SpEd Forms: Thursdays at Three - A journey through the land of enhancements - recent changes impacting ECSE
Join the SpEd Forms team for our last Thursdays at Three of this school year! We will review enhancements made during the past year that primarily impact ECSE, including the COS form and reports, e-signatures, and the enrollment form. SpEd Forms looks forward to actively discussing how these and other enhancements are being used across customer districts. The Google Meet link can be found on our support page here:
SpEd Forms: Thursdays at Three - Getting ready for DHS annual rate reporting
Third
Party Reimbursement Coordinators – do you have questions about
submitting your annual rate form to DHS on July 5th? Join us this
Thursday, the 18th, at 3pm to learn about reports you can review to
ensure accurate time and encounter data. Take advantage of this
informative opportunity! The Google Meet link and all upcoming Thursdays
at Three topics can be found on our support page here:
Just a friendly reminder that we will be providing various
back-to-school virtual training sessions this fall. These are open to
all districts and are free of charge. You can find more details, dates
and times, along with one new session added, on the registration form:
Happy Monday, educators! We have an exciting announcement! SpEd Forms will again be offering a variety of back-to-school training sessions this fall. These trainings are open to everyone, are entirely free of charge, and are meant to get your educators started using the program with ease!
A staff member from SpEd Forms will conduct each training for a specific audience. All will be held virtually using Google Meet, and one session of each will be recorded for later viewing. (Those recordings will not be available until after each training is completed.) You can find further details, dates and times along with the registration form online here:
Again, there is no cost to you for these specific sessions. We encourage cooperatives and districts to meet in groups if at all possible and register as one so we can have room for everyone wishing to attend. Registration is mandatory. If you are not ready to sign up today, that’s okay! We will send out reminders throughout the summer and fall as we understand staffing may change.
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On Saturday, April 29th, 2023, an update will be posted to all Minnesota SpEd Forms sites. The update will include the changes listed below:
ER
1. KBIT-2R, KABC II NU, and Vineland-3 have all been added to the SpEd Forms test library.
(Requested by: Dustin Hinckley, Red Lake Public Schools #53673)
MA
1. Made a change to specify a bad date when the save is unsuccessful on MA logs.
(Requested by: Tara Goebel, South Washington County Schools #52825)
2. The X12 batch file will ignore blank ICD10 codes and only send the first twelve codes.
(Requested by: Dellynne Monson, SWWC Service Cooperatives #52900)
3. A filter option, “Hide over 21 services”, has been added to the Create/edit claim transmission.
(Requested by: Tara Goebel, South Washington County Schools #52650)
4. A physical QP signature line and the ability for staff to electronically sign have been added to the PCA plan.
(Requested by: Sarah Olson, Detroit Lakes Public School District #53218)
5. Made a change to ignore the N362 remark code in the 835 X12 batch file.
(Requested by: Carla Cooper, Lakeville Area Schools #42492)
504
1. Updated the parent sections on the 504 Plan and the Notice of Conference page. A section for the district’s Section 504 coordinator was also added to the Manifestation determination page.
(Requested by: Amber Schultz, Anoka-Hennepin School District #53203/#53205/53212)
Other forms and logs
1. Agency contact information has been updated at the bottom of Part B PWNs.
(Requested by: SpEd Forms #DE-3711)
2. The clear button on the Evaluation/Reevaluation Plan PWN form now has an updated function that lets it clear both the Eval/Assessment textboxes and texts on the form and print page.
(Requested by: Katie Mikla, Hastings Public Schools, #53172)
3. The Student Acknowledgement form’s language and title were updated to match the MDE version of this form.
(Requested by: SpEd Forms Advisory Committee, #53514)
Reports 1. The Reconciliation and Total Amount paid reports have been updated to calculate the reduced federal share percentage effective for claims paid after April 1st, 2023.
(Requested by: Amy Bean, Independent School District 318 #53685)
2. Added a School column to the “Signatures” MA Forms Searchable report.
(Requested by: Wanda Lane, Brainerd School District #53469)
3. “IEPs finalized as draft” has been added to available quick reporting.
(Requested by: Bill Underwood, Anoka-Hennepin School District #52963)
4. The search functionality of the Educator Services Report has been updated with the inclusion of a new search parameter named “Active students.”
(Requested by: Marla Pierskalla, St. Cloud Area School District #53012)
5. The MDE Consent to share data has been added to the admin MA forms in PDF format.
(Requested by: Kerri Whitney, Eastern Carver County Schools #53301)
6. The finalization date/time is now available as a sorting option on the Student history report. It will also appear in a column on the result page of the report.
(Requested by: Bill Underwood, Anoka-Hennepin School District #53394)
7. The admin Login tracking report has been updated to include sorting options.
(Requested by: SpEd Forms #DE-3775)
2.0
1. The IEP Transition Services page 1, IEP Present Levels, IEP Student Information, and Transition Services page 2 have all been converted to v2.
(Requested by: SpEd Forms #DE-3734, #DE-3733, #DE-3696, #DE-3729)
2. Made a change in v2 to allow parents to electronically sign MA Consent to share data and Parental consent forms.
3. Updates have been made to the IEP v2 menu to display the text ‘draft,’ ‘amended,’ or ‘amended draft’ when an IEP has been finalized and falls under one of these categories.
(Requested by: Christine O’Brien, Inver Grove Heights Schools #53363)
4. The v2 IEP print menu now includes a checkbox option that allows users to select or deselect pages 1-10.
(Requested by: Lindsey Paffrath-Bice, Willmar Public Schools #53442)
5. Visual improvements were made to the Evaluation/Reevaluation Plan Prior Written Notice.
(Requested by: SpEd Forms #DE-2748)
System
1. The term “case manager” was renamed to “plan manager” within the student sharing page.
(Requested by: SpEd Forms #DE-3718)
2. A new button called “Select from SpEd Forms tests” has been added to the Eval/assessment tools page within the Educator Setup and Admin Organization Menu. This new feature enables districts to easily copy all of SpEd Forms’ ER tests into the Eval/assessment tools section.
(Requested by: SpEd Forms #48535)
3. A building column has been added to the Admin Educators search screen results.
(Requested by: Karen Stay, St. Cloud Area School District #48980)
4. If parent access has been turned on and an admin user has access to Admin educators, they will now also see Admin parents, where they can search for and update parent accounts previously created through the Parent access report.
(Requested by: SpEd Forms #DE-3687)
5. We have streamlined the printing & PDF creation processes within SpEd Forms, making the process faster. We are thrilled that these changes increase the system’s efficiency behind the scenes for you at this particularly dynamic time of year.
(Requested by: SpEd Forms #DE-3699)
6. A “Separate households” checkbox was added to the edit parents page within Student setup. When selected, forms addressed to “Dear [parent]” will generate one copy for each parent when printed or finalized. A short YouTube video was created that shows how this works:
(Requested by: Bryan Schmidt, Rochester Public Schools #52858)
Announcements
We know how busy you all are, especially as the school year comes to a close. Out of respect for that, we will push our May update a week early and not have any updates in June. We wish you all the best as you finalize this school year.
SpEd Forms: Thursdays at Three - End of the year activities
Administrators, we invite you to collaborate with us in updating our list of administrative end-of-year activities for EC and K-12. Let’s discuss the tasks you usually perform at this time, as well as those that can assist you in preparing for the next academic year. We’ll cover topics such as COSF changes, SpEd Forms reports and processes, and how to streamline your to-do list. You’ll also discover useful tools in SpEd Forms that can simplify your end-of-year responsibilities and set you up for success in the coming school year.
This meeting is meant for our educators set up with administrative permissions. Click on the meeting link below to join us on Thursday, April 27th at 3pm:
Though we start at 3pm, you are free to hop on and join us anytime between 3-4pm as we know the end of the school day can be busy. We hope to see MANY of your smiling faces tomorrow!
SpEd Forms: Thursdays at Three - Ask the Customer Service team!
Stuck home in the snow? This week’s Thursdays at Three topic will be Ask the Customer Service team: a live Q & A for teachers and providers.
Jump into this online session and visit with our wonderful staff. We are here to answer your questions, listen to your SpEd Forms stories and take down your suggestions. This session is meant for teachers and providers, so please pass this along to anyone who you think would benefit from joining us. The online meeting link and all upcoming topics are listed on our support page here:
SpEd Forms: Thursdays at Three - MA log documentation
Did you miss the fall MA Forms documentation training? Are you a new provider? You’re welcome to join us online tomorrow, Thursday the 9th, at 3pm to learn about the recent evaluation documentation changes, view 2.0 features and ask your questions about the MA service logs. The Google Meet link and all upcoming topics can be found on our support page here: