Coordinated Early
Intervening Services (CEIS) Step by Step
State Educational Agency
Determine whether each LEA has
significant disproportionality based on race or ethnicity with respect to identification, placement, and disciplinary removals.
States are required to provide, in their State Supplemental Survey and IDEA Part B Application, their definition of significant disproportionality. The definition must conform to a national standard provided at 34 CFR §300.647. OSEP guidance requires states to report all risk ratio thresholds, minimum cell sizes, minimum n-sizes, standards for measuring reasonable progress, and the rationales for each as a part of that definition.
Relevant Regulations
- 34 CFR §300.647
- Significant Disproportionality Final Regulations (pp. 92394–442)
TA Centers that assist with determining significant disproportionality
U.S. Department of Education Funded TA Centers
- IDEA Data Center (IDC)
IDC provides technical assistance to SEAs to help them understand and interpret different methods for calculating significant disproportionality as part of its mission of building state capacity to collect, report, analyze, and use high-quality IDEA data. This includes the new standard significant disproportionality method defined in 34 CFR §300.647.
Other TA Centers
- Civil Rights Project
The Civil Rights Project is dedicated to improving educational opportunities and outcomes for children from subgroups who have been discriminated against historically due to their race/ethnicity, and who are frequently subjected to exclusionary practices such as disciplinary removal, overrepresentation in special education, and reduced access to a college-bound curriculum.
Specific resources to help determine significant disproportionality
U.S. Department of Education Resources
- Dear Colleague Letter: Preventing Racial Discrimination in Special Education
- Significant Disproportionality 101: Equity in IDEA – Contents of the Final Rule (Video)
- EMAPS User Guide: State Supplemental Survey (SSS) (Section 6.9, p. 32)
- Model State Timeline
- OSEP Memo 07-09: Significant Disproportionality
- OSEP Memo 08-09: Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS)
- Significant Disproportionality 201: Equity in IDEA – Contents of the Final Rule (Video)
- Significant Disproportionality (Equity in IDEA): Essential Questions and Answers (pp. 4–17)
U.S. Department of Education Funded TA Center Resources
- CIFR. Part B Significant Disproportionality Protocol
- CIFR, IDC and NCSI. IDEA Fiscal Timeline
- IDC. EDFacts IDEA Discipline Data Infographic
- IDC. IDEA Part B Discipline Data Collection Questions and Answers
- IDC. Methods for Assessing Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality in Special Education: A Technical Assistance Guide (Revised)
- IDC. Significant Disproportionality Calculator and User’s Guide
Do you know of other resources that are not listed here? Contact us.
