Updates

Special Education Directors,

The ADE/ESS Assistive Technology (AT) team is excited to announce our next 2022–23 national presenter: Therese Willkomm, PhD. Dr. Willkomm’s workshop is designed for special educators and related service providers.

Making AT for Educational Success: A “Hands On” Make and Take Workshop

Special Education Directors and Preschool Coordinators,
 

The ADE/ESS Early Childhood Special Education unit will host the 2023 Summit for Early Intervention and Preschool Special Education in partnership with Arizona’s Early Intervention Program on March 2–3, 2023. The Summit is a virtual event and will offer presentations for teachers, direct and related services providers, administrators, and families of children with disabilities on best practices for working with young children with disabilities.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT 

Weekend closure of Exceptional Student Services Portal and Applications

Please be aware that all ESS Applications will be unavailable on Saturday, November 5, 2022. The applications will be back up and running no later than Monday, November 7, 2022. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

The Exceptional Student Services IT team will be updating the Exceptional Student Services Portal and ESS Applications over the weekend.  During this update, all ESS Applications, Online Forms, and ESS Portal will be unavailable in ADEConnect and links will be deactivated on ESS websites.

Special Education Directors,

Are you looking for Speech-Language Pathologists or Speech-Language Pathology Assistants?

From November 17–19, 2022, ADE/ESS will staff a recruitment booth on behalf of all public education agencies in Arizona at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (AHSA) annual national convention. Over 20,000 SLPs and graduate students attend ASHA’s convention each year.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT   

FY 2023 October 1 Data Collection Phase I Verification due 11/16 by 5pm

This is a reminder that the October 1 Data Collection (ODC) Phase I verification count is due Wednesday, November 16, 2022, by 5pm. This phase includes the submission of your Public Education Agency (PEA) Special Education (SPED) student count and personnel Full-Time Equivalency (FTE) data. 

All PEAs are required to verify the aggregate count of students receiving SPED services over October 1, including zero counts. This is an internal count using your student information systems and student rosters; AzEDS reports should not be used to gather Phase I Verification Count.

Special Education Directors,

ESS collects data each year through the Teacher Attrition Survey to make informed decisions about recruitment and retention efforts in Arizona. Participation in the survey is mandatory for all public education agencies in Arizona.

The survey is open now and will close on January 31, 2023. Please see this memo for further details. Answers to frequently asked questions regarding the survey can be located online. If you have additional questions, please email the ESS Recruitment and Retention Inbox. 

Special Education Directors,

Project EASEL, in partnership with ADE/ESS, invites you to tune into the Exploring Strategies for Social Emotional Learning fall and spring professional learning series. We plan to share various information and strategies to support your understanding and implementation of assertiveness, self-efficacy, and self-regulation. 

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT 

SPED Need Autism concurrently reported with Emotional Disability

Beginning FY23, an update to integrity rule -40000 took effect to allow SPED Need combination A (Autism) with ED or EDP (Emotional Disability). ESS determined this change to be in error and ESS will roll back the change to not allow this reporting combination. ESS reverted this change to maintain alignment with 34 CFR 300.8(c)(1)(ii) and A.R.S. § 15-761(1).

ESS has updated the Concurrent Need Eligibility Matrix for this correction and AzEDS will appropriately fail affected students within this fiscal year.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

-40071 Update to allow SPED10 exit code for students within 90 days of their third birthday with Board Approval

An update to integrity rule -40071 (SPED Exit code 10 may only be used for student 3-5yrs old, enrolled in PS, KG or UE grade, and exited from enrollment on same date) will take effect in AzEDS shortly.

This update will allow SPED Exit Code 10 (Withdrawn by Parent and no Longer enrolled) to be used for students within 90 days of their third birthday (the governing board of a school district or the appropriate approving body of a charter school may admit otherwise eligible children who are within ninety days of their third birthday, if it is determined to be in the best interest of the individual child per ARS § 15-771(G))

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT 

ED-P reporting in Residential Treatment Centers

An update to allowable SPED Needs reported for Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) ES will take effect in AzEDS shortly. This update will allow the combination of SPED Need ED-P to be reported with LRE ES (Public or Private Residential Facility for greater than 50% of the school day placed by another state agency (not an IEP team decision)).