Please see the attached Memorandum regarding a change in procedure to the Offer of Early Resolution in Response to a State Complaint. This change is occurring following an administrative review of the state complaint process and considers guidance from the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, as well as technical assistance received by national technical assistance groups regarding Dispute Resolution activities.

Please contact ADE/ESS Dispute Resolution with any questions about this change in procedure.

School Finance would like to inform all districts and charters that we will be using a new system to accept budget and financial report file submissions starting in fiscal year 2024. The new system is an application called School Finance Budget System within ADEConnect. The new School Finance Budget System will be replacing Common Logon for all purposes besides retrieving prior year files.

The School Finance Budget System will NOT be available until mid-June, but it is important now to ensure that your assigned entity administrator for ADEConnect is correct to avoid any delays in accessing the system.

Access to the new School Finance Budget System must be granted by the assigned ADEConnect system administrator for your charter or district when the system becomes available. Attached below are step-by-step instructions that include screenshots of the system to help with this process.

If you have any questions about this information, please email the School Finance Budget Team at [email protected].

Please follow the steps below to be granted access:

You will need to first verify who is your entity administrator that will be able to grant you access to the School Finance Budget System. If you are the entity administrator, please give permission to yourself using the following steps. Use the following link to see who your entity administrator is if unsure:

ADEConnect - Find Administrator (azed.gov)

If the assigned entity administrator is no longer with the district or charter, please submit a HelpDesk ticket or contact IT Application Support at (602) 542-7378.

Your entity administrator will use the following steps to grant permission:

• Step 1: Click “User Management” in the top right-hand side of the ADEConnect homepage.

• Step 2: If you need to add a user, click “Add User.” If the user has information in the system already, skip to step 3.

• Step 2.a: You will then see this screen- follow all the prompts and save the information. After adding the user, navigate back to the ADEConnect homepage.

• Step 3: Under “User Management” on the ADEConnect homepage, click “Add/Remove ADEConnect Roles” to assign the role to the user.

• Step 3.a: Click on the user that you would like to add to “School Finance Budget System” within the “User Selection” box. After selection, click “Add ADEConnect Role.”

•  Step 3.b: Search “School Finance Budget System” in the search box that is on the right-hand side of the page. Select “School Finance Budget System” in the “ADEConnect Role Selection” box. Click save after selection.

• Step 4: Have the user login to ADEConnect to make sure they access to “School Finance Budget System.”

Again, this system will not be available until mid-June.

Special Education Stakeholders,

ADE/ESS is excited to share the Vendor/Exhibitor Application for Arizona’s 2023 IDEA Conference: Creating Connections and Strengthening Systems. This year’s conference will be held August 21–23, 2023 at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge in Phoenix. 

A limited number of in-person tables will be available. Space is not guaranteed. Selections for tables will be based on agency priority.

If interested, please complete the Vendor/Exhibitor Application by Friday, May 19, 2023. 

For more information about the IDEA Conference, visit the IDEA Conference website. Questions about the conference can be sent to the IDEA Conference inbox.

For immediate release: April 13, 2023
Contact: [email protected]

Supt. Horne statement on recent departures of district superintendents in Apache Jct. and west valley

PHOENIX - Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne issued the following statement today in response to the recent dismissal of the superintendent of the Apache Jct. Unified District and resignation of the Liberty Elementary District superintendent: 

“There have been disruptive protests against newly elected, academically oriented school boards that are seeking new academically oriented district superintendents.

Apache Junction has, under old leadership, three of its five schools rated as “C” schools. It has a new majority of three academically oriented school board members. They are naturally seeking a new academically oriented superintendent and arrived at a mutual agreement with the old superintendent to part ways.

At a meeting to discuss this, protesters were unruly.  Some school board members received a description from a taxpayer who was present, who described an ‘organized effort to disparage the majority decision. Students were released from class during school hours to allegedly protest this mutual agreement and disrupt this public meeting, placing children in danger.’ At a follow up school board meeting, he observed ‘another organized effort to intimidate, shame and verbally assault the school board members…’.

He observed that disruptive behavior by students was ‘presented and supervised by teachers…’.

There was also a protest at a meeting of the Liberty Elementary District School Board, which also has a newly elected majority of academically oriented school board members. They were ‘accused’ of planning to implement a ‘classic traditional education model’.

The news account quoted a principal of the Freedom Elementary School (a C-rated school), Tony Reynolds, as stating at the meeting: ‘It's important to make your position as a board known on curriculum, social emotional learning and restorative justice... If you do intend to implement a classic traditional education model, you need to have people whose values align who will implement your vision. That person is not me.’ That is not an academically oriented principal.

It is a positive development for the academic performance of our schools when academically oriented school board members replace those that are not so inclined.”

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School Finance has moved the new STUD35 Duplicate Student ID report into production.  The new STUD35 report will display new SSIDs where a probable match to a previous SSID was found.  The probable matches are based on identical first name, last name, and birth date. 

If a probable match is found, please review the SSIDs to determine if the new SSID was created by mistake.  If the new SSID was a mistake, work with your SIS to remove all the student's data from the new SSID and begin using the previously existing SSID right away.

Once all data has been moved to the previously existing SSID(s), create one Help Desk Ticket listing the SSID(s) to be retired and attach the STUD35 report.

Please note:  To request a merge on an SSID that has previous Fiscal Year data, submit one Help Desk Ticket per student. 

The STUD35 Report can be found under the Student Detail tab in the AzEDS Portal and is available for FY23 and beyond. 

The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) is hosting a free discussion on implementing SB 1654 (Seizure Safe Schools). During this session, participants will receive information about the law and step-by-step details for complying with the law, hear about training requirements, and participate in a Q&A session where submitted questions will be answered. In addition, resources about seizure action plans and seizure first aid will be provided.

Date and Time: April 20, 2023, at 3:00 p.m.

Topics of Discussion:

• Introduction of SB 1654; schools, seizure management, and treatment plans
• History of the bill, why it is needed, and how it will help AZ students
• Key components of the bill and timeline for implementation
• Amended Model Board Policy for school districts and charter schools
• New Seizure Action Plan (SAP) Template
• History and purpose of model SAP Template through the perspective of a Pediatric Neurologist
• Arizona State Board of Education: Approved Training and Related Training Requirements
• Training Session Approval Guidelines, Review Process, and Seizure Action Plan Committee
• Resources and materials available for implementation
• Review of timeline and steps for successful implementation
• Q&A

Target Audience:  School nurses and health office staff, school administrators, and other school staff involved in implementing Seizure Safe Schools. Anyone interested in providing the program for their students and school is welcome to attend as well.

Register for Implementing SB 1654.

For immediate release: April 11, 2023
Contact: [email protected]

Horne: Proposed Title IX change would decimate women’s sports

Federal proposal would allow transgender ID to trump biological sex

PHOENIX – Arizona schools chief Tom Horne says a proposed rule submitted by the U.S. Department of Education would decimate girls’ sports in public schools and is contrary to the original intent Title IX to provide a level playing field for women and girls to participate in team sports. The rule is also in conflict with Arizona law.

Arizona Revised Statutes 15-120.02 prohibits biological males from participating in girls’ sports sex except in limited coeducational situations.

The federal proposal would establish that public schools “violate Title IX when they categorically ban transgender students from participating on sports teams consistent with their gender identity just because of who they are.”

Horne stated: “This is not an LGBT issue. When I was in the Arizona legislature, I voted for every bill to extend civil rights to LGBT people. But permitting biological boys to compete in girls’ sports is extremely unfair, and in some cases, devastating to girl competitors.”

He added. “There are numerous news articles about girls who worked hard to excel in their sports, and then were devastated when they could not excel because they had to compete against biological boys, who have the advantage of male muscle mass and bone structure. If there were a sport for which male physical qualities were not an advantage, there would be no reason to divide boys from girls’ sports and they could have a mixed gender team. Otherwise, boys’ sports, need to before biological males, and girls’ sports for biological females.”

The federal proposal is subject to public comment. More information can be found here.

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April's data capture for the May 19^th payment is 4/15/23 at 5pm. 

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: FY23 Calendars need to be submitted, approved, and certified for ADM and funding to be generated.

The following videos provide general information related to the data reconciliation process:

• Introduction to Data Verification Reports: https://youtu.be/ou9Jst9qnsg
• Introduction to Data Verification Reports 2: https://youtu.be/_m3uEo3OGRI
• Introduction to Integrity: https://youtu.be/PYzBAEZmiSs

Prior payment reports can be found here: https://schoolfinancereports.azed.gov/.

Please submit a School Finance HelpDesk ticket if data assistance is needed.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT       

Special Education Data Updates Webinar Wednesday, April 19th 

The Exceptional Student Services Data Management team will host the next Special Education Data Updates live webinar on Wednesday, April 19th, from 2pm – 3pm. This session will cover a variety of data topics that will include (subject to change):   

• Reminders 

• Trending topics 

• Top 3 Integrity Errors 

• 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 

FY24 Statement of Assurances Open for Submission

The FY24 Statement of Assurances application is open for submission. All PEAs must submit the IDEA Statement of Assurances (SOA) through the ESS Portal of ADEConnect. This is required before any FY24 activities in the Exceptional Student Services portal are allowable. The portal will block any PEA that has not completed the SOA after the deadline.

The application is now open for submission and closes on June 15, 2023.

The SOA must be submitted by the Superintendent, Charter Holder, or Special Education Director of your organization before FY24 IDEA funding applications are approved in the Grants Management Enterprise system.

• The PEA must assign the role of ESS Special Education: Signer in ADEConnect to the individual that will review, sign, and submit the Statement of Assurances.
• PEAs that do not apply for IDEA funds are still required to submit the SOA.

Please direct any questions to [email protected].