SARC Preparation Guide for Nonpublic Schools

Pursuant to Chapter 914, Statutes of 2004 (Assembly Bill 1858), and pursuant to Education Code (EC) Section 56366(a)(9), all nonpublic, nonsectarian (NPS) schools are required to prepare a SARC in accordance with EC Section 33126. This requirement applies to NPS schools but does not apply to NPS agencies. The law became effective January 1, 2005.

For the purpose of the SARC program, a local educational agency (LEA) is a school district or a county office of education or a direct funded charter (DFC) school or a NPS school.

The California Department of Education (CDE) has developed the myCDEconnect unified system for the convenience of the LEAs to manage multiple program reports all in one location. In the myCDEconnect system LEAs can register for one or more programs, work on their program reports in one location, and do all of this through one login user account.

The programs available in the myCDEconnect unified system are the School Accountability Report Card (SARC), the California School Dashboard (CA Dashboard), and the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) eTemplate (eTemplate).

Register for a SARC User Account

Main Authorizers

For the SARC program, the Main Authorizers are the persons listed on the California School Directory in the categories of County Superintendent, District Superintendent, DFC School Administrator, and NPS School Administrator.

Main Authorizers do not register. The myCDEconnect system automatically registers Main Authorizers into the system and sends an email from noreply@mycdeconnect.org to their email address (as listed on the California School Directory), with their username and temporary password. Their username is their email address listed on the California School Directory.

For new Main Authorizers, when the California School Directory is updated and a new Main Authorizer’s name and email address are displayed on the California School Directory, then within 24 to 48 hours the system will automatically register that updated new Main Authorizer into the system and send an email with their username and temporary password. Their username is their email address listed on the California School Directory. The system will also automatically inactivate the user account of the previously listed Main Authorizer.

Main Authorizers receive the email registration requests for the approval/denial process from those registering to be a Coordinator and those registering to be an Alternate Authorizer for their LEA.

The Main Authorizer's user accounts provide them with the capability to delete the user accounts of the Alternate Authorizer and Coordinators of their LEA, as needed. They also have the capability to access all programs in the myCDEconnect system; and to input, edit, save, and post the reports of all programs in the system for all the schools in their LEA.

Coordinators

A SARC Coordinator is an employee of the LEA or a third-party vendor contracted with the LEA, designated to prepare and process the LEA’s SARC reports on the myCDEconnect unified system.

How to register as a Coordinator:

• Step 1: Go to the myCDEconnect . In the top right menu select “Registration”.
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  Step 2: Select User Type button “Coordinator”; select the button for “School Accountability Report Card (SARC)”; scroll to the bottom of the web page, select “Continue”
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  Step 3: Use the “Search for individual schools” if selecting one or more NPS schools; type the name of the NPS school, select the school; repeat until you have completed your list of NPS schools.
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  Once you have your completed list of school(s), scroll to the bottom of the web page, select “Continue”.
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  Step 4: Populate the requested registration information. All mandatory fields identified with an asterisk (*) must be completed in order to submit this form.
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  Scroll to the bottom of the web page, select “Submit".
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  Step 5: You have completed the registration process. You are advised to print this confirmation web page for your records.
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  Your registration request has been emailed to your Main Authorizer (and to the Alternate Authorizer, if designated/approved).
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  If your Registration Request is approved, you will receive an email from noreply@mycdeconnect.org with username and temporary password information (your username is the email address used when registering).
  
  If your Registration Request is denied, you will receive an email from noreply@mycdeconnect.org with denial notification.

Alternate Authorizers

An Alternate Authorizer must be an employee of the LEA, designated by the Main Authorizer of the LEA to act on behalf of the Main Authorizer in all required capacity for the programs on the myCDEconnect unified system.

The Alternate Authorizer will have all the same system responsibilities and capabilities as the Main Authorizer. Designating an Alternate Authorizer is an available option (not a requirement) for the convenience of the Main Authorizer, with a limit of 1 Alternate Authorizer per LEA.

The system will send the Alternate Authorizer all the same Coordinator registration request emails that are sent to their Main Authorizer to enable the Alternate Authorizer to act on behalf of the Main Authorizer to approve or decline Coordinator registration requests.

How to register as an Alternate Authorizer:

• Step 1: Go to the myCDEconnect . In the top right menu select “Registration”.
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  Step 2: Select User Type button “Alternate Authorizer”; scroll to the bottom of the web page, select “Continue”
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  Step 3: Type the name of the NPS school; select the NPS school.
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  Scroll to the bottom of the web page, select “Continue”.
• 
  Step 4: Populate the requested registration information. All mandatory fields identified with an asterisk (*) must be completed in order to submit this form.
• 
  Scroll to the bottom of the web page, select “Submit”.
• 
  Step 5: You have completed the registration process. You are advised to print this confirmation web page for your records.
• 
  Your registration request has been emailed to your Main Authorizer.
• 
  If your Registration Request is approved, you will receive an email from noreply@mycdeconnect.org with username and temporary password information (your username is the email address used when registering).
  
  If your Registration Request is denied, you will receive an email from noreply@mycdeconnect.org with denial notification.

Note for All Users: If the email from noreply@mycdeconnect.org was not received in your regular email inbox, check your junk mail or have the SPAM email filter reviewed for any messages from noreply@mycdeconnect.org. If it is not in either of those inboxes, communicate with your technology person to “whitelist” this email address so your system will allow receipt of emails from noreply@mycdeconnect.org. The technology person will need the following information to “whitelist” the system's email address, the IP Address is 149.72.170.114, 149.72.254.73 and the SPF record is noreply@mycdeconnect.org.

Very important for all Authorized Users (i.e., Main Authorizers, registered/approved Alternate Authorizers, and registered/approved Coordinators): when using the "Login" or using the “Reset Password” link or using the “Forgot Password” link, it is very important that the email address, temporary password, and newly created password must be hand-typed in with no space before or after, it is case sensitive, and must not be copy/paste in and must not use any auto-populated information (i.e., email address, etc.). The system will not acknowledge any of the information that is copy/paste in or auto-populated; otherwise the system will state "user not found".

If you receive the message "user not found" this does not mean that your username and newly created password do not work; this likely means that you did a copy/paste of some of the information (i.e., your email address, or temporary password, or newly create password) or accepted an auto-populate of your email address. Please try it again and be sure to hand-type ALL the information. If you still cannot gain access, please reach out to the SARC Team for assistance by email at sarc@cde.ca.gov.

Become Familiar with the SARC Web Pages

Read and become familiar with the content found on the CDE SARC web page. In particular, the following links will provide valuable background information and will answer most of the questions you may have as you are completing the SARC:

• Blank 2023–24 SARC Template (DOCX)
• 2023–24 Data Element Definitions (DOCX)
• SARC Frequently Asked Questions
• SARC Legislation
• Williams Settlement and the SARC

Prepare the SARC

There are two methods available for schools/LEAs to submit their SARCs with the CDE:

1. Use the online electronic SARC template available on the SARC Web Application located in the myCDEconnect system to complete and post the SARC, or
   
   
2. Upload an accurate uniform resource locator (URL) of the website address to where the SARC has been posted on the school/LEA website or upload an active URL that takes the viewer directly into the posted SARC.

The CDE does not accept SARC reports via email as attachments or as links. The online SARC Web Application system located in the myCDEconnect serves as the mechanism for each school/LEA to provide the CDE with its completed SARC. A username and password are required to access the myCDEconnect.

The electronic 2023–24 SARC template is available on the myCDEconnect and is partially pre-populated with some district data and the state data. The electronic SARC template is designed to enable schools/LEAs to modify the pre-populated district data and input all remaining data (state data cannot be modified); and provides the schools/LEAs the flexibility to upload a photo of the school's principal and a custom principal's message. Additionally, using the electronic SARC template provides graphical displays of some of the data shown on the SARC, and provides real-time translation of the information provided on the SARC in over 70 languages using the Google Translate feature.

In the electronic SARC template, for any table that does not apply to your school based on grade-level, you may select the checkbox "Do not display this table to the public" located at the top of each electronic table, then select the "Save" button, this will restrict this table from public view in the posted SARC. For example, an elementary school with grades kindergarten through grade six does not populate the table Graduation Rate by Student Group, as it pertains to high school grades nine through twelve. Therefore, in this elementary school's SARC, the table Graduation Rate by Student Group may be restricted from public view in their posted SARC.

For schools/LEAs that are not interested in using the electronic 2023–24 SARC template, the CDE has also provided a blank 2023–24 SARC template in Word available on the CDE SARC web page.

The blank SARC template in Word has the letters DPC (data provided by the CDE) below the title of the tables that CDE intends to pre-populate in the electronic SARC templates, and provides the corresponding downloadable data files on the CDE SARC web page; and has the letters DPL (data provided by the LEA) below the title of the tables that remain for the schools/LEAs to populate. Please disregard and remove the letters DPC and DPL from your blank SARC template and populate all required data elements. These letters do not apply to NPS schools. The CDE pre-populates a portion of the public school electronic SARC templates using the data that the public schools/LEAs are mandated by law to provide to the CDE during the school year. The NPS schools do not provide the CDE with data, therefore, CDE does not have the data to populate a portion of the NPS school SARCs, other than some district data and the state data.

While the CDE provides data where data are available, the schools/LEAs are ultimately responsible for the completion of their entire SARCs and for the accuracy of all data in their SARCs.

Determine the SARC Data Elements That Must be Reported by NPS Schools

In determining how to prepare an NPS school report card, review the template with two considerations in mind.

• First, if a particular reporting element is not applicable (such as graduation rate data for a school whose mission does not involve "graduation" in the conventional sense), this reporting element does not need to be included in the completed report card.
  
  
• Second, if there are no data or other information available for a particular reporting element (such as state assessment results in a case where the students are not required to be tested), this reporting element does not need to be included in the completed report card.

For NPS schools, the report card should include at minimum the school's contact information, a school description and mission statement, a narrative about opportunities for parental involvement, a description of the school's facility conditions and safety plans, information about staff qualifications, and a description of the educational materials that are used at the school. Additional information about the school that might be of interest to parents and the community may be added.

Post the SARC

The intention of the CDE Find a SARC web page is to make SARCs easily available for parents, guardians, and community members. After SARCs are locally prepared and approved by the school's local governing board, LEAs must submit their SARCs to the CDE via the SARC Web Application system located in the myCDEconnect. The NPS schools with access to the Internet must make their current SARCs available through the Internet by posting their SARCs on their school's website. Also, a hard copy of the school's current SARC must be provided upon request.

Notify the Parents

Notify parents about the purpose and availability of the school's current SARC. Provide instructions of how the SARC can be obtained both through the Internet and on paper (upon request). The CDE recommends that schools have copies of their current SARC available in the school office and at public forums, such as parent information events.