IDEAData.org

Aligned to goals:

• 1.2: Make more data and information available to the public.
• 1.5: Maintain up-to-date information on the Department's website about Department offices and key programs.
• 2.2: Provide regularly updated project maps, dated milestones, and financial data regarding open government and other key initiatives.
• 3.1: Enhance collaboration with other federal and non-federal agencies, the public and non-profit and private entities.

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) provides public access to data about children and youths with disabilities served under Parts B and C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) via the Data Accountability Center (DAC) at www.ideadata.org; technical assistance (TA) materials to support the collection, analysis, and reporting of IDEA data; and the forms and spreadsheets used for collection.

The Data Accountability Center (DAC) was funded in October 2007 by OSEP to provide information and TA to improve the quality of all State-reported data required by the IDEA and to encourage transparency and accountability. Its mission is to support the submission and analysis of high-quality IDEA data by reviewing data collection and analysis and providing technical assistance to improve State capacity to meet data requirements. The DAC's mission includes assisting OSEP by taking a leadership role in the Technical Assistance and Dissemination Network to support the vision of high-quality data.

DAC assesses State, regional, and national needs related to data collection, analysis, and reporting. This assessment includes needs related to monitoring data. DAC delivers technical assistance to States using a range of methods. These methods include annual data meetings; telephone, email, and listserv communication; conference calls; workshops and sessions at regional and national meetings; and in-State consultation. DAC provides customized TA for individual States via all methods. Finally, DAC develops technical assistance materials for States including, but not limited to, Q&A documents for specific data collections, data dictionaries, guidelines for collecting high-quality data through the State monitoring processes, and online training modules.

DAC offers a variety of relevant demographic and historical data as well a newly launched analytic tool on the website. This analytic tool provides users with the most recent publicly available State-level IDEA data. The tool may be used to access data more easily. More data sets are being added to the tool and will be available in the future.

This website was developed and is maintained to be accessible in accordance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.