FAQ
Reminders:- If you are a Local Education Agency (LEA) do not email APSEPs asking for data as they will be uploading directly.
- If you are an APSEP you may begin creating your spreadsheet at any time. Remember that all of the records can be on a single sheet. If you already created multiple sheets that is ok, you can upload them individually. Please see the APSEP Reporting Information page for more details.
- While attendance and membership are optional in TCS, LEA's are required to report this data in PSIS (the Public School Information System), which is a separate collection. If you are an APSEP please be prepared to provide this information to LEA's for this purpose.
What is an APSEP?
An APSEP is an Approved Private Special Education Program. Course and grade information for students who attend and APSEPs and are registered to a LEA are required to be reported in TCS.
Where can I obtain a list of APSEPs?
Directory information, including Organization Codes, is available on the Approved Private Special Education Programs (APSEPs) page of EdSight.
How do APSEP’s transmit their data to LEAs?
APSEPs upload their data directly into TCS. They have the ability to fix errors and upload again until the batch is error free. Records for multiple districts can be included in one file. After a successful upload, the data is distributed to each applicable district to review, edit, and process. If you are an APSEP do not email TCS spreadsheets directly to LEAs.
How do I know if an outplaced facility is an APSEP?
See the list of Approved Private Special Education Programs. Note that facilities from the prior year may have been added or removed.
Be sure to give your file a new name after you correct your data, and then upload again.
How do we meet TCS deadlines if there is an APSEP with an Extended School Year (ESY) or credit recovery courses that complete after the deadline?
All preliminary data must be reported by July 9, 2025. Your LEA will then have until August 20, 2025 to review, finalize and certify your submission.
- All records pertaining to schools in your district must be reported by the July 9 deadline
- All outplaced (including APSEP) and remaining records must be reported by the final deadline of August 20.
APSEP Questions:
How do I separate the districts in my file? What order should the students be in?
The students/districts can be in any order. Do not leave blank lines between the records.
If I have more than one facility, can I put all of the records on one spreadsheet?
This depends on if you have more than one facility code and login. If you do have more than one code then you must log on separately for each facility/login.
If you have one facility code all records can be reported on one spreadsheet. Do not skip rows between records.
I am an APSEP and I have the data already separated onto different spreadsheets for each district. Is this ok?
Yes, you can upload each spreadsheet individually. You do not have to combine your data back onto one spreadsheet.
How do I report records for a student who changed Reporting Districts during the year?If a course covered the time period when a student was in District A and in District B include two records for that course, one with District A as the Reporting District, the other with District B. If the Session Start/End Dates covered only the time a student was in one Reporting District list only one record (for each course) with that particular district as the Reporting District.
File Creation Questions:
Many Reporting District codes only have one or two digits. The leading zero disappears when I input it in the spreadsheet (example: 056 converts to 56). Is this an issue?
This is not an issue. The field does not have to begin with a zero. This also applies to other fields that may begin with a zero. For example a birthday of June 16, 2008 can be reported as 6162008.
I am an APSEP. Can we use the same template as last year? Are the columns the same?
Yes the template is the same as last year, however please note the following:
- Be sure to save the file as a .csv
- Be sure all number fields are formatted as MMDDYYYY
- If you cannot upload try removing the header and uploading again.
I have prepared the file using Google documents, does it need to be converted before uploading?
Yes - select File > Download as and select a file type (CSV). Then select Open or Save.
Coding Questions:
How should 1/8 of a credit (.125) be reported?
Three-digit decimal places are not accepted. The second character in both the Course Credit Earned field and Available Credit portion of the Course Code field must be a decimal. LEAs are advised to round.
EXAMPLE: Round 0.125 to 0.13
What is Project Lead the Way (PLTW) and when should these course codes be used?
Project Lead the Way is a national CTE based dual enrollment program. Similar to AP and IB, a PLTW course has standardized curriculum across schools, so the most recent versions of NCES/SCED have included the courses with PLTW-specific titles, and only courses that are offered through the PLTW program should use that code. If a school offers two courses, one through PLTW and one that is not through PLTW, then they should use different course codes for the two courses.
EXAMPLE: 21013 Aerospace Engineering and 21019 PLTW Aerospace Engineering
How should Capstone Courses be reported?
If the capstone course is topic focused, we suggest using either the “Independent Study” code or the “Workplace Experience” code for the subject that best fits the material, otherwise use the miscellaneous code.
EXAMPLES:
03147: Chemistry —Independent Study
03148: Chemistry – Workplace Experience
16197: Travel and Tourism – Independent Study
16198: Travel and Tourism – Workplace Experience
22997: Miscellaneous—Independent Study
22998: Miscellaneous—Workplace Experience