IDEA Plan Implementation

Of course. Practi-Cal will still provide CALPAD service reporting for groups that use SpEdCare, and you can use another system for other non-billing special education staff.  We would add that SpEdCare is a superior documentation system that was designed for compliance and reporting and no other system is better at protecting your LEA. Users also tell us it is easier and quicker to record services.  If you need to begin having teachers record their services, wouldn’t you want to make it as easy as possible for them?

Yes. We are already aware of the initial reporting criteria and once CDE finalizes what their reporting requirements, Practi-Cal will prepare a report in a compliant format.  If CDE allows for electronic reporting, we will transmit the report data electronically.

Yes.  CDE recently shared there would be a certification report/form that would need to be sign by the superintendent. In addition, each principal will need to certify their site data.  Practi-Cal will have a process to accomplish these tasks as soon as CDE releases the certification requirements. We will automate all that we can in this process to make the task as easy as possible.

Practi-Cal already has visual and interactive dashboards to report on various program items.  One widget is Promised Services. This summarizes your LEA’s promised special education services and allows users to drill down to see exactly what services may be missing.  We also allow assigned department leads to monitor compliance progress for their department.  Finally, service providers can also review compliance information and quickly record for missing services, to stay on track.

Practi-Cal has collected special education data from clients for years.  This data is available in SpEdCare to rendering practitioners and program coordinators.  Practi-Cal uses this data to report promised service compliance and can do this for all CALPADS service codes.  If your special education system has an API or can export to a secure FTP, we can scrape the data in more frequently.  Users can record services for any CALPAD code even if the service has not yet been added to our system.  Once the service has been added to our system, all recorded services related to the CALPAD code identified will be connected and accurately reported.

Of course.  We know that this new requirement will be new to most service providers, principals, and superintendents.  Practi-Cal will provide all the needed training and resources to participating staff to make the process as easy as possible.

We believe we are more accurate than other platforms. Our online system SpEdCare is at its core, a documentation system.  Before the CDE requirements, we already met the documentation requirements.  This spring we added some special features to make management and reporting easy.  Without giving away all our secrets, we added functionality that makes SpEdCare more accurate than other solutions.  In fact, one client said, “Practi-Cal is far ahead of where our current IEP system is for meeting CDE’s requirements”.  For this reason, this LEA and SELPA will be choosing Practi-Cal to document all services in the SELPA. Here are a several areas, we think set us apart from other software solutions:

• SELPA, LEA leadership, and providers can drill down to individual service details to determine which services are missing. If daily, weekly, or monthly services are missing, you will know exactly which services need to be provided or recorded.
• SpEdCare takes school calendars and breaks into account in service minute calculations. Most other systems do not yet have this functionality.
• SpEdCare tracks satisfied services in real-time, and as of current date, based on promised frequency and duration. If a user is consistent with service entry, their satisfied percentage should always be near 100%, even if the plan end date is in the future.
• SpEdCare has already had the functionality to record services as satisfied or unsatisfied. This means the recorded minutes are correctly assigned and service providers know what minutes need to be made up.
• Other proprietary algorithms that improve reporting accuracy.

Yes.  Service providers can manage goals and track progress to each individual goal.  A visual graph line displays students services and progress towards goal.

SELPAs are an integral part of your special education services.  To this extent, there may be a comfort in using what is familiar to the SELPA. These decisions may unintentionally affect other programs your LEA may require similar documentation.  We recommend that you ask your SELPA to evaluate other options, like Practi-Cal, to ensure all programs are covered without duplication of efforts. Practi-Cal can still provide CDE compliant reporting to the appropriate agency.

NOTE: If you are asked to double enter services (SELPA system and billing vendor), contact us immediately.  Practi-Cal will work with your SELPA to ensure data collection is accurate with a single service entry.

Practi-Cal can export or import CDE Implementation data.  If you choose to use Practi-Cal for CDE reporting, you can still import implementation from other systems.

Using two different systems may lead to inaccurate real-time results, if Medi-Cal Billing Staff (using SpEdCare) and non-Medi-Cal billing staff (using other system) provide the same CALPADS services.  Not until data is combined will the LEA know if services meet the compliance requirements.

Very easy!  When a teacher sets up their caseload/class and schedules the services, they can simply select “Record for my Scheduled Services”, and all students will appear on the screen.  Since CDE is not requiring notes, the teacher can simply enter the start time, and then save the record.  Daily recording can take less one minute per day.

Working with your union may appear to be a challenge, but remember, this new policy must be implemented. Therefore, we have worked to automate as much of the process for the participants as possible. We suggest sharing that using our system may only take 1-2 minutes per day for this mandated reporting process to make this new requirement more palatable to your team. Other systems do not have as easy of method for recording services and the time commitment will be greater. Your Medi-Cal billing practitioners have been documenting services for many years and can also be a positive influence in on-boarding new service providers.

For more than 25 years Practi-Cal and our business partners at CSBA has worked with state and federal agencies and advocated on behalf of LEA’s. Any support we can provide to make the implementation of this new process easier, we are here for you.

Once this requirement is in place, contractors will also need to track their time to the promised CALPADS code. Practi-Cal can assist with communicating this requirement to your contracted agencies. Documentation can be accomplished by:

• Adding a column/cell to the existing documentation forms that contractors use.
• Asking the contracted agency to add the CALPADS code to the individual services, listed on their invoice
• Ask contracted agency to record electronically in SpEdCare. Practi-Cal already has contractors using our system for documentation and billing.

Absolutely. Practi-Cal already had a promised service tracker in SpEdCare, and this new requirement will ensure all billable special education services are delivered.  Program coordinators have access to similar dashboards with drill-down reporting to target missing billable services for Medi-Cal eligible students, including potential reimbursement amounts.

Our fee is a simple…for existing Practi-Cal Clients, $15 per non-Medi-Cal billing user, per year.  If you have 100 special educators and practitioners and 75 are Medi-Cal billing practitioners and 25 are non-Medi-Cal billing staff (i.e. SpEd Teachers), the cost would be $375 per year.  The 75 billing practitioners would be covered under our Medi-Cal billing agreement and would still have all the CDE documentation features.

SELPA’S who choose to use Practi-Cal for their LEA’s, will only pay $10 per non-Practi-Cal, and/or non-Medi-Cal Billing user.

This fee includes:

• Access for service providers to document services and view compliance details
• Access for leaders, superintendents, principals, and department leads to manage compliance
• Annual superintendent and principal certification and CDE reporting
• Access to interactive CDE Implementation dashboard with SELPA, LEA, and Site views
• Processing of special education data
• And more…