations than they had.  We were constantly on the phone urging districts to spend as much of the money properly as they could.  

I have always worked to obtain as much money as possible for the schools, and I did not tolerate the incompetence of the employee, who was fired or resigned when told otherwise would be fired in March 2023.

The story on azcentral dishonestly withheld important information about this, which we gave the reporter.”

###

The data capture date for the September payment is Thursday, August 15, at 5:00 p.m. September payment will be based off current-year ADM for school districts and charters.  The calculation of current-year ADM is dependent on a certified AzEDS calendar for all non-AOI/DRP-only schools.
 
It is imperative calendars are submitted, certified, and pass integrity by 5:00 p.m. on August 14, 2024.
 
Calendar Resources:

• Instructions for certifying a calendar can be found here
• To view data capture dates for FY25, please click here
• To view posted guidance "Defining the Instructional Calendar", please click here
• To view the Calendar Integrity Reference Guide, please click here

 
Reminders regarding calendars:

• Calendars must be submitted, certified, and passing Integrity by 8/14/2024 to avoid Integrity failures which will affect the September payment
• Calendars can be freely submitted and edited until 8/31/2023. After each edit, calendars need to be re-certified
• After 8/31/2023, a calendar access request is needed to edit an existing calendar or submit a new calendar. Calendar requests are submitted through the Help Desk ticketing system. When creating a new ticket, use the School Finance “Account Analyst Support Request” template. From there, select the Subcategory “Calendar Access” and the appropriate Item (Add New Calendar/Change All Calendars/Individual Date Changes)

Payment 3 will be based on data captured that is passing integrity and generating ADM in AzEDS. There is no option for districts to be paid on prior year data, or for charters to be paid on estimated counts. Actual data in AzEDS will be used to calculate ADM for Payment 3.

Please ensure data is reconciled and free of integrity errors prior to the data capture date. Review the following reports in AzEDS:

• INTEG15 – ensure data is free and clear of membership ADM Integrity errors
• STUD10 – validate all students are listed in AzEDS
• ADM15 – ensure all students expected to generate funding are indicated as fundable
• ADM20, SPED20, and EL20 – ensure ADM amounts for each ADM type 

Important Note: FY25 Calendars need to be submitted, approved, and certified for ADM and funding to be generated.

FY 2025 Monthly Payment and AzEDS Processing Schedule

*Alternative to FY 2025 AzEDS data was available for the first two payments only. 

If additional assistance is needed, please submit a HelpDesk ticket.

Fiscal Year 2025 Truth in Taxation Report can be accessed here.
 

For additional information regarding filtering the website, please see this hot topic.
 

If you have any questions regarding this report, please contact the School Finance Budget Team at [email protected].

For immediate release: July 31, 2024
Contact: [email protected]
 

Horne answers inquiries about schools and COVID

Notes health agencies now treat COVID as common respiratory virus

Responding to an inquiry about the status of COVID cases in Arizona and any potential effect on schools, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne says public health agencies now consider COVID to be a common respiratory virus and schools should operate normally.

Horne stated, “I have been asked about how schools should address a recent surge in COVID cases in Arizona. My unequivocal answer, based on guidance from national and state public health agencies, is that schools absolutely need to operate normally because the threat of COVID, especially among school-age children is extremely minimal. By contrast, extended closures of schools during the pandemic had a debilitating and long-lasting effect on learning. We see that in lower test scores nationally and the cost to the education of millions of children is incalculable.”

The Centers for Disease Control guidance on respiratory viruses now describes COVID as a “common respiratory viral illness such as RSV or the flu.” Former Arizona Department of Health Services Director Will Humble was quoted in a recent news item as saying COVID is “working its way into becoming a common cold.” The current state Department of Health Services website states that both that agency and the CDC “recognize that students benefit mentally, emotionally, and physically from in-person instruction.”

###