The 2018 Appropriation Act (Chapter 2, Item 282. O.) requires the Office of Children’s Services (OCS) and the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) to “facilitate a workgroup to identify and define outcome measures to assess students’ progress in private day placements." The Appropriation Act specified the various stakeholders to participate,(*1) as well as suggested several potential outcome measures.

In the summer and early fall of 2018, the workgroup met over four meetings. During these sessions, the workgroup received presentations on state data collection and reporting by the VDOE and outcome measures currently compiled in private educational settings by the Virginia Association of Independent Specialized Education Facilities (VASIF) and the Virginia Coalition of Private Provider Associations (VCOPPA). The workgroup examined Virginia’s Public Schools Special Education Performance Report(*2), which is a compilation of indicators used to satisfy the public reporting requirements of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), in an effort to assess which of the special education indicators, if any, would be viable outcome measures for students in private day school settings. With considerable input from all stakeholders, the workgroup considered modifications to and outcomes beyond the existing VDOE Special Education Indicators and recommend ten outcome measures for private day schools, which address the following categories:

• Graduation Rates
• Attendance
• Individual Student Progress
• Standardized Test Scores
• Return to Public School Setting
• Post-Secondary Transition
• Suspension and Expulsion
• Restraint and Seclusion
• Parent Satisfaction
• Student Perspectives

Should the General Assembly endorse the collection of any or all of these outcome measures, the workgroup recommends to begin collection of these data in the 2019-2020 school year. There is still substantive work to complete before the collection of many of the proposed outcomes can be implemented. The VDOE currently compiles a vast array of data which will be beneficial in capturing outcomes recommended in this report. However, adjustments will need to be made. Many of the outcome measures will require modifications or adaptations to current VDOE data reporting mechanisms.(*3)

Additionally, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for data sharing must be developed between the VDOE and OCS in order to link outcome data to specific children so that reporting at the level of the private day school placement can be accomplished.

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(*1) The full listing of participants in the stakeholder group is found in Appendix A
(*2) Commonwealth of Virginia Public Schools FFY 2016 Special Education Performance Report found in Appendix B
(*3) An outcome reporting matrix can be found in Appendix C.