The Center for IDEA Fiscal Reporting (CIFR), in partnership with IDC, and in collaboration with the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI) Fiscal Support Team, is hosting the IDEA Fiscal Forum from November 2–4, 2016. State directors of special education, IDEA fiscal managers, and other state education agency staff with responsibility for special education fiscal compliance and decisionmaking will be able to learn from each other, technical assistance providers, and federal staff in the Office of Special Education Programs. The forum also will provide an opportunity for state staff to exchange experiences and answers to common special education fiscal questions with colleagues from other states. CIFR and IDC will each fund the registration and lodging costs for one person with IDEA fiscal responsibilities from each state, for a total of two funded representatives per state. Visit the IDC website regularly for information about other IDC collaborative efforts, including events of interest.

The Oklahoma Department of Education oversees both the Part B and Part C programs, and the state's two data managers, new to their positions, share Part B and Part C data responsibilities. During a regular monthly TA call, the data managers learned about an opportunity to document state collection and submission processes for the 618 federal data collections. Due to recent experiences with staff turnover, the Oklahoma team members were excited to pilot materials for the IDEA Part C Data Processes Toolkit so they could better document and institutionalize their internal 618 data collection, validation, and submission processes.

At the end of June, IDC TA providers facilitated a 2-day, on-site meeting with the OK Part C team to document their data processes. By the end of these work sessions, the team had completed draft data process protocols for the Part C Child Count, Settings, and Exiting data collections, as well as a data collection calendar.

The Oklahoma team and IDC team are working on a plan to complete protocols for the Part B collections and will revisit the Part C protocols to continue to expand and improve the data process documentation.

Remember that IDC State Liaisons are always available to support you with improving the quality of state IDEA data.

Communicating Evaluation Plans and Outcomes

States will soon begin evaluating implementation of State Systemic Improvement Plans (SSIP). Leadership teams can share summative and formative evaluation outcomes to inform stakeholders and to promote continued engagement. Choosing the ideal presentation for sharing data will render it more useful for stakeholders.

Stakeholders include state, regional, and local staff, families, policy makers, and others—all with different levels of familiarity with the SSIP. To communicate effectively, states must decide how to convey information to each audience, so they understand the outcomes achieved. The type of visual display states select can help or hinder audience understanding.

Consider the following scenario: A state leadership team wants to communicate implementation goals for training teachers to use a mathematics intervention. After 1 year, 10 percent of teachers have been trained, which met the Year 1 goal. The state plans to train 30 percent of teachers during Year 2 and the remaining 60 percent of teachers in Year 3. The state needs to present this information to stakeholders at the regional and local levels. Here are two examples of data visualization the state can consider: an icon array and a dot plot.

Icon Array

An icon array is a simple way to represent a population. This method works best when numbers are multiples of 5 or 10. Proportions that are not whole numbers are difficult to represent this way. Did you notice the choice of color? Blue is associated with the achieved goal, and green is associated with future goals. The green also becomes lighter to reflect the passage of time.

Nancy O’Hara, Part B State Liaison for Arkansas and South Carolina, has selected the featured resource for this issue.

The Success Gaps Toolkit is a new IDC resource that supports the use of two IDC products: Equity, Inclusion, and Opportunity: Addressing Success Gaps White Paper and Equity, Inclusion, and Opportunity: Addressing Success Gaps Indicators of Success Rubric. States, districts, or schools can use these tools to identify and address root causes of success gaps. A success gap is a difference in performance among groups or subgroups of children, Pre-K through high school. Gaps may be in performance, such as achievement or graduation, or discrepancies may occur in areas such as attendance, identification rates, or disciplinary actions.

The tools guide the development of a stakeholder team that will focus on a specific success gap and the group of students experiencing a gap. The tools can then be used in a series of facilitated meetings to help the team identify the root causes of the gap and develop an action plan to address it. The toolkit provides process agendas for the team leader, meeting agendas, presentation shells for the meeting, several short videos, and other related materials. There is a printable set of guidelines for coordinating the materials and resources as well.  By using the toolkit over time, local districts or programs can begin to pinpoint the root causes of their success gaps, address the causes for those gaps, and watch those gaps reduce over time! Please contact IDC to request assistance with the toolkit or success gaps work.

• The proposed EDFacts Information Collection package for SY 2016–17, 2017–18, and 2018–19 is now available for review and public comment. Comments must be submitted electronically through www.regulations.gov. The public comment period closes on October 24, 2016.
• OSEP Policy Letters provide information, guidance, and clarification regarding implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) through two types of communication: OSEP Memos and Dear Colleague Letters. All policy letters issued since 2001 are available online. Contact Lisa.Pagano@ed.gov to request letters issued before 2001.

This newsletter was developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education for The National Technical Assistance Center to Improve State Capacity to Accurately Collect and Report IDEA Data, #H373Y130002. The contents and resources in this newsletter do not necessarily represent the policy or reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Education. OSEP Project Officers: Richelle Davis and Meredith Miceli.