All school districts, co-ops, open-enrollment charter schools, and state-operated educational programs are reminded of the importance of the upcoming Arkansas Public School Computer Network (APSCN) Cycle 4 data submission requirements for special education child count and special education personnel. APSCN Cycle 4 closes on December 15, 2003.
Give particular attention to the following items of interest.
December 1 Child Count:
Students in the process of being determined eligible for special education and are temporarily placed in special education on December 1 should be coded as “Temporary” in the Special Education Modules. These students will be included in the Local Education Agency's (LEA’s)overall child count. Students counted in temporary placements determined not eligible subsequent to December 1 will be manually adjusted out of the totals by the Special Education Unit upon notification from the LEA by no later than February 1, 2004.
Any school age private school student receiving special education services must be shown on the Miscellaneous Information screen in the Special Education Module. Include the resident LEA of the student.
Special Education Qualified Personnel:
Special Education Employee reporting is now included in the Cycle 4 submission.
Teachers are to be included when reporting the counts of special education “service providers”.
Cycle 4 Special Education Employee data will be used as the starting point for reports provided to the Special Education Monitoring and Program Effectiveness Section for Special Education Program Approval.
LEA Special Education Supervisors are encouraged to work closely with Statewide Information System (SIS) Reporting Coordinators during Cycle 4 to assure accurate reporting of Special Education Employee data.
Additional information can be found in the Special Education School Age Training Guide (revised November 7, 2003) and the Special Education Early Childhood Training Guide (revised August, 2003) located on the APSCN website at the Special Education link.