SIRAS Administrator Fall Refresher

Begin each fall by reviewing current SIRAS communications, statewide reporting changes, known issues, and the district/SELPA calendar.

• SIRAS SEDS & CALPADS Update History – current and historical SIRAS reporting changes
• Active and Known Issues – current system or reporting issues
• SIRAS Communications – newsletters, bulletins, and announcements
• System Event Calendar – rollover, training-server refreshes, and other system events
• Reporting and Compliance Due Dates – current due-date reference
• SEDS Coordinator Focus by Month – seasonal administrator priorities

Current-year items to verify locally

• Fall 1 census and certification dates;
• district and SELPA rollover status;
• current CALPADS file-specification changes;
• new required plan, service, program-setting, or demographic fields;
• TOMS, DRDP, and postsecondary-survey expectations; and
• district-specific training and data-review deadlines.

Current, Meeting, and Archived data

• Current data shows what SIRAS understands to be true now.
• Meeting data contains proposed or in-progress information.
• Archived transactions preserve historical/reportable events.
• Next Year's Data contains known future-year assignments or changes until applied.

Active, Pending, and Inactive

• Active: 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 ended.

Refresher resources:

• SIRAS Record Status – Reflect What Is Happening in the Field
• Data Record – Current Data
• Data Record – Archived Transaction
• Next Year's Data
• Concurrent Usage – working safely when multiple team members use the same record

New and returning users

• Create accounts only after searching for an existing user.
• Use the account-transfer process when the person already has a SIRAS account elsewhere.
• Verify the user's role, district/school scope, site assignments, and contact information.
• Disable accounts promptly when staff leave or no longer need access.

Caseload and assignment review

• Confirm staff are assigned to the correct schools and students.
• Review students left assigned to departed staff.
• Confirm users understand self-assignment and removal rules.
• Do not make a student Active merely to solve an access or assignment problem.

User and assignment resources:

• Manage User Accounts
• User Account Transfer Request Process
• Deactivating a User Account
• Manage Caseload Help
• Site Assignments
• Student Assignments
• Understanding Scope in SIRAS

After rollover, determine whether each unresolved record is:

• still Pending and accessible to the responsible staff;
• available through a prior Rollover Date search;
• still only visible as Incoming because Next Year's Data was not applied;
• waiting for a CALPADS correction, meeting completion, ESY completion, or final return decision; or
• not returning and ready for an Inactive outcome.

Use these articles in order:

• After Rollover – Record Processing & Cleanup
• Beginning of School Year Help – Administrator Checklist
• Census Day Search and Store
• When Students Leave, Stop Participating, or Become Inactive

Common rollover follow-up

• Confirm grades, schools, districts, providers, and services.
• Review records retained in the prior grade intentionally.
• Confirm incoming transfers are visible to the receiving staff.
• Manually apply Next Year's Data when the planned rollover did not occur.
• Review MIS information for newly transferred records.
• Resolve records that stayed Pending through rollover.

For each arriving or returning student:

1. Search SIRAS and CALPADS history before creating a new record.
2. Verify enrollment and the actual arrival story.
3. Review available IEP/IFSP records and reconstruct the MIS Summary when needed.
4. Determine whether the correct workflow is Plan Adoption, Initial Evaluation, IFSP onboarding, Part C-to-B transition, or returning-student follow-up.
5. Assign providers only after the record reflects the best verified information.
6. Complete the applicable archive and reporting follow-up.

Primary onboarding resources:

• New or Returning Students – Onboarding & Special Education Status Review
• Plan Adoption – Incoming Students & CALPADS Reporting
• Initial Evaluation Process – Part B / IEP
• New, Transferring & Incoming IFSP Students
• Transition IFSP to IEP Meeting Procedure – Part C to Part B
• Request Student Transfer Help

Use Preparing for Fall 1 Census Day as the canonical Fall 1 procedure. This refresher highlights the main preparation categories.

Population and enrollment

• Confirm participating students have the expected district enrollment and SSID.
• Review incoming, returning, and newly participating students.
• Resolve students who left, stopped participating, or never arrived.
• Review district enrollment dates and school/program information.

Current SIRAS data

• Confirm Active, Pending, and Inactive statuses reflect the field.
• Review disabilities, plan dates, services, settings, providers, and accommodations.
• Review Degree of Support and other current-year required fields.
• Review program-setting updates for students whose age or setting changes before census.

Historical and reporting data

• Finalize completed meetings.
• Create required Pending As Of or Meeting In Progress records.
• Review Plan Adoption and Initial Evaluation transactions.
• Resolve IVRs and resend corrected records.
• Compare SIRAS with applicable CALPADS reports.

Fall 1 supporting resources:

• Degree of Support Help Sheet
• Program Setting Updates
• CALPADS 16.21 – Overdue Plan Review and Reevaluation
• CALPADS 16.25 – Initial Part B Timeline Compliance
• Find Meetings That Were Held Late – Previously Overdue
• Back in Time Solution for CALPADS Errors

Initial Evaluation referrals

• Enter the Parent Consent Date promptly.
• Coordinate obtaining an SSID without delaying the evaluation.
• Create the Pending As Of MEET archive before the Initial Evaluation meeting.
• Monitor expected meeting dates and delay reasons.
• Resolve the record to Active or Inactive when the outcome is known.

Use:

• Initial Evaluation Process – Part B / IEP
• New Referral List – SSID & Pending As Of Monitoring
• Reporting Beginning-of-Year Initial Evaluations Around Fall 1

Pending meeting versus Meeting In Progress

Use the transaction that accurately represents what had occurred as of the applicable reporting date:

• Sending a Pending Meeting Record
• Send Meeting In Progress

Review projected and completed meetings

• Use Overdue-As-Of Projections to review annual and reevaluation due dates across the school year.
• Use CALPADS 16.21 for overdue Plan Review and Reevaluation reporting.
• Use CALPADS 16.25 for Initial Part B timeline reporting.
• Use Find Meetings That Were Held Late – Previously Overdue to verify delay reasons.

Review SIRAS work queues

• Pending records;
• Incoming students;
• open or unaffirmed meetings;
• new referrals missing an SSID or Pending As Of archive;
• Inactive records requiring an archive;
• records with reporting errors; and
• records with missing or inconsistent plan/service information.

Monitoring resources:

• Data Monitoring Tasks
• Predefined Queries, Lists & Reports
• Meeting Reports

TOMS and assessment information

Review current accommodations, designated supports, test participation, and API/extract procedures.

• SIRAS Administrator – TOMS API for SIRAS
• Testing and Accommodations in SIRAS

DRDP

Review the population, staff assignments, data-entry expectations, and submission process for applicable students.

• DRDP Help for Administrators

Transition indicators and postsecondary preparation

Review transition-related questions and monitoring for students reaching the applicable age or grade.

• Transition Regulation Indicator Monitoring
• Postsecondary Survey Candidate Lists

Daily or as needed

• Review Home Page alerts and requests.
• Process urgent incoming, transfer, user-access, and status issues.
• Update Current status when field outcomes become known.

Weekly

• Review Pending, Incoming, and open-meeting records.
• Review new referrals and missing identifiers/archives.
• Review students leaving or no longer participating.
• Review unresolved errors and assign follow-up.

Monthly

• Submit SEDS data to CALPADS.
• Resolve IVRs and resend corrections.
• Compare SIRAS with CALPADS.
• Review compliance and data-monitoring lists.
• Prepare for upcoming deadlines.

Recurring-work resources:

• Daily Tasks
• Weekly Tasks
• Monthly Data Monitoring Tasks
• Getting Started as a SEDS Coordinator

• ☐ I reviewed current-year SIRAS updates, known issues, due dates, and the System Event Calendar.
• ☐ User roles, sites, accounts, and caseload assignments are current.
• ☐ Rollover and beginning-of-year cleanup is complete or each unresolved record has an owner.
• ☐ Incoming and returning students have been reviewed using the correct workflow.
• ☐ SIRAS Current status reflects what is happening in the field.
• ☐ Completed meetings have been finalized and required archives have been created.
• ☐ Initial Evaluation referrals have SSID and Pending As Of follow-up.
• ☐ Pending Meeting and Meeting In Progress records are used accurately.
• ☐ Plan Adoption records represent actual arrivals and participation expectations.
• ☐ Fall 1 population, enrollment, plan, service, program, and required-field data has been reviewed.
• ☐ CALPADS 16.21, 16.25, and applicable monitoring reports have been reviewed.
• ☐ TOMS, DRDP, transition-indicator, and other fall tasks have assigned owners.
• ☐ SEDS data is being submitted regularly and errors are tracked through acceptance.
• ☐ Daily, weekly, and monthly administrator routines are scheduled.

Return to the beginning of the refresher