Monthly Special Education Coordinator MeetingNovember 13, 2012

Agenda• Updates

– IDEA Funds– Onsite Audit

• December 1 Counts• Transfers• Referrals

– Intervention• Academic• Behavior

– School Coordination

• SharePoint/DropBox• Calendar

UPDATES

General Updates• IDEA Budget

– 11/1//2012: “No timeline at this point.  We are just beginning to go through all the applications”

• SC Department of Education

• SC Department of Education Onsite Monitoring– Have not received a notification of the school-level onsite

visit.– Anticipate a visit the week of November 26 – December

7.

DECEMBER 1 COUNTS

December 1 Counts• The purpose of December 1 (Tables 1 and 3) is to

capture the State’s (each district’s) child count. • This report is a reflection of every child at your

school:– who is a student with a disability under IDEA, and– who has an active and current IEP, and– who is receiving special education and related services as

written on the child’s IEP.

December 1 Counts• This report is requires the assurance of our

superintendent and the assurance of our principal.• Assurances will be given out tomorrow at the

Leaders’ Meeting

• This report IS audited by the District’s finance auditors since it’s a “money” report.

December 1 Counts• Once submitted to the SCDE, the report must be accurate and cannot

be changed.

• ESL:– Remember, that the default for ESL is “select” which is reported as a Y

(yes, the child is a ESL student). – The following schools are still showing that they are serving a child with

an IEP who is also a student coded as an ESL student 1 – 7:• Imagine (1)• Lake City (9)• PSE (1)• Royal Live Oaks (4)• Connections (3)• Whitmore (11)• Spartanburg (27)• YPA (1)

– These schools need to verify and correct by 9am on Thursday (11/15). Please email Zenobia after you have done so.

December 1 Counts• Dates:

– Week of November 26th: Follow-up, with all schools, after the SCDE’s pre-check.

– During the week of November 26th (we’ll notify the schools via email) no changes can be made in placement history until Thursday, December 6.

• If you think you need to make a change, because of a decision of an IEP team OR because of a child enrolling with a start date of prior to November 30, you’ll need to contact Zenobia.

TRANSFERS

Transfers• Here are the order of events for a “transfer into the

district” with a current IEP (done within the first few days):– After verifying the child is transferring in with a current

IEP (no more than 4 months expired), contact the parent about holding the comparable services IEP meeting.

• Option A: typical face-to-face IEP meeting to discuss “comparable services”

– Requires letter of invite– Comparable services consultation meeting form (will be added

on Thursday)– Minutes– PWN

• Option B: if LEA and parents agree, meet without “meeting”

– Requires comparable services consultation without a meeting form

Transfers– After holding this meeting, go into Excent, and officially

“add” as a transfer.– Within 30 calendar days from the 1st day of enrollment, an

IEP team will need to meet again to either accept the IEP, amend the transfer IEP, or conduct an annual review.

REFERRALS

Referrals• For school initiated referrals, it is expected that the

child has been part of the school’s intervention process PRIOR to submitting the referral packet.

• A school-initiated referral should be interpreted as:– The student was struggling academically or behaviorally,

AND– The child was part of the school’s intervention process (6

– 12 weeks) and failed to respond to researched-based interventions.

– Because the child failed to respond to these research based interventions, we have reason to suspect that the child might have a disability and need special education.

• School-initiated referrals that lack evidence of the intervention team process could be returned until the intervention data are gathered.

Referrals• These are not reasons to refer:

– 1st 9 week grades came out and the child is making a insert any grade here (even a failing grade).

• This might be a trigger to put the child through the intervention process

– The child will not follow classroom rules

Referrals: School Coordination • Remember, the only person who should be

communicating with Beckie regarding referral questions, referral packets, individual components of the packet, or completed reports.

• This person is the school’s assigned special education coordinator.

• Other special education teachers should not send these items into Beckie.

• Packets should be submitted fully (as a complete packet).

Referrals• Because of the constant growth of the district and

the number of the referrals, several schools will be contacted in the upcoming days about a new point of contact to submitting referral packets.

• The district will be contracting with a school psychologist to serve the role that Beckie serves (referral, eval planning, eligibility determination).

• This person WILL NOT be the person conducting the testing.

SHAREPOINT/DROPBOX

SharePoint/DropBox• The district has moved away from the DropBox and

has gone to SharePoint.– http://sccharter-web.sharepoint.com/

• On this website, the forms, and other resources that were normally found in DropBox have been placed here.

• We will try to indicate (via an icon ) that the form has been updated.

SharePoint/DropBox• You’ll also notice that we’re replacing Word

documents with fillable PDF’s– Eval/Reeval Report– Summary and PWN

• As you use these forms, please let us know if you have any feedback.

• Next round of forms to be converted:– Agreement to Amend the IEP without– PWN (only)– Transfer – Comparable Servcies

SharePoint/DropBox• Some files on SharePoint are password protected.

These are indicated with either “school only” or “district only.”

• The password for the school only forms is the same password to open your December 1 Counts.

SharePoint/DropBox• SharePoint is for “school use” only.

• While the site is “public,” this is not the site to share with parents.

• Parents are to be directed to our district site: http://www.sccharter.org.

CALENDAR

Calendar• 11/26: December 1 Feedback Provided to the

Schools• 11/19: District hosting the SCDE SIMs session

(pre-registration required)• 11/26 – 12/6: Do not access placement history• 1/14 – Mid-year Face-to-Face meeting at DO

– 9:30am – 3:30pm