Opinion Approving Settlement - Public Interest Law Center of ...

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Case 2:94-cv-04048-ER Document 330 Filed 09/19/2005 Page 16 of 51(c)(d)LRE monitoring will be basedon comparisons to stateaverages identified by PDE.Monitoring standards will beclearly communicated to schooldistricts.Triggers (levels ofperformance at which PDE willintervene and requirecorrective action) will beclearly communicated to schooldistricts.(Id. at Provision IV.4(A)(3)(a)-(d).)Under LRE Monitoring, PDE will closely monitor andprovide specialized support to half of Pennsylvania’s schooldistricts--selected according to “LRE Index Score” rankings--thathave not been meeting the needs of children with disabilities.(Id. at Provision IV.4(C).) The LRE Index Score will derive fromweighted “data factors,” which will be agreed to by the partiesand reviewed on an annual basis. (Id.) Based on the LRE IndexScore, half of all school districts in Pennsylvania will beidentified under one of three categories on an annual basis.(Id.) “Tier One LRE Monitoring” will be comprised of the twentyschool districts with the lowest LRE Index Scores. (Id. atProvision IV.4(C)(1).) “Tier Two LRE Monitoring,” also known asthe “warning list,” will consist of school districts in thebottom ten percent of the LRE Index Scores that have not beenidentified for “Tier One LRE Monitoring.” (Id. at ProvisionIV.4(C)(2).) Finally, “Tier Three LRE Monitoring,” also known as16
Case 2:94-cv-04048-ER Document 330 Filed 09/19/2005 Page 17 of 51the “alert list,” will be comprised of school districts in thebottom fifty percent of the LRE Index Score that have not beenidentified for Tier One LRE Monitoring or Tier Two LREMonitoring. (Id. at Provision IV.4(C)(3).) The LRE Index Scoresof all school districts will be made publicly available as partof the school and district report cards under the No Child LeftBehind Act and the IDEA. (Id. at Provision IV.4.)Regular Cyclical Monitoring, a pre-existing monitoringprocess that is mandated by the United States Department ofEducation (“USDOE”), involves the monitoring of each Pennsylvaniaschool district once every six years to ensure that the districtis in compliance with the state and federal special educationlaws and regulations. (Id. at Provision IV.4(A)(1).)Targeted Monitoring, the other pre-existing type ofcompliance monitoring, is performed by the Bureau of SpecialEducation in response to specific deficiencies within aparticular school district that were identified through theRegular Cyclical Monitoring process. (Id. at ProvisionIV.4(A)(2).)The parties have agreed to a five-tier process forcompliance monitoring, including initial triggers for each levelof intervention:(a) Tier One LRE Monitoring of 20school districts (excluding anyschool district implementing a17
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