The Special Education Staff Certification Report (EF-S-05 Part II) Open on March 1, 2019; Deadline is April 5, 2019.

The EF-S-05 Part II Special Education Staff Certification report must be verified and certified by the Special Education Director in the Maine DOE’s NEO System. The report is used to verify the full-time equivalency (FTE) and qualification status of special education teachers, paraprofessionals (educational technicians), and related services personnel who were employed or contracted to provide special education services to students with disabilities ages 3 through 20 as of December 1, 2018.

Access instructions for completing the EF-S-05 Part II report.

If you have trouble logging into NEO or have other technical issues, contact the help desk at 207-624-6896 or MEDMS.Helpdesk@maine.gov.

For questions about the EF-S-05 Part II report, contact Brandi Giguere at 207-624-6648 or brandi.a.giguere@maine.gov.

EPS High-Cost Out-of-District Report (EF-S-214) Open for Reporting on March 1, 2019; Deadline is April 15, 2019

The EF-S-214, also known as the EPS High-Cost Out-of-District Report will be open for data entry to Maine public schools on March 1 in the Maine DOE’s NEO Portal.

The report can be located by logging into NEO at: https://neo.maine.gov/DOE/NEO/Accounts/Account/Login then Navigate to→ Special Education → Forms → EFS-214.

School districts should sign into the report as early as possible to allow time for data entry as well as the two-step submission process. The deadline to complete the report is April 15. The Department must approve the report by April 15 to allow time to make possible EPS adjustments.

This report is required for all publicly funded school districts, including districts that do not meet the High-Cost Out-of-District tuition threshold of $16,214 (see further details below).

Below are a few important things to note about the EF-S-214 report:

School districts will need to project the tuition cost for the full fiscal year.

Fiscal Year 2019 tuition/board cost that total above $16,214 for each student should be included in the report.

Adjustments to the Special Education High-Cost Out-of-District allocation will be based on costs above $16,214 for placements in Regional Special Education Programs, $24,321 for placements in other school administrative units, and $32,428 for placements in private schools.

Questions about the report should be direct to Stephanie Clark (Fiscal Compliance Specialist) for the Maine Department of Education at 207-624-6807 or (Stephanie.clark@maine.gov).

PRIORITY NOTICE: Data Submission Correction Process Now Available; February 8 Deadline

Recognizing the collection of attendance data remains relatively new to Maine schools and districts and in response to school and district feedback, the Maine Department of Education is pleased to provide an opportunity for schools to correct errors related to data in the following three (3) areas:

Chronic Absenteeism
Student Group Indicators (misidentification, students not identified, etc.)
Full Academic Year Status

Revised data sets will update elements related to federal reporting for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) including schools’ eligibility to receive support under ESSA and the ESSA Data Dashboards (formerly called Report Cards).

For data related to the 2018 school year, requests to correct data from Superintendents must be submitted to MEDMS.Helpdesk@maine.gov by Friday, February 8, 2019 at 4 p.m. The following information must be included with the correction request:

A description of why the data is thought to be in error and why the correction is warranted
Contact name and email of the person responsible for resubmitting the data (if applicable)

Below is the proposed timeline for review and amendment of data:

February 11 -22, 2019:
Maine DOE will send a survey to the identified contact to solicit questions to help with the review of the request and validate data to be corrected.

March 1, 2019:
Survey and revised data set is due back to Maine DOE by 4 pm.
Please note: If the data is incorrect due to district error, the request should include if the district requires additional support from the Maine DOE and district next steps to correct the error for 2018-2019 data. A Data Correction Template is available here.

March 4-15, 2019:
Maine DOE will retrieve data sets and recalculate appropriate data sets.

The Department is working on to refine this process for each school year going forward, and will provide further information on the DOE website.

Also, as a reminder, upon completion of data revisions, districts and schools will be provided the opportunity to review the ESSA Data Dashboards prior their public release.

Further questions should be directed to Charlotte Ellis, Education Data Manager at Charlotte.Ellis@maine.gov.

NEO Account Passwords Soon to Expire

A password reset email will be sent out to all NEO user accounts on January 31, 2019. Any unchanged passwords will expire after 7 days. For security reasons, NEO will now require a password change every 90 days.

If you have any questions comments or concerns in regards to this action, please contact the MEDMS help desk at MEDMS.Helpdesk@Maine.gov or (207) 624-6896.

Enrollment Data Deadlines for Spring 2019 MEA Registration

The Maine Department of Education would like to remind district personnel that are tasked with maintaining enrollment data that eMPowerME, SAT, and MEA Science reports need to be reviewed for accuracy and completeness. These reports will be used to electronically complete student registration for the spring 2019 administration of the Maine Education Assessments. Accuracy in these reports will minimize the amount of manual registrations that need to be done by the district during test administration.

The reports can be found in NEO under Student Data/Student Reports. Please update your Student Information Systems and push to Synergy State Edition by or before the following deadlines.

Below are the dates that state-wide enrollment will be captured and uploaded into the respective assessments for spring 2019 administration. It is critical that your enrollments are current and complete in Synergy by these dates. Please note: it is extremely important to unenroll your students as soon as they transfer so that the receiving school can enroll them in a timely manner.

eMPowerME 1/18/19
This is the first upload of student enrollment data into the portal via Synergy/NEO reports. This is the only assessment that has daily change file updates, which will occur daily after 12pm beginning on 2/11/19 and running through 4/12/19. Please have your grade 3-8 students updated in your SIS prior to 1/18/19, and pushed to Synergy State Edition. Daily school/district enrollment updates are highly recommended. Data must be uploaded or manually entered in to Synergy by 12pm in order to be loaded in to the assessment portal for that day.
MEA Science 1/28/19
This is the upload of student enrollment data for test pre-ID labels via Synergy/NEO reports. Please have your students updated in your SIS prior to 1/28/19 and pushed to Synergy State Edition. Any students who move into your district/school after 1/28/19 will not receive pre-ID labels and will need to pencil/bubble in their information on the answer sheet cover pages.
SAT 1/31/19
This is the bulk registration enrollment data for test pre-ID labels via Synergy/NEO reports. Please have your high school students updated in your SIS prior to 1/28/19 and pushed to Synergy State Edition. Any students who move into your district/school after 1/31/19 will not receive pre-ID labels and will need to complete a paper registration by penciling in their information on the answer sheet cover pages.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns in regards to accessing the NEO eMPowerME, SAT, and MEA Science reports please contact the Helpdesk at MEDMS.Helpdesk@Maine.gov or (207) 624-6896.

Online Bullying Reporting Program Available to Maine Schools Through Optania

Optania has created an online bullying reporting program that is aligned with Maine DOE’s model bullying policy and procedures.

This online program allows students, parents, and others to report allegations of bullying 24/7, with the allegation report (JICK-E1) being sent to pre-determined school staff (ie. principal, assistant principal, school guidance counselor, social worker, superintendent) who will then initiate the investigation procedure using an electronic form (JICK-E2). The program also includes the remediation form (JICK-E3). In addition, using artificial intelligence, students can create their own Safety Plan in the moments after reporting an allegation of bullying so they don’t have to wait until the next school day when they can meet with a school staff member.

To learn more about Optania:

Sessions are 30 minutes in length and will give an in-depth overview of Optania and allow time for questions and comments. Click on the calendar link on a day and time that works for your schedule.

Further questions or information about future webinars and trainings can be sent to Sarah Adkins, Student Assistance Coordinator atsarah.adkins@maine.gov or by calling her at 207-624-6685

MaineCare Seed Adjustments to be Made; Review Q119 Reports by January 18, 2019

The recovery of Q119 MaineCare Seed will occur in the January 2019 subsidy payment and the Maine DOE is asking School Administrative Units (SAUs) to review their reports by January 18, 2019 to ensure accurate adjustments to subsidy. SAU staff must review student by student claims on both the public and private MaineCare reports for Q119 by January 18, 2019.

To access the MaineCare Seed reports, please follow the instructions below.

Log into NEO
As in the past, if a new staff member needs permission to access this module, a request from the Superintendent to the Maine DOE helpdesk will be necessary. The helpdesk contact information is medms.helpdesk@maine.gov or 207-624-6896. Anyone who currently has Special Education Director permissions to the Special Education module, will automatically have permissions to access MaineCare reports.
Click on the Student Data tab
Click on the Student Report tab
Select MaineCare in the Reporting Area drop-down
Choose the quarterly Seed report and the report type (private/public)
Click view report button
Once the report appears on the screen, choose the export button.
Export Button
You may export the reports to Excel but, please be aware that there may be multiple worksheet tabs within the workbook. Save the file to your computer.

If you disagree that a particular student or time period should be on the report, please provide the reason that you disagree along with the following to Denise.towers@maine.gov.

Identify the type of report (public or private) and the quarter in which the claims are located.
State Student ID
Service provided dates (to and from)
Total amount of Seed being disputed

Summer services: Students must be enrolled for the time period they are receiving educational services. This means that students that are receiving extended school year services in district or extended school year services in an out of district placement must have a primary enrollment for that time period in order for the MDOE to have the most accurate enrollment data to determine SAU responsibility for MaineCare Seed.

For more information or technical assistance related to MaineCare Seed, please contact Denise.towers@maine.gov.

Certification of Superintendent Election or Re-election

The Maine DOE is reminding administrators and school board members of the approaching deadline for annual certification to the Maine DOE of employment of Superintendent of Schools.

A school board must meet by December 31 to elect a superintendent if its superintendent’s contract expires in 2019 and then must submit a certification of employment report with all required documentation to the Maine DOE by March.

The instructions and forms and can be found at the Maine Department of Education, Data & Reporting, Helpdesk, Data Reporting Instructions. Please click on Superintendent/Agent Certification Form & Instructions (found at the bottom of the list).

If you have any questions, contact Danielle McKay at danielle.mckay@maine.gov or 207-624-6663.

Report of Adult Education (EF-M-39B) – opened December 1st, due by January 15, 2019

Starting on December 1, the EF-M-39 Report of Adult Education opened for submissions through the NEO Student Data Module. The report is a resident-based aggregate count of students aged 16 to 20 who live within the boundaries of a school administrative unit (SAU), are no longer enrolled in regular education classes, and are taking academic courses through a Maine Adult Education program, but not necessarily through the SAU in which they reside.

School Administrative Units are asked to report the number of students, the number of courses and credits taken.

Who Needs to Report:

All public SAUs, excluding public charter schools, must complete the report, even if there are no pupils to report. Please note that the individual SAU member entities of AOSs and school unions must report separately. SAUs whose students attend a regional Adult Education programs must report the number of resident students who attend the regional Adult Education program.

EF-M-39B: Opened on December 1, 2018
Due by January 15, 2019

To Complete the Form: Go to:
https://neo.maine.gov/DOE/NEO/studentdata

Once logged in to the NEO system navigate to Student Data, if you do not have NEO credentials please have your Superintendent submit a NEO Access Request Form to the Maine DOE Data HelpDesk.

Enter the total number of students (between the ages of 16-20) enrolled in adult education
Enter the total number of courses
Enter the total number of credits

The Data Collection and Reporting (DC&R) Calendar lists all reports due to Maine DOE.

The accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of the data sent for this report has a direct correlation to the subsidy that your SAU may receive.

Questions: Contact the MEDMS Helpdesk at (207) 624-6896 or medms.helpdesk@maine.gov or Trevor Burns at (207) 624-6678 or trevor.r.burns@maine.gov

Reminder to Complete Dropout Certification

This is a general reminder that dropout reporting is due on Friday, December 14^th. All public schools that contain any grades 7 through 12 are required to complete this report. Please start working on these reports as soon as possible in order to give the DOE and yourselves time to make any corrections/changes to the dropout reports before it is too late. Below you can find a link to the directions.

Dropout Reporting Directions (PDF)

Please note the following: Once you have finished completing your reports by clicking the ‘Completed’ button on each report, you will need to hit the “Submit to DOE” button in order for us to know your report is ready for approval. Otherwise, it will be seen as not finished.

If there is an error you cannot correct with an edit to the students last exit status, please contact either the helpdesk (medms.helpdesk@maine.gov 207-624-6896) or Trevor Burns (Trevor.R.Burns@maine.gov 207-624-6678) instead of leaving comments on the student. These comments can be missed and won’t be seen unless the report has already been submitted to the DOE, where we will assume all has checked out on your end.