1. SESIS Request for Assistance – Contracting Out
Welcome to SESIS
Hello everyone. Welcome to today’s webinar which will provide an overview of the Request for Assistance process with a focus on Contracting Out. First we are going to spend some time reviewing this PowerPoint presentation which will provide much of the overview. Then we’ll log into the SESIS training environment and run through the contracting out process. Note that we will not be reviewing the Assessment Authorization (AKA: independent service providers) process today but will schedule a webinar in the near future where we will cover this.
At the end we will save a few minutes for questions and answers.
Remember that this webinar is being recorded and can be viewed at anytime. The PowerPoint we’re using will also be available for download.
SESIS Request for Assistance – Contracting Out

2. Responsibilities of network staff in contracting out in SESIS
Learning Objectives
By the conclusion of today’s training you will be knowledgeable on the following:
Accessing training and reference materials on the SESIS web portal and in the SESIS tool
Responsibilities of the school-based Psychologist in requesting assistance in SESIS
Responsibilities of network staff in contracting out in SESIS
Responsibilities of contract agency supervisors in SESIS
Responsibilities of contract agency evaluators in SESIS
Who to contact for OT/PT evaluation assistance
How to send and receive messages in SESIS
New York City Department of Education | Special Education Student Information System Project

3. Website Supports for Case Closing, Discharge and Declassification
Periodic updates on SESIS functionality and processes are regularly reported in the following:
SESIS Weekly Bulletin
Principal’s Weekly
School Support Weekly
SESIS Help Topics (i.e. Help Desk database)
Access to the SESIS portal
If your computer is on the DOE network:
If you are not on the DOE network:
For non-DOE staff:
Beyond this webinar we also have other resources you can review and those include the SESIS Weekly Bulletin! Published each Tuesday as an announcement on the SESIS homepage. The Principal’s Weekly, School Support Weekly and we also have the SESIS Help Topics … which can be accessed directly from the HELP link in the application and will provide you with step by step overviews of all the processes we cover today.
To get to the SESIS portal and access all of our other materials, including archived versions of the above, use the addresses you see on the slide. 3 3

4. Website Resources Related to Request for Assistance
Training and reference information on the SESIS portal for Request for Assistance include:
Workflow Documentation
Placemats:
Major Workflows in SESIS 2
Brown Bags:
Assessment Planning: Initial/Annual/Reevaluation/Mandated 3 Year
Computer Based Training Modules:
Evaluation Module
Arranging Evaluation Assistance
Training Guides
Evaluation
We also have a variety of resources that are specifically related to the Request for Assistance process.
The most comprehensive and the newest are the workflow documentation for each of the methods of assistance (redeployment, per session etc ..) so I encourage you to go out to the website and download those …. They’re short, concise, provide step by step directions, and include screenshots!
New York City Department of Education | Special Education Student Information System Project

5. Website Resources Related to Request for Assistance
Training and reference information is also available from directly within the SESIS tool
New York City Department of Education | Special Education Student Information System Project

6. Request for Assistance – Types and Notification Options
Types of request for assistance
Return to School
Redeployed
Per Session
Contract Out
Assessment Authorization
DOE Staff with Translator
Request for assistance notifications
SESIS messaging
Request for Assistance Report
To start, let’s review the “types” of assistance that can be provided. Keep in mind the list displayed on the slide is in the same hierarchy that will be used when determining which kind of assistance is needed. In other words Contracting Out and Assessment Authorization will ONLY be utilized when all other types of assistance such as redeployment or per session are determined not to be feasible.
Once the request has been made there are two ways that Supervisors of Psychologists, Speech and ORCS can be notified. The first is via the SESIS messaging system and that’s what we REALLY want to promote as a vital part of the RFA process. The second way is by checking the RFA report, but the way the reports are CURRENTLY set up makes this a more tedious process, so you will here me emphasize the critical nature of using SESIS messaging throughout this presentation.
New York City Department of Education | Special Education Student Information System Project

7. Common Starting Place for Each Request for Assistance Workflow
Psychologist
Selects Request for Assistance (RFA) on the Assessment Planning (AP) document and notifies the Supervisor of Psychologists/Speech of the request
SESIS
Populates the Request for Assistance homepage report with the request (each school has a separate report)
Supervisor of Psychologists/Speech
Accesses the student’s AP document, selects the Request for Assistance section, and selects the type of assistance that will be provided
Regardless of the type of assistance that is eventually provided for the assessment, they all have a common starting point and that’s what this slide provides an overview of.
First, the school psychologist will select Request for Assistance for the particular assessment on the Assessment Planning document and then they will NOTIFY the Supervisor of Speech for Speech evaluations, ORCS for OT/PT and the Sups of Psychologists for any other type of assessment by sending a message to the supervisor in the system – FROM the AP document.
SESIS (blue square) will then populate the RFA report with the request, but again, the more efficient thing to do would be for the Supervisor to open the SESIS message sent by the psychologist that should now be waiting on their homepage.
Next the Supervisor will open the student’s AP document, select the Request for Assistance screen and select the type of assistance that will be provided for the assessment.
New York City Department of Education | Special Education Student Information System Project

8. Request for Assistance – Contract Out Workflow
Select Contract Out
The RFA report is updated to reflect “Contract Out”
The student populates the caseload of the agency supervisor
Navigates to the Agency Supervisor Action screen in the AP, assigns an evaluator to the student
Completes the evaluation and changes status to “Review”
Reviews the evaluation; approves, requests revisions or disapproves
Once approved, completes billing section, changes the status to “Final”
The RFA report indicates “Submitted”. Removes student from caseload
This slide gives an overview of the contracting out process in SESIS. It outlines what we like to call the “happy path” … in other words if everything goes accordingly and is approved, the flow will work much like this. We have detailed workflow documentation for contracting out on the SESIS website that outlines the “unhappy paths” as well …. Meaning, it documents for example:
what happens if the contract agency requests an extension?
What happens if the supervisor disapproves the evaluation?
All of that is documented in the contracting out workflow on the website (with screenshots!) so I encourage you to download those and review them because we won’t have time today to make it through each of those scenarios.
Sup of Psych/Speech
SESIS
Agency Supervisor
Agency Evaluator
New York City Department of Education | Special Education Student Information System Project

9. Request for Assistance – Process for OT/PT Evaluations
Psychologist
Selects Request for Assistance (RFA) on the Assessment Planning (AP) document and notifies ORCS of the request **
SESIS
Populates the Request for Assistance homepage report with the RFA request, updates the report as the request is processed by ORCS
ORCS
Monitors the Request for Assistance homepage report, accesses the student’s AP document, selects the Request for Assistance section, and redeploy DOE OT/PT Evaluators
We went over this on the webinar earlier today but it is wroth mentioning again. OT and PT evaluations should NOT be contracted out. The only difference between this slide and the last is that all OT/PT requests are managed by ORCS. This message really needs to trickle down to the school psychologists so the Sups of Psych are not inundated with messages. If a Supervisor of Psychologist receives a request for OT/PT, they should forward this request to ORCS who will then manage the remainder of the RFA process in the system. Once ORCS has been notified, the OT/PT evaluation coordinators who will manage the RFA screen by redeploying the appropriate DOE OT/PT staff to be assigned to the evaluation.
The next screen tells us exactly who should be notified …
New York City Department of Education | Special Education Student Information System Project

10. Request for Assistance – Process for OT/PT Evaluations
When requesting an OT/PT Evaluation a message should be sent via SESIS notifying them of the request.
For non-D75 public schools send messages to the following:
For OT requests: Huey Ying Lin
For PT requests: Goldie Weingarten
For D75 schools send messages to the following:
For OT requests: Joel Levine
For PT requests: Cynthia Aridas
Whenever assistance is needed for an OT/PT need here are the people that should be messaged in SESIS. You can easily search by last name when sending the message.
LOG IN TO THE SYSTEM
New York City Department of Education | Special Education Student Information System Project

11. Common Ending Place for Each Request for Assistance Workflow
Supervisor of Psychologists/Speech/ORCS
Once the Request for Assistance section is completed in the Assessment Planning document, the Supervisor should notify the school
Psychologist
Finalizes the Assessment Planning document once all assessments have been completed and finalized
SESIS
Removes the student from the Request for Assistance homepage report and the student is no longer on the selected evaluator’s caseload, where applicable
The RFA process also has a common ending point. Once the evaluation has been completed and finalized, the supervisor or ORCS should notify the school psychologist that it is complete. From there the psychologist will finalize the assessment planning document once all assigned assessments have been finalized.
SESIS will then remove the student from the RFA report and also remove the student from the caseload of the evaluator that completed the assessment.
One other thing to note …. When a school-based team needs assistance with a bilingual assessment and consent has not been obtained, they will still use SESIS to initiate the request and finalize the assessments, however, right now there is a workaround. Currently SESIS is not set up to manage assessments without consent, so these will be done on paper and faxed into SESIS. The workaround documentation will be posted on the SESIS website.
New York City Department of Education | Special Education Student Information System Project

12. BACK TO SYSTEM FOR FAXING
Faxing in SESIS
There are two types of fax coversheets in SESIS:
Document-specific fax coversheets
Documents Related to Assessment
A fax coversheet is provided specific to each assessment template in SESIS in the event that the evaluation is not able to be input directly into SESIS
If the assessment template exists in SESIS, use it. If an assessment (e.g. Speech) is being provided that is planned to be faxed in, you MUST use the template and its document-specific fax coversheet! Never use the “Documents related to Assessments” it is to be used for “actual” documents related to an assessment such as a sample of a student’s work as part of the evaluation.
A cheat sheet is available on the portal with best practices and troubleshooting tips on faxing.
BACK TO SYSTEM FOR FAXING
New York City Department of Education | Special Education Student Information System Project