CALPADS Update Flash #288

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

From:      California Department of Education (CDE) –
                California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) Team

Date:       September 23, 2024

Subject:  CALPADS Update FLASH #288

2024−25 Special Education Updates

This Flash provides information regarding:

• Important Uses of Fall 1 Data Approved by the December 13, 2024 Certification Deadline
• 2024−25 School Year Rollover Code and Fall Validation Changes for Special Education
• Policy and Guidance Changes and Other Reminders
• CALPADS Special Education Data 2024–25 Roadshows

Important Uses of Fall 1 Data Approved by December 13, 2024, Certification Deadline

Disproportionality Data Approved by December 13, 2024, Certification Deadline Will be Used for Annual Monitoring Determinations

As in prior years, LEAs are required to approve their Fall 1 Submission by the certification deadline. While Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) approval is strongly encouraged by this deadline, SELPAs are required to do so by the close of the amendment window. New for the 2024−25 academic year, data used to calculate Indicator 9 (Disproportionality overall), and Indicator 10 (Disproportionality by specific disability categories) will be pulled from CALPADS following the initial certification deadline, December 13, 2024, rather than after the close of the amendment window. These data will therefore include data approved by the LEA only, or data which have been approved by both the LEA and SELPA.

The data are being pulled earlier in order for Annual Determination Letters to be issued to LEAs in early February 2025 so that LEAs have more time to complete Compliance Improvement Monitoring (CIM) activities.

To ensure that LEAs are not inappropriately identified as “Disproportionate” or “Significantly Disproportionate,” it is imperative that:

• Special education data system coordinators and Special Education Directors ensure that the PLAN record (Plan record) effective on Census Day for a student has:
  • The appropriate Primary Disability Code
  • The appropriate Special Education Program Setting Code
• Student information system data coordinators and CALPADS administrators ensure that all race and ethnicity data captured for students with disabilities are accurate. In particular, if students’ race/ethnicities are initially populated as “missing” and are later identified, LEAs should update these data by the December 13, 2024, certification deadline since these data will be used to calculate disproportionality.

Timeline Compliance Data

Late annual plan review and triennial reevaluation data for the timeline compliance section of the Annual Determination Letter for the 2024−25 academic year will also be pulled from CALPADS earlier, following the December 13, 2024, Fall 1 certification deadline. Specifically, the CDE will pull data on students with disabilities that are enrolled and eligible and participating on Census Day, October 2, 2024, whose:

• Annual Plan Reviews are late as of Census Day – student has not had an annual plan review (Meeting Activity – Plan Review Indicator = “Y”) less than or equal to 365 days from the last annual plan review or initial evaluation Meeting Date.
• Eligibility Reevaluations are late as of Census Day – student has not had an eligibility reevaluation (Meeting Activity – Evaluation Type Code 40) less than or equal to three years from the last eligibility reevaluation or initial evaluation Meeting Date.

LEAs should review Monitoring Report 16.21 – Late Plan Reviews and Reevaluations using a date of October 2, 2024 (Census Day) to view overdue meetings.

2024−25 School Rollover Code and Fall Validation Changes for Special Education

2024−25 Code Changes

On September 17, 2024, the code changes in Table 1 became effective unless otherwise specified.

Table 1
2024−25 Code Changes

In addition:

• Meeting Delay code names and definitions have been updated to clarify which meetings the codes are appropriate and not appropriate for.
• Special Education Non-Participation Reason code names and definitions have been updated to clarify which non-participation reason codes are appropriate and not appropriate for.
• Special Education Program Setting code definitions have been updated to clarify which age group certain settings can be used for. A subsequent Flash will summarize the appropriate age and grade levels for Special Education Program Settings, and which validations will be updated to enforce the rules.

2024−25 Validation Changes

New Validations

The new validations in Table 2 have been or will be implemented for the 2024−25 Fall data submission.

Table 2
Fall 2024−25 New Validations

Planned Modifications to Existing Validations

The existing validations included in Table 3 have been or will be modified for fall 2024−25.

Table 3
Fall 2024−25 Modified Validations

Policy and Guidance Changes and Other Reminders

Alternative Pathway Diploma Eligibility Change

Students with Disabilities enrolled in grade 10 or higher in the 2022−23 school year are now eligible for the Alternative Pathway Diploma. Specifically, Education Code Section 51225.32(b) became effective on June 30, 2024, and states:

(b) An individual with exceptional needs, who was enrolled in grade 10 or higher in the 2022–23 school year and is currently eligible pursuant to Section 56026, may be eligible for the exemption and award described in subdivision (a) if their individualized education program provides for all of the following:

(1) The pupil’s individualized education program team has deemed the pupil eligible to take the state alternate assessments as described in subdivision (k) of Section 60640.

(2) The pupil is required to complete state standards aligned coursework to meet the statewide course requirements specified in Section 51225.3.

In accordance with this change in law, SENR0634 – Invalid use of Pathway Diploma for Student with Disabilities Completion Code which prevented the use of School Completion Status 102 – Alternative Pathway Diploma for any student whose grade level was higher than grade nine in the 2022–23 academic year has been disabled.

LEAs may now submit School Completion Status 102 – Alternative Pathway Diploma for eligible students with disabilities who were enrolled in grade 10 or higher in the 2022–23 academic year. Students with disabilities receiving the Alternative Pathway Diploma may return for special education services prescribed in their Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) until they age out of the program.

Change in Guidance for Submission of PLAN records for Short-Term Enrollments at County Offices of Education is again REQUIRED

Last year, the CDE Special Education Division issued guidance giving county offices of education (COEs) the option not to adopt a student’s IEP if the student is enrolled in the COE for 10 days or less. Unfortunately, this resulted in some unintended consequences when the 2023−24 End-of-Year data were being processed for state and federal reporting. Some SWDs were not identified as SWDs due to the absence of an overlapping PLAN record at the same LEA. Therefore, the guidance has been changed to once again require a PLAN record for short-term COE enrollments.

This means, for primary enrollments, LEAs must “re-adopt” a plan upon a student’s return from a short-term enrollment (10 days or less) with a new Plan Effective Start Date even if no changes were made to the IEP.

New Guidance for Equitable Services and Proportionate Share for Preschool Age Students

New guidance on Equitable Services and Proportionate Share for preschool age students was issued by the Special Education Division and can be found on the CDE Equitable Services for Students with Disabilities web page at: https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/se/as/ideaeqservices.asp. This new guidance allows LEAs to offer Individualized Service Plans (ISP) to preschool age students enrolled in private preschool programs provided that the preschool program also offers at least one additional elementary grade (TK–5).

To enter a preschool age student in a private school that will be served on an ISP, the LEA should:

• Create an enrollment using:
  • Enrollment Status 50 – NonADA Enrollment
  • School of Attendance – 0000002
  • Grade Level PS - Preschool
  • Enrollment Start Date – Date of parental consent for evaluation
• If student is determined to be eligible, then:
  • Submit a PLAN record with a Plan Type Code of 200 – ISP
  • Submit a SWDS record with Status 1 – Eligible and Participating
• If the student is determined to be ineligible, then
  • Submit an enrollment exit with a Student Exit Category of N470 – NoShow

Degree of Support not required for 2024−25

On the PLAN file, field 23.16 – Degree of Support is not a required data element for the 2024−25 academic year. However, during 2024−25, LEAs should populate the Degree of Support field for students with specific primary or secondary disabilities during any triggering event (e.g., amendments, annual plan reviews, eligibility reevaluations, initial evaluations). Guidance for determining the student’s Degree of Support can be found via the CALPADS Fall 1 Reporting Roadmap on this web page: https://documentation.calpads.org/Training/Fall1ReportingRoadmap/#student-degree-of-support-identification-guidance

CALPADS Special Education Data 2024–25 Roadshows

The CDE Special Education Division is pleased to announce the following in-person training sessions (virtual participation is available at some events) in preparation for the submission of data for students with disabilities to CALPADS in 2024−25.

These sessions will train local special education data coordinators and special education local plan area (SELPA)-level staff on changes for submitting data for the CALPADS Fall 1 Submission and will discuss how data will be used for reporting and monitoring. The training will cover:

• Fall 1 CALPADS Data Submission and Reports
• What’s new for Fall 1
• State Performance Plan (SPP)/Annual Performance Report Indicators using Fall 1 data
• Data for Annual Determinations Letter (ADL)
• Monitoring Reports and Holding Timely Meetings
• Looking ahead to 2025−26

SELPA staff, district, and site-level special education data coordinators are welcome to attend. CALPADS local educational agency (LEA) administrators may attend only if space is available. The host sites have agreed to extend participation to neighboring counties. For questions about a specific training session, please contact the host contact, which is listed on the CDE CALPADS Special Education Data Fall Roadshows web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/se/ac/calpadsspedroadshows2024.asp.

For general questions, or if you are in need of accommodations for any of these training sessions, please contact Isabell Robertson, Office Technician, at irobertson@cde.ca.gov.