La. Admin. Code tit. 28 § XI-703

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 11, November 20, 2024

Section XI-703 - Determining a Cohort for a Graduation [Formerly Section 603]

A. A cohort of students is all students who entered 9th grade for the first time in the state of Louisiana in a given academic year.

B. Each cohort of students will be tracked for four years, from entry as first-time ninth graders through four academic years. Transitional ninth graders will enter automatically the first-time ninth grade cohort in the year after enrolling in transitional ninth grade.

C. Students who exit Louisianas student information system (SIS) system in fewer than four years for legitimate reasons shall not be included in the cohort's graduation index calculations.

1. For graduation cohort calculations, exit codes 07, 10, 14, 16, and 20 from §611 are legitimate, along with any special codes created to deal with natural disasters.

2. Beginning with accountability decisions made in fall 2010 (using 2009 grad data), the only legitimate leavers from a cohort are those who:

a. transfer from Louisiana K-12 public education to a diploma awarding school or program;

b. emigrate to another country;

c. are deceased.

3. Specific documentation is required for students to be considered legitimate leavers.

a. The only acceptable documentation for transfers to out-of-state or approved non-public school diploma awarding schools is a request for student records from the qualifying school or program, a letter from an official in the receiving school or program acknowledging student enrollment, or a note written and signed by the parent including a reason for exit that confirms the exit type used to remove student from enrollment.

b. Documentation for a student transfer to home school is an official document from LDE indicating approval dated before October 1 following the students exit from the Louisiana SIS.

c. Students who emigrate to another country must be documented with a statement signed by a parent, a request for student records, or an approved application for participation in a foreign exchange program which verifies dates of enrollment.

d. An obituary or a letter from a parent is sufficient documentation for a deceased student.

4. The LDE shall maintain and post on the LDE website a list of schools that are considered "non-diploma awarding."

5. A school is classified as "non-diploma awarding" if it:

a. awards fewer than five regular diplomas a year for two consecutive years; or

b. enrolls fewer than 10 twelfth graders for a full academic year for each of two consecutive years;

c. the LDE can grant exceptions to these rules for new schools and schools with small populations upon district request if it can be determined that no circumvention of accountability consequences will occur. The district is responsible for providing any data requested by the LDE.

D. Students that LEAs exit from a school or the LEA using anything other than legitimate leaver codes or those codes indicating completion of a high school course of study must subsequently appear in the Student Information System or they shall be considered dropouts from the state, LEA and school.

E. Students with no high school records in the Louisiana SIS who transfer from a home school, non-public school, or another state into a Louisiana school on or before October 1 of their eleventh grade year will enter the "on-time" cohort at the students assigned grade level. Students with existing Louisiana public high school records will re-enter their original cohort.

F. Students transferring within the public school system in Louisiana will remain in their same cohort.

1. Students transferring within an LEA on or before October 1 of their cohort's fourth year will be included in the calculation of the graduation index at the school into which they transfer and complete their fourth year of high school.

2. Students who exit their high school for more than 45 calendar days during their fourth year shall not be included in that high schools grad cohort calculation.

G. Students who graduate or complete high school in fewer than four years will be included in the cohort in which they started 9th grade.

H. Any student who exits K-12 education to enter a school or program that does not award a state-recognized high school diploma shall be considered a dropout in graduation cohort calculations.

I. Beginning with the 2016-2017 academic year, for students who exit and have no subsequent enrollment in a school, the school of last record will be considered the school that sent a valid request for student records to the school that applied the exit code.

1. If the last exit from enrollment is for expulsion (exit code 01), then the request for records will not be used to determine last school of record. The last school of enrollment shall be used.

2. This policy shall apply to dropout assignment for any cohort graduation period or DCAI year that includes 2016-2017 and beyond. Years prior to 2016-2017 that are included in a cohort graduation period or DCAI year will continue to use the historical rule, established by the student information system (SIS), of assigning the dropout to the school of last enrollment record in SIS.

J. All students (excluding those defined in Subsection C of this Section), regardless of entry or exit dates, are included in the state-level cohort.

K. Students assessed using the LEAP Connect shall be included in the graduation rate for the year in which they graduated or the year in which they exited after at least four years in high school with no subsequent re-enrollment by October 1 of the following academic year. Students who are not exited will be counted in the year that they reach the age of 22.

La. Admin. Code tit. 28, § XI-703

Promulgated by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, LR 29:2743 (December 2003), amended LR 30:1619 (August 2004), repromulgated LR 30:1996 (September 2004), amended LR 30:2256 (October 2004), amended LR 30:2445 (November 2004), LR 31:912 (April 2005), LR 31:2762 (November 2005), LR 33:253 (February 2007), LR 34:428 (March 2008), LR 34:867 (May 2008), LR 36:1991 (September 2010), LR 37:2119 (July 2011), LR 38:3110 (December 2012), LR 40:2507 (December 2014), Amended, LR 44454 (3/1/2018), Amended LR 47447 (4/1/2021).

AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S. 17:10.1.