Teaching Strategies GOLD
Preschool Outcomes Measurement Tips
General Tips:
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All newly identified Preschoolers must be assessed with the publisher’s tool selected by your SAU/district
within the first 6 weeks of receiving special education services.
Preschoolers must be assessed annually in order to insure there is reporting data in the event that the
child unexpectedly moves or exits special services in New Hampshire prior to Kindergarten.
Preschoolers must be assessed at exiting Preschool to Kindergarten as long as the child has had 6 months
in the program or receiving services. NOTE: This includes therapy only children.
If a child enters special services and will not be in the program for 6 months prior to exiting for
Kindergarten there is no need to assess for POMs as the data will not be reported. RULE OF THUMB: If
the child enters in January of their last preschool year prior to Kindergarten there is no need to assess
with POMS.
Troubleshooting Tips for TS GOLD Users:
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All areas with an ASTERISK must be completed in the Child Profile page. Additional areas mentioned
below must also be completed:
o Name
o Class
o Gender
o Birthdate
o Age or class/grade
o First day in program (this can be the same or after “Entry into Part B, Preschool”
o Primary language
o Ethnicity Level 1
o Race level 1
o Funding sources – though not starred you MUST select it for IEP students so data can be
retrieved when running reports and the district name (select Part B Section 619)
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What district is responsible for the child with an IEP for IDEA reporting purposes?
o
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What school district is the child located in?
IEP
Entry into IDEA Part B, Preschool(3-5) - (this means the date of the child’s first IEP.
o
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Preschool Entry Assessment – (this is POMS related - not what was used to determine
eligibility) use TS GOLD; AEPS –if child moved in from an AEPS district.
Preschool Exit Assessment – (POMS related)
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o Assess child using the Spanish language and literacy objectives
You must assess: Literacy, Mathematics as well as the three outcome areas –for TS GOLD that would
be: Social/Emotional, Physical, Language and Cognitive in order for the reports to run. If these
areas are not assessed and completed the data cannot be retrieved. (This would be objectives
1-23.)
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NEW – area 1.c.4 Personal Safety must be completed as this is an area that is not embedded in other
areas. This is in the online system but not in older paper portfolios.
Assessments must be complete. Do not use the “Not Observed” option. Data cannot be retrieved if
that is used. Use “Not Yet” instead. Too many items left blank will result in the child’s assessment
being excluded from the federal report.
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Make sure you FINALIZE all data in each area – or data cannot be retrieved.
Change of Status:
During the course of the year and especially at the end of the year, an OSEP exit must be completed for
preschoolers with IEPs if their status has changed for any of the following reasons:
a.
b.
c.
Discharge from special education services
Transition to Kindergarten
Moving out of state
Important Information:
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b.
c.
d.
e.
Completing an OSEP exit for a child does not mean that child’s data is deleted from the system. This
process simply flags the child’s data to be included when the federal reports are run.
If the child is transitioning out of preschool, the child record should be archived after the assessment
checkpoint data has been finalized and the OSEP exiting process is completed.
The reporting feature will automatically exclude records for children who participated in preschool
special education for fewer than 6 months.
If the child’s status is not changing at the end of the program year and they will be returning to the
preschool special education program, finalization of the checkpoint data is the only action required.
Administrators should use the “Child List” management report, the “OSEP Entry Status” report and the
“OSEP Federally Mandated” report to monitor completeness and accuracy of records for federal
accountability reporting purposes.
PRIOR TO RUNNING OSEP REPORT FOR NHDOE – YOU MUST EXIT THE CHILD:
Exiting Section 619/Part B Children for OSEP Reporting:
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Login to www.teachingstrategies.com, click the GOLD icon on the left of your Dashboard, click Change
Role on the top right of the screen, and select Admin Site to get to your Administrator Site.
Select Classes from under the Administration Tab, then click GO next to the class where the children are
located.
From the Action box on the right of your screen, select OSEP Exit Status Form.
Check the boxes next to the children’s names who you would like to exit, and select UPDATE.
Put in the Part B Exit Date, choose the Exit Status and select UPDATE.
A word of caution… when you get to that page the header will tell you one of the following prompts:
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Below are the children in preschool who are eligible for transition or exit at this time..
o These are children you can exit and NHDOE can obtain data for OSEP reporting
The following children require additional checkpoint data before they are eligible for transition or exit.
Note that you can exit children in this area if they are in Part B for less than 6 months…
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Missing checkpoints: If these are children who should be exited, you will need to go into the
system to check the data. Insure all data is finalized and no areas are missing. NHDOE will not be
able to obtain data for OSEP reports if all is not completed and finalized.
Less than 6 months: Most of these children are continuing in the preschool so they would not be
eligible for transition or exit at this time.
Updated: MAY 2015