I just heard the news that ECATS is going clear the workspace from an IEP during annual reviews beginning in July. I know this was originally put into action at the beginning of the 2021 school year, and I and many other EC teachers reached out to then-Assistant Director of the Exceptional Children's Division Matt Hoskins after experiencing for ourselves how long writing each IEP from scratch took. He took the time to listen to feedback from EC teachers in the trenches, and we were able to get the ECATS system back to populating the IEP documents. I'm BEGGING you, if it is in your power, to consider keeping the ECATS system as it currently is for the following reasons:

1. In an annual IEP review, the entire purpose is to REVISE and REVIEW the information contained in the document, which is impossible to do if the information is cleared.
2. Accommodations rarely need to be completely changed- what a student needs to be successful in class one year tends to be the same the following year. The accommodations page is the most time-consuming part of the IEP to complete from scratch. It is much easier to make changes to/tweak/delete the existing accommodations after discussing them as a team than it is to rewrite them completely.
3. Teachers as a whole, and especially EC teachers, are having a more difficult time than ever in this profession. We are losing teachers at an alarming rate in North Carolina, and numerous EC teacher vacancies are posted. This one seemingly small change of erasing IEPs has a HUGE impact on the amount of time we spend on the paperwork part of our jobs- taking direct time away from students. 
4. If this change is in response to some teachers not updating their IEPs correctly, please don't punish the majority of us who do the right thing!
5. I am afraid that it will cause even more EC teachers to leave special education, or to leave the teaching profession completely. It might be the one straw that breaks the overworked/underpaid camel's back.
6. If it is a change that is absolutely going to happen, is there any way to only have the present levels page erase, instead of the entire document?
7. I am afraid that erasing all the current data would result in many errors/information being inadvertently left out/changed from the previous IEPs, which could possibly then result in new and different lawsuits.

PLEASE keep ECATS from erasing IEP data- THANK YOU!