State Performance Plan: Special Education
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) requires each state to have in place a State Performance Plan (SPP) that evaluates its efforts to implement the requirements and purposes of Part B of IDEA and describes how the state will improve such implementation. The SPP, submitted every six years, includes measurable and rigorous targets for the 20 indicators established under three monitoring priority areas:
- Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE);
- Disproportionality;
- General Supervision Part B, including Child Find, effective transition and effective general supervision.
The New York State Education Department elicited broad stakeholder involvement in the development of its SPP in order to set measurable and rigorous annual performance targets. The SPP provides the baseline data, measurable and rigorous targets, improvement activities, timelines and resources established by the State for each indicator.
States must report annually on their performance in the targets identified in the SPP through an Annual Performance Report (APR). The SPP/APR reflects the state's progress toward meeting its Part B goals and provides the actual target data, explanation of progress or slippage and discussion of improvement activities completed by the state for Indicators 1-16.