The new 2017-18 Special Education Personnel approval instructions are available at
https://www.isbe.net/Pages/ Special-Education-Personnel. aspx. These changes are due to Public Act 100-0465, also known as the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) for Student Success Act, which became law on August 31, 2017. As a reminder, state funding for Special Education Personnel is now integrated along with four other programs and computed as a hold harmless provision known as the base funding minimum. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is still required to collect full-time equivalency data of all staff employed or contracted to provide special education and related services to students with disabilities ages 3-21 under the authority of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 618. The data are used for monitoring the program and activities under IDEA.
You are highly encouraged to read through the new instructions carefully. Notable changes include: Page 8Type Code Eliminated: It is no longer necessary to select a Special Education ID Code for work assignments. The-I-Star system will automatically match the appropriate Special Education ID Code: (A-Special Education Teacher, B- Related Service, C- Paraprofessional and D- Administrative) and is based on the work assignment(s) selected.
Term Code: Selecting a term code is no longer necessary since only “regular school term” staff are to be reported for Personnel Approval and Data Collection purposes. I-Star defaults to regular term and any staff reported will be counted as regular school term employees.
Employed 12-1 Checkbox: The district/cooperative will check this box to indicate that the particular staff person being reported was employed on or before December 1 of the current school year. However, all staff who work during the current regular school term, should be entered into I-Star even if they were hired after the December 1 date.
Page 9Work Assignment Status Codes: Status codes are used by ISBE to indicate the approval status of work assignment(s) that have been entered in I-Star for district/cooperative staff. The status is determined by cross-referencing the employee’s IEIN number on file in ELIS with the work assignment entered to make sure the employee has the required credentials for the work assignment. Available codes are: Qualified, Time Specific, Not Qualified or Temporary Approval.
Full-time Equivalency (FTE): FTE represents the amount of time a staff person spends in special education service delivery. Using the “Select FTE” drop down provided in I-Star, users will click on the numerical value which best estimates the amount of time spent in the work assignment.
Page 10Salary Information: Salary information must be entered on the Personnel Approval record if the Program Method of computing days is utilized to calculate inter-district student bills or student claims for state reimbursement. Total salary and benefit amounts will carry to the Program Definition when the personnel record is assigned to a special education program. Salary fields are not required to be completed if personnel are being reported for approval only.
IMPORTANT CHANGE – Sp Ed Personnel Revenue Offsets-Part 130 Sp Ed Per Capita Admin Rules PendingISBE is proposing a change to the Part 130 Special Education Per Capita Tuition administrative rules which states that all full-time licensed personnel including paraprofessionals and program aides will have their compensation offset at the previous formula amounts of $9,000 and $3,500 as they are included on the Special Education Documentation Sheet, Form 50-66B, Schedule A and Line 33 of the Program Tuition Cost Sheet, Form 50-66A. Districts and cooperatives will offset utilizing Special Education Personnel program revenue that is received as part of their EBF base funding minimum. For more details, please review the following presentation at
https://www.isbe.net/ Documents/Part_130_Proposed_ Changes.pdf. The proposed changes are scheduled to go to the State Board on April 18 for solicitation of public comment on the proposed amendments.
Page 14Home Hospital Instructors: Effective with the 2017-18 school year, FTE for Home Hospital Instructors is collected and calculated the same as all other Special Education Teachers and is no longer calculated based on the number of students served. In addition, a new work assignment code has been created for Home Hospital Instructors Out of State (HHIO). HHIO instructors who are credentialed out of state are granted previous approval in I-Star, but must obtain an IEIN number so that the district/cooperative can enter the approval data in I-Star.
Additional resources regarding Home/Hospital instruction can be found at
https://www..isbe.net/Pages/ School-Health-Issues.aspx. Questions may be directed to
Jessica Gerdes in the Division of Regulatory Support and at (312) 814-2220.
Page 15Paraprofessional Staff: Additional work assignment codes have been created for paraprofessional staff since FTE for paraprofessionals must be reported for each age group served.
The new codes are:
- Paraprofessional work Assignment Codes
- PA3-(Program Aide serving age group 3-5)
- PA6-(Program Aide serving age group 6-21)
- TA3-(Teacher’s Aide serving age group 3-5)
- TA6-(Teacher’s Aide serving age group 6-21)
- NHA3-(Non-certified Health Aide age group 3-5)
- NHA6-(Non-certified Health Aide age group 6-21)