CALPADS Special Education Data Import: Accepted Headers, Field Types, and Constraints

This article describes how to prepare a CALPADS Special Education import file for use in Aeries. It covers the accepted column headers for each field, the expected data type, and any length or format constraints enforced by the import processor. Two files are supported: the Special Education Program File (Type A) and the Student Services File (Type B).

As part of the CASEMIS to CALPADS (C2C) transition, the CDE updated from the CASEMIS Table A and Table B formats to the CALPADS Special Education Program and Student Services formats beginning in the 2018-2019 school year. Most old codes will still display a description; however, some codes were reassigned new descriptions as part of the C2C transition. Aeries recommends updating student Special Education records to use the current code sets.

Step 1: Review Import Requirements Before Preparing Your File

Before formatting the import file, note the following rules that apply to both Type A and Type B files:

• Headers are case-insensitive. Column header matching is not case-sensitive. For example, SSID, ssid, and Ssid are all accepted.
• Alternative headers are supported. Each field accepts multiple column header names. Unrecognized headers generate a warning but do not stop the import, unless a key matching field is missing (see below).
• Key matching fields (Type A). The import requires at least one of the following headers to be present: SSID, LocStudID, or EIDtifier. If all three are missing and unrecognized headers are also found, the entire import is aborted with an error.
• Student matching order. Aeries first attempts to match on SSID → STU.CID. If no match is found, it falls back to LocStudID → STU.ID. Records that do not match either are skipped without error.
• Transaction Type Code behavior. For Type A, only a value of A (or a blank value) triggers an Add/Update. For Type B, both A and R trigger processing. Any other value is silently skipped.
• NULL string values. If any field contains the literal text NULL, it is treated as empty and skipped.
• Date fields. All date fields accept any parseable date format. Invalid or unparseable date values are treated as null and stored as blank — no error is generated.

Step 2: Format the Special Education Program File (Type A) Columns

The table below lists every supported field in the Type A file. Use any of the listed accepted headers as the column name in the import file. Fields with no length constraint have no minimum or maximum character requirement enforced by the import.

Step 3: Format the Student Services File (Type B) Columns

The table below lists every supported field in the Type B file. Note that existing service records for a student are deleted before new records are inserted, once per student per import run.