From: DPI Open Enrollment Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2019 8:27 AM To: Demrow, Jennifer DPI Subject: End of the 2019-20 Regular Application Period and Next Steps To – District Administrators and Open Enrollment Coordinators From – Jen Demrow, Open Enrollment Consultant Subject – End of the 2019-20 Regular Application Period and Next Steps We made it through another open enrollment regular application period! Here are the next steps: WORKING WITH APPLICATIONS Nonresident districts must enter paper applications into OPAL by the end of the day today (5/1/19). From the Apps tab and then the All Applications tab, click on Add New App just above the list of applications in, on the right side of the page or click on the Data Entry tab. Enter the information and be sure to Save. Remember that you can export your applications into an Excel spreadsheet. From the Apps tab and then the All Applications page, click on Excel (located at the top right corner, above the Data Entry tab). Select the fields that you want to export and click on the Export to Excel button. SENDING RECORDS Resident school districts must send special education and expulsion records to the nonresident district by May 10. It is not necessary to wait for a request from the nonresident district. However, if the pupil is currently attending a public school other than the resident district, the nonresident district will have to request the records from the school district of attendance. The district should not request records from private schools. If the student’s resident district or district of attendance do not have any special education or expulsion records for the student, please let the nonresident district know that there are no records for the student. For resident districts that have sent records before May 10th, please check to see if there are any newly developed or revised IEPs for any applicant. If there are, please send copies to the nonresident district. APPROVING AND DENYING APPLICATIONS Nonresident districts must notify parents of approval or denial no later than June 7. At this time, you must notification to parents of approved pupils of the specific school or program to which the pupil is assigned. Resident districts must notify the parents of approval/denial no later than June 14. However, if you are able to get any notices of denial out by June 8, it will be less confusing to parents. Both districts need to enter approvals and denials in OPAL. Under the Applications tab, click on the Approve or Deny tab. Click the radio button for approval or denial. If the application is denied, you must enter the reason for denial. If the reason you want to deny is not there, it means you cannot deny for that reason. Be sure to Save. If you have a lot of applications to act on, it may help to use the filters to reduce the numbers you are working on at one time. For example, you could choose to act on one grade at a time. Once you have entered the approvals and denials, you can use the Exports tab to create approval and denial letters. There are instructions on how to create these letters under that tab as well. The approval letters include the approval, the school assignment, and the intent to attend. If you saved the templates that you created last year, you don’t need to create them again. You would just make some minor changes and would be able to skip the step of downloading the templates from OPAL from Step 2: Create the Templates. DELETIONS As a reminder, to request deletion of an application, please use the Delete button in the far right column of the applications list. Please see the list serv notice that we sent out about this topic on April 19th. If you need us to send you a copy of this notice, please let us know. CHANGE OF RESIDENT DISTRICT OF CONTINUING OPEN ENROLLED PUPILS If a continuing open enrolled pupil will be changing resident district for next year, the parent does not need to reapply for open enrollment. Per statute, school districts can require reapplication one time and one time only – at the beginning of middle school, junior high, or high school. If a district has this requirement, they must send open enrolled parents written notification before the beginning of the regular application period. If a parent did submit an additional application in error, please request deletion through OPAL. CORRECTIONS TO APPLICATIONS The nonresident district can correct any applications that they entered into OPAL by clicking on the Edit link. All other corrections need to be sent to DPI. Please save up the changes and send a list to openenrollment@dpi.wi.gov. If parents have corrections that need to be made, they will be directed to contact the nonresident school district and that district will need to contact DPI to request the change. Only a nonresident district can request changes to open enrollment applications. Errors that can be corrected include spelling errors, date of birth, grade, address, parent names, and resident district. If the resident and nonresident districts are flipped, we will correct that error. We cannot correct an application if the parent selected the wrong nonresident district. If this error occurred, the parent would need to wait until July 1 and apply to the correct nonresident district using an alternative application. PARENTS WHO MISSED THE DEADLINE Parents who have missed the deadline for applying for the 2019-20 school year may submit alternative applications for open enrollment on or after July 1. They must meet one of the seven criteria in order to apply. Alternative applications are only to the application period, not to the district’s approval/denial criteria. If you have any questions, please contact us at openenrollment@dpi.wi.gov or call us at 888- 245-2732, option 2. Jen Demrow School Administration Consultant Public School Open Enrollment Department of Public Instruction 608-264-6707 or 888-245-2732, option 2, then 3 Jennifer.Demrow@dpi.wi.gov