CALPADS Update Flash #290

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

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

Date:       October 17, 2024

Subject:  CALPADS Update FLASH #290

2024−25 Submission Deadlines

The 2024−25 Fall 1 Submission opened on Census Day, Wednesday October 2, 2024. The Fall 1 certification deadline and close of the amendment window are posted on the CDE CALPADS Calendar web page at: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sp/cl/rptcalendar.asp. Local educational agencies (LEAs) are reminded that the Fall 1 certification deadline is December 13, 2024, and Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) approval is strongly encouraged but not required by this date. Both LEA and SELPA approval are required by the close of the amendment window on January 24, 2025.

2024−25 CALPADS Submission Deadlines

*SELPA approval is strongly encouraged but not required.

Additional Calendar Note: After the December 13, 2024 Certification Deadline, there will be a planned CALPADS system outage that is scheduled to last from Saturday, December 14 thru Monday, December 16, 2024. CALPADS is expected to be back online on Tuesday, December 17.

Recommended Dates for No Fatal Errors

As a best practice, LEAs should resolve all fatal errors by the specified dates. Resolving all errors by the “Recommended Date for No Fatal Errors” ensures that LEA staff have adequate time to review error-free reports for accuracy.

No Opportunities to Amend Data Following Deadlines

LEAs are reminded that following the Fall 1 Amendment Window Deadline, there will be no opportunity to amend data that impacts any funding calculations except through the local audit process. Similarly, following the Fall 2 Certification Deadline, there will be no opportunity to amend any data that impacts assignment monitoring. Any data issues related to assignment monitoring need to be resolved through the assignment monitoring process and the California State Assignment Accountability System (CalSAAS).

End-of-Year certified data, particularly data certified as part of the EOY 3 submission, are used to calculate California School Dashboard (Dashboard) indicators. There will be no opportunity to update any EOY data following the close of the amendment window.

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

Use of Data for Principal Apportionment

The data that LEAs approve on CALPADS Report 1.17 – LCFF – Count in the Fall 1 submission are used to determine the Unduplicated Pupil Count (UPC), the basis for determining the unduplicated pupil percentage (UPP), which determines 2024–25 Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) supplemental and concentration grant funding. Data on this report approved by the December 13, 2024 Certification Deadline will be used in the calculation of the First Principal Apportionment (P1). Data on this report certified by the January 24, 2025 Amendment Window Deadline will be used in the calculation of the Second Principal Apportionment (P2). Any changes after this date must be made through the audit process.

Use of Data for Special Education Monitoring

Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) approval is not required but is strongly encouraged by the December 13, 2024 Fall 1 Certification Deadline. Annually, as part of the Compliance Improvement Monitoring (CIM) for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Special Education Division is required to issue monitoring determinations for LEAs using a combination of prior year End-of-Year data and current-year Fall 1 data. To issue Annual Determination Letters earlier in order to give LEAs more time to complete Compliance Improvement Monitoring activities, the data used to calculate federal Indicator 9 (Disproportionality overall), and Indicator 10 (Disproportionality by specific disability categories) will be pulled from CALPADS following the December 13 Certification Deadline, rather than after the close of the amendment window. The data used for these determinations will therefore include data approved by the LEA only, or data which have been approved by both the LEA and SELPA.

2024−25 Graduate Cut-Off Date for 4-year Adjusted Cohort and Graduation Rate Indicator on California School Dashboard

Beginning in 2024–25, the EOY 3 Certification Deadline for the one-year graduate counts and the date that data are pulled for the Adjusted Cohort and Graduation Rate (ACGR) will no longer be the same. The EOY 3 deadline is August 8, 2025, which is one week earlier than 2023–24, to accommodate the earlier deadline for the posting of the Dashboard. The Graduation Cohort cut-off date will continue to be August 15, as in prior years, to ensure that students graduating over the summer may be included in the 2024−25 Dashboard and in the 4-Year ACGR. As in previous years, students who graduate after August 15, 2025, will not be included as graduates in the 4-year ACGR for 2024–25, but will be counted as 5th year graduates in 2025–26.

It should be noted that as a result of this gap in time between the end of EOY 3 and the ACGR data pull, there may be some inconsistencies between some students who are included in both the one-year graduate counts and the 4-Year ACGR, or inconsistencies in the attributes of those students if changes are made following the EOY 3 deadline. For this reason, to every extent possible, LEAs should complete all grade 12 exits and demographic updates by the EOY 3 deadline to ensure consistency in the data for those students. If this is done, the main difference will be the cohort will include additional students who, after the EOY deadline, were re-enrolled for one day and then exited before the cohort pull, with a Student Exit Category code of 230 – CompleterExit and a School Completion Status code of 100 – Graduated, standard HS diploma.