February 2009 APR - Indicator 11

See Overview of the Development of the Annual Performance Report (APR) in the Introduction section, page 1.

Indicator 11: Percent of children with parental consent to evaluate, who were evaluated within 60 days (or State established timeline).

67.4 percent of children with parental consent to evaluate were evaluated and eligibility determined within State required timelines.

The two tables below provide Statewide and regional data for NYS’ compliance rates on this indicator for two years. Data from the 2006-07 school year was NYS’ new baseline data and 2007-08 school year data is the first year of data providing progress towards reaching the goal of 100 percent compliance. As displayed below, greater percentages of school-age students have their initial evaluations completed within the State required time lines compared to preschool children. In the 2007-08 school year, 81.2 percent of school-age students were evaluated within State timelines compared to 48.5 percent of preschool children. The overall percentage of timely evaluations for all students was 67.4 percent, a slight increase from the baseline rate of 64.2 percent.

Annually, one sixth of the school districts in the State are required to report data for this indicator. The data provided below represents data from these samples for 2006-07 (the baseline year) and 2007-08 (the current reporting year). All school districts except New York City (NYC) provided data on all eligible children. NYC provided data for a representative sample.

*In 2007-08, 10 school districts had not certified their data by the time this report was prepared.

The following data is presented by the Special Education Quality Assurance (SEQA) regions of the State to inform needed regional improvement activities.

Evaluations within State Established Timelines by SEQA Regions
Category of Students	2006-07 (Baseline)			2007-08
	A	B	C	A	B	C
	Number of Students for Whom Parental Consent to Evaluate Was Received	Number of Students Whose Evaluations were Completed Within State Timelines	Percent = [B divided by A] times 100	Number of Students for Whom Parental Consent to Evaluate Was Received	Number of Students Whose Evaluations were Completed Within State Timelines	Percent = [B divided by A] times 100
Central Region
Preschool Children	580	134	23.1%	580	201	34.7%
School-Age Students	877	639	72.9%	837	691	82.6%
Total for All Students	1,457	773	53.1%	1,417	892	63.0%
Eastern Region
Preschool Children	409	155	37.9%	392	209	53.3%
School-Age Students	499	385	77.2%	533	468	87.8%
Total for All Students	908	540	59.5%	925	677	73.2%
Hudson Valley Region
Preschool Children	438	115	26.3%	1,122	573	51.1%
School-Age Students	592	489	82.6%	1,191	924	77.6%
Total for All Students	1,030	604	58.6%	2,313	1,497	64.7%
Long Island Region
Preschool Children	806	623	77.3%	682	591	86.7%
School-Age Students	836	621	74.3%	839	658	78.4%
Total for All Students	1,642	1,244	75.8%	1,521	1,249	82.1%
New York City
Preschool Children	1,261	501	39.7%	1,255	528	42.1%
School-Age Students	2,133	1,738	81.5%	2,130	1,678	78.8%
Total for All Students	3,394	2,239	66.0%	3,385	2,206	65.2%
Western Region
Preschool Children	1,342	611	45.5%	914	297	32.5%
School-Age Students	1,878	1,470	78.3%	1,239	1,077	86.9%
Total for All Students	3,220	2,081	64.6%	2,153	1,374	63.8%

Reasons

Following are reasons why school districts were not able to meet the State required timeline. Reasons have been separated into two categories: those that are determined to be "in compliance" with NYS regulations and those that are determined to be "out of compliance" with NYS regulations.

As stated in NYS’ measure for this indicator, the percent does not include students whose evaluations were completed past the State established timelines for reasons that are in compliance with State requirements. Some of the “in compliance” reasons for exceeding the required timeline for 1,920 preschool children and 623 school-age students were as follows:

Parents withdrew referral or consent to evaluate.
Student/parent moved out of school district before the evaluation was completed.
Parents refused or repeatedly did not make the child available for the evaluation.
Parents canceled the evaluation/selected another evaluator.
Extended time line met for student who transferred to this district after evaluation period began.
Student died.
Documented delays in making contact with parents to schedule the evaluation.

Some of the “out of compliance” reasons provided by school districts exceeding the required timeline for 2,546 preschool and 1,273 school-age students were as follows:

Shortages of personnel to conduct evaluations.
Evaluator delays in completing the evaluations.
Scheduling difficulties that cause untimely Committee on Preschool Special Education (CPSE) or Committee on Special Education (CSE) meetings.

Extent of Delays

In order to inform regional interventions in improving results for this indicator, the next two tables provide the number of preschool children and the number of school-age students and the extent of delays in completing their initial evaluation. These delays are displayed for students whose reasons for delays were NOT in compliance with State requirements. In previous years, the State could not distinguish between students for whom delays were caused by reasons that were in compliance with State requirements from those whose reasons were not in compliance with State requirements. Collecting these data at the individual student level has made this differentiation possible.

Number of Preschool Children with Delays in Completing Evaluations for Reasons that are NOT in Compliance with State Requirements
SEQA Region	2007-08
SEQA Region	1-10 Days of Delay	11-20 Days of Delay	21-30 Days of Delay	More than 30 Days of Delay
Central	113	122	64	80
Eastern	60	58	20	45
Hudson Valley	255	133	85	76
Long Island	57	16	10	8
New York City	284	185	121	137
Western	103	161	158	195
Total State	872	675	458	541

Number of School-age Students with Delays in Completing Evaluations for Reasons that are NOT in Compliance with State Requirements
SEQA Region	2007-08
SEQA Region	1-10 Days of Delay	11-20 Days of Delay	21-30 Days of Delay	More than 30 Days of Delay
Central	44	37	24	41
Eastern	18	15	13	19
Hudson Valley	101	58	30	78
Long Island	58	33	19	71
New York City	89	94	64	205
Western	46	28	21	67
Total State	356	265	171	481

Discussion of Target Data

The 2007-08 school year data provided above indicate that significantly larger percentages of school-age students’ eligibility determinations are made within the required timeline compared to preschool children’s eligibility determinations. This is partially indicative of NYS’ shorter time line for determining eligibility for preschool children. If NYS had the same time line requirement for preschool children as for school-age students, NYS’ compliance rate for preschool children would be 66.1 percent compared to 48.5 percent.
An analysis of the 2007-08 data by each SEQA region indicates that the overall rate for determination of eligibility within required timelines for preschool and school-age students combined is as follows from highest to lowest: Long Island: 82.1 percent; Eastern: 73.2 percent; NYC: 65.2 percent; Hudson Valley: 64.7 percent; Western: 63.8 percent; and Central: 63.0 percent. There were improvements in the combined rate compared to the previous year in four of the six regions: Central, Eastern, Hudson Valley and Long Island.
The range of compliance for evaluating preschool children within State established time lines by region was from 32.5 percent to 86.7 percent. If NYS had the same time line requirement for preschool children as for school-age students, NYS’ compliance range by region would be from 47.1 percent to 94.2 percent.
The range of compliance for evaluating school-age students within State established time lines by region was from 78.8 percent to 87.8 percent.
Of the delays in evaluating preschool children for reasons that are not in compliance with State requirements, 34.2 percent were delays of 1-10 days; 26.5 percent were delays of 11 to 20 days; 18.0 percent were delays of 21 to 30 days; and 21.2 percent were delays of more than 30 days.
Of all the delays in evaluating school-age students for reasons that are not in compliance with State requirements, 28.0 percent were delays of 1-10 days; 20.8 percent were delays of 11 to 20 days; 13.4 percent were delays of 21-30 days; and 37.8 percent were delays of more than 30 days.

Discussion of Improvement Activities Completed and Explanation of Progress or Slippage that occurred for FFY 2007:

Explanation of Progress or Slippage

NYS did not meet its target of 100 percent; however there was improvement in our rate from 64.2 percent to 67.4 percent.

During the 2007-08 school year, all school districts reporting data for this indicator received electronic notices of compliance with this indicator immediately upon certifying their data.

School districts that were not 100 percent in compliance with this indicator were required to analyze the reasons for their delays in determining eligibility and to develop and or revise their processes and procedures related to ensuring timely completion of initial evaluations. School districts were required to provide a Statement of Assurance to the State once they had made the required changes. In addition to this, school districts with less than a 90 percent compliance rate have been re-assigned to report data to the State on this indicator for the 2008-09 school year in order to document full compliance. See the schedule of the school years in which school districts must resubmit data on this indicator, posted at https://www.p12.nysed.gov/sedcar/ resubschedule.html. The Special Education School District Data Profiles will be updated with school districts’ revised compliance rates based on resubmission of data. These profiles are posted at http://eservices.nysed.gov/sepubrep/,

Improvement Activities Completed in 2007-08

The Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID) accessed technical assistance to further inform its activities to improve the timeliness of completion of preschool and school-age individual evaluations from the National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC) http://www.nectac.org/, particularly the NECTAC checklist, “Local Corrective Action Plans: Collection and Use of Valid and Reliable Data for Determining Factors Contributing to Noncompliance,” which lists key questions that school districts can use to review their own process for conducting timely evaluations and eligibility determinations. This checklist can be found at:
http://www.nectac.org/~pdfs/topics/transition/noncompliance_contributing_factors.pdf

Activities Completed

NYS collected data on this indicator in the 2007-08 school year at the individual student level through SIRS. See information contained in the SIRS 2007-08 Policy Manual and in the SIRS 2007-08 Dictionary of Reporting Data Elements posted on line at https://www.p12.nysed.gov/sedcar/data.htm#references. Collecting data through the new system has improved accuracy of these data and provided the State with greater capacity for analysis.
NYC identified State approved preschool evaluation sites who have significant numbers of evaluations that do not meet the State’s mandated timelines. VESID required of those State approved preschool evaluation sites, corrective actions to address the area of noncompliance. As a result, NYC data improved from 39.7 percent to 42.1 percent for 2007-08. VESID also provided technical assistance to preschool evaluation sites and NYC CPSE administrators to ensure compliance with timeliness of evaluations.
The Early Childhood Direction Centers (ECDCs) tracked the data of the districts in their service areas that have high classification rates and collaborated with SEQA and Special Education Training and Resource Centers (SETRC) to provide training and technical assistance. The technical assistance focused on evaluation, timely referral and provision of services. ECDC directors also sought out areas of culturally diverse populations to initiate outreach.
NYS regulations were amended effective July 2007. A field guidance memo was issued in April 2008 entitled, Implementation of Response to Intervention Programs. This document can be found at: https://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/RTI.htm.
In 2008, the SEQA Central Regional Office (CRO) approved four new approved programs to provide preschool evaluations to address one of the major reasons for delays in preschool evaluations in the Central region.
The Southern Tier ECDC and SEQA office worked together to develop a coalition to assist local districts with suggestions and best practices on how to improve the CPSE evaluation process.
The Mid-State ECDC established a website that identifies preschool evaluation sites that have availability to complete evaluations of preschool students suspected of having a disability within the required timelines. This website was shared with the regional office and at all CSE chairpersons meetings.
NYS regulations were adopted, effective October 4, 2007, to require districts to take action to ensure timely evaluation and placement of preschool students. A field guidance memo was released in August 2008 regarding changes – “New Requirements for Special Education Programs and Services: Amendments to State Regulations Relating to Chapter 378 of the Laws of 2007 and the 2004 Reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004”. This document can be accessed at https://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/idea/chap378-808.htm.

Revisions, with Justification, to Proposed Targets / Improvement Activities / Timelines / Resources for FFY 2007 [If applicable]

None

FFY	Measurable and Rigorous Target
FFY 2007 (School year 2007-08)	100 percent of children with parental consent to evaluate will be evaluated and eligibility determined within State required timelines.

Category of Students	Evaluations within State Established Timelines
	2006-07 (Baseline) 113 school districts			2007-08 *113 school districts**
	A	B	C	A	B	C
	Number of Students for Whom Parental Consent to Evaluate Was Received	Number of Students Whose Evaluations were Completed Within State Timelines	Percent = [B divided by A] times 100	Number of Students for Whom Parental Consent to Evaluate Was Received	Number of Students Whose Evaluations were Completed Within State Timelines	Percent = [B divided by A] times 100
Preschool Children	4,836	2,139	44.2%	4,945	2,399	48.5%
School-Age Students	6,815	5,342	78.4%	6,769	5,496	81.2%
Total All Students	11,651	7,481	64.2%	11,714	7,895	67.4%