DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT: FY 2021 Annual Special Education Data Collection & Training Videos

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

FY 2021 Annual Special Education Data Collection

GENERAL INFORMATION

On Monday, April 26, 2021 the Exceptional Student Services (ESS) Annual Special Education (SPED) Data Collection application for FY 2021 will be available to all public education agencies (PEAs). PEAs are expected to complete this data collection requirement electronically, utilizing ADEConnect to access the online application via the ESS Portal. 

Note: 

• If you belong to a cooperative, please do not ask your Cooperative Coordinator to submit your data. It is each PEA’s responsibility to submit individual data.
• If your PEA does not have data that qualifies for inclusion in this online application as determined by AzEDS, it is expected that you will click the “No Students Served” button on the home page to certify with signature. 

ADECONNECT

ADEConnect requires an email address and password, which is also used for other electronic data submissions to the Arizona Department of Education. You can access ADEConnect and support information at the following link: https://home.azed.gov/Portal/, however, PEAs are encouraged to access through their Student Information System (SIS). It is recommended that the SPED Director request access for all users.

The request will need to go through the PEA Local ADE Connect Entity Administrator. ESS Data Management will provide secondary approval.

TIMELINES

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) requires Annual SPED Data Collection information in order for Arizona to receive Part B IDEA funding. Therefore, failure to promptly submit your PEA’s data may cause an interruption of your federal funds and may also impact your PEA Determination.

 Open Date: Monday, April 26, 2021

• Exit & Discipline Data Submission Due Date: Thursday, July 15, 2021 by 5:00 PM
• Data Certification Begins: Wednesday, July 21, 2021
• ADC Due Date: Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Updates for FY 2021 Annual SPED Data Collection Reporting

The Annual SPED Data Collection consists of the following sections: Exit and Discipline report required by all PEAs. Preschool Transition and Parentally Placed Private School Students reports are required by districts only (if applicable). 

There are minimal changes to the Annual SPED Data Collection this year; however, all data requirements are subject to change as federal guidance is received. The following updates will be incorporated in the online application:

• Instructions and FAQs posted on the home page will have changes outlined in bold. PLEASE READ!
• There are no changes to the Exit and Parentally Placed Private School Students reports.
• Modifications have been made to Preschool Transition to remove the COVID line item.

Exit Data Extract from AzEDS

Given that AzEDS is the system of record for FY 2021, the exit data report will be refreshed nightly. This data will be finalized after the FY 2021 Statewide Recalculation scheduled for July 15, 2021. 

Discipline Data Extract from DDC

ESS Discipline Data Collection (DDC) is available through ADEConnect via the ESS Portal. PEAs are expected to submit discipline data for special education students, either manually into the DDC application or by uploading data to DDC via an export from their SIS. The discipline report will be refreshed nightly, based on data extracted from DDC.

Discipline for Tuitioned-Out Students

As the district of residence (DOR), it is the PEA’s responsibility to manually enter the discipline data for tuitioned-out students. For purposes of this data collection, “tuitioned-out” refers to students who reside in your PEA and are tuitioned-out to one of the following: Approved Private Day Schools, Approved Private Residential Treatment Center, Head Start, Public Consortium, and Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind (ASDB).

ASDB STUDENTS

As the DOR, PEAs that voucher preschool students to ASDB are responsible for reporting preschool transition data for their students. The home district receives the referral from AzEIP and is ultimately responsible for the IEPs of its students. DORs will also be responsible for reporting discipline and exit data for voucher students to DDC and AzEDS. If your PEA has discipline data to report for voucher preschool students to ASDB this data must be manually entered under the school identified as “Tuitioned-out School” found on your PEA’s School list.

Data Certification

The data certification process will commence on Wednesday, July 21, 2021, and electronic signatures are due to ADE/ESS by Wednesday, August 4, 2021 by 5:00 PM. During this time period, PEAs will have the opportunity to complete any outstanding agency reports, review exit and discipline reports, proceed with the data certification process, make any required exit data corrections, complete Section E of the Discipline report for students without disabilities (if applicable), and submit the required electronic signature. Signatures will only be accepted from the SPED Director, business manager or superintendent/charter school administrator attesting to the accuracy and the validity of the data submitted.

TRAINING

Training modules are intended to provide assistance to PEA and school personnel who are involved with special education data collection and reporting. The following training modules relevant to this data collection are posted on the Training Videos webpage:  

1.  An Overview of the ESS Annual Data Collection reporting requirements;
2. Exit and Discipline School Reports;
3. Print Reports 101; 
4. Agency Reports, an overview of the Preschool Transition and Parentally Placed Student reports;
5. Discipline Data Collection, an overview of the data submission requirements for purposes of the Discipline report (note that this webinar was held on April 12th and a recording of this webinar will be available under its own section soon); and
6. Data Certification, an overview on the steps required to close out this data collection requirement.  

 The target audience of these training modules will be the novice user. However, these modules are also available to advanced users who wish to review a “refresher” on this data collection.

If you have any questions, please direct them to ESS Data Management.