Plan to Collect Baseline Data

NYS will collect data on an annual basis from a statewide representative sample of school districts in the State using a new PD 9 form.  The PD form must be submitted by October 15th annually.

Baseline data will be collected on children that meet the following criteria:  

• All preschool students (or the minimum number required in a sample) for whom parents provided consent to evaluate for special education programs and/or services anytime during the 2005-06 school year (July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006), regardless of the source of referral; and

• All school-age students (or the minimum number required in a sample) for whom parents provided consent to evaluate for special education programs and/or services anytime during the 2005-06 school year (July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006), regardless of the source of referral, age, and the school students attended or currently attend. 

To collect baseline data on the timeliness of eligibility determinations for children referred for preschool special education programs and/or services, the PD form will direct school districts to report the following information: 

• The number of preschool children whose parents provided consent to evaluate for special education programs and/or services during the 2005-06 school year (July 1, 2005 – June 30, 2006) and the number of school days within which eligibility determinations were made for preschool children (within 30 days or less; within 31-40 days; within 41-50 days; and more than 50 days) both for students determined eligible and not eligible for preschool special education services. 

• The reasons when the number of children with consent for evaluation exceeds the number of children for whom an eligibility determination was made (e.g., evaluations pending; parents withdrew consent; child moved to another school district; other reason).

• The reasons for delays in the initial eligibility determination of preschool children (e.g., evaluator not available; parent did not make the child available for the evaluation; parent canceled the scheduled evaluation and selected another approved evaluator; child transferred into the district after the initial evaluation was initiated in another school district; other reason). 

To collect baseline data on the timeliness of eligibility determinations for school-age students for special education programs and services, the PD form will direct the school districts to report the following information:

• The number of school-age students whose parents provided consent for an initial evaluation for special education programs and/or services during the 2005-06 school year (July 1, 2005-June 30, 2006).

• The reasons for a greater number of students with consent for evaluation than the number of students with initial eligibility determinations (e.g., numbers awaiting evaluations; numbers whose parents withdrew consent to evaluate; numbers who moved to another school district before the evaluation was completed; other reason).

• The reasons for the delays in the initial eligibility determinations (e.g., shortage of personnel to conduct the evaluation; parent repeatedly did not make the student available for the evaluation; student transferred into the district after the evaluation period began in the prior school district and the parent and new district agreed to an extended time period; other reason).

• The number of calendar days within which eligibility determinations were made for school-age students (within 60 days or less; within 61-70 days; within 71-80 days; within 81-100 days and more than 100 days) both for students determined eligible and not eligible for school-age special education services.   

SED will conduct random data verification reviews to ensure accurate reporting.  SED will also establish procedures to require corrective action in school district that report noncompliance. 

Sampling methodology

 

Sampling will be used to establish the 2005-06 baseline for this indicator.  One-sixth of the school districts in NYS will report data for this indicator annually until all school districts have reported data within six years.   This represents approximately 120 school districts each year.  The NYC School District will be included in the sample each year.  It is the only school district in the State with a total enrollment of 50,000 or more students. 

 

NYS has distributed all school districts among six statewide representative samples. These six groups of school districts were tested with Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and there was no statistical difference among the six groups of school districts on the population variables described in Attachment 2.

 

All school districts will have a choice of reporting data on all eligible students or they may submit data on a randomly selected sample of minimum number of students using the sampling guidelines provided below.   

 

SED will require that school districts maintain documentation as described above if they choose to report data on a sample of students. The totally random sampling methodology and required documentation should eliminate selection bias. The State will attempt to prevent missing data by first describing precisely what SED needs to collect, providing technical assistance and then following up with school districts to request missing data.  The completeness of data collection will improve after the first year and will continue to improve as long as requirements remain unchanged.  All issues of confidentiality will be handled in accordance with the rules and procedures in FERPA.  SED will also guard against divulging personally identifiable information by not reporting results when there are less than five students for whom data are available or when those results can be easily calculated based on other data provided.

Baseline Data for FFY 2005 (2005-06)

 

For the 2005-06 school year, 116 school districts that are representative of the State provided data to the State on the number of preschool and school-age students that were referred to the CPSE or CSE for an initial determination of eligibility for special education programs and/or services and the numbers of these children that were determined eligible and the number that were determined not eligible within 30 school days for preschool children and within 60 calendar days for school-age students. School districts also provided reasons for delays in the determinations of eligibility.  Of the 116 school districts reporting data for this indicator, 114 provided information on all eligible children and 2 provided information on a sample of students.

 

The following are baseline data for the 2005-06 school year. The baseline data will be re-established in the 2006-07 school year because this indicator’s timeline was revised by the USED from a measure of the number of days between parental consent to evaluate to determination of eligibility for special education to a measure of time between parental consent to evaluate to the date when evaluation was completed.

 

Statewide Results:

Results in Central Special Education Quality Assurance Region:

 

Results in Hudson Valley Special Education Quality Assurance Region:
 

 

Results in Long Island Special Education Quality Assurance Region:
 

Results in New York City Special Education Quality Assurance Region:
 

 

Results in Western Special Education Quality Assurance Region:
 

Reasons

 

Following is an analysis of the reasons reported that the school districts were not able to meet the State required timeline.  Reasons have been separated into two categories: those that are determined to be "in compliance" with State regulations and those that are determined to be "out of compliance" with State regulations. 

 

Some of the “in compliance” reasons for exceeding the required timeline for 1450 preschool children and 462 school-age students were as follows:

• Parents withdrew consent to evaluate

• Student/parent moved out of school district before the determination of eligibility

• Parents refused or repeatedly did not make the child available for the evaluation

• Parents cancelled the evaluation/selected another evaluator

• Child transferred to a new district after the evaluation period began and parents and new district agreed to an extended time period.

Some of the “out of compliance” reasons provided by school districts exceeding the required timeline for 2,578 preschool and 1,594 school age students were as follows:

• Shortages of personnel to conduct evaluations

• Additional evaluations were needed than originally scheduled

• Scheduling difficulties that cause untimely CPSE or CSE meetings

• Still awaiting eligibility determination as of reporting date

Extent of Delays

 

Following is an analysis of the number of days past the timeline that eligibility determinations were made for preschool children. Some of these delays are for  reasons determined to be "in compliance" while others have been determined to be "out of compliance".  However, NYS did not collect data in such a way as to be able to differentiate between the two types of delays: