Deepening State Education Capacity
State education agencies play an important role in advancing educational equity for students with disabilities and their families, as well as helping schools and districts to transform systemwide supports for teaching and learning experiences that help all students thrive.
WestEd hosts two federally funded technical assistance centers designed to deepen state education agency capacity to implement IDEA effectively, including the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI) and the Center for IDEA Fiscal Reporting (CIFR). In addition, states contract directly with WestEd for assistance with policy and procedure development, evaluation, and improvement.
Sustainable Improvement
Informed leadership and clear vision and mission through:
- Social Resources: Norms and culture regarding interaction, collaboration, and communication internal and external to the agency
- Human Resources: The knowledge, skills, and dispositions of staff within the agency
- Structural Resources: Policies, procedures, and practices related to the agency’s core responsibilities and functions
- Material Resources: The management of the agency’s fiscal and data assets
Equals Equitable and Improved Student Outcomes
National Technical Assistance Centers
National Center for Systemic
Improvement (NCSI)
The National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI) provides differentiated support through universal, targeted, and intensive technical assistance to support state education agencies (SEAs) to best use their general supervision and professional development systems to establish and meet high expectations for every student with a disability.
Featured Resources
- General Soup Podcast: Explore the world of state special education accountability and support systems, also known as general supervision — aka “General Soup.”
- Schools on the Move Podcast: Learn about innovative and promising school practices across the country to help enhance outcomes for students with disabilities and create teaching and learning opportunities for educators.
- TLC Webinar Series – Pursuing Equity at the Intersection of Language, Culture, and Disability: Explore strategies to elevate equity, opportunity, and achievement for students with disabilities or for students who have disabilities and are English Learners.
Center for IDEA Fiscal
Reporting (CIFR)
The Center for IDEA Fiscal Reporting (CIFR) assists states to improve the quality of their collection, reporting, analysis, and use of IDEA Part B and Part C fiscal data. Key outcomes of our work are expanded knowledge of fiscal requirements, increased capacity to collect and report accurate fiscal data, and improved infrastructure to support comprehensive IDEA fiscal data collection and use.
Featured Resources
- IDEA Part B Allocations at a Glance: See a foundational view of how states reserve state funds and allocate IDEA Part B subgrants to LEAs.
- Local Educational Agency (LEA) Maintenance of Effort (MOE) Organizer: Understand and implement the federal LEA MOE regulations. Easily navigate the graphical interface for requirements on the Eligibility (Budget) Standard, the Compliance (Expenditure) Standard, and data reporting to find a range of tools and resources from OSEP and technical assistance centers. Designed to help SEA and LEA users.
In addition to WestEd’s leadership on NCSI and CIFR, we partner on the following federally funded centers:
- The IDEA Data Center (IDC) works with states to improve IDEA data collection and reporting and support states as they analyze and use these data to make programmatic improvements.
- The National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) focuses on the inclusion of students with disabilities, English learners, and English Learners with disabilities in instruction and assessments.
- The Center for the Integration of IDEA Data (CIID) provides technical assistance to state education agencies to increase the capacity to report high quality data and supports the integration of IDEA data systems and processes with the Statewide Longitudinal Data System.
Evaluation and Implementation of State Systems
States face the challenge of implementing IDEA in a way that ensures both procedural compliance with the law as well as the improvement of outcomes for students with disabilities. States’ accountability and support systems (or general supervision systems) help them accomplish both goals. States turn to WestEd to help them design, carry out, evaluate, and refine accountability and support systems to improve their implementation of IDEA.
Evaluation of State Systems
- Study state governance and accountability structures and their impact on student outcomes
- Evaluate and study state and local special education funding systems and the equitable distribution of resources
- Evaluates state policies and procedures for general supervision to ensure compliance with IDEA and impact on improving student outcomes
Implementation of State Systems
- Assist states to create and documentation special education policies and procedures including monitoring, fiscal, and professional development systems
- Provide professional development and coaching for state special education leadership and staff
- Provide statewide training and professional development to supplement state technical assistance systems
- Conduct monitoring and other activities on behalf of state education agencies with the aim of building state capacity