CALPADS Update Flash #277

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

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

Date:       June 13, 2024

Subject:  CALPADS Update FLASH #277

Reclassifying and Reporting Reclassified Fluent English Proficient (RFEP) Students During the Summer When Students are not Enrolled

To the extent feasible, local educational agencies (LEAs) are encouraged to review the status of their English learner (EL) students and make reclassification decisions soon after students meet the four reclassification criteria and prior to the end of the school year. This helps LEAs plan for the upcoming school year and provide appropriate services from the first day of school. The reclassification date should reflect the date that the LEA determines the student has met all four criteria required for reclassification (California Education Code Section 313[f]), which includes:

1. Overall Performance Level of 4 on the Summative English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) or an Overall Performance Level of 3 on the Summative Alternative ELPAC.

2. Teacher evaluation

3. Parent consultation and approval

4. Basic skills relative to English proficient students

The CDE recognizes, however, that students assessed with the Summative ELPAC or Summative Alternate ELPAC in the spring may not receive results back before the end of the school year, making it difficult to finalize reclassification decisions for students who have not yet met the required performance level on the Summative ELPAC or Summative Alternate ELPAC. This may result in LEAs finalizing reclassification decisions in the summer when students are no longer enrolled in school. For the CDE to identify the school that reclassified a student, the date that the student’s English Language Acquisition Status (ELAS) was changed to Reclassified Fluent English Proficient (RFEP) must overlap the student’s enrollment at the school. Therefore, SELA0652 – Missing Enrollment Record for RFEP will now trigger for any Student English Language Acquisition (SELA) record when the RFEP Start Date does not overlap an enrollment. This Flash provides guidance for determining what RFEP Start Date to use that overlaps an enrollment so that SELA0652 does not trigger.

Guidance for RFEP Start Date for Students Reclassified in the Summer

For students reclassified during the summer when they are no longer enrolled, LEAs must back date the Start Date of the RFEP status to overlap their enrollment based on the same guidance previously provided in Flash 219, which is repeated below.

Furthermore, for public reporting purposes, LEAs are reminded that for these reclassified students to be included in any Annual Reclassification Rate reports, the RFEP status must be entered and certified in CALPADS before the close of the End-of-Year (EOY) 3 data submission that includes the applicable enrollment record. Any reclassification information submitted after the close of the corresponding EOY 3 submission will not be counted.

Guidance is provided for the following scenarios:

Scenarios where a student is reclassified by the school where they were last enrolled:

• Scenario 1: Student is reclassified before school ends and is still enrolled in that school in that current school year.

• Scenario 2: Student is reclassified after school ends and before EOY 3 closes; however, the student is no longer enrolled, and the student will not be returning to the school in the next school year.

• Scenario 3: Student is reclassified after July 1 before the next school year begins and before EOY 3 closes; however, the student is no longer enrolled at the school but is expected to re-enroll in the next school year.

• Scenario 4: Student is reclassified after July 1, the next school year has begun, and the student is enrolled in the same school that the student was enrolled in the prior school year.

Scenario where the student is reclassified by a different school in the next school year:

• Scenario 5: Student is reclassified after July 1, the next school year has begun, and the student is now enrolled in a different school.

The guidance for these scenarios is provided in Table 1 below, using 2023−24 as an example.

Table 1: Guidance for Submitting RFEP Records to CALPADS