This FAQ document developed by the OSEP-funded IDEA Data Center (IDC) focuses on helping SEAs and LEAs understand CEIS and its reporting requirements. These questions were developed to be used in conjunction with the OSEP Guidance Memo 08-09.
Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS)
Methods for Assessing Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality in Special Education: A Technical Assistance Guide (Revised)
This technical assistance guide can be used by SEA staff members who analyze, interpret, and/or make decisions based on disproportionality data and analyses. This guide describes some of the more common methods for calculating disproportionality, summarizes the question each method answers, provides step-by-step examples of how disproportionality is calculated, and offers brief discussions on how to interpret the method and some considerations. It is intended to help SEA staff members determine which of their LEAs have significant disproportionality, data that are required as part of the EMAPS IDEA Part B MOE Reduction and CEIS data collection.
Letter to Dale
This letter to the Division of Rehabilitation Services and Special Education at the University of Maine, Farmington, discusses the possible uses for CEIS funds including a tiered support system such as response to intervention (RTI) and funding teachers.
Letter to Andrejack
This letter to the Michigan Department of Education addresses three IDEA fiscal topics, two of which are maintenance of effort (MOE) and coordinated early intervening services (CEIS). The CEIS question asks about the possibility of reallocating CEIS funds not expended by an LEA. OSEP explains that the funds can only be used for the purposes stated in IDEA and any funds not expended by the LEA when required to expend them due to significant disproportionality would revert to the U. S. Department of Education at the end of the expenditure period for those funds.
OSEP Memo 08-09: Coordinated Early Intervening Services under Part B of the IDEA
This OSEP memo clarifies the use of IDEA funds and other federal funds for CEIS, including the provision that requires the SEA to require the LEA to reserve the maximum amount of funds available for comprehensive CEIS if the SEA identifies significant disproportionality based on race or ethnicity. See 34 CFR ยง300.646(b)(2).
Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS) Resources: Step by Step
Developed by CIFR, the Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS) Resources: Step by Step is designed to help state and local educational agencies navigate the steps associated with planning for, providing, and tracking comprehensive or voluntary CEIS. For each CEIS step, the interactive organizer provides links to TA Centers, tools, and resources that may assist users to understand and implement that step. Pay particular attention to the many helpful resources created by the IDEA Data Center (IDC).
Quick Reference Guide on Coordinated Early Intervening Services
Updated to reflect 2016 changes in the IDEA Part B regulations on significant disproportionality, this three-page quick reference guide helps SEAs, LEAs, and stakeholders understand basic CEIS requirements stipulated in IDEA. Created by CIFR in collaboration with the IDEA Data Center, it describes the requirements for the provision of CEIS, the use of CEIS funds, the interaction of CEIS funds and LEA maintenance of effort reduction, and reporting obligations. It concludes with questions and additional resources for states to consider.
Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS) Fiscal and Student Data Tracker
The CEIS Fiscal and Student Data Tracker helps states and LEAs report on fiscal, service, and student CEIS data at the state, LEA, school, and provider levels. In accordance with IDEA regulations, the Tracker helps users collect data on the areas of significant disproportionality requiring CEIS spending, whether an LEA provided voluntary or comprehensive CEIS, amounts of IDEA funds reserved and expended, types of CEIS activity, students receiving CEIS, and if and when those students are found eligible for special education and related services.
CEIS Practice Guide: Examples of Fiscal and Child Tracking for Voluntary and Comprehensive Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS)
Developed jointly by IDC and CIFR, this practice guide provides examples of voluntary and comprehensive CEIS, including scenarios for providing professional development and providing CEIS over multiple years. For each scenario, the practice guide describes how the LEA or state could document the amount the LEA reserved for voluntary or comprehensive CEIS; the activities conducted using IDEA funds for voluntary or comprehensive CEIS; the target group of children; and ongoing child-level data about special education identification.
Rule Delay for Significant Disproportionality (Equity in IDEA) Regulations
Issued by the U.S. Department of Education, this final rule postponed the compliance date for implementing the significant disproportionality regulations (released December 16, 2016) by two years, from July 1, 2018, to July 1, 2020. The rule also postponed the date children ages 3 through 5 must be included in the analysis of significant disproportionality, from July 1, 2020, to July 1, 2022. The rule announcement includes an analysis of public comments provided to the earlier notice of proposed rulemaking.
