Ohio's Special Education Ratings
What are Special Education Ratings?
The special education program in a district is the basis of success for students with disabilities. Every year, districts and community schools in Ohio receive a federally required rating on the performance of their special education program, known as the Special Education Rating.* The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (the Department) calculates this rating using final Education Management Information System (EMIS) data, which results in one of four possible ratings — Meets Requirements, Needs Assistance, Needs Intervention, or Needs Substantial Intervention. Ohio receives an annual rating from the U.S. Department of Education based on the same four categories.
The 2024 Special Education Rating is primarily based on final special education program data for the 2022-2023 school year. The 2023-2024 Special Education Profile includes the data used to calculate the rating. The 2024 Special Education Rating is targeted for release in October 2024.
The Special Education Rating now considers successful completion of the prior Special Education Profile monitoring cycle. For the 2024 Special Education Rating, this is based on the 2023-2024 Special Education Profile. Districts and community schools that were unable to demonstrate systemic improvement will receive a rating of Needs Intervention regardless of the overall score. This allows the Department to increase supports to districts and community schools sooner and aligns with federal guidance (State General Supervision Responsibilities Under Parts B and C of the IDEA). See Ohio’s 2024 Special Education Rating Process for more detailed information on how the rating is determined.
Results for Students with Disabilities
The district rating evaluates the implementation of federal requirements, also called compliance measures, as well as results for students with disabilities. The 2024 Special Education Rating combines eight measures of procedural compliance with two measures of students' results.
Ratings Criteria
The 2024 rating assesses districts’ performance on the following compliance measures from the 2023-2024 Special Education Profile:
- Discipline discrepancies by race (Indicator 4b)
- Disproportionate representation (Indicators 9 & 10)
- Initial evaluation timelines (Indicator 11)
- Early childhood transition (Indicator 12)
- Secondary transition planning (Indicator 13)
- Timely correction of noncompliance (Indicator 15)
The following compliance measures are also included:
The 2024 rating assesses districts' and community schools' performance on the following results indicators from 2023-2024 Special Education Profile:
- Graduation rate for students with disabilities (Indicator 1)
- Dropout rate for students with disabilities (Indicator 2)
Rating Reports
The Department sends emails to superintendents, special education contacts and community school sponsors with instructions to access their online ratings reports through the Department's OH|ID portal, available here. To access the rating, log in to the OH|ID portal, select “Applications”, then select the link for Special Education Profiles & Ratings. District users must have one of the following roles in the Ohio Educational Directory System (OEDS), assigned by their district’s OEDS coordinator, to access these reports:
- Superintendent
- Assistant Superintendent
- Superintendent Designee
- Special Education Contact
- Director-Special Education-General
- Coordinator-Special Education-General
- Supervisor-Special Education-General
- Primary Contact-Sponsor
Steps to create a new OH|ID are listed on this page. If you need technical support for your OH│ID account, please contact the Department at 877-644-6338 or Profile.Help@education.ohio.gov.
After the appeals process is complete, the Department adds the ratings to Ohio’s annual public report on the performance of each district’s special education program.
Resources
*Annual Special Education Determinations are required by Section 300.600(a)(2) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA). In Ohio, Special Education Determinations are known as Special Education Ratings.
Last Modified: 2/18/2025 11:25:01 AM