Introduction to SIRAS for Special Education Administrators
This training introduces SIRAS to special education administrators, SEDS Coordinators, district and school administrators, program specialists, clerical/data staff, and others who help manage users, student records, meetings, compliance, or reporting.
New to SIRAS? Work through the sections in order. Returning administrator? Use the section links and refresher checklist to review the concepts most relevant to your role.
This guide can be used as a self-paced introduction or as the outline for a live administrator training of approximately 60–90 minutes.
SIRAS should reflect what happened in the field as soon as staff know it. Updating Current data is the first step; completing and verifying the associated meeting, archive, and reporting transaction is the next step.
1. Training Goals & Recommended Approach
By the end of this introduction, an administrator should be able to:
- explain how SIRAS organizes Current, Meeting, and Archived information;
- distinguish Active, Pending, and Inactive records;
- identify which administrative role or scope controls access to a student;
- navigate the major SIRAS menus and student-record areas;
- recognize the appropriate onboarding, evaluation, plan-adoption, transfer, and inactive workflow;
- understand how field events become SEDS/CALPADS transactions;
- locate the primary administrator monitoring tools; and
- know where to find detailed procedures and assistance.
Recommended learning sequence
- Understand the concepts first. Status, scope, and data layers explain why SIRAS behaves as it does.
- Learn the student lifecycle next. Most administrative tasks are variations of onboarding, maintaining, reporting, transferring, or closing records.
- Practice with realistic scenarios. Ask what happened in the field before deciding which SIRAS workflow applies.
- Use detailed articles for procedures. This introduction provides orientation and links rather than repeating every click-by-click instruction.
Use a SIRAS Training Server for practice whenever possible. Training-server screenshots and records contain demonstration data rather than live student information.
2. What SIRAS Is—and How It Relates to the SIS & CALPADS
SIRAS supports special education and related program workflows, including IEP, IFSP, ISP, 504, and SST records. It provides the operational workspace for student records, meetings, plans, services, provider assignments, compliance monitoring, and special education reporting preparation.
| System | Primary role |
|---|---|
| District SIS | Primary source for district enrollment and many demographic fields. SIS integration may create, update, or help locate SIRAS records according to district configuration. |
| SIRAS | Operational source for special education status, referral and evaluation workflow, meetings, plans, services, providers, documents, and reportable transaction history. |
| CALPADS | Statewide reporting destination for district enrollment and special education transactions. CALPADS is not the daily IEP-management workspace. |
First determine what happened in the field, verify the source systems, and correct the record or transaction that is actually wrong.
Related resources:
3. Administrator Roles, Access & Scope
SIRAS access depends on the user's role, assigned organization/site scope, and student/provider assignments. Two administrators may see different students or controls even when they work in the same district.
Common access concepts
- User role: controls which functions the account may use.
- District or SELPA scope: controls access across the assigned organization.
- School/site assignment: limits or extends access to specific sites.
- Student/provider assignment: connects staff with students and caseload responsibilities.
- Program designation: identifies the record context, such as Special Ed., 504, or SST.
Before creating a new record, search broadly and verify the user's role, site assignment, and access scope.
Administrator account resources:
4. Current, Meeting, Archived & Next Year's Data
Current data
Current data is what SIRAS understands to be true now. It appears on the MIS Summary and drives searches, work lists, caseloads, and many reports.
Meeting data
Meeting data contains proposed or in-progress information being developed in IEP/Forms Manager. It does not become Current merely because staff entered it. The meeting must reach the appropriate completion/finalization point.
Archived transactions
An archived transaction preserves the historical event and provides the source for applicable SEDS/CALPADS reporting. Archives may result from meeting finalization or a specialized Archive for Reporting workflow.
Next Year's Data
Next Year's Data is a future-year overlay used when known district, school, provider, or service information will change in the upcoming academic year. It does not replace Current data until the applicable rollover or manual advance/apply process occurs.
| Layer | Administrator question |
|---|---|
| Current | What does SIRAS say is true now? |
| Meeting | What is the team proposing or documenting in the open event? |
| Archived | What happened at the historical/reportable event? |
| Next Year's | What is expected to change for the upcoming academic year? |
Active, Pending, and Inactive
- Active: the student is eligible, enrolled, and participating.
- Pending: referral, arrival, consent, evaluation, participation, or other follow-up remains unresolved.
- Inactive: the student is not currently participating through that record, is not eligible, is no longer enrolled/residing, or the workflow has ended.
Core concept articles:
6. Understand the Student-Record Lifecycle
Most administrator work fits somewhere in this lifecycle:
Referral or arrival
- Search before creating a record.
- Determine whether the student is a new referral, incoming IEP, incoming IFSP, returning student, or anticipated transfer.
- Verify enrollment, eligibility, CALPADS history, and available documents.
Onboarding
- New or Returning Students – Onboarding & Special Education Status Review
- Initial Evaluation Process – Part B / IEP
- New, Transferring & Incoming IFSP Students
- Transition IFSP to IEP Meeting Procedure – Part C to Part B
- Plan Adoption – Incoming Students & CALPADS Reporting
Ongoing maintenance
- Keep Current status, providers, plan, services, accommodations, and dates aligned with the field.
- Finalize meetings and verify the resulting archived transactions.
- Review open work and data-monitoring lists regularly.
Transfer, participation change, or exit
- Request Student Transfer Help
- Student Exit from Special Education – Team & Meeting Process
- When Students Leave, Stop Participating, or Become Inactive
Determine the student's actual enrollment, eligibility, participation, and reporting history before deciding between Initial Evaluation, Plan Adoption, transfer, follow-up meeting, or inactive status.
7. Translate Field Events into SIRAS Actions
Administrators should begin with the field event, then determine the Current-record action and the historical/reporting action.
| What happened in the field? | What should staff review in SIRAS? |
|---|---|
| Parent signed assessment consent | Parent Consent Date, Pending status, SSID coordination, Pending As Of MEET archive, expected meeting date, and evaluation timeline. |
| Student enrolled with an existing IEP | Existing SIRAS/CALPADS record, MIS reconstruction, district enrollment date, Plan Adoption, provider assignment, and participation status. |
| Student began participating | Active status, actual approval/participation context, Plan Effective Date, services, finalized meeting/archive, and accepted CALPADS transaction. |
| Student stopped participating | Eligibility retained or ended, actual inactive date/reason, open meetings, SWDS/NONPART outcome, archive, and CALPADS acceptance. |
| Meeting occurred but remains open | Actual meeting date, document preview, remaining consent/data work, finalization status, archived transaction, and reporting deadline. |
| Expected student never arrived | True no-show versus valid arrival, enrollment evidence, Current inactive status, and whether an anticipated Plan Adoption or other transaction must be corrected. |
- Update Current data so SIRAS reflects what is known now.
- Finalize the meeting or create the required historical archive.
- Confirm that the reporting transaction was submitted and accepted.
8. SEDS & CALPADS Reporting Overview
SIRAS prepares four primary special education file concepts for CALPADS:
| File concept | What it represents |
|---|---|
| SWDS | Eligibility and participation status over time. |
| MEET | Evaluation and meeting events, outcomes, timelines, and delays. |
| PLAN | The applicable special education plan and related characteristics. |
| SERV | Services associated with the reported plan. |
How reporting history is created
- Finalizing a meeting normally updates the Current record and creates an archived transaction.
- Some events use a specialized Archive for Reporting workflow, such as Pending As Of, Plan Adoption, or an inactive status change.
- Changing Current status alone does not necessarily create every required file record.
- The transaction still must be submitted, accepted, and cleared of applicable validation errors.
Administrator reporting responsibilities
- Send SIRAS SEDS data to CALPADS regularly—at least monthly, and more frequently around deadlines.
- Review IVRs and correct the underlying data or transaction.
- Resend corrected records.
- Compare SIRAS and CALPADS reports to identify missing or inconsistent history.
- Make sure meetings and transactions that occurred before a census/reporting date are represented appropriately.
Reporting resources:
- Reporting SIRAS Data to CALPADS
- Data Reporting FAQ
- Data Monitoring Tasks
- Reviewing the CALPADS 16.21 Report
- Compare SIRAS Data with the CALPADS 16.21 Report
- Maintaining the SIRAS SEDS & CALPADS Update History (internal staff guide)
It may indicate that the event was entered late, the archive was not created, the transaction was not submitted, another prerequisite record is missing, or the reported values conflict.
9. Daily, Weekly & Monthly Administrator Routines
Daily or as needed
- Review Home Page alerts, requests, messages, and urgent follow-up items.
- Process new and returning students.
- Resolve access, transfer, school, and provider-assignment needs.
- Address urgent meeting, consent, status, or reporting issues.
- Update SIRAS when a known field event changes Current status.
Weekly
- Review Pending and Incoming records.
- Review open/unfinalized meetings.
- Monitor onboarding and offboarding.
- Review referrals missing SSIDs or Pending As Of archives.
- Review inactive records requiring an archive.
- Confirm unresolved errors have an assigned owner and next step.
Monthly
- Submit SEDS data to CALPADS.
- Resolve IVRs and submit corrections.
- Compare SIRAS data with applicable CALPADS reports.
- Review overdue and compliance-monitoring lists.
- Prepare for upcoming census, assessment, rollover, and reporting deadlines.
Recurring-work resources:
10. Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Creating a duplicate record without searching first. Search by name, initials, birthdate, local ID, and SSID before creating a student.
- Making a record Active merely to give someone access. Fix the user's scope or assignment instead.
- Waiting until reporting cleanup to update Current status. Enter the actual field outcome promptly, then finish the reporting transaction.
- Removing a historical inactive reason. Prior status may be necessary to explain the student's timeline and allow a later workflow.
- Confusing Plan Adoption with Initial Evaluation. Plan Adoption recognizes an existing plan; Initial Evaluation establishes eligibility and a new plan.
- Leaving completed meetings open. Open meetings delay Current-data updates and archived transaction creation.
- Assuming Current status automatically reports all file records. Meeting finalization or Archive for Reporting may still be required.
- Changing historical facts only to make an IVR pass. Correct the record or prerequisite that is actually wrong.
- Ignoring document preview when multiple meetings are open. Confirm the district, plan type, dates, forms, and data before finalization.
- Treating Pending as permanent. Resolve Pending records to Active or Inactive when the field outcome is known.
For general troubleshooting, see Typical Resolution to Common SIRAS Issues.
11. Practice Scenarios
For each scenario, identify the Current status, primary workflow, and reporting follow-up before opening the answer.
Scenario 1 – New referral with signed assessment consent
Recommended direction: Keep the record Pending, enter the Parent Consent Date promptly, coordinate obtaining an SSID, create the Pending As Of MEET archive, and monitor the Initial Evaluation timeline.
Scenario 2 – Student enrolls with an existing California IEP
Recommended direction: Search for existing SIRAS and CALPADS history, reconstruct/verify the MIS Summary, determine likely participation, and complete Plan Adoption when appropriate. Do not begin another Initial Evaluation merely because the student is new to the district.
Use New or Returning Students and Plan Adoption – Incoming Students & CALPADS Reporting.
Scenario 3 – IFSP student is approaching age three
Recommended direction: Determine which SIRAS district is completing the Part C-to-B Initial Evaluation and whether an existing record is available. This transition establishes a new IEP; the evaluating IEP district does not adopt that resulting plan.
Use Transition IFSP to IEP Meeting Procedure – Part C to Part B.
Scenario 4 – Eligible student stops participating
Recommended direction: Determine whether eligibility continues. Update the Current record promptly using the actual inactive date and reason, complete/close applicable meetings, create the required archive, and verify CALPADS reporting.
When eligibility continues but participation stops, the outcome may be SWDS [2] Eligible, Not Participating with the applicable NONPART reason.
Use When Students Leave, Stop Participating, or Become Inactive.
Scenario 5 – Meeting occurred before census but remains open
Recommended direction: Preserve the actual meeting date. Determine what information or consent remains incomplete, preview the document, and complete the appropriate finalization/reporting workflow. Do not change the historical meeting date merely to avoid appearing overdue.
Review Data Monitoring Tasks and the applicable meeting/finalization guidance.
Scenario 6 – Student expected after rollover never arrives
Recommended direction: Determine whether this is a true never-enrolled no-show or whether a valid district arrival/Plan Adoption occurred before the later nonparticipation outcome. Correct transactions only when the event they represented never happened.
Use After Rollover – Record Processing & Cleanup and When Students Leave, Stop Participating, or Become Inactive.
12. Next Steps & Support Resources
Continue administrator onboarding
- Getting Started as a SEDS Coordinator – role responsibilities and recurring operational expectations
- Administrator / SEDS Coordinator Support – task-oriented administrator help
- SIRAS User Manual – page-by-page navigation and screen help
- SIRAS Training – training-server access and training opportunities
- Office Hours for SEDS Coordinators – recurring support opportunities
- SIRAS Communications – announcements and communication resources
Develop advanced administrator skills
- Overdue-As-Of Projections
- Predefined Queries, Lists & Reports
- Meeting Reports
- Indicator Reports
- FTE Report
- TOMS & Assessment Information
- DRDP Help for Administrators
- Postsecondary Survey Candidate Lists
Email [email protected] with the student's SIRAS ID, the workflow being attempted, what happened in the field, and any error or unexpected behavior. Do not include confidential student information in an unsecured email.
13. Administrator Refresher Checklist
- ☐ I can explain the roles of the SIS, SIRAS, and CALPADS.
- ☐ I understand Current, Meeting, Archived, and Next Year's Data.
- ☐ I can distinguish Active, Pending, and Inactive records.
- ☐ I know that role, site assignment, scope, and student/provider assignment affect access.
- ☐ I can locate the Home Page, student search, MIS Summary, Forms Manager, Reporting, and Tools areas.
- ☐ I search for an existing record before creating a new one.
- ☐ I can distinguish Initial Evaluation, Part C-to-B transition, Plan Adoption, and incoming-student onboarding.
- ☐ I know that SIRAS should reflect field events promptly.
- ☐ I understand that Current status and archived/reporting transactions are separate but related.
- ☐ I can identify the purpose of SWDS, MEET, PLAN, and SERV records.
- ☐ I know where to monitor Pending, open-meeting, inactive, SSID, and reporting issues.
- ☐ I know the daily, weekly, and monthly administrator routines.
- ☐ I know where to find the User Manual, Administrator Support, training, office hours, and SIRAS Support.
