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FAQ
- What are States required to collect?
The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) requires every State monitor the "percent of youth who had IEPs, are no longer in secondary school and who have been competitively employed, enrolled in some type of postsecondary school, or both within one year of leaving high school (20 U.S.C. 1416(a)(3)(B))"
- Why is it important to collect this information?
Besides the fact that it is a federal requirement, the collecting this data will help us understand and/or answer questions such as:
- For students who are successful, did school help and how?
- For students who aren’t successful, what could the school have done differently/better?
- What kinds of supports do young adults need most after high school?
- What changes are needed to better support students, families, schools, agencies?
- Why can’t we just use the existing post-school outcome data collection process required as part of the Non-Academic Data?
There are a couple of reasons we can’t use the existing system.
- OSEP requires follow up to be done one year following exit, as opposed to the current six months.
- OSEP requires that every student leaving with an IEP, including those who graduate with a standard diploma, those that receive a certificate of completion, those that age out, and those that drop out, be followed up. The current collection of Non-Academic Data only disaggregates students who received special education if they are in the less than 1% who are on an Alternate Portfolio.
- What assistance is OSEP providing to States in developing their data collection systems?
OSEP has funded the National Post School Outcomes Center (NPSO) at the University of Oregon for the purpose of providing technical assistance, training, and resources to the States. You can visit the NPSO at the following address: http://www.psocenter.org/
Within our own state, we have organized the Kentucky Post School Outcomes (KPSO) Advisory Group to provide guidance and perspective and have partnered with the Human Development Institute at the University of Kentucky in system development.
- What do we have to do at the Local Education Agency level?
The data will be collected at the Local Education Agency (LEA) level. These are the action steps:
- Data are collected at two points:
Point 1: During the Final Year of School
What?
Kentucky In School Transition Survey (KISTS) @ www.kypso.org
What Does It Do?
Collects information about students’ post school plans by reviewing student record and interviewing student.
Who Does It?
Every LEA, every year, on every student with an IEP exiting that school year. This means students that exit by any of the following means:
- Graduating with a standard diploma
- Graduating with a certificate of attainment
- Aging out (exceed age for Free Appropriate Education)
- Dropping out
LEAs select the person(s) that will be responsible for conducting their KISTS.
When is it done?
The KISTS can be conducted at any time during the students’ final year of school (e.g. students who are dropping out); however, KISTS must be completed by the second week in June. Schools are informed of the exact date each year.
Point 2: One Year After School Exit
What?
Kentucky In School Transition Survey (KISTS) @ www.kypso.org
What Does It Do?
Collects information on the post school outcomes of former students who had IEPs one year after school exit.
Who Does It?
LEAs are randomly selected to participate each year. If a school district is in the sample for a given year, they must follow up with all former students who exited with IEPs one year earlier.
LEAs select the person(s) that will be responsible for conducting their YOYO.
When is it done?
The YOYO is conducted between April and June of each year by those LEAs in the random sample for that year.
- What happens once the data are collected?
Because the data collection instruments are both on-line, the data are automatically sent to the KyPSO @ HDI/UK.
KyPSO analyzes the data from both the KISTS and the YOYO and develops reports for KDE/DECS and other stakeholders.
- Do students with IEPs have to complete both this new survey and the existing Senior Survey?
At this point, yes. As is mentioned above, these procedures will obtain information from students who are leaving school in one, or more, of the following ways: graduation with a standard diploma; completion of program with certificate; aging out; dropping out. The district will still be required to follow the same process for senior surveys for the Nonacademic Data Report. But since the senior survey process only collects data on students who leave due to graduation with a diploma or certificate, the district will need to complete this OSEP required process. However, the district may choose to combine the two processes when possible.
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