On Friday, November 20, 2020, Carole L. Clancy, Director of the Bureau of Special Education disseminated a PennLink memo titled Special Education Plan Information for Phase 3 School Districts. That memo states that the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) is responsible for ensuring that all special education programs in public schools are appropriate and effective.  To do this, school districts must submit a Special Education Plan every three years to PDE as required under 22 Pa. Code § 14.104.  The school district’s Special Education Plan outlines planning generated from district special education data, compliance monitoring, professional development activities, and training necessary to provide appropriate programs to students with disabilities. 

The memo further informs LEAs that the special education plan will now be developed in the Future Ready Comprehensive Planning Portal (FRCPP).  The first step to gaining access to the FRCPP is to ensure that you are a registered user on the PDE Portal.  If you are not a registered user, please register here: Register a Username and Log In.  Each school district’s Local Security Administrator can add/remove users in My PDE Suite.  If you need help adding users to the new portal, please use the step-by-step guide for Accessing the Future Ready Comprehensive Planning Portal.  If you do not know who your Administrators are, you can find this information by clicking on Find my Security Administrator on the main page in My PDE Suite.  School districts in Phase 3 must submit their plans by June 1, 2021 in the FRCPP. A mandatory pre-recorded webinar will be released on January 7, 2021 for all school districts identified in Phase 3.  It can be accessed at: https://www.pattan.net/legal/special-education-plans/.  The purpose of the webinar is to train school districts on the special education plan requirements and the new FRCPP system. Questions should be directed to Amy Deluca, in PDE’s Bureau of Special Education, at [email protected].