DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL BOARD

Staff Proposal Charter Application Approval (Full) Charter Application Approval (Conditional) Charter Application Denial Charter Continuance Proposed Revocation Revocation Lift Board Action Board Action, Charter Warning Board Action, Notice of Concern Board Action, Notice of Deficiency Board Action, Notice of Probation Proposed Revisions to PCSB Existing Policy New PCSB PolicyOpen for Public Comment New PCSB PolicyVote Other School Request Enrollment Ceiling Increase Change in LEA Status Lift Board Action Approve Accountability Plan Operate in a New Location Charter Amendment Approve E-Rate Plan

PREPARED BY: SUBJECT: DATE: Proposal/Request

Tim Harwood Equity & Fidelity Team Notice of Concern Perry Street Prep Public Charter School February 25, 2013

PCSB Staff requests that the Board issue a Notice of Concern to Perry Street Prep Public Charter School. The school has failed to submit accurate attendance data from its school information system (PowerSchool) and report it to PCSBs ProActive data system. Following an attendance data audit, PCSB visited the campus on February 13th and asked school staff to print the daily attendance records for six students from PowerSchool. A comparison of the schools attendance records and what was submitted to ProActive shows significant discrepancies for each of these students. The attendance data comparison in Table 1 shows that Perry Street Prep has reported more present days and fewer tardy days and unexcused absences in ProActive than in their school information system.

Table 1: Attendance data comparison: Perry Street Prep vs. PCSBs ProActive data
Student

Total Days
(school's data)

Present

Total Days Present

(PCSB data)

(school's data)

Days Tardy

Days Tardy
(PCSB data)

Days Unexcused Absences

(school's data)

Days Unexcused Absences

(PCSB data)

Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6

57 73 60 63 55 67

96 95 86 100 97 102 1

16 23 41 35 43 34

2 7 20 6 11 8

47 15 32 32 40 24

4 4 12 1 4 0

To date, Perry Street Prep PCS has submitted their attendance to ProActive on-time each month. Therefore, it is unlikely that the school is experiencing a technical issue when submitting their data. PCSB has sent several e-mails to Perry Street Prep PCSs attendance and data managers asking them review their data in ProActive to check for accuracy and make any necessary changes. September 13th was the first e-mail PCSB sent to all schools including Perry Street Prep PCSs data managers about the importance of submitting accurate attendance and discipline data on a regular basis. Since then, PCSB has sent three other e-mails asking data managers to use the summary attendance and discipline reports in SharePoint as a resource to check the accuracy of their data in ProActive.

Background According to PCSBs Attendance and Discipline Data Policy (2012), charter schools are to submit all required data to PCSB as requested either via ProActive, AOIS (now Epicenter), encrypted Excel files, or another secure method. Present, tardy and absent documentation must be completed on a daily basis for every student enrolled in the school for the current school year. All data needs to be complete five business days after the start of the next month. The school must enter or upload every suspension and expulsion into ProActive on a monthly basis as per the schedule provided to schools. The District of Columbia Compulsory School Attendance Law (CSAL) requires minors who become five (5) years of age by September 30 in a given school year up to the age of 18 to be enrolled in school and attending regularly. PCSB shares truancy numbers with CFSA and DC Superior Court on an as-needed basis. To do so, PCSB must have accurate attendance data in ProActive in order to provide accurate truancy counts to these agencies.

Date: ____________ PCSB Action: ______Approved _______Approved with Changes ______Rejected Changes to the Original Proposal/Request: _______________________________________