On April 1, 2022 , Carole L. Clancy, Director of the PDE Bureau of Special Education, issued a Pennlink titled State Performance Plan Data Requirements – Postsecondary School Survey – Cohort 1 (POSTS). According to the message, he Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) requires each state to determine, for the state as a whole, the extent to which students are achieving transition outcomes as stated in their Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) (State Performance Plan – Indicator 14).

To meet this federal reporting requirement, once over a five-year period, each local educational agency (LEA) is required to survey all students with IEPs who graduate, dropout, or age out.  The Pennsylvania Post-School Outcome Surveys (PaPOS) will be used to gather this data.  The random sampling process used to assign each LEA to one of the five years in each cycle ensures that the LEAs selected each year are representative of the state as a whole with regard to LEA size, disability category, ethnicity, gender, and exiting status.

During the 2020-2021 school year, LEAs assigned to Target Sampling Year 1 completed the exit survey.  The LEAs assigned to PaPOS Target Year 1 need to be aware of the following points as they must fulfill the post-survey requirements during the 2021-2022 school year:

• No earlier than one year after the student left school and no later than September 30, 2022, the LEA must administer the PaPOS post survey to former students who had an IEP and who graduated, dropped out, or aged out at the end of the 2020-2021 school year.  (These former students should have been administered the exit survey in Spring of 2021).  All this information will be entered by your LEA through the Leader Services online system.
• Intermediate Unit and Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) transition consultants will monitor the LEA’s progress and assist as needed with the PaPOS procedure.
•  The Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Bureau of Special Education will provide LEAs with training on the implementation and electronic submission of the PaPOS Target Year 1 via a webinar on April 19, 2022, from 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.  Please register for this webinar at PaTTAN – Session-36729.

For questions about this process, please contact Elaine Neugebauer, Educational Consultant at the PaTTAN-Pittsburgh Office, at (800) 446-5607, ext. 6867 (inside PA) or [email protected].

LEA assistance in assuring compliance with this requirement is greatly appreciated and LEAs are urged to check their status for 2021-22 PaPOS Target Sampling Year 1.