CALPADS Update Flash #298

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

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

Date:      March 28, 2025

Subject:  CALPADS Update FLASH #298

Reminder to Update Students’ English Language Acquisition Status in CALPADS prior to May 31, 2025, for Students Reclassified Based on their 2023−24 Assessment Scores

Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) are reminded to review the English Language Acquisition Status (ELAS) for English learner (EL) students who may be eligible for reclassification based on their 2023–24 Summative English Learner Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) or Summative Alternate ELPAC scores. Once the 2024–25 test administration ends on May 31, 2025, students will no longer be able to use 2023–24 results for reclassification. For students who may be reclassified based on their 2023–24 Summative ELPAC or Summative Alternate ELPAC scores, the California Department of Education (CDE) recommends administering the assessments for these students later in the testing window if they are close to meeting reclassification criteria and may be reclassified before May 15, 2025. This approach helps prevent unnecessary testing and reduces the need for cleanup through the Security and Test Administration Incident Reporting System (STAIRS), which is needed when a student takes more than one summative ELPAC and the most recent assessment must be reset to use the earlier score for reclassifying the student. However, if students have not met all four reclassification criteria by May 15, 2025, LEAs should proceed with administering the Summative ELPAC or Summative Alternate ELPAC to ensure compliance with testing requirements. The reclassification criteria are posted on the CDE’s Reclassification – Multilingual Learners web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/ml/reclassification.asp.

Recommend LEAs Update RFEP Status in CALPADS by May 15, 2025

Student English Language Acquisition Statuses (ELAS) are sent daily from CALPADS to the Educational Testing Service (ETS) for population in the Test Operations Management System (TOMS). For students who are reclassified to Reclassified Fluent English Proficient (RFEP), it is critical to update their ELAS in CALPADS to RFEP with the appropriate status start date by May 15, 2025. Students with a status of EL in TOMS on or before May 31, 2025, and who have not taken the Summative ELPAC or Summative Alternate ELPAC, will negatively impact the LEA’s ELPAC participation rate (e.g., student will be counted as having not participated). Updating CALPADS by May 15, 2025, using 2023–24 Summative ELPAC or Summative Alternate ELPAC scores, with students’ RFEP statuses will ensure that RFEP statuses are in TOMS by May 31, 2025, for use in the ELPAC participation rate calculations. If the LEA determines the student does not meet all four criteria by May 15, 2025, to be reclassified, the LEA will still have time to administer the Summative ELPAC or Summative Alternate ELPAC.

Reminder to Assess TBD Students with Initial ELPAC Within 30 Days of Enrollment

Students with an English Acquisition Status (ELAS) of “To be Determined” (TBD) must be assessed using the Initial ELPAC or Initial Alternate ELPAC within 30 days of enrollment. In CALPADS, two Data Discrepancies (DDs) titled “Invalid ‘TBD’ English Language Acquisition Status Code”— Error Numbers SENR0657F1 and SENR0657E3 — are associated with the Fall 1 and End of Year (EOY) 3 submissions. These discrepancies alert LEAs when a student’s TBD ELAS status has remained for more than 30 days. LEAs should routinely review these DDs throughout the year to identify students who require testing. A summary of these data discrepancies is provided in Table 1 below.

Locating Data Discrepancies in CALPADS

1. Data Discrepancy Module (Year-Round Monitoring)

• The DDs can be accessed any time through the Data Discrepancy Module. To view any DDs, the user must first select a Certification Cycle (e.g., Fall 1 or EOY 3), and the DDs will display regardless whether a submission window is open.
• LEAs should regularly check this module and select EOY 3 to ensure that students are tested within the required 30-day time frame. Selecting Fall 1 will only show students who are enrolled on Census Day and were not tested within 30 days of enrollment, whereas selecting EOY 3 during the Fall 1 submission window will show students who were enrolled after Census Day and were not tested within 30 days of enrollment.

1. Certification Details – LEA (During Submission Cycle)

• When a submission cycle is open, the DDs that pertain to the submission will also appear in the “Certification Details – LEA” user interface under the "Summary of Warnings" section. For example, when the Fall 1 submission window is open, Error Number SENR0657F1 will display as a warning DD, and during the EOY window, Error Number SENR0657E3 will similarly display as a warning DD. Displaying these errors in the Certification Details – LEA user interface provides LEAs with another way to review and address these discrepancies.

Table 1 (below) outlines the specific errors related to the Data Discrepancies. LEAs should use this information to identify students and ensure timely assessment.

Table 1: Error Details for EOY 3 and Fall 1

Code abbreviations used in the table:
AD – Adult
IN – Infant
TD – Toddlers
TK – Transitional Kindergarten
PS – Prekindergarten

Understanding Errors SENR0657E3 and SENR0657F1

Students enrolled for 30 calendar days or more are legally required to be tested within 30 calendar days. This error is triggered to ensure that students with an ELAS of “TBD” are assessed with the Initial ELPAC/Initial Alternate ELPAC.

• The error will trigger when the ELAS Start Date of a TBD status in the most recent ELAS record is greater than or equal to 30 days before the current date.
• The error will trigger as a warning for each LEA where a student was enrolled for 30 days or more, and the most recent overlapping English Language Acquisition code is "TBD." The warning may be ignored if a student was not assessed within the required 30-day time frame and has exited the LEA. However, if the student was not assessed and has not exited the LEA, the warning should not be ignored.

To mitigate these warnings, LEAs should routinely look for all students with an ELAS Code of "TBD" whose English Language Acquisition Status Start Date is greater than or equal to 30 days before the current date.