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 receive a rating on the performance of their special education program, known as their Special Education Rating.* The Ohio Department of Education uses final data that districts submit through the Education Management Information System (EMIS). These data result in one of four 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 primary basis of the 2022 rating is the final special education program data districts submitted through EMIS for the 2020-2021 school year. The Department will issue each district’s 2022 Special Education Rating in October 2022. The Special Education Profile districts received in December 2021 includes the data used to calculate the rating.
Results for Students with Disabilities
Measures of procedural compliance are historically the basis for Special Education Ratings. Starting in 2018, ratings include measures of results for students with disabilities. However, due to federal changes to special education indicators and the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, results indicators will not be included this year. The 2022 Special Education Ratings are based entirely on compliance indicators.
Ratings Criteria
The 2022 rating assesses districts’ performance on the following measures:
Compliance Indicators
- 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);
- Timely correction of noncompliance (Indicator 15);
- Timely and accurate data reporting (Indicator 20); and
- Special education audit findings (Click here for examples of minor, moderate and major audit findings).
Future annual ratings will also include:
- Alternate assessment rates;
- Reading and math proficiency rates for students with disabilities in grade 4, grade 8, and high school (Indicator 3b);
- 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: 12/5/2022 2:27:38 PM