From: DPI Open Enrollment Sent: Monday, May 01, 2017 8:47 AM To: Danfield, Jennifer L. DPI Subject: End of the 2017-18 Regular Application Period and Next Steps To – District Administrators and Open Enrollment Coordinators From – Jen Danfield, Open Enrollment Consultant Subject – End of the 2017-18 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. From 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 All Applications page, click on Excel (on the upper right, between the gray bars). 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 5. 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. You should not request records from private schools. For resident districts that have sent records before May 5th, 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 9. At this time, you must notify parents of approved pupil 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 16. However, if you are able to get any notices of denial out by June 9, 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 20th. 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 You can correct any application you entered into OPAL by clicking on the Edit link. All other corrections need to be sent by DPI. Please save up the changes and send a list to openenrollment@dpi.wi.gov. 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. PARENTS WHO MISSED THE DEADLINE Parents who have missed the deadline for applying for the 2017-18 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 fill all your spaces with applications submitted during the regular application period, you cannot then accept a pupil who applied with an alternative application. If you have any questions, please contact us at openenrollment@dpi.wi.gov or call us at 888- 245-2732, option 2. Jen Danfield School Administration Consultant Public School Open Enrollment Department of Public Instruction 608-264-6707 or 888-245-2732, option 2, then 1 Jennifer.Danfield@dpi.wi.gov