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.

This year’s theme is Keeping the EC in the Ecosystem: Partnering for Improvement, and our keynote speakers will focus on themes of supporting all children, inclusion, ensuring access to high-quality programming, and building collaborative systems to address program needs.

Discounts to attend are available for families of children with disabilities and students enrolled in community college or university education programs.

Register for the Summit

Email us with any questions

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.

No deadline extensions for ESS data collections are offered due to this weekend closure.

For any questions regarding this interruption in service, please feel free to contact [email protected].

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.

If your PEA would like ESS to promote your speech opening(s) at ASHA, please post them on the ADE job board as soon as possible. Our recruiting materials will direct candidates to information about becoming licensed and certified to practice in Arizona and to the Arizona Education Employment Board.

Post your vacancies today!

For more information, please email the ESS Recruitment and Retention Inbox.

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.

More information and training videos are available on the ESS October 1 Data Collection website.

Please refer to the Important Dates document on the ODC timeline for a complete outline of deadline requirements for this data collection, and contact [email protected] with any questions.

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. 

Thank you for completing the Teacher Attrition Survey.

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.

For questions regarding SPED Data Reporting, please contact ESS Data Management .

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))

The FY23 Data Reporting Updates document has been updated in the ESS Data Management Toolkit available on the ESS Data Management website.

Additional documentation updated to reflect this change is also available on the AzEDS SPED Reporting webpage:

• SPED Integrity Rules Reference
• Integrity Tool -40071

For questions regarding SPED Data Reporting, please contact ESS Data Management Inbox.

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)).

Please see this official ADE memo for more information about this update.

Integrity rules -40004 and -40029 have been updated to allow this combination.

Additional documentation updated to reflect this change is also available on the AzEDS SPED Reporting webpage:

• Concurrent Need and Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) Code Eligibility Matrix
• SPED Integrity Rules Reference
  • Integrity Tool -40004
  • Integrity Tool -40029

For questions regarding SPED Data Reporting, please contact ESS Data Management Inbox.

For questions regarding RTC placements and voucher applications, please contact ESS Vouchers Inbox.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT 

Special Education Data Updates Webinar Wednesday, October 19th   

The Exceptional Student Services Data Management team will be hosting the next Special Education Data Updates live webinar on Wednesday, October 19th from 2pm – 3pm. This session will cover a variety of data topics that will include (subject to change):   

• Reminders 
  • FY21 October 1 PEA Student Count document available
  • October 1 Data Collection (ODC) open date and due date 
• Trending topics 
  • Data Collection Expectations
  • Review of Phase I of ODC
  • How to calculate Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
  • Parentally Placed Students
• 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 contact ESS Data Management via email at [email protected].