Special Education Directors,ADE/ESS is acutely aware of the shortage of qualified special education teachers and related service providers across Arizona. ESS has multiple activities and programs to support PEAs to confront this shortage every school year. The ESS Recruitment and Retention team has created Developing a Grow Your Own Program: A Guide for Special Education Administrators as a reference as you consider developing and implementing a Grow Your Own program as part of your own recruitment and retention efforts.

Special Education Directors,The ADE/ESS Assistive Technology (AT) team is excited to announce the 2022–2023 National Presenter Series with Kelli Suding, MEd. This workshop is designed for special educators and related service providers.“Assistive Technology Integration for All Students”Date: Tuesday, October 25, 2022Time: 8:30 a.m.−3:30 p.m.

Important Suicide Prevention Awareness Month Reminder!

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness month. How safe is your home?

The School District Employee Report (SDER) On-Line Application is now open to accept employee data. This application is accessible through ADE Connect. You must submit your SDER data by end of day on October 15, 2022

ADE will complete the submission of 2022 data for all districts that are required to submit by the November 22, 2022 due date.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERTExceptional Student Services (ESS) Discipline Data Collection (DDC) Application Opening September 14The ESS DDC application will open for fiscal year (FY) 2023 incident entry on September 14, 2022.There are no significant changes to the DDC application this school year. ESS requires all Public Education Agencies (PEAs) to manually enter or bulk upload discipline data incidents into the DDC application. The XML Schema for PEAs choosing the bulk upload option is unchanged.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERTFY23 ESS October 1 Parentally Placed Private School Students Training Webinar ESS Data Management will host a training webinar for the ESS October 1 Parentally Placed Private School Students on September 28, 2022, from 10:00 am – 11:00 am.This webinar is intended for School Districts with geographic boundaries ONLY. (Charter schools are not responsible for private school count or required for proportionate share.)

School Finance has received several questions about the impact of student enrollment and withdrawal on Empowerment Scholarship Account program eligibility.

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month; in Arizona, some 1400 individuals die by suicide annually. But you can help. We have more resources than ever to offer community members to help everyone prevent suicides.