CALPADS Update FLASH #116

OPENING OF 2015–16 END-OF-YEAR SUBMISSION WINDOW

The 2015–16 End-of-Year (EOY) submission window opens May 23, 2016. Local educational agencies (LEAs) are expected to certify all applicable EOY submissions this year.

LEAs are strongly encouraged to start on the EOY submissions immediately and not wait until school is out to begin file uploads to CALPADS. All the EOY submissions use a reporting period of July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. It is to an LEA's advantage to begin the upload process now, prior to school ending, because doing so can provide reports to help LEAs resolve data problems before staff leave for the summer. Once school ends, LEAs will need to re-upload the files, but the reconciliation process should be much faster because the majority of issues would have already been resolved.

• May 27 – Complete Student Information System (SIS) data population
• June 9 – Upload files and correct errors or discrepancies as needed
• June 24 – Review certification reports, correct errors, and fix discrepancies
• July 8 – Distribute reports for review and approval
• July 15 – Certify

LEAs are also reminded of the following:

1. Special Education Discipline Data Used for Federal Reporting

The discipline data submitted to CALPADS for special education students for the EOY 3 submission will be used to meet federal Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) reporting requirements. In past years data submitted to the California Special Education Management Information System (CASEMIS) was used to meet these requirements. To facilitate review of these data, CALPADS includes three new certification reports that display the data that will be submitted to the federal government. LEAs should carefully review these reports prior to certifying, and be prepared to provide your Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) a copy of these reports for their review. For more information on discipline data refer to the CALPADS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) EOY Topics, posted here: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sp/cl/faq.asp.

1. Ensuring Correct Submission of Homeless Data in CALPADS

After the close of the 2014–2015 End-of-Year (EOY) 2 amendment window in CALPADS, it was discovered that LEAs certified what represented a 25% statewide decrease in the count of homeless students. It is believed that this was primarily due to the fact that the collection of the homeless data in CALPADS was moved from the Student Information File (SINF) via the Primary Residence Category Code, to the Student Program File (SPRG) via the Education Program Code (code 191 – Homeless Program) and Homeless Dwelling Type Code fields. Many LEAs failed to create and submit SPRG records for their homeless students, resulting in an undercount statewide of homeless students for the 2014–2015 academic year.

In order to avoid these data reporting errors in the 2015–2016 academic year, the California Department of Education (CDE) is asking LEAs to work with their CALPADS LEA Administrators and district homeless liaisons to ensure that data for all students who were homeless in the 2015–2016 academic year are reported. This means an SPRG record must be submitted with dates that overlap the 2015–2016 academic year for each homeless student. After updating the information, review certification report 5.4 - Homeless Students Enrolled - Unduplicated Count by School and supporting report 5.5 - Homeless Student List to ensure the counts look accurate prior to certifying the data.

If you do not know who your LEA's homeless liaison is, a list of homeless education liaisons can be found on the CDE's Web site at: http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/hs/.

1. Restriction of Academic Courses Designated as CTE

LEAs that populate Field 9.10 (CRS-Course Content Code) with code 154 (Career Technical Education) must now ensure that code 154 is only used with specific academic courses that have been identified as courses that would be logical parts of a CTE course sequence. For more information refer to the CALPADS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) EOY Topics, posted here: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sp/cl/faq.asp.

Per an agreement with the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), report 5.9 - Former Foster Youth – Student List, only counts students who stopped being a foster youth in the current academic year. The Former Foster report does not span academic years. As a reminder, after the weekly upload on July 6, 2016 the report will be refreshed to reflect students changing foster status in the 2016–17 academic year. The report will start afresh for the 2016–17 academic year and include students who are reported to the California Department of Education (CDE), as no longer meeting the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) definition of foster youth.

LEAs are required to certify a school's Title I status in the Consolidated and Application Reporting System (CARS) as part of the Title I, Part A Notification of Authorization of Schoolwide Program data collection. A school's Title I status is certified as either Targeted Assisted Status (TAS) or Schoolwide Program (SWP). This information is loaded in CALPADS and is used to pre-populate information on Certification Report 5.1 – Program Participants – Count.

CALPADS has been updated with data from LEAs who have certified these data in CARS as of May 16, 2016. For LEAs that have not certified these data in CARS, CALPADS will reflect the school's status as TAS. In order to certify accurate data in EOY 2, LEAs receiving Title I Part A funding should review their 2015–16 data in CARS as soon as possible, so that CALPADS reflects the correct Title I Part A funding and TAS/SWP status for each school. CALPADS will be updated with CARS data on a weekly basis beginning Friday, May 20, 2016.

In a letter dated May 6, 2016, the CDE informed district and county superintendents and charter school administrators of the upcoming changes to CALPADS to support the state's new Accountability and Continuous Improvement System, which will also align with changes due to the newly enacted Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). In the letter the CDE urges continued support of staff with CALPADS responsibilities because CALPADS data have become critical to many key functions, including funding calculations, test registration, and accountability metrics. The key changes mentioned in the letter include the following:

1. Collection of Whether Students have a Parent on Active Duty with the Armed Forces or Full-Time National Guard

ESSA requires accountability data to be submitted for three new subgroups: (1) foster youth, (2) homeless youth, and (3) students with a parent or guardian who is a member of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard) on active duty or full-time National Guard duty (Section 1111(h)(1)(C)(ii) of the ESSA). CALPADS already maintains data on students' homeless and foster status. However, CALPADS currently does not collect whether a student has a parent or guardian who is on active duty with the Armed Forces or full-time duty with the National Guard. For more information refer to the CALPADS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) EOY Topics, posted here: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sp/cl/faq.asp.

Effective July 1, 2016, local educational agencies (LEAs) will be able to submit a new program code (192) to indicate whether a student's parent/guardian is on active duty as a member of the Armed Forces or full-time duty with the National Guard. The CDE recognizes that collection of this information may be too late to include on 2016–17 registration forms. However, LEAs may submit these data throughout the 2016–17 school year, as certification of counts will not occur until the EOY 2 data submission. LEAs are encouraged to enhance local business processes to collect these data for new students, and to reaffirm the status each year for returning students.

1. Collection of Attendance Data for Chronic Absenteeism

ESSA requires states to report Chronic Absenteeism rates for schools (Section 1111(h)(1)(C)(viii) of the ESSA). To meet this requirement, LEAs will be required to submit attendance data to CALPADS in order for the state to calculate chronic absenteeism rates on a student-level basis. The State Board of Education is also considering chronic absenteeism as one of the indicators for state and federal accountability.

The CDE is engaged in discussions with student information system (SIS) vendors, LEAs, and other stakeholders, regarding how best to collect these data. These data will be required for the first time as part of the 2016–17 EOY 3 - Student Discipline data submission. As part of EOY 3, LEAs will also be required to certify a cumulative enrollment count and to have 1% or fewer Statewide Student Identifier (SSID) anomalies. The CDE will publish the specifications for the new file by June 30, 2016, and plans to make the functionality available prior to the opening of the 2016–17 EOY submission window.

Please note that the absenteeism data collected through CALPADS will NOT replace the average daily attendance (ADA) data submitted to the CDE for purposes of funding the LCFF, or other programs funded based on ADA, although to the extent possible the same definitions will be used so that LEAs may utilize the data that they already collect.

1. Collection of Golden State Seal Merit Diploma and State Seal of Biliteracy

The state's new Accountability and Continuous Improvement System which will replace the Academic Performance Index (API), will entail multiple accountability measures, including the possibility of a College and Career Ready (CCR) indicator. One element of the CCR may be the receipt of a Golden State Seal Merit Diploma and/or a State Seal of Biliteracy. The CDE will transition the collection of these data to CALPADS. LEAs should therefore begin to maintain the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma and State Seal of Biliteracy in their student information systems to facilitate reporting to CALPADS. LEAs will be able to submit these data for the first time for 2016–17 graduates beginning in May 2017.

1. Elimination of Highly Qualified Teacher Data Collection

ESSA eliminates the specific requirements related to Highly Qualified Teachers (HQT). Therefore, CALPADS will stop collecting on the Course Section file, the following two data elements that have been collected as part of the Fall 2 submission:

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• 9.11 CRS-NCLB Core Course Instructional Level Code
• 9.28 HQT Competency Code

These fields will become filler fields and any input validation rules or certification validation rules will be turned off. CALPADS will continue to collect all other Fall 2 data which includes data on staff, courses, and course enrollment. Any new reporting to CALPADS to meet ESSA requirements related to staff qualifications is still being discussed and the CDE will provide any information as soon as it is available. Should additional data need to be collected through CALPADS, the CDE recognizes that sufficient lead time must be provided to LEAs.

A copy of the May 6, 2016 ESSA letter can be found here: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sp/cl/essa20160506.asp.

1. Revamping of Career Technical Education (CTE) Course Codes

To simplify the mapping of local courses to state course codes and to accommodate the variety of how pathways are implemented in the field, the CTE state courses codes will be revamped to a broader schema based on pathway. This change will also facilitate the transition of federal Perkins reporting to CALPADS. The new codes will tentatively be available by the end of June. CTE, counseling, and other curricular staff will need to spend time this summer mapping local course codes to the new state codes prior to the Fall 2 submission which begins this fall.

1. Reporting Courses Without Education Content

Assembly Bill 1012 (Chapter 703, Statutes of 2015) added sections 51228.1-51228.3 to the Education Code. The new law prohibits the assignment of a pupil enrolled in any grades 9-12, to any course period "without educational content" for more than one week in any semester unless the student's parent or guardian has consented, or a school official has determined that the student will benefit from the course period. CALPADS will add the following two new course codes to capture course periods "without educational content":

• 6021 – Student Assistant – A period where a student serves as an assistant to a teacher (either during a course where the teacher is providing instruction to other students or during a teacher preparation period) and is not receiving educational content for which they receive credit toward graduation.
• 6022 – Free period or No Educational Content – A period where a student is not receiving any educational instruction or content and may even be allowed to leave the school campus.

Students who leave the school campus to take courses at another school or community college should NOT be reported using either of these new course codes because they are receiving educational instruction during the period they leave the school campus. For more information refer to the CALPADS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Fall 2 Topics, posted here: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sp/cl/faq.asp.