Updates

Special Education Directors,

The Arizona Department of Education encourages our public education agencies (PEAs) to register for the Arizona Educator Job Fair to recruit new employees to your school community.

• When: Saturday, February 26, 2022 from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
• Where: Renaissance Phoenix Glendale Hotel and Conference Center, 9495 W. Coyotes Blvd, Glendale, AZ 85305
• Registration: Click here to reserve your booth
• Registration Deadline: Thursday, February 10, 2022

Dear Special Education Directors,

All school districts and charter schools are required to annually administer the State Performance Plan Indicator 8 Parent Involvement Survey to parents of students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP). The survey will open January 18 via ADEConnect ESS Data Surveys. For more information, visit the survey web page.

As part of our ongoing recruitment efforts on behalf of Arizona’s public schools, ADE/ESS compiles and updates a list of education career fairs happening at educator preparation programs across the country.

If your school is planning to recruit for special education teachers from out of the state, we hope this list will make that task a bit easier for you. Review the Education Careers Fair Calendar to support your recruitment efforts this spring. The list is also available on the Arizona Education Employment Board website on the “Employer” page under the “Find a University Job Fair” icon.

Please be aware the Exceptional Student Services October 1 processing will be updated today to include integrity rules for Membership and Accountability. This will result in any SPED student receiving services over October 1 failing Membership or Accountability rules to be excluded from your October 1 count. Many existing SPED integrity rules rely on Membership and Accountability rules to ensure clean data.

The October 1 Data Collection (ODC) application Phase II due date has been extended from December 15, 2021 to the NEW due date of January 18, 2022 by 5pm.

The FY22 ARP-IDEA Consolidated-Entitlement Grant is now available in the Grants Management Enterprise (GME) system. The ARP-IDEA Consolidated Grant must be submitted as a new funding application. The code assigned to ARP IDEA Basic and ARP IDEA Preschool should fall within the codes of the federal project for IDEA Funds. The IDEA Consolidated-Entitlement funding application allocations will be updated soon and require a budget revision to bring the remaining balance to $0.00 for the IDEA Preschool and IDEA Basic grants.

The SPED07 report is now available within the October 1 Data Collection (ODC) application for Phase II: Reconciliation. 

Special Education Directors,

Please see below the free professional learning opportunity that is available to you and your staff.

From Barriers to Belonging: Supporting Inclusion for Students with Disabilities

with Eric Carter

Thursday, December 2 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

A new integrity rule for FY 2022 will be introduced into the integrity process on SPED data shortly.  This new rule is a continuation of our effort to further validate SPED reporting to ensure clean data for the state.    

A new one-sheet Integrity Tool is available on our AzEDS SPED Reporting webpage for troubleshooting tips. It has been added to our SPED Integrity Rules Reference document and referenced on the FY 2022 ESS Data Reporting Updates document.  

Integrity Rule -10138 

This rule will validate any students enrolled at an approved Private Day School to have a corresponding SPED Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) reported for all dates of the enrollment.  

Please share the following details about upcoming professional learning opportunities for general and special education teachers who teach mathematics.