The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires each district or community school to complete and submit a justification when it anticipates testing more than 1.0 percent of students with the Alternate Assessment for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities.
If your district anticipates testing more than 1.0 percent of your students with the alternate assessment in 2018-2019, you must complete this justification.
The Ohio Department of Education will review justifications submitted by each district or community school. The Department is required to post and make publicly available all justifications received.
To assist in the process, a template of the justification is available here. Note that this PDF template is only a tool to help you prepare your justification. All justifications must be submitted on the Ohio K12 Help Portal here.
The Department sent an email to the special education contact and/or director on record for districts and community schools in the Ohio Educational Directory System notifying them that district superintendents have received an email with the district’s secure link to the portal.
The deadline for submitting this justification is December 10, 2018.
If you have any questions about calculating participation, please contact accountability@education.ohio.gov.
If you have any questions about completing the justification and other questions about the 1.0 percent participation threshold, please contact AAparticipation@education.ohio.gov.
