Not-so-Secret Code: Cracking SPP/APR Submission Success in Nebraska

00:00:04.25 >> For the IDEA Data Center, I'm Amy Bitterman, and this is A Date with Data. Every month, I sit down with data quality influencers from around the country to share their stories about special education data and the work they do to improve outcomes for children with disabilities.

00:00:21.30 >> Welcome to A Date with Data. Today we're diving into one of the most important efforts in special education data reporting, the State Performance Plan Annual Performance Report, or SPP/APR. As required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, each state must evaluate its implementation of IDEA and outline plans for improvement. This means compiling data across 18 Part B indicators, pulling from multiple sources from all over the SEA, and ensuring the accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of the data. This is no small feat. To help us understand how one state is tackling this challenge, we're joined by Jamie Chambers, the Part B data manager and SPP/APR coordinator, and Amy Rhone, the special education director from the Nebraska Department of Education. They are here to share the thoughtful process that Nebraska has put in place to help manage this massive undertaking.

00:01:19.13 >> Welcome, Jamie and Amy. So glad to have you here.

00:01:22.89 >> Thanks. We're so excited to be here.

00:01:25.57 >> I'm excited to share our tool with you.

00:01:27.97 >> To kick things off, it'll be great if each of you could just say a little bit about yourselves. Amy, do you want to start?

00:01:34.77 >> Sure. My name's Amy Rhone, I'm the state director of Nebraska's Department of Education Office of Special Education. And I'm finishing up my fifth year as the state director, but this is my tenth year at the state department. I was the assistant director prior to this role, and loving every minute of it.

00:01:57.01 >> Thanks. Jamie?

00:01:59.16 >> Hi! I am Jamie Chambers, the Part B data manager and SPP/APR coordinator for the Office of Special Education. I just finished six years with the Department, and I believe I've been in this role as the data manager for about four years, and I think three years as the SPP/APR coordinator.

00:02:20.49 >> Great. All right, to start things off, could you share one data lesson that you think other states might benefit from hearing about?

00:02:29.60 >> Yeah, I'd love to. As Jamie and I just both introduced ourselves, what I consider fairly new to these roles still… one thing that I think we learned really early on is we shouldn't be afraid to ask questions…