I am trying to do an Initial IEP for a student who previously found eligible but parents declined FAPE only and didn't want to participate. SIRAS won't allow me to create the initial IEP.
That is correct as the student is currently still eligible, just not participating. An Initial IEP is not appropriate in this case. Only when the student is currently Not Eligible is another Initial IEP warranted. In this case the record should be inactive as of the initial IEP meeting date with inactive reason eligible, not participating. This SWDS 2 status should be seen in CALPADS and the eligible no services archive with the archive date should be seen as the one archive on the MIS Summary page.
If this is a follow up meeting and we don't know if they will participate or not, make the record have active status of pending but do NOT remove the inactive non participation reason. This way staff can open the Triennial (or any meeting event other than initial) and if it is clear the student will not start participating after the meeting, close the meeting with the active status still pending (with inactive reason in place). That way SIRAS only reports MEET only.
If it is clear the student will start participating as of the plan effective date of the meeting, then have your District SPED person change the active status from pending to Active and clear out the inactive reason prior to finalizing the meeting. That way SIRAS will know to also send a SWDS 1 to update CALPADS about the change in participation status.
I am trying to do an Initial IEP for a student who was previously in SpEd and dismissed, but the program won't let me
To start a 2nd Initial for an exited student, if exit was “returned to regular ed, no longer eligible” SIRAS will allow you to create a 2nd Initial Evaluation for the student. It will replace the old referral data with the new referral data automatically. No need to do anything in the MIS Summary page for a 2nd Initial, just create the meeting in the IEP Manager.
The reason you may not be able to open the meeting is because someone tried to 'fix' Siras by removing the inactive date and reason. In that case the Inactive reason and date must be put back before Siras will allow the secondary initial IEP to be created.
I am trying to do an Initial IEP for a student who was previously referred but found not Eligible (DNQ)
This is like the situation above. To start a 2nd Initial for a student who is a DNQ, if Plan Type is ‘Not Eligible’ SIRAS will allow you to create a 2nd Initial Evaluation for the student. It will replace the old referral data with the new referral data automatically. No need to do anything in the MIS Summary page for a 2nd Initial, just create the meeting in the IEP Manager.
The reason you may not be able to open the meeting is because someone tried to 'fix' Siras by removing the inactive date and reason. In that case the Inactive reason and date must be put back before Siras will allow the secondary initial IEP to be created.
How do I get rid of the extra IEP pages that are not needed if a student is not eligible for services on an Initial IEP?
As soon as you check the Not Eligible or 'Exit' box on the Student Information and Services page, the extra pages will no longer be required and will drop off your list. If you find you made a mistake, and the student is eligible, put in the disability and uncheck the box and the other required forms will be back on the list.
When the 'exit' easy button is used in the IEP forms to exit the student, the references to eligibility and services will be removed from the meeting forms.
There is no need to manually remove the services from the services form.
It is ok that the services are left in place on the MIS Page, they are a record of the plan the student exited from.