Close prior-year homeless program records and upload current annual questionnaire results

In Plain Language: Each year, an LEA must close the prior academic year’s CALPADS Homeless Education Program records, obtain current housing information through its annual questionnaire and liaison review, and create new Program 191 records for pupils who are eligible in the current year. Records must be updated when circumstances change and reconciled before EOY 1 certification.

Why this matters

A prior-year record cannot simply remain open or be treated as proof of current circumstances. Annual closure preserves the reporting boundary; a new questionnaire and liaison determination establish the current-year record. If either half is missed, the LEA risks stale eligibility data, omitted pupils, validation failures, unreliable counts, and a disconnect between services and reporting.

Joint ownership

Data owner: CALPADS administrator or student-data coordinator. Program owner: LEA homeless education liaison. Operational partner: SIS support or enrollment-data staff. The liaison validates eligibility and the service roster; the data office manages SPRG submissions, validations, reports, and certification; SIS staff maintain the local record and interfaces.

The annual implementation calendar

Before EOY 1 reviewInventory every open Program 191 record.Identify prior-year records, older records still lacking required end dates, duplicate or overlapping records, and pupils whose local and CALPADS histories do not agree.
At the academic-year boundaryClose the prior-year homeless program records.Post the applicable end dates, confirm successful SPRG processing, and retain transaction evidence. For the 2025–26 year and later, the record must end within the same academic year in which it began.
At the beginning of the school yearReceive liaison-approved current information.Use the annual housing questionnaire and individualized liaison review—not the prior-year CALPADS record—as the basis for current eligibility and dwelling information.
After current eligibility is establishedCreate the current-year local and CALPADS record.Enter the SIS program record, submit SPRG Program Code 191, verify dwelling type and effective date, and confirm that the submission posted.
Throughout the yearUpdate records as circumstances change.Maintain the SIS, liaison roster, and CALPADS record when new pupils are identified or a pupil’s housing situation changes. Do not wait for EOY 1.
Before certificationReconcile Report 5.5 and resolve validations.The liaison and data owner compare pupil-level data, correct missing or inaccurate records, clear fatal input validations and certification data discrepancies, and document signoff.
At EOY 1 certificationCertify the cumulative annual result.Confirm that certified totals are supported by the liaison-approved roster, local SIS records, CALPADS SPRG records, and Report 5.5.

Annual Program 191 record lifecycle

1 · InventoryLocate prior-year and older open Program 191 records.

2 · CloseApply required year-end dates and confirm posting.

3 · QuestionCollect current information through the annual housing questionnaire.

4 · DetermineThe liaison reviews eligibility and dwelling circumstances.

5 · CreateBuild the current-year SIS record and submit SPRG.

6 · MaintainUpdate records when circumstances change.

7 · ReconcileCompare Report 5.5, the roster, SIS, and CALPADS.

8 · CertifyResolve differences and certify EOY 1.

Deep Dive into CALPADS Validations

The first two controls are certification data discrepancies encountered during EOY review. The latter two are fatal input validations that reject a historical SPRG submission. They address related year-end rules, but they do not occur at the same point in the workflow.

Validation	What it identifies	Operational response	Deep dive
SPRG0746E1Certification data discrepancy	A Homeless Program record beginning July 1, 2025, or later lacks an end date within the same academic year.	Determine the correct same-year end date, update the SIS/source record, post the SPRG correction, and rerun the certification check.	Open the SDLA solution page
SPRG0747E1Certification data discrepancy	A Homeless Program record beginning before July 1, 2025, remains open when it should have been closed by June 30, 2025.	Review the historical record, submit the appropriate closure, confirm posting, and rerun the certification check.	Open the SDLA solution page
SPRG0746Fatal input validation	A historical 2025–26-or-later Homeless Program record is submitted without an end date in the same academic year.	Correct the source record before resubmission; a rejected transaction does not update CALPADS.	Review CDE Flash 325
SPRG0747Fatal input validation	A historical 2024–25-or-earlier Homeless Program record is submitted without closure by June 30, 2025.	Correct the historical end date and resubmit; then verify that the corrected record is present in CALPADS.	Review CDE Flash 325

Translate liaison-approved circumstances into the current dwelling code

Flash 325 updated the labels to align more closely with the housing questionnaire; the numeric codes did not change. The dwelling type must reflect the liaison’s review of the pupil’s actual current circumstances—not a mechanical import of a family’s checkbox.

Code	CALPADS label	Questionnaire-to-data handoff control
100	Shelters	Use when the liaison-approved living situation is a shelter or other circumstance represented by this CALPADS code.
110	Hotels/motels	Confirm that the hotel or motel stay relates to housing loss, economic hardship, or another qualifying circumstance reviewed by the liaison.
120	Doubled-up	Confirm why housing is shared and that the liaison determined the arrangement meets the applicable definition; shared housing alone is not an automatic determination.
130	Unsheltered	Use for the liaison-approved circumstances represented by the unsheltered category, with immediate attention to service and access needs outside the data process.

Access preflight: put the liaison in the pupil-level review

The district or county homeless education liaison has CALPADS access to Report 5.5 – Homeless Students Enrolled – Student List.
The liaison is assigned the EOY Report role before reconciliation and certification work begins.
The CALPADS administrator has confirmed the liaison can open the report, apply the required filters, and securely review pupil-level results.
Access follows local privacy and least-privilege controls; pupil-level exports have an approved secure handling and retention process.
For a county office monitoring its LEAs, the liaison knows how C/A Report 5.4 will be used during the submission window.
A backup reviewer and escalation path are identified so access problems do not remain hidden until certification.

Reconcile the program decision, service roster, SIS, and CALPADS

Control point	Owner and authority	Compare against	If it does not agree
Annual questionnaire and liaison determination	Homeless education liaison: authoritative eligibility decision and dwelling circumstances.	Liaison service roster and the dated handoff to SIS staff.	Complete or clarify the individualized review; do not let a data value override the program determination.
Liaison service roster	Homeless education liaison: authoritative list of identified pupils and program/service follow-up.	Current-year SIS Program 191 records and Report 5.5 pupil list.	Identify missing, duplicate, stale, or unmatched pupils and document the resolution owner.
Local SIS program record	SIS/enrollment-data staff: authoritative local source values sent through the interface or extract.	Liaison-approved effective date and dwelling type; CALPADS SPRG posting results.	Correct the local source first when appropriate, regenerate the transaction, and preserve the audit trail.
CALPADS SPRG Program 191 record	CALPADS administrator: authoritative state-posted program record.	SIS extract, upload/posting results, fatal validation log, and current record history.	Resolve rejected or incorrectly posted transactions and verify the corrected state—not merely the file submission.
Report 5.5 pupil list	Joint liaison/data review: pupil-level certification evidence.	Liaison roster, SIS records, effective dates, dwelling types, and known changes.	Research each variance, correct the responsible source, rerun the report, and record liaison signoff.
EOY 1 certification totals	Authorized certifier with liaison and data-owner signoff: cumulative annual submission.	Resolved Report 5.5 detail, certification data discrepancies, local control totals, and retained evidence.	Do not certify an unexplained total; return to pupil-level reconciliation and document the correction.

Recommended LEA workflow

Establish joint accountability. Name the liaison, CALPADS owner, SIS owner, authorized certifier, backup reviewers, and the handoff deadlines each controls.
Inventory and close prior-year records. Work from a saved open-record list, apply the correct academic-year end dates, submit the SPRG changes, and confirm the records actually posted.
Receive the current-year program decision. The liaison reviews annual questionnaire results and sends only the approved eligibility, effective-date, and dwelling information needed for the SIS/CALPADS record.
Create and verify current-year records. Enter the local Program 191 record, submit SPRG, clear rejected transactions, and compare the resulting CALPADS record with the approved handoff.
Maintain a change process. Make it possible for the liaison to add pupils and report changed circumstances throughout the year without waiting for a bulk annual event.
Run the validation deep dive. Distinguish certification discrepancies from fatal input validations, correct the responsible source, resubmit when necessary, and verify the final posted state.
Complete liaison-led Report 5.5 review. Compare each pupil to the service roster and SIS; reconcile dwelling type, dates, missing records, and records that should no longer be current.
Certify with evidence. Obtain documented liaison and data-owner signoff, preserve the report and resolution log, and complete EOY 1 certification only after unexplained differences are cleared.

Evidence to retain

Prior-year open-record inventory, including older records requiring review.
Bulk or individual end-date transaction evidence and confirmed CALPADS posting results.
Current-year liaison-approved eligibility and service roster.
Protected questionnaire-to-SIS handoff record with approved effective date and dwelling information.
SPRG upload, fatal-validation, and successful-posting results.
Fatal-error and certification-data-discrepancy resolution log.
Dwelling-type reconciliation and documented corrections.
Report 5.5 liaison review and signoff.
EOY 1 reconciliation, certification totals, and certification evidence.

Official guidance and help

CALPADS Update Flash 325Primary 2026–27 guidance for annual Homeless Program record closure, current-year data entry, updated dwelling-type labels, validations, reports, and liaison access.
CALPADS validation detail: SPRG0746E1Official troubleshooting guidance for same-academic-year end dates on 2025–26-and-later Homeless Program records.
CALPADS validation detail: SPRG0747E1Official troubleshooting guidance for older Homeless Program records requiring closure by June 30, 2025.
CDE Resources for Homeless Children and YouthProgram guidance, annual questionnaire resources, translations, rights materials, and state contact information.

CALPADS Service Desk: Use the current CDE support process for account, validation, report, or submission issues. Program eligibility questions remain with the LEA homeless education liaison and appropriate CDE program guidance.

Source review completed August 28, 2026. Verify current CALPADS flashes, file specifications, validation descriptions, role assignments, report guidance, and certification deadlines before acting.