Resources for Onsite Visits
Helpful
Information for a “Smooth” Onsite Visit
After several
successful pilot onsite visits, several “tips” have become
increasingly useful for a “smooth” onsite visit. The following are
just tips, but they are good ones! Please feel free to contact
Jennifer Neuhauser if you have any questions.
*These resources have been provided by ESA 1. If your ESA or
district has created something helpful to facilitate a smooth onsite
visit, please email the reviewer Neuhauser and she will be happy to
include them on this page!
School
Improvement Plan Check:
-
Schools without an
approved School Improvement Model will need to have a
copy of plan for the State representative on the scheduled visit
date that meets the requirements set by DOE.
-
More information about the necessary components of the School
Improvement Plan check is forthcoming.
-
Schools with an
approved School Improvement Model in place will host a
regulatory items check only, but discussions about progress of
School Improvement plan may take place
Regulatory
Check Items:
Please check out
the
Onsite Visit Resource Page to see a detailed list of the items
that will be checked at an onsite visit.
The following
list is more procedural, and reflects the “small” things that make
the onsite visit be more smooth and efficient.
Also, it is
possible that some districts may have a State representative other
than the reviewer at their scheduled onsite visit. The district will be
informed ahead of time which State representative will be conducting
the onsite visit.
-
Communication between schools and the reviewer prior to the onsite
visit really speeds the process up. Schools need to communicate
with the reviewer where she will be meeting (location). And what
time she will be meeting with each attendance center. Consider
where K-12 records are kept and who will be the reviewer’s contact
person once she reaches each attendance center.
In the pilot visits, it has
been extremely helpful for the school district to establish an
onsite coordinator with the State. This person would be the
contact at the school district that sets up the schedule for the
State representative to visit the attendance centers, etc. A
couple of weeks before the visit, that district representative
should contact the reviewer to establish the “layout” of the
district, where all the reviewer would need to visit to view all
records, the contact names and numbers for each location that
she would visit, and the overall schedule for the day. This is
especially important if the reviewer will have to travel between
many attendance centers within a district.
-
Have a current roster of staff, including hire
dates, and students, sorted by grade, available for the
reviewer.
-
Have
a work area/location so that the reviewer has access to plug in her
computer. This needs only be in one place in the district, in the
event that the reviewer has to travel among several attendance centers.
For example, this may be in the district office or the
Superintendent’s office, as long as this location is one where
the reviewer can move freely in and out of to record findings.
-
For
larger districts, having someone there to help the reviewer pull files
will facilitate the process as she spot checks student and
staff/faculty files.
-
Have a
checklist of the regulatory items she will be
addressing
-
Safety plan
-
School calendar is updated and online
-
Course guidelines
-
FERPA notification
-
Staff files
-
Criminal background checks of teachers/student teachers
or anyone 18 years or older working in the district (if
hired after July 1, 2000)
-
Teacher certificate or authority to act (where
applicable)
-
Student files
-
To expedite the process, especially for larger school
districts, please organize cumulative files so that the
information being reviewed is readily available in each
folder and placed in a consistent manner. This includes
birth certificates and immunization records (or
documentation verifying its absence)
School Improvement Sample Documents & Templates
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