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SIRAS Newsletter September 2026
IMPORTANT Information for all users in SIRAS
- Review your open meetings regularly. Schedule needed continuations and finalize IEP meetings as quickly as possible, right after parent consent has been received. Finalized IEPs are sent to the CDE as they occur throughout the year. The absence in reporting of a timely IEP meeting appears late. Follow your District guidelines regarding follow up attempts for parent signature.
- When multiple meetings are occurring simultaneously, SIRAS will notify the user by displaying the open meetings as a button, serving as a reminder to close or finalize them. Having multiple meetings open at once may result in unintended errors on your paperwork, particularly when a primary meeting (Annual/Triennial Re-Evaluation) is being worked on at the same time as a secondary meeting (Addendum/Other Review).
- Service logs: Document the completion of an IEP service, a supplementary service, an evaluation, or the hours a student worked using the service log. Follow your District’s policies regarding service logs. The Service Logs area is organized into tabs and the ability to search logs can narrow to individual students/services/log types.
- Service log review: If you are responsible for reviewing another provider’s service log, you can flag it as reviewed, which will be stamped with your name and the date upon your review. When looking at the service log list, find the pop-out symbol in the column called Reviewed/Detail/Edit to open the log and review.
- Review your current student list in SIRAS. Use the ‘Manage Caseload’ button under the Student Info menu to request students to be added or removed from your caseload or follow your District’s procedures for requesting access to student files.
- Use the Student Data Overview links on your home page to monitor your caseload. Click on the colors of the circle to review your students who have Overdue (red) or Upcoming (yellow) meetings. Annuals due within the next 30 days and triennials due within the next 75 days will appear on this list. Check for new referrals/initials by clicking on the orange section of the circle. Taking time to review this regularly will help you hold your meetings within their timelines.
- Enter most recent scores on the SBAC, CAA and ELPAC into SIRAS. Go to the Student Info menu/Assessment Info to enter scores and levels.
- Review meetings finalized last year without parent consent. Go to Reporting > Meeting Reports > Predefined Reports tab > click Parent Contacted, No Response. Click on Search Query Criteria and adjust the meeting dates on the query to (7/1/2025-6/30/2026) and click Search near the bottom of the page. For students whose last meeting was finalized without consent, we will still be working on the previous year’s goals. If you end up getting parent consent, let your District Office know so that the IEP data can be reported to the CDE.
- Print your Finalized meeting if you need hard copies using the print icon in the top right corner in one PDF, including the contact logs, continuations, and scheduling notes.
- Share IEPs/Info for Gen Ed forms easily from SIRAS. Some commonly used forms are Savable and Printable in Batch. In the Tools menu/Document Library, click the ‘Fill in for student’ checkbox to enable the ability to save non-IEP forms. Print available forms in batch (such as accommodations or behavior plans) by going to the Tools menu/Labels and Batch Forms/Batch Forms for your entire found set (your caseload or school).
- SIRAS Office Hours with SELPA for Training of Trainers (ToTs)/Advanced Users/District Administrators and 504/SST Modules are scheduled for the 2026-27 school year.
IMPORTANT Information for SIRAS Data Administrators in SIRAS
- Get ready for Fall 1 reporting. Utilize the data monitoring checklist and SIRAS4Census day Padlet to prepare.
- CALPADS and DRDP Due Dates have been posted for you HERE
- Fall 1 Reporting meeting with Brian Marcontell and myself will be on September 15 from 8:30-12:30.
- CALPADS Statewide Roadshow is scheduled for September 16. The follow up roadshow hosted by Kern County is scheduled for October 7. This is a new format this year and we encourage you to register for both. CDE has not released the full schedule yet, however if the October 7 date doesn’t work for you we will share other dates when we have them.
- Develop lists and reports for your director. Find Overdue meetings and/or Meetings without written consent using this help sheet and the Meeting Reports within SIRAS.
- Review the 16.21 Report from CALPADS regularly to students new to your LEA who may need a plan adoption. Run a SWDS extract from CALPADS to help find students with SWDS 2 and SWDS 3.
- Remember to review the new 16.25 Report to help monitor initial evaluation timelines.
- Use Monitoring report 16.14 (by DSEA) to review students who are not attending with you but are attending regional programs and for charters authorized by your district.
- Search for students without a Case Manager and assign one.
- Search for possible data discrepancies.
- HS only: Students with missing transition services. Go to Compliance concerns/Missing transition services
- Preschool only: Update preschool program settings in September.
- ?Degree of Support: This field is now required for grades TK - 12th with few exceptions and is part of your Fall 1 reporting. Each of the students will need a value input for the Degree of Disability on the MIS page by October 1. There are two options ‘Mild/Moderate Support Needs - MMSN’ and ‘Extensive Support Needs - ESN’ Click here for more information about completing this field. Please work with your Director to use the tool tip next to the field for guidance on which to choose and determine your LEA’s process for this. You will find Predefined Queries for both Degree of Support for Disability needs reporting (found under Data Monitoring) and Degree of Support Required/Missing (under Compliance Concerns/Overdues). Students may show up on this list if their eligibility was changed since last year or if they moved from preschool to TK/K this year.
- The SIRAS Data Network meetings (Office hours with Ventura County SELPA for SPED Data Specialists) have been scheduled for 2026-2027.
- The schedule of Office Hours for SEDS Clerks is posted on the SIRAS Happy Fox support center.
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