You are here

Count Inclusion: October 1 Child Count

October 1 Child Count Inclusion: WISEdata Calculated Field

WISEdata app icon

Count Date Inclusion denotes whether a student is enrolled and receiving services to be eligible for credit on the count date. 

October 1 (public schools only): For the October 1 Child Count, the student must be  receiving special education services under an active IEP or ISP, and the student must be assigned to a valid grade for his or her school to be included.

NOTE: For districts that use a Special Education vendor tool along with their primary student information system (SIS), the October 1 Inclusion Count value must be submitted to DPI using your primary SIS. 

The student's special education program association (sSEPA) record must also cover the count date (i.e., the sSEPA record Program Begin Date must be October 1 or prior. If the sSEPA Begin Date is October 2 or later, this student will not show up in Oct 1 CC data for snapshot reporting.). Effective Dates will be used to determine enrollment in the case of overlapping records.

Additionally, the student must be between the ages of 3-21 on the count date and IDEA eligible.  

NOTE: Starting with the 2025-26 school year, students who are 10 years old or older and have their October 1 reporting disability set to Significant Developmental Delay (SDD) are excluded from the Oct 1 count. See FAQ #4 below for more information. 

DPI recommends checking with your SIS vendor support to know where the value for count date inclusion is located in your SIS. 

Count Date Status Code Description and Comments
Yes Y

Student's enrollment and sSEPA records include the count date AND 

  • age on count date is greater than or equal to three years old
  • age on count date is under or equal to 21 years old
  • student is marked as Present or Absent for Receiving Services on Oct. 1 count date
  • student must be assigned to a valid grade for his or her school
  • student is receiving Special Education services under an active IEP or ISP from the school
    • This is true even for students with IEPs who have been expelled, providing all other criteria for inclusion have been met. 
  • enrollment record is active
  • student is IDEA eligible
  • public district submission on sSEPA
No N

Student's enrollment is active and includes the count date AND ONE of the following must be true:

  • sSEPA period does not include the count date OR
  • school association (sSA) Effective Dates do not cover the count date OR
  • age on count date is under three OR
  • age on count date is over 21
  • Receiving Services value is No or missing
  • student is not receiving special education services from the school/district
  • student is not IDEA eligible
  • Choice school submission
Null (Blank)

Student's enrollment does not include the count date.

*Note that the October 1 Child Count is NOT gathered from Choice schools.

USES: Count Date Inclusion is used to determine enrollment and attendance information.

 

FAQs, Details, and Points to Note

  1. Expelled Students with IEPs: Visit the Discipline: Info, Help and FAQ page, Expulsions section.

  2. When the Count Date Falls on a Weekend: For a child to count for the October 1 Child Count, the student must have been enrolled on Oct. 1 in the school wishing to count the student. The key is the span of the enrollment from entry date to exit date and whether or not the span includes Oct. 1. If the student isn’t enrolled on Oct. 1, the child cannot be counted. If October 1 falls on a weekend, the Friday or Monday surrounding the Oct. 1 weekend date may have been used to determine the value of Present versus Absent for Receiving Services, but that has no impact on the requirement for the sSA to include Oct.1.

    • If the student is continuously enrolled within the same district but is merely switching schools over the Oct. 1 CC weekend, the Effective Date logic would truncate the enrollment of the first school the day prior to starting the active enrollment at the new school. Then the second school would mark the student as receiving services for Oct. 1. The first school would not be able to receive credit because the student’s last day receiving services from the school is now the exit date. Therefore, the student is no longer enrolled at the school on Oct. 1 and cannot be counted. What's crucial is the span of the enrollment from entry date to exit date and if the span includes 10/1.

    • For a student who transfers districts around this time and is receiving services from both districts prior to 10/1, Effective Date logic would also allow the second district to receive credit for Oct. 1. Only the school with the student enrolled on Oct. 1 can count the student. If for some reason the student has any gap of enrollment between transferring districts, even if just over the weekend, no school is able to count the child for the Oct. 1 Child Count.

    • Additionally, if a student’s sSEPA Begin Date is after Oct. 1 because of the weekend, then that student would not be included in the Child Count because the sSEPA does not include Oct.1.

  3. Student Detail Search in WISEdata Portal: WISEdata displays the count inclusion flag and its determinants on the Student Detail Screen. Users will be able to see if the student's count inclusion for the count date is set to Yes, No, or Null (not set). The determining factors listed above in the calculations will also show there with a green checkmark if they satisfy the requirement for count inclusion and a red "no" symbol if they do not. This way it will be clear what data users should review and correct for a student to be included in the count date.

  4. Third Party Special Education Vendor: The October 1 Child Count Receiving Services on a Count Date is not sent to WISEdata from your third party special education vendor (e.g., SEEDS, GoIDEA (formerly OASYS)) if you have one. The receiving services value is sent from your primary student information system (SIS) vendor (e.g., Skyward, Infinite Campus).  Ensure you enter that value in the proper field in your SIS.

  5. Students with SDD Disability Age 10 and Older: Wisconsin Chapter PI 11.36(11)(a) defines the age range for developmental delay as ages 3 through 9. Therefore, there should be no students who are aged 10 years or older with the Disability Code of Significant Developmental Delay. Significant Developmental Delays (SDD) is a broad disability category. Students with the SDD disability type are required to be re-evaluated prior to their 10th birthday. If the student's birthday is prior to the October 1 Child Count, then the re-evaluation needs to occur prior to the count date as well. The IEP re-evaluation creates a new sSEPA record with the new reporting disability, allowing the 10-year old student to be counted for the Oct 1 Child Count date. 

    1. If the re-evaluation does not occur within these time frames, and the 10-year-old-student's sSEPA record still shows the SDD disability, this will trigger validation error 6612. Since there is no way to backdate a sSEPA record, there is no way to clear the error, and it will display for the LEA for the duration of the school year. Students with SDD disability type post age 10 cannot be included in the October 1 count, which results in a loss of funding. 

To contact DPI with questions about special education, please submit a Special Education Help Ticket, or call: 1 (608) 266-1781

If you need assistance from the Partner Support Team with a WISE application, please submit a WISE Help Ticket.
To provide feedback, fill out the Submit Feedback form.

 

Return to WISE Data Elements main listing page