Official Site of The State of New Jersey

Known Issue - Special Education: Fields Incorrectly Required When Parental Consent Is Not Obtained or Is Refused

During Special Education practice uploads, records may receive errors incorrectly requiring related services and educational environment fields when ParentalConsentObtained is reported as N or R.

When parental consent is not obtained or is refused, the following fields should remain blank:

• CounselingServices
• OccupationalTherapyServices
• PhysicalTherapyServices
• SpeechLanguageTherapyServices
• OtherRelatedServices
• PreschoolEdEnvironment
• SchoolAgeEdEnvironment

Continue to leave the affected fields blank when ParentalConsentObtained is N or R. Do not enter service or placement information solely to clear the errors.

Review the System Updates and Known Issues page for the latest status.

District Reports Updated for the 2026-2027 School Year

The Student List and Out of District reports were updated on August 25 to support School Year 2026-2027. This release also included fixes for missing Student List data and snapshot records.

When running these reports, confirm that School Year 2026-2027 is selected in the school-year filter.

If data is still missing or appears unexpected, submit a case through the “Contact Help Desk” button on the NJSLEDS system homepage. Include the report name, selected school year, district or school, filters used and approximate time of the issue.

High School Graduation Snapshot Closes August 31 at 5 p.m.

The High School Graduation Snapshot for 2026 graduates closes Monday, August 31, 2026, at 5 p.m.

Districts should review Student Management and inactivate all graduates, including summer graduates, in Student Management before the deadline. Only students who earned a state-endorsed diploma by August 31 should be reported with a SchoolExitWithdrawalCode of L.

Students who remain active when the Snapshot is captured will be counted as non-graduates in state and federal graduation rate calculations. Corrections after the Snapshot closes can only be submitted through the Graduation Appeals process.

Review the Graduation Data Quality Checklist and additional guidance on the High School Graduation User Resources page.

Special Education Practice Period and Updated 2026-2027 Resources

The 2026-2027 Special Education Practice Period opened August 20, 2026. The updated Special Education Data Handbook and Templates A and B are now available on the Special Education User Resources page. Download the current files before preparing or revising your submission.

The 2026-2027 release includes the following changes:

• TimeInRegularProgram and SpecialEducationPlacement have been removed from the submission.
• PreschoolEdEnvironment and SchoolAgeEdEnvironment have been added to collect educational environment information for federal IDEA reporting and least restrictive environment monitoring.
• Validation rules were added for SpecialEducationClassification code 19, Undergoing Initial Evaluation to Determine Eligibility for Special Education Services. When code 19 is reported, ReferralDate and ParentalConsentToEvaluateDate are required, EligibilityDeterminationDate must be blank, and the other fields identified in the handbook must also be blank.
• Preschool children with disabilities may now be reported using any valid SpecialEducationClassification value. Reporting is no longer restricted to code 12 (Preschool Child with a Disability), but code 12 is still restricted to preschool students only.
• School-year references were updated for ReferralDate, ParentalConsentToEvaluateDate and InitialIEPMeetingDate. Fields with no reportable value should be left blank. Do not enter the word "null."

Review the handbook for complete field definitions, acceptable values and validation rules. The practice period close October 15, 2026. Practice data is not an official submission and will be cleared. The Official Submission Period opens October 19, 2026 and closes November 16, 2026.

Resolved: SchoolEntryDate and DistrictEntryDate Validation for the 2026-2027 School Year

The Student Management validation for SchoolEntryDate and DistrictEntryDate has been updated to support students who are registered before they begin attending school. These fields are no longer compared with the current system date.

During the Fall Official Submission, historical entry dates and future dates through Fall Snapshot (October 15, 2026), are accepted. After the Fall Snapshot, historical entry dates and future dates through the End of Year Snapshot (June 30, 2027), are accepted. DistrictEntryDate must still be on or before SchoolEntryDate, and the existing REC/NREC exceptions remain in place.

If you received an error for an accurate SchoolEntryDate or DistrictEntryDate, do not change the value solely to clear the error. Re-upload the affected Student Management records so the updated validation can run. If a date is after the applicable snapshot date, or the relationship between two dates is incorrect, update the value in your local source system before re-uploading.

New User Toolkit Now Available

The new NJSLEDS Orientation Guide is available on the Key Documents page and through the New User Toolkit button on the NJSLEDS Home page. It provides a starting point for users who are new to NJSLEDS or taking on new submission responsibilities.

This guide covers system access, the general submission workflow, records and uploads, errors and validation, SID and SMID matching, permissions, snapshots and available support. It also includes a getting started checklist and glossary. Please share it with staff who are new to NJSLEDS.

Staff Vacancy Submission and New Fields

The 2026-2027 Staff Vacancy Fall submission is now available. Users should download the current handbook and template from the Staff Vacancy User Resources page.

Two fields were added for the 2026-2027 school year:

• NumberOfExternalHires: Candidates hired from outside the district.
• NumberOfInternalHires: Current district employees hired, reassigned or promoted to the position.

These fields apply only to positions reported with PositionType 3 or PositionType 5. Leave both fields blank while a position remains open. When reporting a PositionClosedDate, populate both fields, entering 0 when applicable. The combined number of hires cannot exceed NumberOfApplicants.

Staff Management and Staff Vacancy Lookup Updates

The following lookup changes are now available:

• Job Code 2728, Hospitality and Tourism Management, was added to the Staff Management and Staff Vacancy Job Code lookup list. The job code is associated with Job Code Subcategories 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 and has a Certified Staff Type value of Y.
• Staff Management District Entry Code lookup values were updated as follows:
  • Under "From a teaching position", code 07 remains "In a public or private college or university outside of NJ", and code 08 remains "In a state agency".
  • Under "From a college or university program of study", code 23 is available for "In a public or private college or university outside of NJ".
  • Under "From an educational support services position", "In a state agency" should now be reported using code 24.

Before preparing or revising a submission file, review the current acceptable values in the applicable Submission Handbook on the User Resources pages.

New Field Change, Merge and Delete Request Process

Student Management and Staff Management field change, merge and delete requests can now be submitted and tracked through the NJSLEDS Help Desk. Users can upload the required CSV UTF-8 file to the case, monitor its status through the View All Cases -> Case Details view and download an Outcome File after processing.

Download the applicable template and review the instructions before submitting a request.

File attachments can only be viewed for cases submitted through the new process. Attachments from earlier cases will not appear in the Case Details view.

Beginning-of-Year Sync Record Reminder

If a student or staff member was active in 2025-2026 but is not included in the district's first 2026-2027 Student Management or Staff Management upload, NJSLEDS creates a current-year record in Sync status.

Review these records and submit either the individual's current-year information or the appropriate exit or inactive information. When reviewing Current Records, use the School Year and Record Status filters to distinguish prior-year records from current-year Sync records. Omitting a previously active record from an upload does not remove it from NJSLEDS.