Posted on LA School Report by Craig Clough | http://bit.ly/1Mi2FQL
March 18, 2016 4:05 pm :: LA
Unified and its 221 independent charter schools have reached an agreement on
the court-ordered requirement that charters sync their student data information
systems with the district’s massive MiSiS system.
The agreement calls on the district to develop an interface
solution that will allow data systems at charter schools to communicate with
MiSiS but allow the schools to keep their own systems in place. The agreement
also allows charters to adopt MiSiS if they wish to do so.
The agreement was reached on March 10 between LA Unified,
its independent charters, the plaintiffs of a special education consent decree
and the court-ordered independent monitor of the decree.
The agreement was characterized as “a huge win” for all
parties by Gina Plate of the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA),
which negotiated on behalf of LA Unified’s charters.
“It could have gotten very hostile and ugly, like some of
the other areas we have with charters and the district, but we were able to
resolve this one in a way that makes everyone happy,” said Plate, who is a
senior special education advisor for CCSA.
Plate said the district, the independent monitor and the
plaintiffs reached an internal agreement in December to agree to the interface
but did not share that with charter leaders until this month because they
needed time to draft the letter and get all of the details organized.
LA Unified has been under federal court oversight since 1996
as a result of a class-action lawsuit that accused it of non-compliance with
special education laws. As part of the settlement, an independent monitor was
appointed in 2003 to oversee the district’s compliance with what is known as
the Chanda Smith Modified Consent Decree.
MiSiS, the district’s student data system, was created to
fulfill part of the decree which called for better tracking of special
education student records. And because special education students at LA
Unified’s independent charter schools are part of the same special education
district, the decree required charters to also take on MiSiS.
But when MiSiS was launched in the fall of 2014 it
immediately began to cause substantial problems at schools due to system
failures and glitches. Charter schools were hesitant to adopt the system
themselves due to the problems, Plate said, and also because many of the older
charters already have their own systems that they have dedicated time and money
to developing.
“Because there was no system available for the last 20
years, charters have purchased their own systems. And not only have they
purchased their own systems, they have customized those systems to reflect the
needs of their student population,” Plate said.
MiSiS has been largely stabilized and is operating without
any major problems being reported this school year. CCSA officials have had
weekly meetings for the last year and a half to try and resolve the issue of
how to get charters in line with the court requirements, Plate said.
The agreement was announced to LA Unified school board
members and Superintendent Michelle King in a March 10 letter from LA Unified’s
Charter Schools Division Director Jose Cole-Gutierrez and CEO of Strategic
Planning and Digital Innovation Diane Pappas.
●●smf: This is not exactly correct. The March 10 letter [bit.ly/1puA54q] is addressed to ‘Charter School Leaders’; the Board and superintendent are copied.
“This approach will allow charter schools to retain their
current student information systems, provided that they transmit certain key
student data to the district in a technically compatible manner,” the letter
said.
Plate said the interface will be developed by LA Unified
along with experts from Microsoft, and the district will pay the bill. No
timeframe has yet been set on when the interface will be ready.
The agreement between charters and the district on MiSiS
does not complete the consent decree process for LA Unified. It still has to
spend over $600 million to make all of its schools compliant with the Americans
With Disabilities Act, and it has one more of 18 performance-based outcomes
that it needs to meet. The outcome requires disabled students to receive
services as specified in their Individual Education Plans. In November,
district officials and the independent monitor told LA School Report the
district likely would be under the watch of the monitor for several more years.
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