State Performance Plan and Annual Performance Report
State Performance Plan (SPP) and Annual Performance Report (APR)
Every state must develop and submit for federal approval a State Performance Plan (SPP) that outlines the actions the State will take to implement the purposes of the IDEA and that explains how the State will evaluate its progress in these areas. In an Annual Performance Report (APR), each State must report on its progress and on the progress of children with disabilities toward meeting the goals established in the APR.
Public Agency Performance
Each State must also report annually to the public on the performance of each public educational agency (PEA) located in the State on the targets in its Part B – SPP as soon as practicable, but no later than 120 days following the State’s submission of its Part B – APR to the United States Department of Education.
Significant Disproportionality
Under Section 618 of The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 2004 (IDEA 2004), States are required to collect and examine data to determine if significant disproportionality based on race and ethnicity is occurring in the State and the public education agencies (PEAs) of the state with respect to:
- the identification of children as children with disabilities, including the identification of children as children with disabilities in accordance with a particular impairment;
- the placement in particular educational settings of such children; and
- the incidence, duration, and type of disciplinary actions, including suspensions and expulsions.
The State has moved to a Risk Ratio method to determine the likelihood of overrepresentation of a group when compared to another group. Arizona defines significant disproportionality as a rate of greater than or equal to 3.0 within a group compared to another group. If the ratio is greater than or equal to 3.0 for three consecutive years, the PEA is significantly disproportionate. PEAs that do not meet minimum cell size (10) are exempt from calculation. PEAs that do not meet the minimum n-size (30) are calculated using the alternate risk ratio.
