January 2015 Regents Examinations and RCTs: Counting / Reporting Session Days for State Aid Purposes
Due to the predictions for a winter storm of unprecedented magnitude, impacting over half the students scheduled to take New York State Regents Exams and RCTs, the Department granted school districts flexibility to schedule and administer makeups for weather-related cancelled Regents Exams and RCTs through the end of the school day on Friday, January 30, 2015. The original administration period was Monday, January 26 through Thursday, January 29, 2015. Such makeups had to be administered in accordance with the comprehensive plans submitted by the affected school districts to NYSED that included: the day or days the school was closed; the exams being rescheduled; and the plan to ensure the security of the exams and scoring materials during that time.
Following is guidance on how to count and report session days for the week of January 26-30, 2015.
A minimum of 180 session days is required for districts to receive their full allocation of Foundation Aid. Session days include instruction days, up to four superintendent conference days and designated Regents Exam days in January and June. Session days for the 2014-15 school year will be reported to the Department via the State Aid Management System (SAMS) Form A schedules in September 2015.
Districts may count toward the required 180 session days any day(s) during the week of January 26-30, 2015 on which one or more Regents Exams and/or RCTs were administered. This means it will be possible to report a maximum of five Regents Exam days instead of the originally published schedule of four Regents Exam days.
There are no changes in the counting/reporting of session days for elementary grades or other grades without any students scheduled to take Regents Exams. Days on which instruction was provided to elementary grades during the week of January 26-30, 2015 will count toward the required 180 session days; days on which instruction was not provided to elementary grades will not count. The exception is when elementary staff and/or space were needed to administer Regents Exams and/or RCTs.
If all scheduled snow days were used before January 26, 2015 such that closures during the week of January 26 caused the district to fall below 180 days of session, the district must use upcoming scheduled vacation days to make up the number of session days below 180 in order to receive its full allocation of Foundation Aid. Instruction days may not be scheduled after Thursday, June 25, 2015, the Rating Day for the June 2015 examination period. However, due to the number of extraordinary weather days this winter, districts may schedule a single superintendent’s conference day on Friday, June 26, 2015)
Examples:
- Due to severe weather conditions, all schools in the district were closed on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 and no instruction was provided. The district also cancelled all Regents Exams and/or RCTs scheduled for that day. On Friday, January 30, 2015, one or more Regents Exams or RCTs were administered as makeups in accordance with the comprehensive plan submitted to the Department, and instruction was provided on that day to students in elementary and non-tested secondary and intermediate-level grades, as appropriate:
Tuesday will not count toward the 180 days of session; the rest of the days of the week will be reported as Regents Exam days for tested grades and instruction days for non-tested grades, and will count toward the 180 days.
- Due to severe weather conditions, schools closed early or opened late on Tuesday, January 27, 2015. One of the two exam sessions scheduled for that day was cancelled. One or more Regents Exams or RCTs were administered as makeups, in accordance with the comprehensive plan submitted by the district, in the a.m. or p.m. on Friday January 30, 2015. Instruction was provided on that day to students in elementary and non-tested secondary and intermediate-level grades, as appropriate:
Both Tuesday and Friday count toward the 180 days as Regents Exam days (for grades in which exams were administered); both Tuesday and Friday count as instruction days for students in elementary and non-tested intermediate-level grades.
On Monday, January 26, 2015, the Department disseminated the following guidance to districts regarding flexible makeup exam scheduling: http://www.nysed.gov/news/2015/important-update-january-regents-exams
This guidance includes the following requirement:
When the storm has passed, each school and district leader in a school district impacted by weather-related closures must send to the Department a description of the date(s) on which schools were closed due to weather, which January Regents Exams and RCTs had to be canceled, when they plan to administer the tests, and a comprehensive plan to ensure the security of exams and scoring materials during this time period.
Districts are advised that when 2014-15 school year instruction and exam days are reported in 2015-16 SAMS for State Aid purposes, the session days should align with the description provided to SED in response to this requirement.
Questions regarding reporting requirements included in the January 26, 2015 guidance document may be emailed to: EMSCASSESSINFO@NYSED.GOV
Questions regarding 2015 SAMS session day reporting for the week of January 26‑30, 2015 may be emailed to OMSSAMS@nysed.gov.