Learn the SIRAS-Specific Concepts First

Most of your existing SEDS knowledge transfers directly to SIRAS. A few SIRAS concepts are worth learning first because they affect nearly every workflow.

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Experienced SEDS Workflow Crosswalk

Start with the task you already recognize from your previous system.

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Find Students & Build Working Lists

If your previous system used student filters, saved populations, ad hoc queries, work queues, or report populations, the closest SIRAS concept is the Found Set.

A search changes which students are currently in your Found Set. You can then use that population for Student Lists, reports, exports, monitoring, or batch tools.

Start here:

• Search Help — build or change the Found Set.
• Understanding the Found Set — understand which students subsequent tools operate on.
• Student Lists — turn the Found Set into a customizable list.
• Predefined Queries & Lists — use SIRAS-built populations for common needs.
• Saved Lists & Queries — save work you expect to repeat.
• Historical-Advanced Search — search archived/historical records when Current data is not the correct source.

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New, Returning & Incoming Students

You already know the question: Is this a brand-new referral, an existing eligible student, a returning student, or a transfer?

In SIRAS, the first step is especially important:

Search before creating a new student record.

Existing SIRAS records and CALPADS history may determine the correct workflow.

Use:

• New or Returning Students — primary routing guide.
• Creating a New Student Record — when a new record is actually appropriate.
• Plan Adoption – Incoming Students & CALPADS Reporting — student arrives with an existing plan.

The onboarding guide should be your starting point rather than assuming that every student new to your district is also new to special education.

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Referrals & Initial Evaluations

The underlying referral, assessment plan, consent, evaluation, meeting, and eligibility process is familiar. What changes is where those stages are represented in SIRAS.

SIRAS uses the student's Current record, Pending status when appropriate, the IEP/Forms Manager meeting workflow, and archived SEDS transactions to represent the process from referral through completion.

Start with:

• Initial Evaluation Process – Part B / IEP
• SIRAS Record Status — understand when Pending is appropriate.
• Archived Transaction Components: SWDS, MEET, PLAN & SERV — understand the resulting reporting history.

Do not make a student Active simply because the referral or evaluation process has begun. Status should reflect the student's actual eligibility and participation situation.

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Meetings & IEP Workflow

If you are accustomed to another IEP system, the educational process is the same, but learn the SIRAS meeting lifecycle and terminology.

In general, staff:

1. Create the appropriate meeting.
2. Complete the applicable forms.
3. Mark the meeting Meeting Complete when the meeting forms are ready.
4. Proofread and review the plan with the parent/guardian.
5. Obtain the applicable Parent Consent response.
6. Finalize the meeting when complete.

Finalization preserves the completed meeting and creates the applicable historical/reporting record.

Use:

• Forms Manager Procedures — primary IEP/Forms Manager workflow.
• Finalizing and Reactivating Meetings — completion and finalization guidance.
• Finding Open / Unfinalized Meetings — administrator review of unfinished events.
• Documents / File / Form Manager Help — document and meeting-file tools.

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Providers, Caseloads & Services

If your previous system used case-manager assignments, service-provider assignments, school caseloads, or service records, SIRAS separates these concepts into student-provider assignments and service information.

Start with:

• Manage Caseload — assign and manage student caseloads.
• Student Providers — review provider assignments on an individual student.
• Student Lists — create provider, student, service, and service-history lists.

When investigating a caseload problem, distinguish between the student's actual educational/service information and the user assignment that determines who can see or manage the student.

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Transfers, Exits & Inactive Records

Experienced SEDS staff already know that "student left" can mean several different things: transfer, moved without notification, no longer participating, Not Eligible, graduation, certificate completion, maximum age, or another local outcome.

In SIRAS, do not simply make the record Inactive without first identifying what happened.

The usual sequence is:

1. Determine the actual field event and date.
2. Determine whether eligibility continues.
3. Update the Current record appropriately.
4. Complete or appropriately close open meeting work.
5. Select the applicable inactive/offboarding outcome.
6. Create or verify the applicable reportable transaction.
7. Verify CALPADS when reporting is required.

Use:

• Student Record Offboarding: Inactive Status and SWDS Reporting
• SIRAS Record Status
• Archived Transactions

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Monitoring & Compliance

If you previously worked from compliance dashboards, due-date reports, exception lists, or monthly audit reports, SIRAS provides the same type of work through predefined lists, searches, Found Sets, monitoring tools, and projections.

Use:

• Data Monitoring Tasks: Preventive and Corrective Review — recurring monitoring framework.
• Compliance Monitoring: Upcoming, Overdue & As-Of Meeting Projections — monitor upcoming and projected compliance workload.
• Data Monitoring Help — investigate a record that does not make sense.
• Process for Error Resolution — work through discrepancies systematically.

A useful SIRAS distinction is the difference between finding a population and investigating an individual exception. Use monitoring tools to find the work; then inspect the student's actual history before making a correction.

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SEDS / CALPADS Reporting

If you have already submitted SEDS data from another system, the statewide concepts will be familiar. The key task is learning how SIRAS creates, displays, submits, and corrects those transactions.

SIRAS organizes special education reporting history around:

• SWDS — eligibility and participation status;
• MEET — evaluations and meeting events;
• PLAN — plan information; and
• SERV — services associated with the plan.

Start with:

• Reporting Data to CALPADS — primary SIRAS reporting procedure.
• Archived Transactions — understand the historical records being reported.
• SWDS, MEET, PLAN & SERV Components — understand transaction structure.
• CALPADS Submission Log Help — trace what SIRAS sent.
• CALPADS Error Summary — error-reference starting point.
• SEDS / CALPADS Resources — additional reporting resources.

The SIRAS reporting cycle

The operational pattern is:

Prepare → Submit → Review → Investigate → Correct → Resend → Verify

Do not stop at "the file was submitted." Verify that the applicable transaction was accepted and that the resulting CALPADS history represents the actual student record.

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Annual & Rollover Work

Your previous system probably had beginning-of-year, census, assessment, rollover, and year-end routines. SIRAS has corresponding workflows, but the timing of individual data areas does not all change on July 1.

Use:

• SEDS Coordinator Focus by Month — month-by-month operational guide.
• System Event Calendar — major SIRAS and reporting events.
• Before Rollover Help — prepare Current and Next Year's Data.
• Next Year's Data — prepare future-year values.
• After Rollover Help — post-rollover review.
• Beginning of School Year Help — beginning-of-year cleanup and verification.

Treat the annual calendar as a sequence of operational checkpoints rather than one single "year rollover" event.

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Users, Access & Scope

If a staff member cannot see a student, cannot edit a page, or appears to be missing records, first determine whether the issue is the user's role, site assignment, View Scope, or student/provider assignment.

Avoid changing student data simply to make the student visible to a user.

Use:

• SIRAS User Access Roles and Permissions
• Manage Users / My Account
• View Scope
• Manage Caseload

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SIS Integration

Experienced SEDS staff are often accustomed to a separate Student Information System supplying enrollment and demographic data while the special education system supplies special education information.

SIRAS follows that same general model, but the exact integration method depends on the district and SIS.

Use:

• SIS Integration Guide — primary integration hub.
• Demographic Data Import from SIS to SIRAS
• SIRAS to SIS Special Education Data Export

When SIS, SIRAS, and CALPADS disagree, determine what actually happened in the field and which system is authoritative for the disputed information before changing data.

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Where to Go Next

Once you know which workflow you are trying to perform, use the resource that matches the type of question.

For additional administrator and SEDS Coordinator resources, visit Administrator / SEDS Coordinator Support.

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