CALPADS Update #119

In this update:  

1.  New CALPADS maintenance window

2.  Reporting Disciplinary Removals to an Interim Alternative Setting

3.  Students Missing from CTE Reports

NEW CALPADS MAINTENANCE WINDOW 

To facilitate routine maintenance and provide more predictability to users, the California Department of Education (CDE) has established and has begun a new, regular CALPADS maintenance window. CALPADS maintenance is planned to occur each Tuesday morning from 6:00am–9:00am. While this maintenance window may not be utilized each week, LEAs should plan for the CALPADS system to be unavailable during those hours. The CDE will continue to send out release notes following each release, and FLASH updates when changes are made or new functionality is implemented. 

REPORTING DISCIPLINARY REMOVALS TO AN INTERIM ALTERNATIVE SETTING 

Preliminary analysis of End-of-Year 3 (EOY 3) discipline data in CALPADS gives some indication that local educational agencies (LEAs) are incorrectly reporting removals to an interim alternative setting (Field 4.23 - Removal to Interim Alternative Setting Reason Code). 

A removal to an interim alternative setting is an instance in which school personnel or a hearing officer (not the Individualized Education Program [IEP] team) order the removal of a child with disabilities from his/her current educational placement for drug or weapon offenses, or serious bodily injury, to an appropriate interim alternative education setting for not more than 45 school days. 

An interim alternative education setting is an appropriate setting that enables the child to continue to receive educational services and participate in the general education curriculum (although in another setting) and to progress toward meeting the goals set in the Individualized Education Program (IEP). As appropriate, the setting includes a functional behavioral assessment and behavioral intervention services and modifications to address the behavior violation so that it does not recur. The IEP team is responsible for determining the interim alternative education setting. 

When populating this field, please be mindful of the following: 

• These removals are RARE. Most LEAs will have no more than five interim removals in an academic year.
  
• This field is only required for special education students and should NOT be populated for non-special education students.
  
•  Most special education data systems capture these removals in a specific field. Always talk to your LEA’s special education data coordinator to identify which students have been removed to an interim alternative setting.
  DIRECT CERTIFICATION COUNTS DURING JULY AND AUGUST
  As LEAs exit their students at the end of the academic year in CALPADS, LEAs should remember that students that are exited with a Student Exit Reason Code of anything other than an E155 – Year End Enrollment Exit will not be sent over for direct certification matching until subsequent enrollment records for the new academic year are received in CALPADS. This means that your direct certification counts could be significantly lower than expected until subsequent enrollments are submitted to CALPADS. This will most significantly affect any schools serving grades K–6 that choose to exit their students with Student Exit Reason Code E450 – Pre-K–6 Exit because these students are not sent over for direct certification matching, only students with a Student Exit Reason Code of E155 continue to be sent over for matching since it is expected that they will return. It is recommended that all enrollments for the new academic year be submitted to CALPADS prior to August 1, 2016 so that these students can be matched for the August direct certification extract. 

STUDENTS MISSING FROM CTE REPORT 3.14 AND 3.15