Public Law 108-446, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004, required the State Education Department (SED) to develop and submit a six-year State Performance Plan (SPP) to the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the U.S. Education Department (USED), spanning the years 2005-2010. OSEP identified three monitoring priorities and 20 indicators relating to the priority areas that must be tracked and reported. The Annual Performance Report (APR) is required to be submitted every year as a report to the Secretary of Education and to the public on the State’s performance under the SPP, describing overall progress and slippage in meeting the targets found in the SPP. This APR is the third report, due February 1, 2009. It references the SPP dated December 2005, as amended in June 2007. It covers the academic year 2007-08, referenced in the report as “FFY 2007.”
As required under section 616 of IDEA, the State is making available a public report of each school district's performance on indicators one through fourteen of the indicators against the State's targets. This report is found at http://eservices.nysed.gov/sepubrep/. Data in the individual school district report will be updated annually, following the submission and acceptance of each year’s APR.
The three priority areas and their corresponding indicators are as follows:
Priority: Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
Priority: Disproportionality
Priority: Effective General Supervision Part B
Child Find and Effective Transitions (district-level indicators)
General Supervision (state-level indicators)
Overview of February 2009 Annual Performance Report Development
The process for developing New York State’s (NYS) Part B SPP can be found at https://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/spp/partb1106.html. The APR was developed by a workgroup formed in 2005 from among managers and staff of the Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID). This group includes representatives from the Special Education Offices of Policy, Quality Assurance, Program Development and Data Collection and Reporting, and serves as the Cabinet to guide the development of the SPP and APR. Regular monthly meetings are held of this group to continuously address issues relating to the State's SPP and APR and the development of the APR.
Stakeholder input from the Commissioner’s Advisory Panel (CAP) for Special Education Services, which is comprised of educators, parents, administrators and individuals with disabilities, was sought regarding creation of the SPP in baseline measures, targets and improvement strategies. CAP is kept continuously apprised regarding progress and issues reflected in the SPP in order to obtain their insights and input in determining implementation strategies and need for revisions. At the January 2009 meeting, data results from this year's APR were presented and recommendations for revisions to improvement activities were discussed.
The development of the APR is an ongoing process throughout the year. Annually, the results of the APR are shared with VESID's technical assistance centers (including, but not limited to Early Childhood Direction Centers (ECDCs), Special Education Parent Centers, Transition Coordination Sites (TCSs), Special Education Training and Resource Center (SETRC) professional development specialists, and the Technical Assistance Center on Disproportionality (TAC-D)). The technical assistance providers discuss the results to further inform their work and provide recommendations to the State for revisions to its improvement activities to improve results. Results and improvement activities are discussed with the New York State Board of Regents annually. The State's Special Education Quality Assurance (SEQA) Regional Offices consider APR results in their work with individual school districts and approved private schools. The APR is also considered by the Special Education Policy and Program Development Support Services Units to make recommendations for targeted changes in State policy and improvement activities to promote improved results.
The SPP and APR are posted on SED’s website at http://www.acces.nysed.gov/vr/ specialed/spp/home.html, along with additional guidance information that explains the criteria for monitoring indicators. Announcements of the availability of these and related documents are provided through the list serve and through memoranda to school district administrators, school boards, parent organizations and others interested in the education of students with disabilities. Press announcements are released to newspapers regarding the availability of information, as new information is added. Questions regarding the SPP and APR may be directed to the New York State Education Department, VESID, Special Education Services at 518-473-2878. For more information on the federal requirements see: www.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/ bapr/index.html.