Please read all of the following information carefully as it outlines the procedures ISBE will perform to ensure a complete and high quality December 1, 2017 child count file.
The Illinois Special Education December 1 Child Count includes all APPROVED I-Star student FACTS Approval records for all Fund codes except N & U, that are checked to ‘Include in Approval’ and active on 12/1.
Only Student FACTS records that are ERROR-FREE are approved. If you have any errors on a Student FACTS record, the FACTS record will be DISAPPROVED and will not be included in the December 1 Child Count.
View your Current Child Count Status by clicking the appropriate button on your I-Star Landing Page.
A preliminary December 1 Child Count snapshot will be taken February 1, 2018. You will see a list of all your districts which summarizes the number of APPROVED and ERROR-FREE Student FACTS records that are in your current snapshot.
If the numbers you see in the grid do not reflect the accurate count for children receiving special education services in your district, you need to perform additions and make corrections to Student FACTS Approval records BEFORE March 9, 2018 to have these students included in the final snapshot.
Due to the dynamic nature of student data, you can have all errors resolved and then have new errors introduced by SIS changes, birthdays, etc. It is imperative that you verify that your Student FACTS records are APPROVED and ERROR-FREE before the final snapshot at 7:00AM March 9, 2018. A snapshot will capture the state of your data at a single point in time. You will see the new counts on this screen reflecting your data changes when the next snapshot is captured. ISBE will create an updated snapshot every week until the final snapshot on March 9, 2018.
December 1 Child Count Snapshot Schedule
· February 1, 2018 - 7:00AM
· February 8, 2018 - 7:00AM
· February 15, 2018 - 7:00AM
· February 22, 2018 - 7:00AM
· March 1, 2018 - 7:00AM
· March 8, 2018 - 7:00AM
· March 9, 2018 – 7:00AM (FINAL SNAPSHOT)
You have until the end of business March 8, 2018 to make changes to your Student Approval data that will affect the final December 1 Child Count snapshot. The final snapshot will be taken at approximately 7:00AM, March 9th. Once the final December 1 Child Count snapshot is taken, no further changes will be reflected in the count for your district(s). However, you will still continue to update your I-Star data as normal.
To help ensure that your data is error-free, you should run ‘Re-Check Edits’ from the ‘Student Approval’ screen and once complete, visit the ‘Reports’ section. Select ‘Student’ and ‘Errors’ from the ‘Report Type’ and ‘Report Categories’ boxes, then select one of the two available Student Approval Errors Reports with the ‘Active on Child Count Date FACTS’ filter. Run this report to determine that you have corrected all errors. The only way to ensure that all students are represented in the final December 1 Child Count snapshot is to perform all necessary additions and correct ALL ERRORS.
If you have any questions regarding this process, please contact Harrisburg Project at 800-635-5274 or support@hbug.k12.il.us
Tim Imler
Division Administrator
Funding and Disbursement Services
Illinois State Board of Education
Phone: 217-782-5256
Fax: 217-782-3910