AT-RISK Responsibility

Principal shall designate appropriate campus personnel to whom all At-Risk coding questions should be directed.

The designee and phone number of the Central Administrative Staff member: Name: Bernadette Cardenas

Phone Number: 713-556-6906

Professional staff should provide data entry/clerical personnel with names and coding information, in writing, of students who are identified as at-risk and those who are being served in the program. In no case should data entry/clerical personnel be responsible for determining whether a student is At-Risk.

Principals must ensure that reports from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), which reflect actual Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) data, are compared to campus reports for reasonableness and accuracy.

Eligibility Requirements Definition

AT-RISK-INDICATOR-CODE indicates whether a student is currently identified at risk of dropping out of school using state-defined criteria only (TEC §29.081), Compensatory and Accelerated Instruction). Please note that a student with a disability may be considered at-risk of dropping out of school only if the student meets one or more of the state at-risk criteria that is not considered to be part of the student’s disability. A student with a disability is not automatically coded as being at risk of dropping out of school because of his/her disability. Districts should use the student's individualized education program (IEP) and other appropriate information to make the determination.

Students are not identified as at-risk solely because they are on free and/or reduced lunch. They must meet one of the 13 criteria listed on the attached link.

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=1222 (Select Module 9, then scroll to pages 12-14 of the document)

Best Practices to Ensure Data Quality for At-Risk Data

It is imperative that at-risk data be correct in Chancery for PEIMS submission. Here are information and guidelines to ensure data quality for at-risk data:

 The at-risk panels in the Chancery Student Management System (SMS) are used to maintain information pertinent to students who are considered at risk of dropping out of school or students who have already dropped out of school.

 Many of the at-risk coding records are triggers from another panel or created by a script report that is run for Chancery at the appropriate time of the year, sometimes at the end of the semester and others at the beginning of a new year.

 There are also records that will need to be added by the campus.

 Schools are responsible for maintaining, verifying and updating all data in their at-risk panels in Chancery. This includes what was populated by Chancery, adding any information that is not populated and adding data for new students.

 Please be advised that the at-risk contact/coordinator is the person responsible for the at-risk data on their campus.

 All back-up data for at-risk should be on file. A student should not be coded as at-risk if there is not any documentation for the coding.

 If a SIMS/Data Entry person is entering the data in the Chancery SIS system, they should receive written and signed coding instructions from the at-risk campus contact/coordinator. They are not to make decisions regarding coding or services. That is the responsibility of the at-risk campus contact/coordinator professional staff member.

 Services that at-risk students receive will need to be entered on the At Risk Service Panel by campus staff. Services will not be populated automatically.

 A memorandum and At-risk Coding Chart will be sent to principals in September to assist with coding at-risk students.

Below are some reports that are found in Chancery and can be run in order to assist campuses in verifying data for at-risk.

• H_Audit Homeless Report (found under PEIMS reports in Chancery SMS) – this report shows which students are coded Homeless in at-risk. It is imperative that all homeless students are coded Homeless students and information should be coded in the At-Risk Panel in Chancery.

• H_At-Risk Roster (found under Special Populations reports in Chancery SMS) – this report lists all students on your campus who are coded as at-risk in Chancery. It lists each student by grade level and in alphabetical order.

• H_At-Risk Teacher (found under Special Populations reports in Chancery SMS) – this report lists all students on your campus who are coded as at-risk in Chancery. It lists each student by homeroom teacher. This report is more useful on an elementary campus. On a high school campus it does not list the students by course teachers, only by homeroom.

• H_At-Risk Services (found under Special Populations reports in Chancery SMS) – This report lists the services that the at-risk students receive to address their needs. The at-risk services screen must be coded manually by the campus and should include information on what service or services the student receives.

• Reports on PEIMS Edit + are available to list students identified as at-risk as well.

Note: All teachers should have, in their possession, the list of the at-risk students they teach. Teachers should be reminded that this list is confidential.

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