FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
S
TATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
T. WILLARD FAIR,
Chairman
Members
DONNA G. CALLAWAY
DR. AKSHAY DESAI
ROBERTO MARTÍNEZ
PHOEBE RAULERSON
KATHLEEN SHANAHAN
LINDA K. TAYLOR
Dr. Eric J. Smith
Commissioner of Education
MEMORANDUM
TO: District Superintendents
FROM: Dr. Eric J. Smith, Commissioner
DATE: February 26, 2008
SUBJECT: Sunshine Connections and Portal to Exceptional Education Resources (PEER)
Web System
The purpose of this memorandum is to provide an update on the Sunshine Connections and
Portal to Exceptional Education Resources (PEER) projects.
Section 1003.576, Florida Statutes, states that “The Department of Education must develop and
have an operating electronic IEP [individual educational plan] system in place for potential
statewide use. The statewide system shall be developed collaboratively with school districts and
must include input from school districts currently developing or operating electronic IEP
systems.” The statute does not mandate district participation in the statewide system; districts
may continue to use purchased systems or district-developed systems if they so choose.
The PEER system under development by the Department of Education (DOE) requires no data
management fees, maintenance fees, or design costs to districts and will be continually updated
to align with federal and state requirements, and ultimately will provide a useful and cost-
effective tool for districts to use in implementing their exceptional student education (ESE)
programs.
The PEER system is designed to comply with the statutory requirements related to IEPs, while
also providing districts with the tools needed to address a much wider range of student services
and exceptional education procedures. The application currently supports the development of
Sunshine Connections and PEER Web System IEPs, including parent notices and progress
reports. Matrix of services documents, services plans, and educational plans are under
development, as well as intervention, referral, evaluation, and eligibility procedures. In addition,
325 W. GAINES STREET • TALLAHASSEE, FL 32399-0400 • (850) 245-0505 • www.fldoe.org
Sunshine Connections and Portal to Exceptional
Education Resources (PEER) Web System
February 26, 2008
Page 2
the Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services is finalizing the development of a
Web-based Medicaid Tracking System (MTS) that will be available to districts through the same
Sunshine Connections portal as PEER. The Web-based MTS will allow service providers such as
therapists to easily check Medicaid eligibility and bill Medicaid for direct services, thus reducing
the need for districts to utilize administrative personnel to accomplish this task.
In December 2007, the Sunshine Connections and PEER systems were deployed in the P.K.
Yonge Developmental Research Laboratory School at the University of Florida and Gulf County
School District. Based on feedback from those two districts, enhancements were made to the
flexible authorization system (FAS) tool used by district personnel to assign authorization to
local users (i.e., “build” IEP teams for individual students). This new version, FAS 1.5, has been
tested, and deployment in seven additional districts is scheduled in the next four to six weeks.
If you have any questions regarding PEER, please contact Bambi J. Lockman, Chief, or Kim
Komisar, Program Director, at 850-245-0476 or via e-mail at Bambi.Lockman@fldoe.org or
Kim.Komisar@fldoe.org. For questions regarding MTS, please contact Susan Douglas, Medicaid
Consultant, at 850-922-3727 or via e-mail at sdouglas@coedu.usf.edu. For questions regarding
Sunshine Connections, please contact Greg Giese, Systems Architect, at 850-245-9310 or via e-
mail at Greg.Giese@fldoe.org.
cc: Senator Stephen Wise
MIS Directors
ESE Directors
Student Services Directors
Frances Haithcock
Jay Pfeiffer
Pam Smith
Jeff Sellers
Bill Wyman
Greg Giese
Bambi J. Lockman
Kim Komisar
Chuck Lynd
Bettye Hyle
Susan Douglas
