Attached is the PD-2A/4 form to be used to report the count of school age students with disabilities placed in your school by a public school district and students with disabilities provided special education services pursuant to Article 81 of the Education Law, on December 1, 2005. This report also requests the settings in which students with disabilities who are provided special education services pursuant to Article 81 are provided special education services. If this school also operates an approved preschool program for children with disabilities, this report requests the count of preschool students provided preschool special education programs and services pursuant to Section 4410 of the Education Law, on December 1, 2005. If this school does not provide education services pursuant to Article 81 to students who are placed in a child care institution, connected to this school, by the courts or other agencies please do not complete this PD-2A/4 report, instead, complete a PD-2 report. Please call our office to request a PD-2 form. This report is due in the State Education Department between December 1, 2005 and December 16, 2005 and should be submitted to:

New York State Education Department
Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities
Strategic Evaluation Data Collection, Analysis and Reporting
Room 1613, One Commerce Plaza
Albany, New York 12234

To be counted in this report, each student with a disability, on December 1, 2005, must meet both of the following criteria:

• The student must be placed in your school and your school must implement the student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) on December 1, 2005. A student with a disability whose placement in your school is discontinued before December 1, 2005, may not be included in the count for your school. A student who is initially placed in your school and provided special education after December 1, 2005 may not be included in the count for your school.

• The student must be placed in your school by a New York State school district, or placed by a court or other agency in a child care institution connected to your school and be provided special education services pursuant to Article 81, in accordance with State standards.

Federal law and regulation require that State and local education agencies ensure an unduplicated count of students with disabilities. Before submitting the PD-2A/4 report, please complete local verification procedures to ensure that each student is counted only once. Such verification procedures
may include visual scans, computer scans or other methods; and are especially important for schools having several school buildings and for students receiving multiple special education programs or services.

The New York State Education Department (SED) will confirm the accuracy of information included in this report as part of the program review process, or as is otherwise indicated. To facilitate such review for your school, please maintain a list (hard copy or other readily retrievable format) of all students included in this child count until June 30, 2011. Upon completing local verification procedures, if it is determined that one or more counts are incorrect, a revised report (i.e., PD-2A/4 form) must be submitted to SED.

Compared to the PD-2A/4 report for 2004-2005, the PD-2A/4 report for 2005-2006 has been modified in the following ways:

• In Section A, Table 1, the count of preschool children with disabilities provided special education services pursuant to Section 4410 or 4201 of the Education Law, as of December 1, 2005 is disaggregated between children provided special class or special class in an integrated setting and/or special education itinerant teacher (SEIT) services (Line 1) and children who are provided related services only (Line 2).

• Section B, Table 3 has been removed. It collected the number of students with disabilities provided testing accommodations. These data are collected through the individual student record system and through the System to Track Educational Performance (STEP) reporting system.

• Section B, Table 4 has been removed. It collected the number of school age students with disabilities who are also Limited English Proficient. These data are collected through the individual student record system and through the STEP reporting system.

• Section B, Table 6 has been removed. It collected the number of students with disabilities by age and grade. These data are collected through the individual student record system and through the STEP reporting system.

Please note that the data collected through the PD forms are used in the following reports and activities:

• State Performance Plan and Annual Performance Report for Special Education

• Public reporting of LEA results against State targets established in the State Performance Report.

• Calculation of minimum amount of per-pupil IDEA funds to be sub-allocated or spent on services.

• Pocketbook of Goals and Results for Individuals with Disabilities

• Chapter 655 Report to the Governor and the Legislature on the Status of the State’s Schools

• Special Education Quality Assurance Reviews

• School District Report Cards

• BOCES Report Cards

• Charter School Report Cards

• Calculations to identify instances of possible race/ethnicity disproportionality

• Other reports required by State or federal statutes

• Evaluation of programs and policies

If you have any questions or are in need of assistance in completing this report, please contact the Strategic Evaluation Data Collection, Analysis and Reporting (SEDCAR) Unit by using the contact information provided in the letterhead. Thank you.

Attachment
 

1. 1. Approved private schools that do not provide educational services pursuant to Article 81, on December 1, 2005, should not complete this PD-2A/4 report. Instead, a PD-2 report should be completed and may be requested by calling our office.

2. Wherever information is requested regarding students' race/ethnicity, please use the following definitions to assist you in determining the most appropriate category for reporting students:

3. Wherever students are to be reported by age, please report age as of December 1, 2005.

4. If specific instructions for some tables are not provided below, they are included with each table of the PD-2A/4 form.

Section C, Reports 1-14: There are two tables for each disability category- Table 1 and Table 2. These tables request placement information for all school aged students with disabilities, ages 4-21, who are the responsibility of your CSE and are provided school age special education programs and services on December 1, 2005. Only include in these tables students with disabilities who are placed by the courts or other agencies in a child care institution connected to this school and are provided special education services pursuant to Article 81 of the Education Law.  Table 1: Report the number of students with disabilities who are educated in regular school buildings and removed from regular classes for "Less than 20%", "21% to 60%", or "More than 60%" of the school day or school week. "Regular school buildings" are buildings for both disabled and nondisabled school age students. "Regular classes" are classes for both disabled and nondisabled school age students. Time outside of regular classroom is a measure of the extent of removal from the regular classroom setting, NOT of the total amount of special education services provided. It is the percent of each school day or week that a student receives special education including related services, apart from nondisabled students while within a regular school building. For purposes of these data collection, students in the following settings should be reported in Table 1 (regular school buildings):

In order to determine the percent of time students receive services outside regular classrooms (i.e., in rooms/groupings attended by students with disabilities only), it is important to consider where the service is provided rather than the type of service that is provided. To calculate the percentage of time outside the regular classroom, divide the number of hours the student receives special education and related services outside the regular classroom each day or week by the total number of hours in the school day or school week. Use the length of the entire school day, including all periods and lunch. The following examples are provided for purpose of clarification:

• A student who attends a resource room for one period each day in which special education services are provided to a group of students with disabilities would be counted in Table 1, Line 1 since one period outside of regular classroom would constitute 20 percent or less of the school day.

• A student who is assigned a full-time, one-to-one teacher aide, but who attends regular classrooms for 80 percent or more of the school day should be included in Line 1 of Table 1.

• A student who receives special education services for two hours per day outside of regular classrooms would be reported on Table 1, Line 2. If the two hours of special education services are provided in the regular classroom, the student should be reported in Table 1, Line 1.

• A student whose first period begins at 8:30 a.m. and last period ends at 2:30 p.m. would have a six-hour day or 30-hour week. If the student attended a special class for four 45-minute periods daily and participated in the general education environment for the remainder of the day, that student’s “time outside regular classroom” would be 15.0 hours per week or 50 percent of the week. Such a student would be reported in Table 1, Line 2.

• Special education services provided outside the normal school day (e.g., before school or after school) should not be considered time outside the regular classroom, regardless of the type of services or where they are provided. Such students should be counted in Table 1, Line 1.

• Students with disabilities who receive special education programs or services in regular classes that include nondisabled students should be reported in Table 1. This includes regular classrooms in which consultant teachers provide special education programs and services or regular classes in which special class programs are located.

Table 2: Report the number of students with disabilities who are educated in separate education settings. These are settings that are attended by students with disabilities only. The definition of each separate education setting follows:

Special Public Day Schools- Public day schools that are attended by students with disabilities only. These schools include public school district or BOCES buildings that are attended by students with disabilities only. These schools also include Special Act School Districts if they are attended on a day school basis, and if they include students with disabilities only.
Special Private Day Schools- Approved private schools for students with disabilities that are attended by students with disabilities only, on a day basis.
Public Residential Facility- A public facility in which the student resides, placed by the courts or other agencies, and attends an education program affiliated with the facility, in buildings that serve only students with disabilities. Public residential facilities include the Special Act School Districts for students who reside in facilities affiliated with these schools. Students with disabilities who reside in Child Care Institutions but are provided special education services in buildings which include disabled and non-disabled students, should be reported in Table 1.
Private Residential Facility- A private facility in which the student resides, placed by the courts or other agencies and attends an education program affiliated with the facility, in buildings that serve only students with disabilities. Private residential facilities include approved private schools with a residential component. Not all students residing in such facilities will be reported in this category; if students with disabilities receive special education services in buildings that include disabled and non-disabled students, such students are to be reported in Table 1.
Home- Use this setting if the approved private school’s Committee on Special Education has determined that the most appropriate educational placement for the student is in the student’s residence (or "home"), and not in a school setting.
Hospital or Other Non-School- These are settings in which students with disabilities are provided special education services based on their unique needs.

Directions: Please review directions and definitions for completing reports 1-14 beginning on page 2. In the following 17 reports in this section, only include students with disabilities who are provided educational services pursuant to Article 81 of the Education Law. The total number of students reported in reports 1-13 and in reports 15 and 16 must be equal to the total number of students reported in Section B, Table 1, Line 2.

Table1: In Regular School-Based Programs in buildings attended by disabled and non-disabled students (Consultant Teacher, Resource Room, Special Class, et. al.)