>> Hello, everyone.
Welcome to the Educational Environment
for children ages 3 - 5 618 Reporting
Clarifications Webinar.
I'm Debbie Cate with the IDEA Data Center.
This webinar is being recorded
and will be posted on the IDC Advanced Page
as well as with the IDC Educational Environment School.
On today's short webinar, we will be sharing the reporting
clarifications on coding educational environment
with the 618 data collection.
We'll also talk about including family chosen programs
in the data collection,
the definition of attending versus enrolled,
and we'll share information on how to determine
when the services are provided in the program.
We'll also have a discussion
of how the clarifications may affect some states.
We hope that by participating on today's call,
you will have increased understanding of
the new reporting clarifications for educational environment
for children ages 3 - 5, and that you will learn
how the new clarifications may influence state processes
for data collection and results in the State Performance
Plan/Annual Performance Report (SPP/APR).
On the IDEA website, you'll find resources
for reporting educational environment
for children ages 3 - 5.
We have a toolkit that contains updated information
and guidance with the new clarifications.
The Decision Tree is there as well as scenarios
that can be used in professional development activities.
The interactive Decision Tree application
allows teachers and frontend users to answer a few questions
which will lead them to the correct coding category.
The scenarios are also available in the interactive tool.
Webinars explaining both tools are recorded
and posted here along with today's webinar.
There is an exemplary worksheet
that allows states to enter district
618 Educational Environment's data on the first tab,
and then when the second tab is opened, district 618
and B6 data will be calculated and show automatically.
All of our resources are color coded to show the relationship
of the Educational Environment 618 data
to the corresponding state performance
plan in your performance report FTTATR Indicator 6 reporting.
>> As a reminder Educational Environments
for children ages 3 -
5 for 618 reporting is a duplicated
and unduplicated count on the state chosen date
between October 1st and December 1st.
This collection includes reporting all children ages
3 -5 with disabilities.
It includes children who are five
and in kindergarten on the count date.
It also includes children who are enrolled in private schools
by their parents
and who are receiving their services on a service plan.
The Decision Tree is a one page document
and also an interactive application
that allows you to take you through the series of questions
that will allow you to quickly determine correct educational
reporting code for a particular child.
We'll use the document as a guide
as we go through the clarification.
I know you can't see everything that's written
on the Decision Tree
but this will orient you a little bit to how it's used.
So, when we look at the Decision Tree,
the arrow is pointing at the question at the very top.
Consider the first question for every child,
does the child attend the regular early childhood program?
That question needs to be asked first for every child.
There's new clarification to help you answer that question.
Most of the clarifications that we'll be talking about today,
will be found in EdFacts File Specifications,
file number FS089.
It's called Children with Disabilities
(IDEA) Early Childhood File Specifications for 2017 - 2018.
It can be found at the link included on the slide.
Regular early childhood programs
have not changed their definition in the EdFacts File.
As a reminder, a regular early childhood program
includes a majority (at least 50% or more)
of children who are not disabled,
that is children not on IEPs. This includes but is not limited
to head start, kindergarten classrooms,
preschool offered by the public school system,
or state pre K programs,
private kindergartens or preschools
and group child development centers or child cares.
If the EdFacts guide did not include
any updated information on these definitions,
there was some information in the 2017 Dear Colleague
Letter on Early Childhood LRE.
It contains information on definition
of play groups and home.
Weekly informal school or neighborhood play groups
may not be considered regular early childhood programs
for reporting purposes. And we're going to be talking
throughout this webinar about reporting.
So, we're not saying that any of the topics,
any of the settings that we're talking about
are not appropriate for children,
we're just talking about how they would be reported.
So, a play group is not reported
as a regular early childhood program
because these programs generally did not
require the programs to comply with state
early learning standards, or have curricula.
In addition, in the Dear Colleague
Letter it says that home is not considered
a regular early childhood placement
although we know that home may be
a very appropriate place for a young child
to receive their special education and related services.
Home is not the same reporting category for children 3 -
5 as it is for children 6 -
21, it has a little different connotation.
So, going back to that first question
that was on the Decision Tree,
does the child attend a regular early childhood program?
There's new clarification around that.
Early childhood programs
that family choose for their children,
even when they're not receiving their IDEA services
should be included when you ask that question.
I'm going to read this question
and answer directly from the EdFacts.
Should child care and other programs
that families have chosen for their child
be considered when reporting these data?
Yes, states should take into consideration child care
and other programs that families have chosen for their child
when determining the appropriate educational environment
reporting category.
So, here's an example.
Let's say a child attends a half day,
or morning program in self-contained classroom
in the school system, and as of the program,
the child goes to the child care for the afternoon.
When you ask the first question,
does the child attend the regular early childhood program,
you consider whether parents have placed the child
in a child care setting in the afternoon,
and the answer is, yes, the child does attend
the regular early childhood program.
Here's another example.
Let's say the child attends a private preschool,
attend it two, or three days a week
but the child also goes to speech therapy
during the hours that they're not attending
their family chosen program. When asking the first question,
does the child attend the regular early childhood program,
the answer would be, yes,
the child is attending the family chosen program.
Knowing if the child attends a regular early childhood program
can really help states and districts gauge
how much access to early childhood programs children
in their states and districts have.
Another consideration
when determining an answer to the question,
does the child attend a regular early childhood question
which is the --
I'm sorry, an early childhood program
which is the first question for every child,
there is a clarification on what it means
to be attending the program.
Again, I'll read directly from EdFacts.
When considering if the child is attending
a regular early childhood program,
does the child need to be enrolled in the program,
versus attending a "visitor" for a portion of time?
States should report these data based on children
with disabilities being enrolled in these types of programs.
Children with disabilities being enrolled
in a regular early childhood program
most closely aligns with the intent
of the least restrictive environment provisions
of the Individuals with Disabilities Act.
So, being enrolled in a program as being a member of the class
versus attending for short period of time as a visitor.
Again, it's important to remember that going to a class,
or visiting a class as a visitor
may be a very important strategy for some children.
It's just for reporting purposes that this would not be counted
as a child "attending" a program.
I'm going to stop here and see if there's any questions.
Okay. We'll keep going.
Once you determine if the child
is attending a regular early childhood program
and as always you have determined the time
in the program whether it's 10 hours or more,
or less than 10 hours, the next question is,
does the child receive the majority of special education
and related services where are they provided?
There's new clarification on that as well.
This clarification
is paraphrased from the EdFacts file.
How should states report children
receiving the majority of special education
and related services in a location
other than a child's classroom but within the same building?
Special education related services delivered to the child
in the course of daily activities and routines
in which all children in the classroom
participate such as circle time
and learning centers would be considered
as being the part of the Regular Early Childhood Program.
In continuing with what is not considered
as receiving services in the regular education classroom,
services that are delivered in a location
that removes the child from the opportunity to interact
with their nondisabled peers might include services
delivered in one-on-one therapeutic setting,
or it might be serviced in a small group
comprised solely of children with disabilities
whether or not it's provided in the same program as the child,
if it's removing the child from the activities that child's
attending then it's considered not to be services
in a regular early childhood program.
Going back to the Decision Tree.
If you determine the child does not attend
a regular early childhood program as you have been,
you determine if the child
attends the special education program.
A special education program
might be a special education classroom,
a separate special education school,
or a residential program.
That takes you down the right hand side of the Decision Tree.
This hasn't changed.
Also unchanged is the coding that,
if the child doesn't attend
any regular early childhood programs,
child goes to no outside program
and the child does not attend the special education program
then the question becomes,
is the child receiving services in a home?
We know that for young children receiving their services
in the home can be very appropriate especially
if they were getting those services
and making good progress in the Part C program.
But if the child is not receiving services in a home,
the final question is,
is the child receiving services in a service provider location?
So, if the child for example is receiving speech only services,
you still want to start with that very first question,
is the child attending any regular early childhood program?
Let's try an example.
How would you code this example that came in from a state?
A three-year-old child comes to a state preschool classroom
for special education services,
the child is not enrolled in the preschool classroom.
Type in the text how would you answer this first question,
is the child attending a regular early childhood program.
And we know that because this child
is not enrolled in a preschool classroom
but only comes to the preschool classroom
for special education services
that the child would not be considered
to be attending a regular early childhood program.
Let's try another example. How would you code this example?
A district purchases time at a child care center
for a child to receive special education services.
The child does not attend the child care center
other than the time the child
is receiving special education services.
How would you answer the first question,
is the child enrolled in a regular early childhood program?
What do you think?
Was that no, I'm not sure that's no for this question,
but I think that it might be.
Now, let's say the child had filled out papers
to attend the early childhood program
which makes them kind of enrolled
but I think going back to it in terms of the Dear Colleague
Letter and thinking about the child
participating in the early childhood program
in the context of these early learning standards of the state
and also the curricula, you might answer this question no.
We've got one more example and this one is nice and easy.
A child is in a separate special education classroom
but comes to the preschool or kindergarten classroom
for story time,
play time, recess, and special activities,
is this child attending a regular early childhood program?
So, clearly this child is in a special education program
and even though that child is attending some period of time,
the child is not attending as enrolled in the program.
So, this would be no as well.
Let's see how these new clarifications
might be impacting your state.
So, if you could look at the checkbox
and above the checkbox on the left hand side,
there's the hand icon, if you would raise your hand
if your state will have to make changes
around the definition of children
enrolled rather than visiting other classrooms,
is that something that you'll have to make any changes
in the way you're collecting that data?
Or type in the checkbox.
Nothing, I don't see any raised hands.
Let's go on to the next one.
Raise your hand if your state will have to make changes around
how you consider family chosen programs, in other words,
are you already asking if the children are attending
a regular early childhood program,
if they're not it's during the time
they're not receiving services,
anybody's got to make that change?
And finally, raise your hand if your state
will have to make any changes
around the definition of services in the classroom.
Oh, I'm sorry, let me back up a minute.
There's a question here
that I think has to do with an earlier discussion.
Let me see if I can back up to it here.
Okay. If the LEA is purchasing time from a child care center
to provide special ed services,
the child would have to be enrolled in a child care center
in order for the contracted services to take place.
And that's very true, the child would be enrolled
but let's consider this
because I think it's more complicated than that.
If the child is enrolled in a child care center
would there need to be any kind of time attached to that.
So, let's say the child is getting services
two hours a week in the child care center,
do you think that would fall into the definition
of what we're talking about when we talk about enrolled.
So, I don't think we're talking about enrolled
as of just being enrolled on paper
but we're talking about being a participant in a classroom.
So, I'm not sure there's a clear answer for this one.
It might depend on how much time the child is in the classroom,
this might be something that your state
is going to have to determine
because, yes, it's true, they're enrolled but remember,
in the Dear Colleague Letter, it talks about children
really needing to be in those programs
to take advantage of the state early learning guidelines
and to be able to participate in the curricula.
Great. And now let's go back
to the number three in the discussion.
Is your state going to have to make any changes
around services in the classroom,
in other words,
if children were being pulled out to another room
in the location the child which is receiving services,
was that being counted as in the program,
or will you have to make changes?
Are there any comments that anyone wants to make
about these clarifications?
It seems like these are the things that your states
are already doing, is that true?
It sounds like each state
will have to make a determination
by criteria you help to identify.
I think in just a few cases that's going to be true,
I think that the clarifications make it very clear
what the intent is. So, in most cases,
I think you'll know exactly how to code the child,
the example that came in from the states
was one of those examples where it makes it a little harder
because technically the child was enrolled in the child care
but you might want to make some determination
about what that really meant for that child,
if the state's going to have to do that, that's true.
The next question, is family based child care program
considered a regular early childhood program?
Do you have to determine if the family child care
is using standards or certified.
And I think that those are again decisions states make
that you have the information about how important it is
for programs to be using a curricula
and to participate in the state standards.
So, I do believe that there are some states
that require their family based child care to do those things
and that yes, they are included.
But if your state is just likely to see family based child care
without those curricula, or having the family child care
follow the standards of your state,
you might want to think about that.
One state may have to make some changes
based on enrolled versus attending.
One state says that there are differences around the states
that are going to be clearing up.
They're looking at a guidance document.
Great. All right.
Well, if you think of any more questions,
or that you have comments later on,
please feel free to contact me, I'm at Debbie.cate@unc.edu.
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