On October 17, 2022, PDE Bureau of Special Education (BSE) Director Carole L. Clancy sent a PennLink message to all LEAs  titled Special Education Plan Information for Phase 2 School Districts. According to the message, 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. 

Thus, BSE has announced 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 LEA representatives are a registered user on the PDE Portal.  If not a registered user, they should register here: Register a Username and Log In. 

School district Local Security Administrators can add/remove users in My PDE Suite.  If help is needed to add users to the new portal, LEAs should use the step-by-step guide for Accessing the Future Ready Comprehensive Planning Portal.  Administrators can be found by clicking on Find my Security Administrator on the main page in My PDE Suite.

School districts in Phase 2 must submit their plans by May 1, 2023 in the FRCPP.

A mandatory pre-recorded webinar was released on January 7, 2021 for all school districts.  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 referred to BSE’s  Amy Deluca at [email protected].