1. Start with All Active Records

1. Confirm your scope is the district, school, or other population you intend to review.
2. Return to the full set of Active Special Education records.
3. If the current found set is filtered, reset the search before continuing. See Search Help if needed.

The goal is to begin with the population that should currently be participating in Special Education, then look for school, enrollment, accountability, plan, and setting patterns that need follow-up.

2. Open the General Lists

1. Go to Reporting.
2. Choose Predefined Lists.
3. Click General Lists.

Use the General Lists view as the starting point for sorting the active student population by the fields below.

3. Review the Active Population by Key Fields

School

Sort by School in both directions.

• Look for active records with a blank or unexpected school.
• If the student is enrolled and participating, correct the school information.
• If the student should no longer be Active, investigate the current status before changing it. Pending is a temporary Special Education work/follow-up status, not simply a cleanup category. See Special Education Record Status and Pending in SIRAS.

District Enrollment

Sort by District Enrollment.

• Review active records with no district enrollment date.
• If the student is enrolled and participating, add or correct the appropriate district enrollment date in MIS/Current data.
• If the student is not currently enrolled or participating, investigate whether the record should be Pending or Inactive based on what is known in the field.

Remember that District Enrollment Date is based on when the applicable participation conditions were in place. An older date can be correct when the student has continuously participated since that date.

School Type

Sort by School Type in both directions.

• Do NPS school types have the expected school attending?
• Do private-school records have the expected school attending?
• Do the applicable private-school records have the expected plan type?
• Do charter records have the expected charter type?

If the list view does not make the pattern clear, use the custom Table review below.

District of Special Education Accountability (DSEA)

Sort by District of Special Education Accountability in both directions.

• Review DSEA next to District of Geographical Residence.
• Look for unexpected sending/receiving patterns or records that do not match what you know about the student.
• This is also useful SIRAS-side preparation for DSEA-oriented CALPADS monitoring. See Data Monitoring Tasks for the recurring quarterly monitoring framework.

Plan Type

Sort by Plan Type.

• Look for populations that should cluster together, such as private-school participation.
• If the list view makes it difficult to see trends, use the Table view below.

4. Use a Custom Table to See Data Patterns

1. Click Setup Custom Report.
2. Select Table.
3. Build a table using:
   • School Attending
   • School Type
   • Primary Residence
   • Program Setting
   • Plan Type
4. Click Generate Report.

A custom table makes it easier to compare related placement and plan fields across the active population.

Review School Type in the Table

Sort by School Type. If your display uses Code and Label, sort so the larger values are grouped together when that helps expose the private/parochial population.

Review whether the school type, school, and plan type make sense together. If they do not, investigate which field reflects the student's actual situation before correcting anything.

Use the table to identify combinations that stand out from the expected pattern.

5. Remove Detail to See Broader Trends

1. Return to Setup Custom Report.
2. Double-click School Attending to remove it from the report.
3. Click Generate Report.

With the more specific school name removed, the table becomes smaller and broader patterns can be easier to see.

Removing a highly specific field can make broader combinations easier to compare.

Use the summarized table to look for combinations that deserve closer student-level review.

Program Setting Check

For example, review whether residential-school records have the expected Program Setting. Treat unexpected combinations as a reason to investigate, not as proof that a particular field is wrong.

6. What to Do When Something Looks Wrong

This article helps you surface records and population patterns that deserve review. It does not mean every unusual value should be changed.

1. Confirm the student's actual current situation using SIRAS, CALPADS/SIS information when applicable, and information from the field.
2. Use Data Monitoring Help when the systems or historical records do not agree.
3. Use Process for Error Resolution to correct the appropriate source after you understand the discrepancy.
4. If the correction affects Special Education reporting data, follow the normal CALPADS submission and verification process.