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 (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 2023 Special Education Rating is primarily based on final special education program data for the 2021-2022 school year. The Special Education Profile received in January 2023 includes the data used to calculate the rating. The 2023 Special Education Rating is targeted for release in October 2023.
The Special Education Rating now considers successful completion of the prior Special Education Profile monitoring cycle. For the 2023 Special Education Rating, this is based on the 2022-2023 Special Education Profile released in January 2023. Districts and community schools that were unable to demonstrate systemic improvement will receive a rating of Needs Intervention regardless of the overall compliance score. This allows the Department to increase supports to districts and community schools sooner and aligns with newly released federal guidance (State General Supervision Responsibilities Under Parts B and C of the IDEA). See Ohio’s 2023 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 2023 Special Education Ratings are based solely on compliance measures. Results indicators will be included in the actual rating in 2024, and are reported in 2023 to provide a preview of the impact that results indicators will have on the district rating in future years.
Ratings Criteria
The 2023 rating assesses districts’ performance on the following compliance measures from the 2022-2023 Special Education Profile:
- Discipline discrepancies by race (Indicator 4b);
- Disproportionality in identification for special education (Indicators 9 & 10);
- Initial evaluation timelines (Indicator 11);
- Early childhood transition (Indicator 12);
- Secondary transition planning (Indicator 13); and
- Timely correction of noncompliance (Indicator 15).
The following compliance measures are also included:
- Timely and accurate data reporting (Indicator 20); and
- Special education audit findings (Click here for examples of minor, moderate and major audit findings).
The projected rating includes the compliance measures listed above as well as the following results measures:
- Graduation rate for students with disabilities (Indicator 1); and
- 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 Ratings, log in to the OH│ID portal, select “My Workspace,” then “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
- Click here for additional details on Ohio’s Special Education Ratings process.
- Click here for a presentation on Ohio’s Special Education Ratings.
*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: 11/30/2023 11:34:36 AM