Eligibility Evaluation Type

Eligibility Evaluation Type: Special Education

Eligibility Evaluation Type (Initial): Timely Initial Evaluations (Indicator 11) always refers to an initial special education evaluation. Indicate this with code value ( I ). Eligibility Evaluation Type identifies whether the evaluation being completed is an initial evaluation or a re-evaluation, and in some cases will result in a situation where eligibility is not determined.

An initial evaluation is when the student being evaluated does not currently receive Special Education Services and has not been evaluated before. Indicator 11 refers specifically to initial evaluations that result in a student qualifying for special education services and, therefore, an Individualized Education Program (IEP).

IEP re-evaluation occurs for a student who currently receives Special Education Services and is being evaluated again as part of the IEP process. Other Indicators in the SPP refer to re-evaluations.

Data Submission Details

DPI is requiring Timely Initial Evaluations (Indicator 11) data to be reported through WISE to better support our local educational agencies (LEAs) and will be captured annually in the December snapshot’s Year End data collection. This will save you time and effort by minimizing the number of applications accessed to report required data, allowing the Indicator 11 application to focus on LEAs responding to notifications of noncompliance.

Beginning immediately, with data from the 2023-24 school year and onward, all districts must ensure:

• All LEAs will report Indicator 11 data annually through WISE. In the past, only LEAs “in cycle” were required to submit data in any given year.
• All special education data related to Indicator 11 is submitted by LEAs to DPI via WISEdata Portal through their local SIS/special education vendors, AND
• All Indicator 11 data element fields contain valid data or the data will be flagged as in error.
• Districts that evaluated students without a WISEid, especially if these were children referred by the Birth to 3 programs, must go back and create WISEids for all children who were evaluated in 2023-2024, even if those children were determined not to be eligible for SPED.

The first instance of Indicator 11 data being collected as part of the 23-24 Year-End collection in a snapshot will be December 10, 2024, during the 2024-25 school year.

NOTE: In order to ensure that the data is valid and reliable, please note the following:

• The SEORA record cannot be submitted to WISEdata without a WISEid.
• If the student is referred, whether they get evaluated or not, whether they qualify for services or not, a WISEid is assigned. For greater details on WISEids as related to Indicator 11 evaluations, please visit the SEORA data element page.
• NOTE: Data cannot flow to DPI unless it is entered in your SIS. To resolve issues around data that is entered into the SIS that isn’t flowing to DPI, LEAs need to work with their vendor support staff to resolve data flow issues.
• For districts using a special education vendor:
  • A student enrollment record (student School Association, or sSA) or a responsibility record (student Education Organization Responsibility Association, or SEORA) must be submitted via the primary SIS product.
  • Without one of these records, the special education vendor will be unable to send the data required for Indicator 11 (student Special Education Program Eligibility Associations, or sSEPA).
  • Once the SEORA record is in WISEdata Portal, Indicator 11 data elements are pushed to WISEdata Portal via your primary SIS or SpEd vendor SIS, as applicable.