Overview of the Annual Performance Report Development:
See Overview of the Development of the Annual Performance Report (APR) in the Introduction section, page 1.
Monitoring Priority: FAPE in the LRE
Indicator 8: Percent of parents with a child receiving special education services who report that schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities.
(20 U.S.C. 1416(a)(3)(A))
Measurement:
Percent = [(# of respondent parents who report schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities) divided by the (total # of respondent parents of children with disabilities)] times 100.
Data Source:
New York State (NYS) uses a modified version of the survey developed by the National Center for Special Education Accountability Measures (NCSEAM). NYS’ parent survey contains 25 questions. All surveys returned with at least 15 of the 25 questions answered are the denominator for the calculation. The numerator is the number of surveys with an overall positive parental involvement rating. These are surveys in which parents indicated that they “agree”, “strongly agree” or “very strongly agree” with at least 51 percent of the questions.
NYS’ calculation:
NYS' statewide calculation uses a weighted average to control for the required minimum sample size response from every school district. This is necessary because many school districts received a response that was well above the minimum sample size required and, in other school districts, the minimum response required was not achieved. In order to give each school district’s positive response rate a proportional weight relative to their sample size in the State’s average, the percent of positive responses was weighted by the sample size of each school district. For example in one school district with a minimum sample size of 53, 30 surveys were returned with at least 15 questions answered with 18 of the 30 questions answered positively. This district’s weighting in the State’s average is 18/30*53 or 31.8 surveys with positive parental response. As another example, in another school district with a minimum sample size of 87, 172 surveys were returned with at least 15 questions answered with 148 of the 172 questions answered positively. This district’s weighting in the State’s average is 148/172*87 or 74.8 surveys with positive parental response. The weighting helps to achieve an equal contribution from every school district of their positive parental response rate.
Note: When NYS reports school district data on this indicator as part of the public reporting requirement, weightings are not used. A school district’s actual data are displayed.
| Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) | Measurable and Rigorous Target |
| FFY 2010 (2010-11 school year) |
90 percent of parents with a child receiving special education services will report that schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities. |
Actual Target Data for FFY 2010:
In the 2010-11 school year, 92.6 percent of parents with a child receiving special education services reported that schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities.
During the 2010-11 school year, 115 school districts, including New York City (NYC) as a single district, were assigned to conduct a parent survey. One hundred (100) school districts achieved a minimum response rate, while 15 school districts did not. The State will review the data from the 15 school districts and may reassign these school districts to conduct the survey again in a subsequent school year to improve their response rates and ensure that results are valid for this indicator. The total number of surveys returned was 10,570. Of these surveys, 10,501 contained responses to at least 15 questions out of the 25 questions on the survey and were included in the denominator. Of the surveys included in the denominator, 9,719 received a positive parental response on at least 51 percent of the questions answered. This represents an unweighted positive response rate of 92.6 percent and a weighted positive response rate of 92.7 percent.
The 115 school districts are representative of NYS. See the State Performance Plan (SPP) for a discussion of how NYS assigned all school districts in the State into six representative samples for the purposes of collecting data on this Indicator. Each group of school districts is required to submit data on one of the six sampling indicators each year. At the end of six years, all school districts will have submitted data on all six indicators. NYC is required to submit data on every indicator every year, as it is the only school district in the State with a total enrollment of over 50,000 students.
See https://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/spp/home.html for a schedule of the school years in which districts must submit data on these indicators and for a schedule of the school years in which some school districts are required to resubmit data in order to achieve a sufficient response rate for an indicator.
The parent survey that was used in the 2010-11 school year was the same as was used in the previous school years and is included in New York’s SPP. Each school district was required to over sample by sending the survey to all the parents of preschool and school-age students with disabilities or by sending the survey to ten times the required minimum sample size. The sampling calculator used to determine minimum sample sizes is available at http://eservices.nysed.gov/pdsystem/samplesizecalculator.jsp.
Discussion of Improvement Activities Completed and Explanation of Progress or Slippage that occurred for FFY 2009:
Explanation of Progress or Slippage
NYS exceeded its 90 percent target with a statewide weighted result from the 2010-11 school year of 92.7 percent of parents reporting that schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities. This is an increase of 1.1 percent over the prior year. The unweighted statewide rate of 92.6 percent exceeds NYS’ FFY 2010 target by 2.6 percentage points.
Unweighted positive results in the 2010-11 school year ranged from 74 percent to 100 percent.
Improvement Activities Completed in 2010-11
- Through regional information sessions, the Office of Special Education’s 13 regionally-based Special Education Parent Centers provided parents of children with disabilities with information, resources, and strategies to:
- promote their meaningful involvement in their children’s education programs, including information regarding the special education process (referrals, individual evaluations and individualized education program (IEP) development and transition planning);
- assist in understanding their children’s disabilities;
- promote early resolution of disputes between parents and school districts;
- promote the use of resolution sessions and special education mediation;
- assist in understanding procedural due process rights, including the right to impartial hearings and appeals and the State complaint process; and
- enhance parents’ skills and levels of confidence to communicate effectively and work collaboratively with other schools and other stakeholders to advocate and actively participate in their children’s education program. See: https://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/parentcenter309.htm.
- Special Education Parent Centers and the Regional Special Education Technical Assistance Support Centers (RSE-TASC) Special Education Training Specialists delivered regional training on the role of the additional parent member of the Committee on Special Education (CSE) and the Committee on Preschool Special Education (CPSE).
- With input from the State center for mediation and dispute resolution and the Special Education Parent Centers, the State developed and delivered standardized training on early dispute resolution and special education mediation. The training was offered in multiple regions of the State, and was delivered collaboratively by special education mediation staff and representatives from the State’s Special Education Parent Centers.
- The Early Childhood Direction Centers (ECDCs) continued to provide information and training to families to facilitate parental involvement in their child’s special education program and to provide them with information on due process, federal and State laws and regulation, transition planning, least restrictive environment and other issues related to preschool children with disabilities. ECDCs provided workshops and technical assistance on these topics for professionals who serve young children with disabilities and their families and collaborated with the State Education Department-funded Special Education Parent Center and RSE-TASC network, Head Start, and regional early intervention and daycare programs to provide technical assistance and support to parents of preschool children.
- In 2010-11, regional three-day training programs were delivered statewide to CSE/CPSE Chairpersons by the State’s funded RSE-TASC regional training specialists. This training emphasizes meaningful and effective parent involvement in the IEP development process.
Revisions, with Justification, to Proposed Targets / Improvement Activities / Timelines / Resources for FFY 2009 [If applicable]
None.