MA SPP FFY 2011 Report

Massachusetts

Submitted December 1, 2005; Revised January 3, 2006; February 1, 2007; May 21, 2007; February 1, 2008; April 14, 2008; February 2, 2009; January 29, 2010; February 2, 2011; April 19, 2011; February 1, 2012; February 15, 2013; and May 17, 2013

U.S Department of Education

Office of Special Education Programs

Potomac Center Plaza

Mail Stop 2600, Room 4166

550 12th Street S.W.

Washington, DC 20202

Re: Massachusetts Part B State Performance Plan for FFY 2005-2012

Dear Sir or Madam:

Enclosed is the Massachusetts State Performance Plan (MA SPP) for FFY 2005-2012.The MA SPP was developed in accordance with 20 U.S.C. 1416(b)(1), which states that “not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, each State must have in place a performance plan that evaluates the State’s efforts to implement the requirements and purposes of Part B and describes how the State will improve such implementation.” The MA SPP responds directly to the 20 indicators identified by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in Information Collection 1820-0624, Part B State Performance Plan (SPP) and Annual Performance Report (APR).

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MASSDE) has engaged in a variety of activities to obtain broad input from stakeholders on the development of the Massachusetts State Performance Plan (MA SPP). An overview of the MA SPP was first presented to the Special Education Advisory Council (SAC), and was also presented to key stakeholders within MASSDE. As a next step, the Massachusetts Statewide Special Education Steering Committee – which consists of SAC members, key MASSDE personnel, local education officials, parents, advocates, and representatives from higher education, charter schools, approved private special education schools, and adult service agencies – met to identify targets, methodologies, and key activities as appropriate for each of the 20 MA SPP indicators. Additionally, I have met with a number of other groups as we have been preparing and revising the MA SPP and Annual Performance Report (APR), and have solicited input and described the activities to date to stakeholders broadly across the state.

The continued input and feedback from the Steering Committee and the State Advisory Councils and interest groups have been key to the development and implementation of the MA SPP. In addition to discussing targets, methodologies, and improvement activities, Steering Committee members have also discussed dissemination of information about the MA SPP within their respective organizations. Additionally, members signed up to participate in targeted interest groups focused on each indicator. These interest groups incorporate additional members and have me throughout the SPP period to help guide Massachusetts’ work in each area.

Regarding public dissemination, the completed MA SPP is made widely available for public discussion. This will be accomplished by broad discussion in interest groups (as previously mentioned) and at the Statewide Advisory Council meeting and other conference and group discussion opportunities. Additionally, MASSDE posts the MA SPP on the MASSDE website at distributes hard copies of the report to key constituencies and the media.

In the MA SPP, MASSDE has provided detail and commentary that addresses concerns raised in previous correspondence from OSEP regarding the MA SPP. Where concerns were raised, the response is incorporated fully into the actions that MASSDE describes for the present or future in various sections throughout the MA SPP, as applicable.

Since the beginning of the SPP period, MASSDE has made formatting changes annually that include table formats and margin alignment. Other changes made each year include revision or, or updates and additions to improvement activities to reflect new or update existing initiatives. These changes are also recorded in Appendix A, as appropriate.

The following additional revisions have been made since the initial submission on December 1, 2005:

1) Indicator 4A was revised on January 3, 2006;

2) Indicators 1, 2, 4A, 4B, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, and 18 were revised on February 1, 2007;

3) Indicators 9 and 10 were revised on May 21, 2007 at the request of OSEP;

4) Indicators 1, 2, 3, 4A, 5, 7, 9, 10, 14, and 20 were revised on February 1, 2008;

5)Indicators 7, 9 and 10 were revised on April 14, 2008 at the request of OSEP;

6)Indicator 7 was revised according to the SPP submission instructions, the baseline data for Indicator 1 were revised, and improvement activities for Indicators 1, 2, 3, 4A, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 20 were revised on February 2, 2009;

7) Indicators 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 12, 16, 17 and 18 were revised, and improvement activities were revised for Indicators 1, 2, 4, 4, 5, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18 and 19 on February 1, 2010; and

8) Indicators 1-20 were revised to include targets and new or updated improvement activities for the extended SPP period (FFY 2011 and FFY 2012); Indicators 4B, 13, and 14 have been amended to include new baseline data, targets, and improvement activities; and targets have been amended for Indicators 8, 18, and 19 on February 1, 2011.

9) Revisions were made to data and/or targets in Indicators 4B; and the calculation methodology was changed in the FFY2010 SPP.

10) The Indicator 13 plan was revised to include the text of the measurement in the baseline data box, and additional information describing MASSDE’s data verification activities in the February 1, 2011 submission.

11) Indicator 14 was revised for the FFY2010 submission to include correction of an erroneously reported response rate for the FFY2009 baseline year.

For the FFY2011 reporting year, MASSDE has included discussion of new baseline data and targets for Indicator 3 based on the accountability waiver granted to Massachusetts, and for Indicator 6. In the clarification report, MASSDE has updated weblinks (Indicator 3, p. 20), corrected errors in data calculation and targets (Indicator 6, pp. 56 and 58), and updated measurement language (Indicators 9 and 10 at pp. 87 and 93).

If you have questions or need additional clarification regarding the MA SPP, please contact me at 781.338.3388 or .

Sincerely,

Marcia Mittnacht

State Director of Special Education

Special Education Planning and Policy Development Office

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

C: Mitchell D. Chester, Ed.D., Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Part B Massachusetts State Performance Plan (MA SPP) for FFY 2005-2012

Revised February 15, 2013 and May 17, 2013

Table of Contents

Monitoring Priority: FAPE in the LRE

Indicator 1: Graduation Rates...... 4

Indicator 2: Drop-Out Rates...... 12

Indicator 3: Assessment...... 19

Indicator 4: Suspension / Expulsion...... 33

Indicator 5: School-age LRE...... 45

Indicator 6: Preschool LRE...... 55

Indicator 7: Preschool Outcomes...... 64

Indicator 8: Parent Involvement...... 78

Monitoring Priority: Disproportionality

Indicator 9: Disproportionality – Child with a Disability...... 87

Indicator 10: Disproportionality – Eligibility Category...... 93

Effective General Supervision / Child Find

Indicator 11: Initial Evaluation Timelines...... 98

Effective General Supervision / Effective Transition

Indicator 12: Early Childhood Transition...... 103

Indicator 13: Secondary Transition...... 109

Indicator 14: Post-School Outcomes...... 119

Effective General Supervision / General Supervision

Indicator 15: Identification and Correction of Noncompliance...... 129

Indicator 16: Complaint Timelines...... 135

Indicator 17: Due Process Timelines...... 140

Indicator 18: Hearing Requests Resolved by Resolution Sessions...... 143

Indicator 19: Mediation Agreements...... 147

Indicator 20: State Reported Data...... 151

Appendices

Appendix A: Selected Cross-Cutting Improvement Activities...... 155

Appendix B: Massachusetts Parent Survey for Special Education (FFY2005)...... 176

Appendix C: Massachusetts Parent Involvement Survey (FFY2010)...... 178

Appendix D: Postsecondary Transition Planning Checklist...... 185

Appendix E: Form 28M/9...... 186

Appendix F: Massachusetts Postsecondary Outcomes Survey (FFY2006) ...... 188

Appendix G: Massachusetts Postsecondary Outcomes Survey (FFY2009)...... 190

Appendix H: Massachusetts Postsecondary Outcomes Survey (FFY2010) ...... 191

Appendix I: Correction of Noncompliance Data Chart...... 192

Appendix J: Table 7 – Report of Dispute Resolution (FFY2004)...... 194

Appendix K: Indicator 20 Scoring Rubric (FFY2006) ...... 195

Part B State Performance Plan (SPP) for 2005-2012

Overview of the State Performance Plan Development:

Indicator 1: Percent of youth with IEPs graduating from high school with a regular diploma.

Indicator #1: Graduation Rates

(20 U.S.C. 1416 (a)(3)(A))

Overview of Issue/Description of System or Process:

In Massachusetts the measurement for the statewide graduation rate is the number of students in a cohort who graduate in four years or less, divided by the number of first-time entering 9th graders in that cohort. The denominator is adjusted so that students who transfer into Massachusetts’ public schools are added to the original cohort, and students who transfer out or who are now deceased, are subtracted from the original cohort. The quotient is multiplied by 100 to express the graduation rate as a percentage. The measurement for all youth, regardless of IEP status, is thesame.

For students in the 2005-2006 school year cohort, Massachusetts is calculating and reporting a statewide graduation rate for the first time.This cohort includes all students who entered 9th grade in Massachusetts’ public schools for the first time in the fall of 2002, plus all students who transferred into the cohort during the four years, minus all students who transferred out of the cohort or who were deceased during the four years. Students who earned their Competency Determination, met all local graduation requirements, and received a diploma from a Massachusetts public high school in four years or less were counted as graduates. Summer graduates were included as if they graduated in the June preceding the summer.

The data used to calculate the graduation rate are obtained through the Student Information Management System (SIMS) scheduled reports that are submitted by school districts throughout the year. Because this is the first time MASSDE has calculated the graduation rate, and because the data come from the initial years of SIMS when districts were still becoming familiar with the system, MASSDE has allowed for the possibility of a limited number of corrections. Initial student-level data for the 2005-2006 cohort were released to districts in November of 2006, and district staff had one month to review the data and request corrections. MASSDE then reviewed all requests and made appropriate corrections. For subsequent years, it is anticipated that the number and type of corrections allowed will decrease.

MASSDE’s calculation method is based on the formula set forth in the National Governors’ Association (NGA) Compact, and meets the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) definition of graduation rate for use in determining Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for secondary schools. However, MASSDE acknowledges that a significant number of students require more than four years to graduate, so a five-year graduation rate has also been calculated. Although Massachusetts’ formal SPP targets are based on the four-year graduation rate, Massachusetts will continue to generate both rates for the entire student population of each cohort and for individual student subgroups at the state, district, and school level. Additional information on the calculation of graduation rates is available on MASSDE’s website at the following link:

Baseline Data for FFY 2005 (2005-2006):

Discussion of Baseline Data:

The data provided in the above table show that students with disabilities in Massachusetts’ public schools are graduating from high school in four years at a lower rate than their non-disabled peers. Based on the cohort formula for calculating graduation rate, 61.1% of students with disabilities in the 2005-2006 cohort graduated from high school in four years or less while the graduation rate is 83.9% for non-disabled students in the same cohort, and is 79.9% for all students in the cohort.

The five-year graduation rate for students in the 2005-2006 cohort is 67.0% for students with disabilities, 86.2% for non-disabled students, and 82.7% overall. This means that 5.9% of students with disabilities in the cohort, and 2.3% of students without disabilities, graduated in five years instead of four. MASSDE recognizes that it is appropriate for some students to take longer than four years to complete high school, and so Massachusetts will continue to calculate and publicly report the five-year rate for subsequent cohorts as an additional measure of year-to-year progress.

This disparity between the graduation rates for disabled and for non-disabled students in Massachusetts reflects a national trend. The report on SPP Indicator 1 prepared by the National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (NDPC-SD) for the Regional Resource and Federal Center Network’s Part B SPP/APR Indicator Analysis shows that of 36 states that reported graduation rates for both student with disabilities and all students, 35 states had a positive gap between the all-student rate and the rate for students with disabilities. One state actually had a negative gap between the all-student rate and the rate for students with disabilities, and the gaps for the other 35 states ranged from approximately one percentage point to approximately 45 percentage points. Massachusetts, with a gap of 18.2 percentage points, appears to be on par with many of the states reporting graduation rates for both students with disabilities and all students, although it should be noted that many states used an “event” calculation which cannot be directly compared to Massachusetts’ “cohort” calculation.

Massachusetts is committed to closing the gap between the graduation rate of students with disabilities and the graduation rate of students without disabilities over a ten-year period. Our SPP targets set in December 2009 reflect a graduation rate for all students at or above 95% by FFY 2018. The plan is to increase the Graduation Rate of all students with disabilities by approximately 5% every two years, as indicated below.

For the extended SPP period (FFY2011 and FFY2012), targets and activities were reviewed with the Statewide Special Education Steering Committee.

Improvement Activities/Timelines/Resources:

Please note that many of the activities presented below affect multiple indicator areas. For these activities, a full description of the activity is available in Appendix A.

Part B State Performance Plan (SPP) for 2005-2012

Overview of the State Performance Plan Development:

Indicator 2: Percent of youth with IEPs dropping out of high school.