Special Education Listserv
Subject: Evaluation Timelines
Source: Heidi Atkins Lieberman, Assistant Commissioner
Intended Audience: Directors and coordinators of special education
Date: December 14, 2009
After our discussion on the recent monthly webinars about evaluation timelines, we heard from some folks in the field that they felt there was conflicting information about this from us.
Upon further discussion, we believe there is no conflicting information, but rather my explanation may have confused things because I did not make reference to our Improvement Monitoring Accountability Compliance System (IMACS). IMACS does not make an automatic deduction for school breaks; rather school districts need to be able to "respond" to the IMACS calculation of the timeline with the justification that points to the school breaks.
In other words, when districts submit their initial timeline information for our review in IMACS, they enter the date of parental consent for an evaluation. IMACS then calculates sixty days forward, and if the eligibility determination is prior to that date, the district is in compliance. If the eligibility determination is after that date, the district is called out of compliance and must justify why eligibility was not determined within the sixty day timeframe. During our review, DESE Special Education Compliance looks at those students whose eligibility was not completed in sixty days and evaluates the district's reasons for the delay. As you know, school vacations, including weekends within those vacations, and student illness are acceptable reasons for exceeding the timelines, but the district must document specific dates so that our compliance staff may calculate the exact amount of days within the evaluation period.
Hopefully, this will clear up the confusion about "exceptions" and "deductions" in calculating the timelines!