Positive Supports for Behavior and Discipline Resource Database

Every year, OSERS collects data from state educational agencies as required by IDEA section 618, including data related to discipline practices. These data report key aspects of disciplinary removals at the State level, disaggregated by a variety of demographic criteria.

This suite of tools includes the IDEA Data Quality: Outlier Analyses Tool and the Outlier Analyses: Step-by-Step Guide. State personnel responsible for the IDEA 618 and 616 data can use the guide and the Excel tool to conduct outlier analyses with their local data.

States and LEAs must report five types of disciplinary removals for children and youth with disabilities. The EDFacts IDEA Discipline Data Infographic visualizes the information from six IDEA Discipline data EDFacts file specification documents in an interactive infographic that outlines the discipline data for children and youth with disabilities ages 3 through 21 that states must include in their annual submission of EDFacts files FS005, FS006, FS007, FS088, FS143, and FS144. Data states report in these files include counts of children and youth with disabilities with in-school and out-of-school suspensions and expulsions; length of and reason for disciplinary removal; and count of disciplinary removals due to drugs, weapons, or serious bodily injury.

These Edit Check and Data Display Tools help states as they prepare their IDEA Section 618 data submissions. The tools identify potential business rule errors or errors in subtotals or totals prior to submitting the data to OSEP. Relevant tools include SEA EDFacts Edit Check and Data Display Tool - IDEA Discipline, LEA EDFacts Edit Check and Data Display Tool - IDEA Discipline, and 618 Data Pre-submission Edit Check Tool - Part B ​Discipline.

This toolkit contains protocol templates that states can use to document all state-level IDEA data collection and reporting procedures and activities. Completing protocols for all data collections can help states establish a well-managed process for data collection, analysis, and reporting. For discipline data, see the following components: 618 Data Collection Procotocols, Discipline; and 616 SPP/APR Indicator Protocols, Indicators 4A and 4B.

High-quality data are timely, accurate, and complete. In addition, they are usable, accessible, and secure. Educators and representatives at the local, state, and federal levels use high-quality early intervention and special education data to inform their decisions as they work to meet the needs of children and students with disabilities and their families. Use this interactive PDF to learn more about the different components of high-quality data.

This customizable Excel workbook states can use for documenting, recording, and communicating existing business rules or data quality validation checks they perform during the collection and validation of IDEA Part B data. This protocol provides a format for gathering information about existing business rules in one location and is an effective tool for communication with both internal and external stakeholders.

States can use the Organizer Template for Part B SPP/APR Target Setting to briefly document information for consideration when setting new SPP/APR targets for all indicators in the FFYs 2020–25 SPP/APR collection. States can supplement this overview template with the Indicator Organizer for Part B SPP/APR Stakeholder Involvement and Target Setting, which is designed to capture more detailed information on stakeholder involvement in setting targets for individual SPP/APR indicators. Both resources can help states conceptualize indicator target setting and how they will need to solicit and document stakeholder input when establishing indicator targets.

This table details key areas such as methodology, data sources, and reporting considerations for each of the three equity requirements in IDEA.

The Significant Disproportionality Calculator is a spreadsheet application that the IDEA Data Center (IDC) created to help states analyze their data, make determinations of significant disproportionality, and support local education agencies (LEAs) in their analysis of data for significant disproportionality at the school-level. The accompanying user’s guide describes each worksheet within the calculator, formatting requirements, and instructions for using the calculator.

This tool provides a summary of the data states need to calculate significant disproportionality in the areas of identification, placement, and discipline.

This document assists states with the collection of data on children with disabilities served under IDEA who were subject to disciplinary removal.

This TA guide describes some of the more common methods for calculating disproportionality. The intended audience is state agency staff who must make decisions regarding their state’s disproportionality analyses and those who analyze disproportionality data or interpret the results of those analyses.

Our November 15–16, 2022 SPP/APR Summit brought together data quality influencers from across the country for a chance to connect and collaborate with their peers as they continue to improve the quality of their state’s SPP/APR data. For all sessions, see https://ideadata.org/spp-apr-summit. This session focused on several of the important decisions needed to generate data for Indicator 4A and 4B, including comparison group, calculation method, minimum cell size, minimum n-size, and threshold. It also contrasted Indicator 4 with significant disproportionality requirements.

The Excel spreadsheet application and user's guide are tools to aid states in their assessment of racial/ ethnic disproportionality. The spreadsheet application calculates several disproportionality measures, including risk, risk ratio, weighted risk ratio, alternate risk ratio, risk difference, composition, difference in composition, relative difference in composition, the E-formula, and variations of several of these measures for total disciplinary removals.