St. Croix River Education District

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Alternative Delivery of Specialized Instructional Services (ADSIS) is an application process for districts and charter schools to apply for state special education aid. The primary purpose of ADSIS funding is to help districts provide at-risk general education students with extra academic and/or behavior support (i.e., Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions in our districts’ multi-tiered systems). The intention is to prevent any unnecessary referrals to special education.

Districts apply for ADSIS funding every two years, and this application process is coordinated by our Special Services Supervisors.

The awarded grant money comes with specific requirements from MDE (outlined in MN Statute 125A.50). Districts must follow through on what they describe in their ADSIS application, and they must collect specific pieces of data that are submitted to MDE in annual end-of-year reports.

If you provide an intervention that is funded by ADSIS, read on! The rest of this page covers the info. and tools that you’ll need in order to meet MDE’s requirements.

Beginning of School Year Setup

Find and set up your Service Hour Spreadsheet (SHS)

Every year, SCRED staff will create a new blank SHS just for you. Your SHS lives in a district folder (see buttons below). If you don’t see a SHS with your name on it, please submit a help ticket.

DO NOT move it or make a copy of it. If you want to make your SHS easier to find, you can either bookmark it or use Google Drive shortcuts. DO NOT change it. Everything on it is there because of MDE requirements, and the spreadsheet columns are in the same order that MDE requires in their end of year report from your district.

You are responsible for completing it for the students you serve through ADSIS interventions. As soon as you have a list of students you’ll be working with, add your students’ names and service start dates to your SHS.

Tag students in eduCLIMBER

eduCLIMBER is a website that our districts use to pull together data from Synergy, FastBridge, etc. and have it work together. “Tagging” ADSIS students in eduCLIMBER is required because, in order to satisfy MDE’s requirements re: annual reports, we need to be able to quickly find hundreds of ADSIS students in eduCLIMBER and pull their data. Jump to our eduCLIMBER page on Tags to learn how to do this ➡️

You are also required to document these tags in your SHS. This redundancy was built into our procedure to prevent interventionists from forgetting to tag students in eduCLIMBER.

Send out parent notification letters

MDE requires that, before students receive ADSIS services, we must notify parents/guardians and provide an opportunity for them to opt out.

Template letters are located in your district folder (linked above). You CAN make a copy of these templates and keep your copy somewhere else in Google Drive. Modify the template so that it accurately reflects what your intervention is, and then send a copy to the parents of the students you plan to serve.

Plan how you’ll collect data

ACADEMIC interventions:

• Progress monitoring: We administer FastBridge measures for math and/or reading throughout the year (e.g., weekly), and this data auto-syncs or is entered into eduCLIMBER.
• Benchmark testing: The students must complete fall and spring FAST benchmark assessments in both math and reading. This applies K-12 and even if the student exited ADSIS mid-year. If parents opt out of benchmark testing, note this on your SHS.
• Indirect impact: MDE also mandates that we measure the indirect impact of academic interventions on students’ behavior. To do this, we measure Academic Engagement 3x/year using Direct Behavior Ratings (DBRs). This data is entered into your SHS.

BEHAVIOR interventions:

• Progress monitoring: We continually monitor progress (e.g., weekly) using rating scales or point cards that match the intervention being provided. This data is entered into eduCLIMBER.
• Benchmark testing/indirect impact: MDE also mandates that we measure the indirect impact of behavior interventions on students’ academic performance. The students must complete fall and spring FAST benchmark assessments in both math and reading. This applies K-12 and even if the student exited ADSIS mid-year. If parents opt out of benchmark testing, note this on your SHS.

Plan your PAR reports

Per federal budgeting requirements, ADSIS staff must complete a Personal Activity Report (PAR). It is a record of how you spend your time during the work day when you are assigned to different programs.

Throughout the School Year

Run your intervention(s) + collect and use your data

This is what makes the red tape worth it: helping students. The real meat and potatoes. As you provide services and collect progress monitoring data throughout the year, regularly review that data with a team of colleagues.

Our data helps us decide, objectively, if we can fade off Jane Doe’s intervention, if Jane’s intervention needs to be stepped up and intensified, or if we need to adjust what we’re doing with the whole group because our intervention “recipe” isn’t working well for enough of our students.

Set up newly referred students

When a student is added to your intervention, repeat the steps described above:

1. Send out a parent notification letter
2. Add the student to your SHS
3. Tag the student in eduCLIMBER
4. Plan how you’ll collect data

Submit your PAR reports

See description above. These are submitted either semi-annually or monthly, depending on how much of your work day is dedicated to ADSIS.

Spring Wrap Up

Complete your budget wishlist

Around spring break, you will be emailed a budget “wishlist” spreadsheet. This is your opportunity to request supplies and materials for the next school year.

Send out stakeholder surveys

MDE requires districts to collect feedback on ADSIS services from students and families. In the spring, you will be emailed a survey form and instructions re: who to send it to.

Complete your SHS

On the main Service Hour Spreadsheet tab, every student’s progress must be rated using a 1-5 scale that MDE created.

Ensure that every relevant column on the SHS tab is completed, including total service hours for the year.

• If you track intervention attendance in eduCLIMBER, use that to calculate service hours. 
• Otherwise, you can cross reference:
  • Your service schedule (e.g., “we work together 1x/week for 20 minutes”)
  • Multiplied by how long the student received services (i.e., when they started/stopped working with you)
  • Minus the student’s absences (review their attendance record in Synergy)

On the End of Year Report tab, complete the relevant section (reading, math, or behavior).