Accountability

Catamaran is the system used to track activities and data related to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Michigan Administrative Rules for Special Education (MARSE) for the Michigan Department of Education Offices of Special Education and Early Childhood Development and Family Education. Catamaran is designed to support districts and service areas in meeting their obligations of the IDEA, the MARSE, and state-identified priorities.

This system broadens monitoring from a compliance orientation to focusing on improving educational results for students with disabilities. The goal of Catamaran is to provide consistent and regular feedback to districts with regard to how they are performing in their effort to address the State Performance Plan (SPP) indicators. Depending on how a district is performing on the compliance and results SPP indicators will determine what steps may or may not be necessary to improve district performance and ultimately student performance.

The State Office of Special Education randomly monitors all local districts and Ottawa Area ISD programs through a General Supervision Monitoring (GSM) cycle. This ensures that the program meets the state requirements using qualified indicators to measure performance in the following selected priority areas:

• Graduation
• Dropout
• Statewide Assessment
• Suspension/Expulsion
• Education Environment
• Preschool Education Environment
• Preschool Outcomes
• Facilitated Parent Involvement
• Disproportionate Representation – Child with a Disability
• Disproportionate Representation – Eligibility Categories
• Child Find
• Early Childhood Transition
• Secondary Transition
• Postsecondary Outcomes

Ottawa Area ISD provides training and support to all local school districts and public school academies in Catamaran. 

MDE State and Due Process Complaint Documents 

The Michigan Department of Education (MDE), Office of Special Education (OSE) has released revised and new guidance documents regarding the state and due process complaints and procedures. 

The following are the documents are available for download:

Due Process Complaint Procedures

Model Due Process Complaint/Request for Hearing Form

For more information visit the MDE website. 

Special Education Mediation Services

The SEMS is a federally funded project of the Michigan Department of Education, Office of Special Education. The SEMS provides no-cost facilitation and mediation services in early intervention and special education.

SEMS Brochure