The United States Department of Education on Tuesday April 6, 2021 approved in writing a request from the California Department of Education to waive some accountablity, school identificiation, and related reporting requirements for the 2020-21 school year due to challenges related to the Covid-19 pandemic.   Please note that these accountabilty requirement waivers did NOT extend reporting or testing deadlines nor did they waive the administration of any CAASPP, CAST, CAA, ELPAC, or related state tests.  In addition no extension to testing deadlines were issued. You can read the full report below: 

California's Safe Schools for All Plan provides the support and accountability to establish a clear path to minimize in-school transmissions and enable, first, a phased return to in-person instruction, and then ongoing safe in-person instruction.   The Safe Schools For All Hub consolidates key resources and information related to COVID-19 and schools. New resources will be added to the Hub on a routine basis. CA Safe Schools for All This new website for school administrators, staff, and parents outlines the funding, testing, and safety measures the state offers to support safe in-person instruction for California’s kids. https://schools.covid19.ca.gov/

Editor's note:  Still not sure if they understand schools or not.  Keeping students 6 feet apart from each other is clearly not a viable option in schools where 40 students are crammed into a single classroom.  Unclear what resources, if any, will actually flow to schools to enable these recommendations to lead to actual implementation.  But here they are . . . . California Releases Guidance on Re-Opening of Schools Stronger Together -  Published June 8, 2020. https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/hn/documents/strongertogether.pdf

Disabling of the Student Discipline File on February 25, 2020 In preparation for implementing the new student incident files for the 2019–20 End-of-Year (EOY) 3 submission, the current Student Discipline (SDIS) file and User Interface will be disabled on February 25, 2020. Therefore, beginning February 25, 2020, LEAs will not be able to: Update historical SDIS information through batch or online.View Student Detail Discipline and historical Incident Discipline data in the CALPADS User Interface.Access Operational Data Store (ODS) versions of the discipline reports (reports 7.xx). Therefore, any updates to student discipline data in prior years in the CALPADS Operational Data Store must be ma...

Important Reminder to update the Student English Language Acquisition Status in CALPADS Prior to Summative Testing for the English Language Proficiency Assessment for California All English learners must be assessed annually with the Summative English Language Proficiency Assessment for California (ELPAC). In order to be tested, students must have an English Language Acquisition Status (ELAS) of English Learner (EL) in CALPADS. Therefore, it is critical that students' ELAS are up-to-date in CALPADS before the Summative ELPAC testing opens on February 3, 2020, in order that students may be tested. In addition, any students' initial ELAS statuses that have been corrected through one of the all...

This is from an email distributed today (December 17, 2019) to LEA's: The California Department of Education (CDE) will not be collecting 2019–2020 school year California Physical Fitness Test (PFT) results from the local educational agencies (LEAs) maintaining any of grades five, seven, and nine. LEAs are still required to annually administer the PFT. In accordance with California Education Code Section 60800(c), "Pupils shall be provided with their individual results after completing the PFT [by the LEA]. The test results may be provided orally as the pupil completes the testing." For the School Accountability Report Card (SARC) February 2020 reporting, LEAs have the option of submitting t...

When to Use an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP), Individualized Education Program (IEP), or an Individualized Service Plan (ISP) This Flash provides further specificity to Flash 161 regarding which plan types students with disabilities (SWD) should have. Individuals: Birth to 35 months should have an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). Ages 3 to 5, should have an Individualized Education Program (IEP), even if the child is attending a private preschool, private transitional kindergarten, or private kindergarten (that is not a nonpublic, nonsectarian certified school). LEAs should enroll students ages 3 to 5 who are attending a private school at the district level, with the Re...

Focusing on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System and English Language Proficiency Assessments of California (ELPAC)—and including, when timely, updates on California's other statewide assessments. Summative ELPAC Assessment Results in the California Educator Reporting System The California Educator Reporting System (CERS) now includes Summative ELPAC results from the 2017–18 and 2018–19 school years. Local educational agency (LEA) staff who have Test Operations Management System (TOMS) logon credentials can enter CERS through the CAASPP Portal or ELPAC Portal to access student assessment results. Over the next two years, CERS will become the single so...

Topics include: 2019-20 Fall 1 submission requirements modification; viewing Fall 1 SPED certification errors. 2019–20 Fall 1 Submission Requirements Modification The CDE recognizes the hard work of LEA staff to incorporate additional data into the Fall 1 submission, and that doing so requires more collaboration both within and external to the LEA. To enable LEAs to focus on certifying the most critical Fall 1 data, the CDE is making the following adjustments to the 2019–20 Fall 1 submission: Report 16.5 – Students with Disabilities – Student Services by Primary Disability  will be excluded from the set of certification reports that LEAs must approve as part of Fall 1. LEAs, howeve...

A list of the new bugs . . .  :(  Problem Number Classification Sub Classification Title Request Description Work-Around Priority 5233 Defect Fall 1 Certification Module Fall 1: Invalid fatal CERT138 error CERT 138 is triggered when the exit code is E140. n/a High 5232 Defect Reports & Extracts CERT142 - spelling errors on Certification Error Report Typos on 1.0 Certification Error report for CERT142. n/a Low 5231 Defect Reports & Extracts Fall 1: Snapshot Report 16.1 and 16.3 missing some students Some students who appear to be eligible are missing from 16.1 and 16.3 reports. n/a High 5230 Defect Reports & Extracts Fall 1 Certification page shows inflated error counts ...

California Department of EducationNews Release Release: #19-73November 4, 2019 Contact: Cynthia ButlerE-mail: communications@cde.ca.govPhone: 916-319-0818 SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today that the California Department of Education (CDE) was awarded a $37.5 million federal Comprehensive Literacy State Development grant. The grant will provide the necessary funds to allow for the expansion of current literacy efforts statewide over the next five years. “Many of the students who are struggling with reading comprehension or are not reading at grade level are our most vulnerable students—economically disadvantaged students, English language learners, students with disabilities, and students in rural communities,” said Thurmond. “This grant will allow us to promote and support equitable access to high-quality literacy instruction that will benefit not only our high-need students but all of our students from pre-K to high school.” The CDE is partnering with WestEd, the Region 15 Comprehensive Center, the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, First 5, and the California Subject Matter Projects to carry out the grant’s three objectives: Build state capacity to support literacy instruction.Develop and implement a comprehensive state literacy plan.Build local capacity to establish, align, and implement literacy initiatives. In addition to the grant partners, the CDE will establish new sustainable partnerships with local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, and early childhood agencies to coordinate statewide professional learning and will disseminate a comprehensive statewide literacy needs assessment to local educational agencies by December 2019, which will provide vital information to assist in the development of the state literacy plan. For questions, email CLSDP@cde.ca.gov. # # # #

File Name: 2019-20-PFT-Welcome-Back-to-School File Size: 148 kb Download File California Department of Education message about the California Physical Fitness Test (PFT). Of special note is the change from submitting PFT results every year to once every two years, in accordance with California Education Code Section 60800. This means the CDE will not be collecting PFT results for the 2019–20 PFT administration. Please note, however, LEAs are still responsible for reporting aggregate results of the PFT in their annual school accountability report card. 2 page PDF file.

Dear DataQuest Users:This message is to notify you about several discipline related downloadable research files and corresponding file structures that have just been updated for 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17 and 2017–18. These file updates can be found on the California Department of Education's (CDE's) Student and School Data Files page. The following statewide downloadable files and file structures are available:Suspension RateSuspension Rate File structureExpulsion RateExpulsion Rate File StructureChronic Absenteeism RateChronic Absenteeism File Structure Note: The 2018-19 Suspension, Expulsion, and Chronic Absenteeism data will be released in conjunction ...

California Department of EducationNews Release Release: #19-68October 9, 2019 Contact: Scott RoarkE-mail: communications@cde.ca.govPhone: 916-319-0818 SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today the statewide results of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) summative assessments for English language arts/literacy (ELA) and mathematics. School districts have had access to their own results since May. For CAASPP, performance continues to improve slightly overall within grades as measured by the Smarter Balanced ELA and mathematics assessments. Statewide results in all tested grades showed that 50.87 percent of students met or exceeded standards in ELA, a .99 percentage point increase from 2018 and a 6.87 percentage point increase from 2015. In mathematics, 39.73 percent of students met or exceeded standards, a 1.08 percentage point increase from 2018 and a 6.73 percentage point increase from 2015. Thurmond acknowledged the slight score increases but expressed deep concern that improvement is less consistent across the score range in the later grades of 7, 8, and 11, with a persistent percentage of students of color not meeting standards and, in several grades, showing declining scores from last year. “Disparities between students of color and their white and Asian peers continue from year to year and demonstrate the importance of our priority initiative of closing the achievement gap. Education equity should mean equity for all students and right now, we are not there,” said Thurmond. “All students should have an equal opportunity to succeed academically and enter the workforce prepared with the needed skills to compete in the industries that drive our state forward.” One plan to address disparities that Thurmond supports is working with data experts to interpret the declining scores and evaluate what is causing the results. Strategies can then be identified for how local educational agencies (LEAs) and educators can improve test scores. “The CDE can work with all educational stakeholders to identify strategies and then explore legislative efforts to support the needs of local districts and provide resources to improve test scores,” Thurmond said. Performance gaps have narrowed (based on tracking the same cohort over time and different cohorts over time) in ELA in most grades between Hispanic or Latino students and white students, Ever-English Learner students and English Only students, and Reclassified Fluent English Proficient students and English Only students. The CAASPP Smarter Balanced ELA and mathematics results are the basis for the academic indicator, and the Summative ELPAC contributes to the English Learner Progress indicator of the California School Dashboard. Thurmond reinforced that test results are only one measurement out of many that the state uses to evaluate schools on the California School Dashboard, which allows educators and parents to identify strengths and weaknesses. Schools and districts that are struggling across Dashboard indicators are flagged for state assistance. This is the fifth year of the computer-based tests, which use California’s challenging academic standards and ask students to write clearly, think critically, and solve complex problems, as they will need to do in college and future careers. During this time period, less...

Changes in reporting for Multilingual and English Learner ProgramsThe attached CALPADS Update FLASH #163 (3 page PDF file) provides information about the following topics: New Language Instruction Program Codes for Native and Non-Native English SpeakersReporting English Learner Participation in Language Acquisition ProgramsReporting English Learner Services File Name: calpadsupdflash16_20190926-191911_1 File Size: 145 kb Download File

Focusing on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System and English Language Proficiency Assessments of California (ELPAC) and including, when timely, updates on California's other statewide assessments. Survey for LEA Coordinators! On September 17, the California Department of Education (CDE) opened its annual local educational agency (LEA) coordinator survey with a link to the survey emailed to a sampling of LEA coordinators. If you received the email, we hope you will take a few minutes to tell us about the resources and training you need to be successful in your role as an LEA coordinator. This short survey asks about your awareness and use of sever...

Special Education Data Collection in CALPADS  Beginning September 10, 2019, CALPADS will accept data related to Students with Disabilities (SWD) that were previously submitted to the CDE through the California Special Education Management Information System (CASEMIS). 14 page PDF file. File Name: calpadsupdflash161 File Size: 404 kb Download File