IDEA Compliance Monitoring
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires each state to provide support services to districts and schools in need of improvement. In Ohio, these services are delivered through the Ohio Improvement Process (OIP), a unified state system of support developed by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) and deployed through regional service providers. ODE’s Center for School Improvement and Ohio’s Educational Regional Services System (consisting of 16 Regional Advisory Councils and State Support Teams) coordinates this process, which is designed to make and sustain significant improvement in performance for all students, including students with disabilities.
ODE’s Office for Exceptional Children (OEC) supports the OIP by monitoring and ensuring district compliance with federal requirements for students with disabilities that promote access to, and progress in, general education, as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA).
Ohio’s compliance with many of these requirements is evaluated through the State Performance Plan (SPP), which is submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). The SPP is comprised of targets and improvement activities for indicators of state performance.
Indicator 1: Graduation Rate
Indicator 2: Drop Out Rate
Indicator 3A: AYP for Students with Disabilities
Indicator 3B: Participation Rate
Indicator 3C: Proficiency Rate
Indicator 4: Discipline Discrepancies
Indicator 5: School-age LRE
Indicator 8: Parent Involvement
Indicator 9: Disproportionality Across All Disability Categories
Indicator 10: Disproportionality in Specific Disability Categories
Indicator 11: Child Find
Indicator 12: Early Childhood Transition
Indicator 13: Secondary Transition
Indicator 14: Postsecondary Outcomes
Indicator 15: General Supervision
Indicator 16: Complaint Timelines
Indicator 17: Due Process Timelines
Indicator 18: Resolutions Sessions
Indicator 19: Mediations
Indicator 20: State Reported Data
Through its system of general supervision, OEC uses multiple monitoring processes to address and improve district performance on SPP indicators. The monitoring process selected for a given district is based on OEC priorities and the district’s performance across indicators.
OEC uses five district monitoring processes:
- Determination;
- Self-Assessment;
- Selective reviews (for ongoing noncompliance or specific concerns);
- Collaborative monitoring; and
- IDEA monitoring
These various processes allow OEC to impact many LEAs and address as well as establish priorities with districts related to indicators and noncompliance. The intensity of the monitoring and the corresponding commitment of district and OEC resources will vary, depending upon the issues under review.
IDEA Monitoring Process-ODE (Link)