Registration for the 2023 Special Education New Director Symposium (SENDS) is closing soon, so please be sure to register if you are beginning your first or second year as a special education director.

The purpose of this professional learning opportunity is to prepare new special education directors for the practical operation of a special education system. Topics covered in SENDS include compliance and legal requirements, fiscal issues, assessment, general supervision, and ADE supports and resources.

SENDS will be held virtually from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on September 15, October 20, November 3, and December 8. New special education directors serving Arizona public education agencies in their first or second year of being a special education director (including any previous positions) are eligible to attend. Each new director will also receive a one-year membership to the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and CEC’s Council for Administrators of Special Education (CASE) special interest division. The cost of participation in SENDS is $50.

Register for the Special Education New Director Symposium (SENDS).

For questions about SENDS, please email the ESS Recruitment and Retention Inbox.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT  

Preschool Outcomes Reporting

Effective fiscal year 2024, Preschool Outcomes will now be reported to Arizona Education Data Standards (AzEDS). The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) requires State Education Agencies to calculate the percentage of preschool children aged 3 through 5 with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) who demonstrate improved outcomes with Social Relationships, Use of Knowledge and Skills, and Taking Action to Meet Needs.

Preschool Outcomes Reporting Guidance is available on the Data Management website.

Integrity rules have been introduced to ensure that Preschool Outcomes are correctly reported. Integrity error troubleshooting guides have been created to assist Public Education Agencies with troubleshooting if needed. The integrity rules and links are as follows:

• NEW - 40087 - When entering a Preschool Least Restrictive Environment (LRE), the three Outcome Assessments must be reported: Social-Emotional, Knowledge-Skills, and Behaviors. Please refer to the ESS Preschool Outcomes Reporting Guidance document.
• NEW - 40088 - When exiting a Preschool Least Restrictive Environment (LRE), the three Outcome Assessments must be reported: Social-Emotional, Knowledge-Skills, and Behaviors. Please refer to the ESS Preschool Outcomes Reporting Guidance document.
• NEW - 40089 – When Exit Preschool Outcome is reported, the Progress Made must indicate Yes or No.

Please email ESS Data Management with any questions regarding Preschool Outcomes reporting.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT 

Ancillary Needs Reporting

Effective fiscal year 2024, Ancillary Needs can be reported to Arizona Education Data Standards (AzEDS). Students who require ancillary services but do not require special education (SPED) instruction as outlined in A.R.S. § 15-769 (D) and students on an Individualized Education Program (IEP) with ancillary needs can be reported.  

Ancillary needs reporting guidance is available on the Data Management website: Ancillary Needs Reporting in AzEDS. 

Integrity rules have been introduced to ensure that Ancillary Needs are correctly reported. Integrity One Sheet Tools have been created to assist Public Education Agencies (PEAs) with troubleshooting if needed. New integrity rules related to Ancillary Needs are as follows: 

• NEW -40090 – Any SPED needs marked as Ancillary must be a Group B need (A, HI, MOID, SID, MD, MDSSI, OI, PSD, EDP, or VI) 
• NEW -40091 – Any SPED need marked as Ancillary can only be reported with an LRE of L, C, D, PD, or PE 
• NEW -40092 – Any SPED need within a Least Restrictive Environment L (Ancillary services provided for Students not on an IEP) must be marked as Ancillary 
• NEW -40093 – Ancillary SPED Needs reported within a Least Restriction Environment L are not to be included by an IEP that indicates that a Federal Primary Need Indicator (FPNI). All needs within LRE L code must not be primary.  

Updated integrity rules related to Ancillary Needs are as follows: 

• -40004 - Concurrent Need and Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) Code Eligibility matrix updated to disallow LRE L reporting for Preschool or Ungraded Elementary grades.
• -40020 - Concurrent PEA and Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) Code Eligibility matrix updating to allow LRE L reported by Public Districts or Public Charters only. 
• -40029 - Concurrent Need and Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) Code Eligibility matrix updated to allow only Group B Needs to be reported within LRE L. 
• -40050 - Student participating in special education must have one Federal Primary Need Indicator (FPNI) – Update rule to allow an exception for LRE L. No needs within LRE L can be Primary.  
• -40051 - If a student is reported with more than one Federal Primary Need Indicator (FPNI), then report the discrepancy as an error. (Rule does not apply for Ancillary Needs) 

 Please email ESS Data Management with any questions regarding Ancillary Services. 

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

Special Education Data Updates Webinar Wednesday, August 16 

The Exceptional Student Services Data Management team will host the next Special Education Data Updates live webinar on Wednesday, August 16, from 2:00– 3:00 pm.

This session will cover a variety of data topics that will include (subject to change):   

• Reminders 
• SPED Report Focus
• Trending topics 
• Topics Not in Scope
• Top 3 Integrity Errors 
• Q&A    

 Registration is required to attend: Register for Special Education Data Updates webinar. For questions, please email the ESS Data Management inbox. 

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

SEDD Certification Begins Today, July 24th

Final FY23 Special Education Data certification begins today, July 24th, and is due by August 3rd.

Requirements for certification in the Special Education Data Dashboard (SEDD) application include:

• Student Exit Data: Students who qualify for SPED Exit as outlined in the SPED Exit Flow Chart.
  • Review of SPED Exiters was due on July 21st, aligning with the close of FY23 AzEDS.
  • Any sites not reviewed will still require certification; a comment box is available on the certification page for any additional information.
• Preschool Transition Data: required for PEAs that provide special education and related services to preschoolers. Data entry involves information on students who transferred from Part C (Arizona Early Intervention Program) to Part B (PEA preschool program).
• Students without Disabilities: data entry is required for PEAs to identify whether educational services were provided to students without disabilities reported as long-term suspended or expelled in AzEDS.

Please review the SEDD Technical Assistance Manual beginning on page 13 for additional assistance with certification.

If you have any questions, please contact ESS Data Management.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT 
FY23 SEDD FINAL Exit Data Status Update 

The inconsistency issues with the exit data in the SEDD application have resulted from incorrect timing in our processing steps.  

The exit data in the SEDD application is static as of 7:00 am on July 19, 2023 (yesterday).

The SPED74 available in AzEDS is not static. Thus, at this time, this report can no longer be used for comparison purposes.

Please refer to the SEDD exit data if you have not completed the required review process. The due date is July 21, 2023.

If you find data discrepancies in your SEDD Exit report, please document them. During the SEDD Certification process, a comment box will be available to document the discrepancies.

On Monday, July 24, 2023, the SEDD Certification process will commence. The Certification button will appear after all data entry requirements have been completed (Exit Data Review, Preschool Transition (if applicable), and Students without Disabilities (if applicable)). Once the Certification button is available on the home page of the SEDD application, this final step must be done by Thursday, August 3, 2023.

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your continued patience.

As the new school year approaches, we encourage you to ask yourself if Secondary Transition training would be helpful for you or your staff. Whether it's a quick refresher or an in-depth professional development opportunity, the ADE/ESS team has various training options available to help meet the unique best practice needs of your school or region.

We look forward to working together this year to help to improve Secondary Transition outcomes for students across Arizona. Please email the Secondary Transition team with any questions.

ADE/ESS has received numerous questions about Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) evaluations. The purpose of this Hot Topic is to help to highlight the differences between evaluations specified in federal and state special education regulations and ESA evaluations outlined in state regulations.

For questions related to special education evaluations, please contact the PEA’s assigned Program Support and Monitoring (PSM) specialist. Please contact the ADE/ESA program for questions related to ESA evaluations.

Hot Topic Memo

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT 

UPDATE: FY23 SEDD Exit Data and Discipline Data Collection (DDC) Reporting

We are happy to share that the SEDD issue documented previously has been resolved, and the SPED exit data is again viewable within the SEDD application.

Data can no longer be corrected in AzEDS. We are extending the Discipline Data Collection and SEDD exit reviews to Friday, July 21, 2023.

If there is a discrepancy in your data, please have the LEA Signer elaborate in the comments section during the Certification process that has also been extended to begin on Monday, July 24, 2023.

The SEDD due date for Preschool Transition data, Students without Disabilities data, and Certification will remain Wednesday, August 3, 2023.

Questions regarding these dates can be directed to ESS Data Management.