TEA has posted a number of items that you may want to review. Some of these have been posted to the TEA Correspondence page, and others were provided through various TEA list serves. Links have been provided where they are available.
The first item relates to the state Special Education Corrective Action Plan requirements for school districts and charter schools.
There are four specific items in the corrective action plan that require LEAs to take action before the end of the calendar year. They are:
1. This summer, and annually thereafter, LEAs must submit assurances that convey the LEA's special education policies, procedures, and programs are consistent with state and federal special education requirements. These must be submitted in order for LEAs to obtain their IDEA formula and discretionary funds.
2. LEAs must review the
student handbook statement related to students with learning difficulties or who may need special education services and assure they have provided revised
information to the families of each student in the LEA by including the information in the student handbook or by another means.
3. During the 2018-2019 school year, LEAs will be required to collect additional information, which will be submitted through PEIMS in summer 2019. New data elements include total number of requests for evaluation, total number of requests for evaluation in which the reason given for the request was that the child should have been referred for evaluation prior to the 2018-2019 school year, and the total number of children found eligible, including types of services provided and timelines for implementation.
4. LEAs must share information with the parents of children suspected of having a disability related to the differences between Response to Intervention, the state dyslexia program, section 504, and special education (note that TEA will provide resources to share with parents by September 1, 2018).
The second item relates to a new addition to the data feed submission for schedule A1, Statement of Net Position. The Net Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) Obligation amount will be required to be reported under the new data feed row 2545 on Schedule A1, Statement of Net Position in the Audit application data feed in the Texas Education Agency Login (TEAL). Related Deferred Outflows and Inflows will be reported under the existing rows 1700 and 2600, respectively. This reporting will be effective for fiscal year 2018 annual financial reports. These amounts will not be reported in Texas Student Data System (TSDS)/Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS). Also, this reporting does not apply to charter schools because they do not submit a data feed in the Audit application.
The third item relates to the required minutes of operation for half-day prekindergarten programs. To receive one-half ADA funding for half-day prekindergarten programs, school districts and open-enrollment charter schools must provide 32,400 instructional minutes, along with any approved waivers. The letter describes the treatment of recess and breakfast and lunch as it relates to accessing funding for prekindergarten half-day programs. For the 2018-2019 school year, recess and breakfast or lunch will count in meeting required minutes. Waivers
will be automatically granted to half-day prekindergarten programs for breakfast and lunch to be included as instructional time for the 2018-2019 school year.
Finally, the deadline has been extended for the 2018-2020 Immediate Aid to Restart School Operations Grant. The new deadline is August 31, 2018. LEAs and private nonprofit schools with expenses related to the restart of operations in, the reopening of, and the re-enrollment of students in elementary and secondary schools that serve an area in which the Federal government declared a major disaster related to Hurricane Harvey are eligible to apply. You can access the grant application on the
TEA Grant Opportunities web page by selecting 2018-2020 Immediate Aid to Restart School Operations from the drop-down menu.