The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) requires the States and Territories to develop a six-year State Performance Plan (SPP). The SPP has twenty (20) indicators defined by the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education, including an indicator on post-school outcomes (PSO). The PSO indicator requires the State to survey special education students within one year of having graduated, having reached maximum age for eligibility, or having dropped out of school.
To meet the requirements of the PSO indicator, Arkansas has submitted a six-year sampling plan to Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). If a district is consolidated or annexed, the sampling plan will be adjusted accordingly. The sampling plan allows each district to be surveyed at least once during the six years of the SPP. To find out when the local district’s students are scheduled to be surveyed, please review the SPP located on the Special Education website home page at http://arksped.k12.ar.us.
To survey students within one year of leaving high school, student and family contact information is required. The required information includes student name and social security number, parent/guardian name, street address, mailing address, and phone number. The data will be gathered via Arkansas Public School Computer Network (APSCN) for all special education students ages 14-21, including non-Pentamation districts. This special data collection will occur on the last Friday of May for each year of the sampling plan.
The contact information will be cross-referenced with the Special Education Cycle 7 exiting data, Cycle 2 graduation data, and Cycle 4 dropout data to ensure that the appropriate students receive the survey. The survey will be mailed to the identified students by March 30 of the following school year. For example, students graduating, reach maximum age for eligibility, or drop out during 2005-2006 will be surveyed in the spring of 2007.
The SPP is available in most public libraries across the State, in the education service cooperatives, and on the Special Education website at http://arksped.k12.ar.us. For questions about the post-school outcomes sampling plan, contact Dr. Jody Fields at 501-683-7219 or jafields@ualr.edu.