If the ME-50 validation error is triggering for your LEA, the new fields added to the Virtual Program record have not been completed. Three new fields were added to the Virtual Program record beginning in 2026 to identify how a student is receiving their virtual education with service begin and end date. The code value options for the Virtual program records are 3rd Party Educator, LEA Educator, LEA and 3rd Party Educator. A begin date is required for the service and and an end date when the service changes or student is no longer educated virtually. A check of the Student Program Associations resource on the DEX Review page will allow you to see the Virtual program record. Scrolling all the way to the right of the page you will find the Code Value field as well as the begin and end dates. Updated guidance has been posted to Knowledge Hub > School Support Hub > Reporting Guides > Membership > How to Report Students in Virtual Education.

The following items are all know concerns related to the GCE errors and are actively being investigated to provide a solution. Please watch Knowledge Known Issues for updates.

• Update: GCE-1 (Special Education program missing) is triggering for Service Only LEA

• Update: GCE-7 (Multilingual Learner program missing) is triggering for Service Only LEA

• GCE-8 is triggering when a student was enrolled in grade 3 in the 2025 school year and exited prior to March 1, 2025.

• GCE-8 is triggering for homeschooled students that receive SE services and have no IREAD test score for the 2025 school year.

• GCE-8 is triggering for homeschooled students that are not receiving SE services but are dual enrolled in a public school.

• GCE-8 is triggering for single-day mobility records for students that are not enrolled in the current school year.

REMINDER: Don’t Forget to Check Knowledge Hub for . . .

Change Log - find the Change Log in the School Support Hub to find guidance documentation that has been updated for the 2026 school year.

DEX Reporting in Development - find the DEX Reporting in Development log in the Communications Hub for the 2026 school year. This log is provided to inform schools of items that are currently under consideration, approved for development, in development, or deployed to DEX.

Known & Resolved Issues - find the Known & Resolved Issues log in the Communications Hub of Knowledge Hub for the 2026 school year. This log provides the status of Known Issues related to DEX reporting.

Office hours sessions are currently being scheduled with specific topics and open forum sessions. Please refer to the Calendar on the Upcoming Events page in Knowledge Hub. As the new school year begins, Office Hours sessions will again be offered on Tuesday and Thursday on certain weeks to accommodate Business Owner sessions on specific data sets.

Tuesday, 9/2/25 - 1:00 - 2:30 pm - Membership - Brenda Erbse UPDATE: Video and slide deck are posted to Knowledge Hub Tutorials for Membership.

Tuesday, 9/9/25 - 10:30 - 12:00 pm - open forum

Tuesday, 9/16/25 - 1:00 - 2:30 pm - Calendar, Attendance, Pupil Enrollment - Vanessa Bachle Video and slide deck are posted to Knowledge Hub Tutorials for Calendar, Attendance, and Pupil Enrollment

Thursday, 9/18/25 - 1:00 - 2:30 - Alternative Education - Penelope Bell

Tuesday, 9/23/25 - 10:30 - 12:00 pm - open forum

Thursday, 9/25,25 - 10:30 - 12:00 pm - Special Education - Brandon Myers

Tuesday, 9/30/25 - 1:00 - 2:30 pm - open forum

IDOE’s guidance regarding instructional time waivers for schools and corporations can be found here. Contact IDOE’s Office of Accountability with any questions. 

The Special Programs platform is a new IEP and ILP management system intended to better serve English learner and special education students. Improvements to the PowerSchool-powered platform are ongoing and we encourage schools to continue sharing feedback so that the system can be as user-friendly and student-centered as possible. Additional information regarding updates and improvements will be shared with schools soon.

As a reminder, the new platform can be accessed via the IDOE Special Programs tile within LINK, and a login guide for users can be found here. To access the platform, users must have the “Student Support Plans” role assigned to them and have completed the required Training Certification through the Special Programs Academy. District- and school-designated Technical Contact(s), listed as IEP/ILP Support in Data Exchange, are responsible for providing system access to users within 48 hours of receiving certification. Technical Contacts are users' first layer of support if assistance is needed in accessing IDOE Special Programs or managing security roles. To learn more about the platform, please visit the communication dashboard.

Be advised that the Data Reporting support team is unable to provide guidance or troubleshooting assistance for IDOE Special Programs other than confirming that staff requiring access to the platform have been assigned the 'Student Support Plans” role and that there are two staff assigned the IEP/ILP Support role.

• Each LEA should have 2 staff members setup with the IEP/ILP Support role. These staff are the designated contacts for creating a help ticket for IDOE Special Programs. Tickets can be created at http://help.powerschool.com

• Special Education questions may be sent to SpecialEducation@doe.in.gov

• The Office of Special Education has created Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to assist users of the platform

• Multilingual Learner questions may be sent to englishlearners@doe.in.gov

• Additional resources will be provided in the near future to assist users.

Access to most IDOE applications depend on the accurate role assignment within the LINK Portal. All superintendents and leaders of non-public schools should login to LINK and review/update who their Security Coordinators are.   

• Instructions for organization leaders on how to designate/update the security coordinators is found here. 

• New public and Choice schools setup of the LINK portal is found here. 

• If you are a new superintendent or the organization leader of a non-public school and need the first account configured, please email link@doe.in.gov.

The LINK Portal is able to recognize all public, charter, and accredited non-public schools’ local Google G-Suite or Microsoft 365 accounts. IDOE configures the organization’s leader as the first account, and then this person logs in to designate up to two security coordinators, who are responsible for overseeing the setup of roles for others in the organization.  Contact link@doe.in.gov with any questions.

Security coordinators for all public, charter, and accredited non-public schools are responsible for ensuring their organization’s key contacts for the upcoming school year are set. Required contacts are Superintendent, Principal, Special Education Director, and Chief Technology Officer. Additional contact descriptors can be found here. 

LINK roles, including the key contacts, are designed to be sent from the local Student Information System (SIS) to Data Exchange/LINK. When a person has an account in the local SIS, this is where the LINK roles should be set, according to the SIS instructions. Otherwise, when the staff classifications are resynched/resent to Data Exchange/LINK, they will replace any roles set with what is in the SIS. 

• Security Coordinator Instructions can be found here. 

• ICHAMP (Indiana Complaint, Hearings and Mediation Process) will utilize the following LINK key contacts: Superintendent and Special Education Director. It is essential that these two key contacts are reviewed by security coordinators and updated based on any necessary changes. 

A list of key contacts assigned may be found here.

The LINK Security Portal is now recognizing roles identified in both the prior and upcoming school years’ databases. Roles for the new school year are to be entered prior to Monday, September 1. This data may be provided directly from a school’s SIS. Staff not associated by this date will lose their access to IDOE systems. Prior year staff roles should not be removed. IDOE recommends roles be entered and managed in their local SIS; however, three options are available:

• Preferred option: Enter staff roles in the local student information system (SIS) per vendor’s instructions and send educator data for the new school year to IDOE.

• Add a staff role manually for the new school year via the Security Portal.

• Upload templates via Data Exchange.

To avoid data loss, please refrain from using multiple methods for a staff member.  

IDOE is launching a new statewide platform for managing Individual Education Programs (IEPs) and Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) for the 2025-2026 school year mid-July. Developed in partnership with PowerSchool, IDOE Special Programs will replace the current IEP and ILP platform. All schools will have access to IDOE Special Programs starting in late July. 

Educators will access the new IDOE Special Programs system via the LINK portal by having the “Student Support Plans” role assigned to them for the upcoming school year.  Ideally, these roles should be set within your local student information system. Those providing cooperative access will need their LINK Security Coordinators to enter this role via the LINK Security Portal for the new school year beginning Monday, July 1. A login guide for educators may be found here. 

Reporting enrollment data as soon as possible will be newly important for the 2025-2026 school year due to new state laws around promotion to 4th grade and because access to the state’s new IEP system depends on this information. It is no longer necessary to wait until the first day of the school calendar to begin sending enrollment (SSA) records to Data Exchange (DEX). IDOE will begin showing data that has been provided to DEX on Tuesday, July 15, and will begin running validations against the data. 

• Allowing enrollment data to flow as soon as possible will alert school staff if there are any concerns with a student being reported in 4th grade. (Data Exchange will process 4th grade enrollments according to new promotion rules related to IREAD proficiency.) Schools will have time to determine if the student without a passing IREAD score qualifies for a Good Cause Exemption (GCE) to the retention statute. The earlier this data is submitted, the more time schools will have to determine if the student must be retained in 3rd grade, contact parents, make updates to student schedules, etc. The earlier schools have this information the better for school staff, parents, and students.

• Allowing enrollment data as soon as possible will also assist with the new IEP/ILP system, which is set to go live on Friday, July 18. PowerSchool Special Programs (PSSP) will begin ‘pulling’ enrollment data from DEX which in turn will allow school staff to have access to student files within the special program’s software. Staff access to an IEP/ILP is entirely dependent on accurate enrollment records being submitted to IDOE.

IDOE will host a webinar for school attendance officers on Monday, August 25 from 2 to 3 p.m. ET. This webinar will provide information on attendance data, as well as an opportunity to discuss policies, procedures, and initiatives to increase and sustain student attendance. Please register for the webinar here. Contact Stephen Balko with any questions.

IDOE’s English Learning team will be hosting a virtual office hours session on Thursday, August 28, at 3 p.m. ET to provide tutorials and support for the new statewide platform to house Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) for English Learner students, IDOE Special Programs. In this session, EL-related features of the system will be reviewed, along with time for question and answer. See the IDOE Special Programs communication dashboard for more general information about IDOE Special Programs. Visit the Indiana EL Professional Development Opportunities Calendar for the meeting link. Contact IDOE’s Office of English Learning and Migrant Education with any questions.

The school and corporation profile amendment submission window for the 2025-2026 school year is open until Sunday, August 31. In order to ensure the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) maintains accurate information, all schools and school corporations must provide notice when changes are made that affect school openings, closures, and reconfigurations. Information on the submission process can be found here. Contact IDOE’s Office of School Accountability with any questions.