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Initial IEP FAQ

 

Components of the initial evaluation process:

 

1. Referral process
2. Parent rescinds consent prior to meeting
3. Parental consent obtained
4. Report Pending As Of MEET record
5. Holding initial evaluation
6. SIRAS District Enrollment Date
7. Special Ed. Initial Entry Start Date
8. Meeting delay reason
9. Closing initial evaluation
10. Parent response options
11. Initial evaluation outcomes
12. Reporting the Initial Evaluation

 

Quick links

• Preschool and Tk assessment enrollment guidelines
• Transition IFSP to IEP meeting checklist
• Starting another initial evaluation checklist
• Reporting Initial IEPs
• General help for private school referrals.

 

 

Referral Process

Do Not Fill In District Enrollment Date on MIS page until date participation will start is known!

Yes this means waiting to know if they will even start participating.

We want the correct district enrollment date filled out prior to finalizing the IEP, if the student is eligible and will start participating.

If they will not participate, we do not fill out the district enrollment date. Blank it out if you see a date in there!

 

If a student has been referred, we need a record in Siras.

Create an Initial Evaluation meeting in the IEP or Forms manager. (this is also the 504 or SST 'Manager' area)

Enter the referral date, referral by, parental consent information in the IEP manager area, not the MIS Summary page.

It is designed to let the IEP team capture data there, not the MIS page.

If you can't open an Initial, it's for  reason. Please contact [email protected] to get assistance with resolving.

 

Does a record exist somewhere due to the student currently having SWDS = 4?

Then having the record in that same inactive state in Siras will allow the creation of an Initial Evaluation.

 

If a new record is to be created, be mindful if student already has an established special ed. initial entry start date, to preserve that date in SIRAS once the new record has been created.

 

Once the record is at your district or a new record is created, we update LEA info, demographics, contacts and providers only.

Active Status = Pending for new records with no history, or if record already was inactive as not eligible, then keep the inactive status in place prior to creating the Initial Evaluation in SIRAS

 

The preferred method of capturing referral data is in the IEP Manager after the initial IEP meeting has been created.

 

Record when the assessment plan (AP) has been sent.

When it is received back signed, and what the permission response is.

Parent rescinds consent prior to meeting

If the permission to assess is denied by the parents, we can use the meeting to document everything that happened, and force finalize the meeting as parents denied permission.

• Delete the Pending As Of (parental consent date) MEET record in CALPADS.
• Remove the Parent Consent date from the current record on the MIS Summary page.
• Use meeting event that generated the AP in the IEP/Forms manager to document per local procedures. Force finalize meeting with appropriate description.

 

Parental consent obtained
If the permission to assess is granted, receipt of that permission in the district office becomes what is known as the Parent Consent Date.

 

If the student does not yet have an SSID, then at this time an SSID is required, even if it is used as a one day enrollment with sole purpose of reporting the meeting that took place and the result of the meeting.

 

For students that don't have SSIDs yet, we suggest enrolling on parent consent date, having the meeting, then closing the enrollment as of the same date if the student will not be participating immediately.

 

Report Pending As Of MEET record

If the parental consent date falls prior to a report date like first Wed. in October or 6/30 and the initial IEP won't be happening until after the report date. The LEA is required by CALPADS to turn in a 'pending as of' MEET record with pending as of date = parent consent date.

 

Holding initial evaluation

Staff have 60 calendar days to have the initial evaluation

 

SIRAS District Enrollment Date

Please leave this date blank until we know when the student will start participating. This will be the plan effective date, so align the SIRAS district enrollment date with the plan effective date once known, before the initial IEP meeting is closed.

 

Special Ed. Initial Entry Start Date
DO NOT CHANGE THIS DATE. If it needs to be adjusted, SIRAS will automatically do that for you as needed.

If the student was already once found eligible for SPED and then exited, and then has another Initial Evaluation, only the referral dates get reset. The original older Special Ed. Initial Entry Start date will remain the historical date.  If this is an IFSP to IEP transition, the special ed. initial entry start date set by being found eligible for IFSP should remain. If your district created a new record for this purpose, please don't forget to set that date manually on the MIS page when creating the new record in SIRAS.

 

Meeting delay reason

If this is an IFSP to IEP transition, then the initial IEP meeting needs to be held prior to the students third birthday. Be sure plan effective date is no earlier than third birthdate. If the date of the meeting goes beyond 60 days of the parental consent date, we need a meeting delay reason like school break. If the meeting delay reason is not self evident, please upload supporting documentation into SIRAS.  Be sure staff didn't change original meeting date to a continued meeting date!

 

When service start dates are being determined, use the Plan Effective date to set the service start dates, even if the start date is in the future.

 

Closing initial evaluation

When closing an Initial Evaluation there are a few outcomes.

 

Initial Evaluation Outcomes

 

The first outcome is Eligible and will be participating right away. SWDS 1

In this case we would report SWDS = 1 Eligible and participating

If this is a third birthday transition, remember to set plan effective date to no earlier than third birthday.

You can now set the district enrollment date on the MIS Page to be in alignment with the plan effective (service start date) before closing the meeting.

 

The second outcome is Eligible and Not Participating due to delayed start of services or  the Other 

In this case we would report SWDS = 2 Eligible, not participating and non participation reason of 12

 

In this case staff found the student eligible for IEP.  Parents accept the initial provision of FAPE but services won't start until a later date.

If the later date is a week or so due to delayed signatures, keep meeting open, update plan effective date and finalize as eligible and participating, this isn't the delay we are referring to.

Unless a meeting happened  the week prior to Fall 1 or EOY 4 and the plan won't be in effect until after. In that case if the meeting happened before first Wed. of Oct. or 6/30, and participation starts after, we need to finalize the meeting as Eligible No Plan Other Reason 12, because that is the status as of the last day of the reporting period.  We would need to report another SWDS of 1 once the student actually started participating in the next reporting cycle.

 

If the later date is going to be after summer in the fall, make sure the plan effective date is the first date of school (the expected date to start services). Close the meeting as Eligible No Plan Other Reason 12.  If the student ends up starting at a later/earlier date, that is ok too.  When they return we make the SIRAS Record have active status = active and archive as of district enrollment. (Like a plan adoption archive.) SIRAS will automatically send updated SWDS.

 

The current record will be made Inactive in this process.

Then when the student returns in the fall, the current record can be made active, and an archive, similar to a plan adoption needs to be made with the active status = active. The report event date of the archive should be the date the student returned and started participating.

 

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For Preschool, in CALPADS, if there was enrollment to get an SSID, that existing parental consent enrollment start date in CALPADS can be used as is, or closed out and more specific enrollment can be phased in with when attendance and services actually start. In this case, please have plan effective date match the enrollment start date of the newer enrollment.  If you close out the parental consent start date enrollment with another enrollment in alignment with when services start, make sure the district enrollment date and plan effective date are in alignment in Siras.
 

 

 

The third new outcome is parents decline eligibility.

In this case we would report SWDS = 4 Not  Eligible, not participating reason 27

This is when the student is found eligible but the parents decline the eligibility in the first place.

 

The fourth outcome is Eligible and Not Participating due to parents not accepting the original provision of FAPE.

In this case we would report SWDS = 2 Eligible, not participating and non participation reason of 11

 

In this case staff found the student eligible for IEP.  Parents agreed with eligibility but did not accept the initial provision of FAPE .

 

Assuming that inactive archive resulting from the meeting was done by your district there are two common follow up scenarios.

 

 

1. If the parents change their mind and adopt the plan as is all we need to do is make the record active in SIRAS, update MIS as appropriate. Align the district enrollment date in SIRAS with the date the student started participating (plan effective date) and archive as plan adoption for reporting. SIRAS will report the SWDS 1 automatically along with the plan adoption.
2. If the parents want another meeting to discuss participating and they agree to participation. If this happens, also align the date they started participating (plan effective date) into the SIRAS district enrollment date and make the record have active status = active prior to finalizing the meeting.  SIRAS will report the SWDS 1 automatically along the rest of the meeting.

If your district has a student arriving where the status in CALPADS already is SWDS 2 and non participation reaon 11.

1. If your district will adopt the plan, make a plan adoption record. But secondarily send the active status plan adoption archive as SWDS only. Make sure the SIRAS district enrollment date aligns with start of particpation.
2. If your district wants to do a meeting, still archive a plan adoption that we don't send, just create the transaction as a spare. This allows you to create the meeting staff want to have. Once the meeting is open then you can DNR the plan adoption transaction we didn't need. (It can be used to send SWDS or MEET information like a swiss army knife but keep it DNR for now. Once the meeting is done, make sure again that the active status is active and the SIRAS district enrollment date is in alignment with the plan effective date of whatever meeting they had.

 

The fifth outcome is Did Not Qualify.

In this case we report SWDS = 4 Not Eligible and Non Participation reason 21 Not Eligible in the SWDS file the effective as of date would be the meeting date.

We would also report a MEET record with the meeting date, meeting type 10/15 and not eligible outcome of the DNQ meeting.

If parents do not agree, or will not sign the IEP, we can finalize as Does Not Accept the plan.

If parents want to persue what they believe is an eligibility through an IEEE, we would open another Initial Evaluation in Siras and reset referral data.