Special Education Directors,

Are you anxious about starting the new school year without the data you typically rely on? Are you worried about how your school can meet the learning needs of all students during these uncertain times? ADE is here with research-based strategies to help!

The Arizona Department of Education, Exceptional Student Services, is pleased to announce a Data-Based Individualization Professional Learning Series in partnership with the National Center on Intensive Intervention.

Given the limited information about students’ skills as they begin the new school year, teachers will need to be more intentional than ever about assessing students’ current functioning and providing targeted and intensive intervention. The Data-Based individualization (DBI) Professional Learning Series teaches educators a research-based process for individualizing and intensifying interventions for students with and without disabilities through the systematic use of assessment data, validated interventions, and research-based adaptation strategies.

If your school is interested in participating in the series, please register your team (principal, special education teacher and general education teacher, coach, or interventionist) for a readiness webinar on July 15, 2020 from 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Admission into the training series will require participation in the webinar and submission of an application provided at the webinar and due on July 27, 2020. If your team cannot attend the webinar on July 15 but is interested in participating in the learning series, please email Kim Rice.

For more information, please see this flyer or contact Kim Rice, Exceptional Student Services Program Specialist.

Special Education Directors, 

Please join us for the next episode of the Thursday Afternoon LEarning Series, or TALES, on Thursday, June 25, 2020, from 2:45 to 3:45 p.m., “Using YouTube for Student Engagement – in Any Setting” with Paul West. Whether your district or charter school is planning to re-open with a brick-and-mortar, online, or hybrid model, teachers will need be more intentional than ever about delivering instruction in ways that engage our students. YouTube videos can be an important tech tool for student engagement for ALL students. In this session, you will learn about some of the unique ways videos can be used to teach to the strengths of students with disabilities, as well as some great tips and tricks for organizing, customizing, and presenting YouTube videos to support student engagement and learning. 

Paul has been a Coach of Digital Innovation for the Tempe Elementary School District for the last 5 years. Prior to that, he taught 4th and 5th grade for 5 years. Paul is well-versed in all manner of EdTech and is currently an ambassador for Flipgrid, Wakelet, and other versatile EdTech tools. Participant registration is first-come, first-served and is not limited to special educators – feel free to forward. Please click here to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

Questions regarding this TALES professional learning opportunity can be sent to [email protected].

Special Education Stakeholders,

 Due to the inability to ensure the safety of participants relative to COVID-19 and the variability of school re-entry plans, ADE/ESS has made the decision to cancel the in-person IDEA Conference in August 2020. The plan for this year was to provide a joint conference, combining the best professional development and spirit of the annual Transition Conference and Directors’ Institute. However, we want to assure you that the brick and mortar IDEA Conference will be back in 2021 and we look forward to coming together with the special education community in Arizona to learn, connect, and share.  

Even though the in-person IDEA Conference has been canceled for this year, we would still like to share content virtually throughout the 2020—2021 school year. We are currently working to develop a year-long schedule that encompasses state and local experts for both the secondary transition and special education director strands – and all sessions will be FREE for participants! We are anticipating a kickoff to the IDEA Virtual Conference year in late August – stay tuned for additional information!

We appreciate you all and look forward to the year ahead. As always, questions can be sent to the IDEA Inbox.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

ESS Discipline Data Collection Application XML Upload Feature

This alert serves as a notice to all PEAs that bulk upload feature in ESS Discipline Data Collection will be made available on 6/17/20.  Please released memo for more information.  This menu option will be available under Incident within the application.

Users will have the option to bulk upload with XML exports from your Student Information System.  Link to the XML schema is available on the Home page in the ESS Discipline Data Collection application.  Please contact your student information system vendor to specifically modify your XML export to match the new XML schema.

Please note:  File uploads will override all of the discipline data for the current fiscal year only for sites included in your XML file.

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

Special Education Directors,

Please see the available professional development opportunities below.

Dive Deep into AZ Math Standards

for

Special Education Teachers

We know that, as special education teachers, you are typically working across multiple grade levels and with students who have various strengths, and we are here to support you in making it all work!

Join us as we spend time diving into our math standards and supporting documents to consider the following:

• Where are the students coming from? We will delineate content from the previous grade level.
• What do they need to learn this year? We will discuss the major content standards of the current grade level and how we can embed previous year learnings.
• Where are they headed?  We will look at connections across grade bands that will support student learning in subsequent years.

See the list of sessions below, and please feel free to sign up for the session(s) that are most relevant to you, based on the students that you support.

Elementary Sessions

• Grades K-2:  June 23, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. or July 21, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
• Grades 2-3:  June 24, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. or July 22, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m.
• Grades 3-5: June 25, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. or July 23, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
• Grades 5-6: June 26, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. or July 24, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m.

Secondary Sessions

• 6^th Grade: June 23, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. or July 21, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
• 7^th – 8^th Grade: June 24, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. or July 22, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
• HS Algebra I/II: June 25, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. or July 23, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
• HS Geometry: June 26, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. or July 24, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

NEW INTEGRITY RULE: Integrity Rule -40077

Effective Fiscal Year 2021, a new field will be required in AzEDS for SPED Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) records:  Resident School ID.  Student Information Systems (SIS) should be updated by your vendor to allow this new field according to the FY21 AzEDS API.

Integrity rule -40077 will validate every SPED LRE reported has an associated Resident School ID, identified in the API as Student Education Organization Responsibility Association.  Regardless of enrollment, this is defined as the EntityID of the site the student would attend within the District of Residence (DOR) without an IEP:

• Private Day School - the public school site where the student would be enrolled and attending if not placed in the private day school.
• Voucher - the public school site where the student would be enrolled and attending if not placed in the residential treatment center or a state institution.
• Public Education Agency Placement (PEA) - the public school site where the student would be enrolled and attending if not placed in another PEA.
• Head Start Programs - the public school site where the student would be enrolled and attending if not placed in the Head Start program.
• Public School - defaults to the public school site where the student is currently enrolled & attending.

A new integrity one-sheet tool has been published on our website to aid troubleshooting this error:  Integrity Tool -40077

Special Education Directors,

Please see this important Notice of Public Comment from ADE Assessment:

ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PUBLIC NOTICE AND COMMENT PERIOD WAIVER REQUEST PURSUANT TO 34 C.F.R. §200.6(c)(4) June 4, 2020

As part of waiver requirements, the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) is posting an opportunity for public comment regarding the ADE seeking a one-year waiver pursuant to §8401(b) from requirements within the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015 from the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE). The USDOE requires state educational agencies, when seeking waivers from statutory or regulatory requirements, solicit and respond to public comment on the request and provide evidence of the available comment period. This 15-day public comment period will be open from June 4 through June 19, 2020.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD: Any individual or organization may submit written comments on the proposed waiver pursuant to 34 C.F.R. §200.6(c)(4). Written comments shall be accepted through June 19, 2020.

Requirements from which Arizona is seeking a waiver include:

• Sections 1111(b)(2)(B) (v)(ii) that require states to test all students in science not less than one time during Grades 3 through 5; Grades 6 through 9; and Grades 10 through 12.

• Section 1111(b)(2)(B)(v)(x) which requires reporting results for students, schools, and districts.

The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) is planning a census field test for both its standard and alternate assessments in spring 2021 in Grades 5, 8, and 11. These new assessments will be aligned to the new 2018 Arizona Science Standards (adopted October 2018), which are based on the Framework for K-12 Science Education and Working with Big Ideas of Science Education, and will be ready for spring 2022.

This waiver for Grade 8 will enable the ADE to administer the census field test statewide in spring 2021 in lieu of the legacy science assessments (AIMS Science and AIMS A Science) that are aligned to the old standards and not the new Arizona Science Standards. The waiver will help Arizona’s students and educators in many ways:

• It will reduce testing time for students and educators in Grade 8. This is the only grade with overlap.
• It will allow schools to rework their curriculum and instruction to align to the new Arizona Science Standards.
• It will enable teachers to begin teaching the new science standards without the pressure of also preparing students for the legacy assessment.
• A census field test will prepare students and educators for both the technical and academic expectations of this assessment for 2021 and beyond.

The ADE will not issue scores from the field test for students, schools, or districts. However, districts and schools will be held accountable for participation in the 2020 – 2021 Arizona AzSCI field test for Grade 8. The Arizona State Board of Education is aware and approves of this waiver request. The State Board will be addressing the impacts for State Accountability for Grade 8.

You may submit your comments electronically June 4 through June 19, 2020, using the following link: /assessment/public-comment-science-waiver/ or directly to Audra Ahumada, Deputy Associate Superintendent of Assessments, Arizona Department of Education, 1535 West Jefferson St. Bin #6, Phoenix, AZ 85007. Mrs. Ahumada may be reached by telephone at 602-542-5450, by fax at 602-542-5467, or through email at [email protected].

Special Education Directors,

Based on questions received during Special Education Director Check-Ins and through the ESS Inbox, it appears that there is some confusion about the credentialing requirements for speech-language pathologists (SLPs), including out-of-state telehealth providers, speech-language technicians (SLTs), and speech-language pathologists-limited (SLPLs). Also, ADE/ESS has learned there may be some questions regarding the job duties of a speech-language pathology assistant (SLPA). The following information has been provided to ADE/ESS by the Arizona Department of Health Services, Office of Special Licensing.

“To work in a public school setting, SLPs, including out-of-state telehealth providers, SLTs and SLPLs must hold both a current license from the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) and a current non-teaching professional certificate from the Arizona Department of Education (ADE). SLPAs only need ADHS licensure as ADE does not issue certificates to SLPAs. Individual practitioners must check with the credentialing agencies of the state where they reside to determine if they must also be licensed/certified in that state in order to (tele)practice in another state.

SLPAs must be supervised by a master’s level licensed and certified SLP , SLPL, or a SLT with a SLPL certification. Please see A.R.S. § 36-1940.04(E) through (G) for more information. Please see A.R.S. § 36-1940.04(E) through (G) for more information.

Public education agencies (PEAs) are responsible for verifying that speech personnel working with their students hold the appropriate credentials. The potential repercussions of providing speech-language services without the appropriate credentials are serious for both the individual and the public education agency (PEA), regardless of whether the individual is employed directly by the PEA or contracted through a third party.

Speech personnel should provide a copy of the required credentials prior to employment. You may confirm the AZDHS license by entering the holder’s name in the ADHS Care Check Portal. District and charter school HR administrators may confirm the ADE certificate through the Educator Certificate Search Portal.

For additional information about the provision of speech services in the schools, please refer to ADE/ESS’ Arizona Technical Assistance System (AZ-TAS) document, “Speech-Language Services in Arizona’s Schools: Guidelines for Best Practice” on the ADE website. Please forward this information to any interested parties, including your PEA’s HR office.”

If you have questions about ADE certification of speech personnel, please contact ADE certification specialists. If you have questions about the licensure of speech personnel, contact AZDHS, Office of Special Licensing. Thank you.

Special Education Directors,

The opening of ED-P applications (public entities) for the 2020-2021 school year has been delayed until June 1, 2020 to make internal changes to the application in preparation for next year. There will not be a definite due date until we get closer to the end of June. Failure to apply to the application may potentially cause integrity failures toward the end of the upcoming school year, which may affect state payments.

Please see memo for more information.

Dear Special Education Directors,

Please join us for our next episode of the Thursday Afternoon LEarning Series, or TALES,  on Thursday, May 14, 2020 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., when we welcome special guest lecturer Jamie Valderrama, a national and international speaker and current Undergraduate Coordinator at Arizona State University for the Integrative Health Initiative, to present for us “The Magic of Mindfulness.”

We are all currently experiencing extraordinary levels of stress on a daily basis with the demands of working from home while caring for family members, supporting our own children’s online learning, and worrying about all our students and their families. Stir-crazy and stressed is not a good place to be! But luckily, we know there are some simple, free things that can help. Mindfulness is increasingly gaining attention worldwide with the emergence of promising data showing how the simple act of being aware can deregulate the body’s stress response, leading to a happier and healthier life. “The Magic of Mindfulness” highlights the stress response (physically and psychologically) as well as applicable mindful practices to deregulate stressful triggers in our personal and professional lives. This presentation is funny, insightful, and may help you not only get through this crisis, but it may also change your life.

Participant registration is first-come, first-served and is not limited to special educators – feel free to forward. Please click here to register.

Questions regarding this TALES professional learning opportunity can be sent to the ESS Inbox or directed to the ESS receptionist at 602-542-4013.