Preparing for Preliminary Federal Notifications

Dear District Administrator,

Next week, we will provide a preliminary joint federal notification packet alongside information about coordinated statewide supports available to all schools and districts. Our goal in providing joint notifications and coordinated supports is to make the district and school improvement process both manageable and impactful.

The preliminary joint federal notification packet and related resources will be available in SAFE (Secure Access File Exchange) on Tuesday, December 7. Before then, please check that the appropriate district staff, including your special education directors, have appropriate access rights in SAFE. You may also grant access to CESA staff with whom you are working on improvement. Please visit the WISEhome information page and follow the steps there to manage access to SAFE. If you have any questions about accessing SAFE, please contact the Help Desk.

The preliminary notifications in SAFE will include reports for all districts. In addition, schools with certain ESSA identifications will also receive reports. In preparation, I encourage you to review the resources on our Continuous Improvement webpage, including our 2-minute video about what these identifications will mean and the landscape we’re working to build.

As a reminder, there will be no new ESSA identifications issued this year. This is because of the accountability waiver the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) received from the U.S. Department of Education (ED), which required a ‘freeze’ in ESSA accountability identifications. Schools with existing identifications will receive a Progress to Exit report; however, only CSI-Low Graduation Rate schools will be able to exit this year. ESSA Accountability Reports will not be issued this year. School and district leaders are encouraged instead to review both their data in WISEdash and their local data.

ED did not similarly waive identifications under IDEA which means that there will be LEA Determinations issued this year. Because of this unprecedented time and demands on schools, the DPI is exercising the maximum flexibility allowed under IDEA as it relates to required actions for districts identified during this school year.

I will send another message to confirm when the joint federal notifications are available in SAFE. If you have questions about ESSA accountability, please contact the Office of Educational Accountability. If you have questions about IDEA, please contact the Special Education Team.