Attendance/Child Accounting Professional Association of Pennsylvania (ACAPA)

Fall Conference Resources - November, 2026

Wednesday, November 4 Sessions and Resources

McKinney-Vento_ An Overview for Homeless Liaisons.pdf

10:10 AM- 11:00 AM	Breakout Sessions Speaker
AI in Schools: The Good, the Bad, The Illegal and the Unknown AI posits many promises of making life easier for all. But will it? Is it doing so now? A survey of the application of AI to work in schools: featuring examples of good uses, cautionary tales, illegal uses, gray areas, and larger moral questions that may not yet have answers.	Peter Agnone Ruane, Esq., Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams	Garden Terrace East
Discipline PIMS Reporting: A Comprehensive Overview This session dives into Safe Schools Discipline Reporting under PIMS, addressing why accurate data matters and where LEAs across PA are falling short. Using publicly available data, this session will walk through the common misclassifications that drive reporting inconsistencies. The session covers the full reporting framework, from distinguishing between commonly confused infraction types like fighting, minor altercations and simple assault, to navigating tricky scenarios involving CTCs, non-PIMS reporting entities, and end-of-year disciplinary actions. Attendees will also be introduced to the “Appendix Z Reimagined," a practical resource linking PIMS infraction codes to plain-language PA Criminal Statute summaries, designed to align data teams and strengthen reporting accuracy.	Rebecca Daugherty, Chester County Intermediate Unit	Garden Terrace West
McKinney Vento: An Overview for Homeless Liaisons What is the McKinney-Vento Act? How does it affect my students? What are my obligations to students? What resources are available? Learn all of this and more to effectively support your students experiencing homelessness.	Mitchell Hendricks, Bethlehem Area School District	Starlight
ABCs of Child Accounting: Overview of the basics of Child Accounting .	Lori Sieber, PDE	Castilian

11:10 AM-Noon	Breakout Sessions Speaker
Risky Business: A Legal Perspective on the High-Stakes Consequences of Student Conduct Matters Legal Risk attaches to the everyday actions of school employees and administrators when addressing student misconduct. The first step in mitigating risk is awareness and preparation. In this presentation, an experienced school law attorney delves into the prevalence of litigation and the magnitude of legal liability exposure using real case law and hypothetical scenarios to engage the audience. Discussion will center around practical challenges and legal exposure containment. Topics will include bullying, harassment (on the basis of sex, race, religion, and disability), dangerous conduct, and special education implications. Audience members will be asked to participate using interactive polling software.	Kalani Linnell Asroff, Esq. and Cassi Blaney, Esq., Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams	Garden Terrace East
Beyond Enrollment: Keeping Track of Charter School Students from the Resident District Perspective Tracking charter school students requires more than maintaining a roster. Resident school districts must monitor enrollment changes, verify residency, maintain essential records, support accurate state reporting, and ensure accountability throughout a student's enrollment in a charter school. This session will provide practical guidance, proven tracking methods, and real-world examples to help districts develop effective processes, improve data accuracy, and confidently manage charter school student records.	Brianna Hulshizer, Chester County Intermediate Unit	Garden Terrace West
Home Schooling: A Deeper Dive	Tom Dubbs, PDE	Starlight
Identifying Resident and Non-Resident Membership: Keys to identifying the different types of resident and non-resident students including 1302, 1305, and 1306.	Lori Sieber, PDE	Castilian

1:10 PM- 2:00 PM	Breakout Sessions Speaker
Religious Freedom in Public Schools: History and Recent Changes that Administrators Need to Understand Our nation’s Founding Fathers viewed religion as personal, not political. Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison and others rejected the European practice of government favoring particular religious beliefs. This led to our First Amendment, which forbids laws that establish religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof. This presentation traces the history of religious freedom in public schools, including recent decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States that have changed the law and practices of religious expression in ways school administrators need to understand	Howard Kelin, Esq. and Rose McHugh,Esq., Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams	Garden Terrace East
Funding Follows the Data: How Act 16 Reporting Shapes Special Education Success Join this interactive session designed for Special Education Administrators, Data Coordinators, and PIMS Administrators to deepen your understanding of Act 16 reporting. Participants will learn practical strategies for organizing and managing Act 16 data, including how to create and maintain a master Act 16 MS Excel file to support accurate and efficient PIMS submissions to PDE. This session will also explore best practices for data validation, cross-department collaboration, and the connection between accurate reporting and funding outcomes—all aimed at helping LEAs strengthen their data quality culture.	Kendra Schockley, Chester County Intermediate Unit	Garden Terrace West
Why are there so many home schoolers in PA and how do I track them? This session not only explores the reasons why parents are homeschooling their children and updates, but also your district’s responsibilities for reporting and providing resources to these families. We will review the annual data collection tool as well as some of the issues related to compliance/noncompliance with home school law.	Tom Dubbs, PDE	Starlight
Child Accounting Templates: Template fields and requirements associated with the School Calendar and Student Calendar Fact templates	Scott Cole, PDE	Castilian

2:10 PM- 3:00 PM	Breakout Sessions Speaker
SROs and SPOs in Pennsylvania Schools: Refresher on Roles, Responsibilities and Legal Boundaries In the myriads of permissible school security personnel, it can be easy to confuse roles, responsibilities, and limits on the power. In this session, we will explore the various ways that school districts can implement school security, with an emphasis of the distinction between different types of personnel, including in employment, reporting responsibilities, and powers in the school setting – including the power to search students. We will also highlight student rights in the context of school security authority.	Suzanne Pontious, Esq. and Rebekah A. VanDerWerf, Esq., Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams	Garden Terrace East
Out of District Placements from a Host District’s Perspective Hear from a host district’s perspective on the process from student intake to Child Accounting.	Tammy Brant, Upper St. Clair School District and Aidan Mulvihill, Montour School District	Garden Terrace West
Office of School Climate and Well-Being The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) Office of School Climate and Well-Being is dedicated to fostering equitable, trauma-informed learning environments that promote the academic, physical, and psychological well-being of students and staff. This session will explore the various resources and supports available through the PDE Office of School Climate and Well-Being. It will also review all reporting aspects of Safe School reporting and discuss other data sets involved in creating safe learning environments in schools.	Scott Kuren, PDE	Starlight
Child Accounting PIMS Reports: Review of the reports that accompany the CA collection and tips on what to look for when analyzing the reports.	Lori Sieber, PDE	Castillian

3:10 pm - 4:00 pm SIS Alike Sessions
PowerSchool	Garden Terrace East
Sapphire	Garden Terrace West
Steps to Achieve: Foundational Learn Excel fundamentals and navigation: shortcuts, AutoFill, Paste Special, reusable templates, Formulas and references: the totals your membership and enrollment reports run on; relative vs. absolute references, Tables, sorting, and filtering: turn raw roster and system exports into filterable data.	Starlight

Thursday, November 5 Sessions and Resources

9:10 AM- 10:00 AM	Breakout Sessions Speaker
Custody/Family Law Schools often face challenging questions about who can make educational decisions for a child. This session explores Pennsylvania law on custody versus residency, interpreting court orders and guardianship documents, and the role of 1302 affidavits. We’ll address step-parent rights, the impact of legal marriage, PFAs and school access, parents’ rights to student information, and termination of parental rights. Gain clarity on navigating these sensitive issues while ensuring compliance and protecting student welfare.	Paige Gross, Esq., KingSpry	Garden Terrace East
Special Education Overview An overview of Special Education reporting and updates for 2026-27, including December 1, Act 16, and Exiting.	Dan Ficca, PDE	Garden Terrace West
Programs of Study (POS) and Student Occupationally and Academically Ready (SOAR) This session will explore SOAR and include a review of postsecondary requirements and signatory addenda for statewide articulation agreements, PDE verification on postsecondary websites, a discussion of prerequisites and industry credentials, how to navigate collegetransfer.net, and a peek at secondary partners.	Wendy Leiby, PDE	Castilian
Summary of Child Accounting Membership Report: See the results of the PIMS Child Accounting collection and how a school district’s average daily membership (ADM) is calculated.	Lori Sieber, PDE	Starlight

10:10 AM-

11:00 AM

Breakout Sessions Speaker

Rights of Home School and Cyber School Students

This presentation will provide a comprehensive breakdown of the legal rights, requirements, and distinctions for home school (home education) and cyber school (cyber charter) students. Attendees will learn how federal and state lawns govern enrollment, educational services, and access to public school resources, helping schools ensure compliance with current policies.

Gianna Corpora, Esq., King Spry

Garden

Terrace East

Special Education Discipline

Discussion of the Special Education Discipline collection with Safe Schools and Table 9A including data discrepancies between collections.

Dan Ficca, PDE

Garden

Terrace West

Instructional Time and Calendars:

Understanding the calculation of instructional time and the use of calendars

Lori Sieber, PDE

Castilian

From Collection to Impact: Key Concepts, Updates and Best Practices for the C4 CTE Collection

This session will provide an overview of the essential components of the C4 CTE Collection. We'll walk through the PDE408 Form requirements, highlight updates to the Secondary Timeline, review the new fields in the CTE Student Fact file, and address common errors. We'll also share best practices to help you prepare now and streamline the collection process.

Stacey McCreary, PDE, Alex Deacon, PDE, Wendy Sullivan, PDE, Brenda Gomez-Perez, PDE, Sherrie Whisler, PDE

Starlight

11:10 AM-

Noon

Breakout Sessions Speaker

Cyber School

Rosemary Hughes, PDE

Garden

Terrace East

Special Education Fiscal Considerations

Barry Frank, PDE

Garden Terrace West

Tracking Resident Students:

Learn what questions to ask when your student is educated by another entity. Test your knowledge of who reports whom for Child Accounting

Lori Sieber, PDE

Castilian

Safe Schools: Criminal Statute vs School Codes

Chief Michael Bogart, Weatherly School District, Jay Wasser, PDE and Tony Durante, PDE

Starlight

1:10 PM- 2:00 PM	Breakout Sessions Speaker
School Safety Explore the role of the SRO in mentoring students and identifying early warning signs, tactical response (rapid deployment protocols during active threat events), target hardening (securing building perimeters, entryways and camera systems), unified command (coordinating drills with fire, medical and dispatch teams) and threat assessment (managing legal boundaries regarding privacy and intervention).	Chief Michael Bogart	Garden Terrace East
APSEM	Dan Ficca, PDE	Garden Terrace West
ACS Deletion Requests and Manual Revisions This session will provide a step-by-step walkthrough on how to successfully submit child accounting Accuracy Certification Statements, Deletion Request Forms, and Manual Revision Forms in an effort to ensure consistent and compliant submissions.	Lori Sieber, Scott Cole, and Carrie Pase, PDE	Castilian
Clarifying 1306: When and How LEAs Report Students in Children’s Institutions (Part 1) This session equips LEAs with the knowledge and tools necessary to navigate the requirements for 1306 students placed in a Children’s Institution. Participants will develop a clear understanding of qualifying institutions, the distinct roles of the educating and tracking LEA (district of residence) and when the tracking LEA should or should not report a student in this placement. The session will also provide guidance on the accurate completion of the PDE-4605 form from both LEA perspectives. Through applied, scenario-based examples, attendees will strengthen compliance practices, improve documentation accuracy, and support consistent, well-informed decision-making.	Jessica Gioia-Young, Chester County Intermediate Unit	Starlight

Session	Breakout Session Speaker	Location
2:10 PM- 3:00 PM
Special Education Law The presentation will be designed to explain the sometimes challenging intersection of the IDEA and school discipline for those students identified under the IDEA or Section 504, with time for a Q&A session afterward.	Chris Bambach, Esq., Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams	Garden Terrace East
From Submission to Insight: Making Sense of PVAAS PIMS Data PVAAS reporting begins long before reports are released—it starts with accurate PIMS submissions. This session demystifies the connection between PIMS data collections and PVAAS reporting, helping participants understand how submitted data fuels access to projections, growth measures, and educator-specific reporting. Participants will explore key PIMS collections, timelines, and common pitfalls that impact data visibility and accuracy in PVAAS. Through practical examples, we will connect submission practices to reporting outcomes, empowering LEAs to strengthen data quality and maximize the value of PVAAS reports for planning, instruction, and decision making.	Yashira Ashby, Laurie Kolka, and Jennifer Kurtz, PDE	Garden Terrace West
Enrollment Updates	Fianne vanSchaaik, PDE and Rosemary Hughes, PDE	Castilian
Clarifying 1306: When and How LEAs Report Students in Children’s Institutions (Part 2) This session equips LEAs with the knowledge and tools necessary to navigate the requirements for 1306 students placed in a Children’s Institution. Participants will develop a clear understanding of qualifying institutions, the distinct roles of the educating and tracking LEA (district of residence) and when the tracking LEA should or should not report a student in this placement. The session will also provide guidance on the accurate completion of the PDE-4605 form from both LEA perspectives. Through applied, scenario-based examples, attendees will strengthen compliance practices, improve documentation accuracy and support consistent, well-informed decision-making.	Jessica Gioia-Young, Chester County Intermediate Unit	Starlight

SIS Alike Sessions
Steps to Achieve: Intermediate Excel Data validation: keep codes and dates consistent by stopping bad data at entry, Logical and conditional formulas: IF logic plus SUMIFS and COUNTIFS to count students and total membership by school, grade, or status, Lookups: VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP to match students across rosters, sheets, and exports, Text functions and data cleanup: fix messy PIMS and SIS exports (names, IDs, dates) fast, Conditional formatting: flag gaps, duplicates, and outliers at a glance, PivotTables: summarize enrollment, membership, and ADM data with no formulas, Charts and data visualization: turn the numbers into clear visuals for boards and administrators	Garden Terrace East
Focus	Starlight
Thomson Rueters	Garden Terrace West

Friday, November 6 Sessions and Resources

9:10 AM- 10:00 AM	Breakout Sessions Speaker
Preparing for the Civil Rights Data Collection This presentation will cover all aspects of the CRDC 2025-26 collection including what the collection is, points of contact, timeline, new fields, removed fields, tips and tricks Speaker: Daniel Nestorick, Dallas School District	Daniel Nestorick, Dallas School District	Garden Terrace East
1302, 1305, 1306 Basics This introductory training will provide an overview of the Pennsylvania School Code statutes governing student residency and enrollment. Participants will review the basic requirements of Sections 1302, 1305, and 1306, including residency determination, enrollment documentation, and the responsibilities of school districts and families.	Ann Bauer, A/CAPA President, Mitchell Hendricks, Bethlehem School District	Garden Terrace West
New to PIMS? Need help with where to find information or who to ask for help? This session is for you!	Diane Meck, A/CAPA Secretary	Starlight

10:10 AM- 11:00 AM	Breakout Sessions Speaker
Navigating Educational Rights, Supports, and Responsibilities for Students in Foster Care This session will provide a practical overview of key education considerations for students in foster care, including school stability, school of origin, and best interest decision-making (BID). Participants will explore the roles of the Educational Decision Maker (EDM), parents and foster parents in the BID process; reasonable and prudent parenting; foster care documentation and information/record sharing; and strategies for identifying students in foster care, including PIMS reminders. The session will highlight practical approaches for collaboration among schools, caregivers, and child welfare partners to ensure students’ educational rights, stability, and needs are addressed.	Matt Butensky, Center for Schools and Communities, Ben Simmons, Center for Schools and Communities, and Dawn Traill, Pennsylvania Department of Human Services	Garden Terrace East
Tracking Graduation Pathways What do you do when your SIS doesn't have a clean way of tracking Graduation Pathways? See how one district created an internal document for tracking pathways to graduation and uses the information for data meetings.	Dr. Diane Szader, A/CAPA COO	Garden Terrace West
New Officer Orientation		Starlight