Last Thursday, the following letter was distributed to school districts on behalf of State Superintendent Tony Smith regarding Dept of Children and Family Services (DCFS) foster care students https://www.isbe.net/Documents/EBF-DCFS-YIC-Letter.pdf
As stated in the letter, it is critical that all districts login to their IWAS E-Report Card application and review the list of DCFS students provided to ISBE who may be either general education or special education. When a district user clicks the new link “Download a list of Possible Special Education Youth-in-Care Students”, an Excel document will be downloaded containing the list of possible special education DCFS youth-in-care students. If no students are identified in this group, the following message will be displayed “No matching students found. No further action required”.
However, if the student is special education and they are on this list, then they are currently not listed in the I-Star special education data collection system as an orphanage student (i.e. Fund Code of E or F) or, they are in I-Star, but miscoded as not being an orphanage student (e.g. Fund A, X or B) under DCFS guardianship. Please note that in some instances, Fund Code A is appropriate for a DCFS student if the natural parent lives in the same district as the foster parent. It is critical that if an eligible student on this list was enrolled in the district on or before March 1 and is special education, you must enter an approval record for the student in the I-Star system with a Fund Code E (i.e. student served in a district/cooperative program) or Fund Code F (i.e. student served in a private facility) on or before Friday, June 8.
Districts that rely on special education cooperatives to enter their special education data in I-Star will need to export the DCFS student data from the IWAS E-Report Card application, enrollment verification tool into Excel and communicate that data to their cooperative. Cooperatives cannot be provided access to the IWAS E-Report Card application that is specific to districts. Ultimately, each district is responsible for ensuring that all DCFS YIC who are special education students are entered in I-Star.
Special Education Orphanage Eligibility: specific instructions regarding special education students who are eligible for Orphanage funding can be found on Pages 7-8 and Page 31 of our Students with Disabilities Data Collection and Approval Procedures at https://www.isbe.net/Documents/34-30_sped_facts.pdf
IMPORTANT: Failure to enter an I-Star approval record by Friday, June 8, if they were enrolled in the district on or before March 1, will negate the district’s ability to file a 2017-18 reimbursement claim by the deadline of July 16 this year. DCFS special education students enrolled after March 1 may be entered and claimed in I-Star normally.
Questions may be directed to Jamie Johnson jjohnson@isbe.net or Jodi Whitlow jwhitlow@isbe.net or phone at (217) 782-5256.
Questions pertaining to the operation of I-Star should be directed to Harrisburg Project support@hbug.k12.il.us or phone (800) 635-5274.
Tim Imler
Division Administrator
Funding and Disbursement Services
Illinois State Board of Education
Phone: 217-782-5256
Fax: 217-782-3910