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Participation in this Consortium enables the district to receive the services of a licensed director of special education/pupil services as well as benefit from program support. These individuals offer a variety of licensures and expertise and are not available to districts outside of the consortium except for short term matters such as in-service or student evaluations and then only if time permits. In addition, Consortium membership enables the district to participate with our SEEDS® data system for your teachers to complete their IEP’s. SEEDS® also allows your special education secretary to maintain class lists and retrieve hundreds of reports. It allows our office to complete all Special Education DPI reporting for your district, including the December 1 count, Special Education Plan, and related reports. In addition SEEDS® and Consortium membership enables the district to receive Medicaid reimbursement at no cost. These services are part of the package. Districts that wish Special Education Administrative and Support services from CESA 6 have three conditions for participating in the Special Education (SE) Leadership Consortium.
The conditions for participation are:
1) That the district surrenders a portion of their Flow through and EC Entitlement grants to CESA 6. CESA 6 uses these monies to pay for all the non state aided costs (travel, phone, equipment, technology, etc.) for all of the special education program support staff and special education administration staff the district has purchased from CESA 6. As a result these costs do not appear on the district contract for services and are directly charged to federal funds verses the district's tax levy. The rest of the grant goes back to the school to spend locally in the same way that CESA 6 does, to pay non-state aided costs. The district has complete flexibility in spending these funds and does not have to submit grant documents to DPI. They can claim costs as often as they wish and be reimbursed by CESA within about two weeks. The district does have to account for these funds in fund 27 of your annual report.
2) The district uses and follows the CESA 6 process for forms, identification of Special Education children and the entire IEP process, including use of the SEEDS® database. This process includes the oversight of CESA 6 leadership staff assigned to the district directing and redirecting your staff to ensure they follow the process as laid out and the requirements of law. Each Special Education Teacher receives a copyrighted resource handbook identifying procures and programmatic/legal reference to assist in implementation. On-going support to implement these procedures is provided to professional and support staff. We train your SE staff in the use of the SEEDS® system. Detailed documentation is provided, along with help desk personnel.
3) CESA 6 reports required documentation to DPI on behalf of the district. This includes the Special Education Child Count, the Special Education Plan, the Flow Through and Early Childhood entitlement grant as well as any other reports required by DPI relating to Special Education including Special Education data required to complete the Civil Rights Report. This includes the completion of all district records and accounting of cases pertaining to a DPI Special Education Monitoring Audit, preparing all DPI Monitoring Audit records, developing and monitoring corrective action plans, in-service of staff pertaining to these matters and all follow up documentation required by DPI. Included in this arrangement, should the district receive a formal OCR complaint, IDEA complaint, Due Process request from a parent, and/or Mediation request from a parent or advocate, the CESA 6 Director of Special Education is expected to address this issue directly, and in consultation with building and district administration as well as district legal council.
Each of these conditions defines responsibility and accountability for the district and the CESA staff. It also generates a stable funding source for the district and the consortium that is the most cost effective use of these funds available, given the DPI accounting system and the deductible receipt law that has been place in the state since 1980.
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