Assessment/Accountability
Program Quality Assurance Services
Compliance and Monitoring

Mid-cycle Review Announcement

October 8, 2010

Superintendent's or Charter School Leader's Name
Name of District or Charter School
Address

Re: Mid-cycle Review

Dear Name of Superintendent or Charter School Leader:

As you have been informed via progress report reviews and other communications, your district is scheduled for a Mid-cycle Review this school year. Massachusetts law requires the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (Department) to implement a three-year monitoring cycle in school districts and charter schools (districts) to ensure compliance with special education law and regulations. The Department refers to this three-year cycle as a Mid-cycle Review since it occurs midway through the federally required six-year monitoring process, called the Coordinated Program Review (CPR).

The Mid-cycle Review is a more focused review than the Coordinated Program Review and typically involves having Department staff visit the district for one to two days. Enclosed for your reference is a copy of the recently updated School District Information Package for Special Education for 2010-2011. The compliance criteria included in this document have been updated since your last CPR. Any of the special education criteria that were cited for non-compliance during the district's last CPR visit will be reviewed during the Mid-cycle Review. In addition, all districts will be monitored for compliance with criteria SE 52 A, which concerns the registration of educational interpreters and SE 7, the transfer of parent rights at the age of majority, whose requirements were recently further clarified. Your Mid-cycle Review Chairperson will let you know whether any other special education criteria will be added, based on the Department's review of Problem Resolution System data and federal indicator data for your district.

As part of the Mid-cycle Review process, you are required to submit an updated Special Education Program Plan Statement to the Department's Special Education Policy & Planning (SEPP) office. The current Special Education Program Plan Statement may be downloaded from the Department's website at http://www.doe.mass.edu/sped/programplan/. The updated Special Education Program Plan Statement should be submitted to the Special Education Policy and Planning office no later than December 3, 2010.

The Department's Mid-cycle Review Chairperson, NAME, will be contacting you regarding the date for your Mid-cycle Review onsite visit soon. The Chairperson will let you know how best to prepare for the review in order to minimize disruption to the district's normal routines. While some accommodations will need to be made during the onsite visit, experience has shown that careful planning can keep the impact on the district of these reviews to a minimum. For this reason, we ask that you designate a contact person who can coordinate the Review details with the Department.

After the onsite visit, you will receive a written report of the Review results, including a description of any required corrective action. This report will be posted on the Department's website at http://www.doe.mass.edu/pqa/review/cpr/reports/followup.html.

If you have any questions or wish additional information, please contact me at (781) 338-3788 or dlynch@doe.mass.edu, or Priscilla McPhee, Assistant Director, at (781) 338-3790 or pmcphee@doe.mass.edu.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Darlene A. Lynch, Director
Program Quality Assurance Services