Accountable School (School of Accountability)

• The school that is ultimately accountable for the success of the student. 

Access School (School of Responsibility)

• The school that is responsible for providing special education services under an IEP or Service Plan.

ADM (Code)

• Average Daily Membership

  • A school corporation‘s ADM is the number of eligible pupils enrolled in the school corporation; or a transferee corporation; on count/census day. This helps calculate state tuition support, fund eligible choice scholarship amounts, and provide adult learner’s funding.

APC

• Adjusted Pupil Count

  • Students aged 5B turned five between December 2 up to and including August 1 (kindergarten eligible) of the current school year. Per pupil allocation is based on the primary disability and an additional count of students with a secondary disability of Language or Speech Impairment. Amounts are conditional on state budgetary availability.

API

• Application Program Interface

  • An API acts as conduit or road between two information systems, allowing them to exchange information.

Arrest OFF School Property

• Arrest off school property due to contact made from a school employee to law enforcement personnel. NOTE: Students arrested off school property and not reported by a school employee are not reported.

Arrest ON School Property

• Arrest on school property made by law enforcement officers, security guards, school safety specialists, other school employees, and any citizen arrest.

Bullying

• This includes Physical Bullying, Verbal Bullying, Social/Relational Bullying, Written Communication/Electronic Bullying, Combination (more than one type of Bullying)

  • Overt, unwanted, repeated acts or gestures, including verbal or written communications or images transmitted in any manner (including digitally or electronically), physical acts committed, aggression, or any other behaviors, that are committed by a student or group of students against another student with the intent to harass, ridicule, humiliate, intimidate, or harm the targeted student and create for the targeted student an objectively hostile school environment that:

    • places the targeted student in reasonable fear of harm to the targeted student's person or property;

    • has a substantially detrimental effect on the targeted student's physical or mental health;

    • has the effect of substantially interfering with the targeted student's academic performance; or

    • has the effect of substantially interfering with the targeted student's ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities, and privileges provided by the school.

• Reporting of Bullying Issues and the Definition of a Bullying Incident is defined by the local school(s) and may be subjective.

CAI

• Cambium Assessment Inc

  • Indiana’s assessment vendor for ILEARN, IRead-3, and I AM

Chemical Restraint

• Administration of a drug or medication to manage a student’s behavior or restrict a student’s freedom of movement that is not a standard treatment and dosage for the student’s medical or psychiatric condition.

CHIRP

• Children and Hoosier Immunization Registry Program

  • Part of the Indiana Department of Health. Please see their website here.

Certification

• Certification refers to the “signing-off” on data by school administrators. When data is certified, school administrators are vouching for its accuracy.

Criminal Gang Related

• A student who knowingly or intentionally actively participates in a criminal gang, or a student who knowingly or intentionally solicits, recruits, entices, or intimidates another individual to join a criminal gang.

  Note: “Wanna Be’s” – general rule; they are not a “wanna be” gang member if they are violating the law.

  Reporting of what is considered Gang Activity will be defined by the local school(s) and may be subjective to what is considered a gang issue. 

CSEP

• Choice Special Education Plan

Certified Employee (CE)

• Certified Employee is an archaic term no longer in use by Data Exchange. Please see “Staff Employment”.

Cohort

• Group of students who have the same expected graduation year. For example, the 2025 cohort, is the group of students expected to graduate at the conclusion of the 2024-2025 school year.

COLS

• Corporation of Legal Settlement

  • The public-school corporation whose geographic service area includes the student's legal residence and serves the student’s grade level. (This is the school the student would have attended, had other circumstances, needs, or parental actions intervened.)

CTE

• Career and Technical Education

  • You can learn more about CTE here.

CTC

• Corporation Testing Coordinator

Curricular Material

• Systematically organized material designed to provide a specific level of instruction in a subject matter category, including:

  • Books

  • Hardware that will be consumed, accessed, or used by a single student during a semester or school year

  • Computer software

  • Digital content

Curricular Materials Assistance

• Curricular Materials Assistance captures information on students eligible to receive free or reduced price meals through the USDA which also entitles the students to free Curricular Materials (textbooks). IC 20-33-5-2 Identifying and reporting of the student level data allows school corporations, charter schools, and accredited non-public schools to be compensated for curricular materials provided to those eligible students through a line item in the Department of Education’s budget.

Data Exchange

• The transmission and certification of state-wide school, educator, and student data between schools and the Indiana Department of Education.

Detention

• Student experiences disciplinary action at a time other than during instructional time (e.g., before school, after school, and weekends) in order to maintain an orderly and effective educational system. Such actions do not occur during instructional time.

• NOTE: Detentions are not counted as suspensions or expulsions and are not reported.

Ed-Fi

• Ed-Fi, also called the Ed-Fi Data Standard, is the set of rules for the collection, management, and organization of educational data that allows multiple systems to share their information in a seamless, actionable way.

Educating School

• The school or accredited program where the student is primarily enrolled and receiving their educational instruction; educational organization submitting enrollment records (or student school associations)

Educational Interpreter

• Interpreting is the act of relaying information between two languages. When one is communicating directly to a student without the use of an interpreter, this rule regarding interpreters would not apply.  An educational interpreter relays spoken English to the student using a signed language system.

• The educational interpreter standards apply to any person working in Indiana as an interpreter pursuant to 511 IAC 18-1-2. 511 IAC 18-1-5

  • This rule applies to a person who:

    • applies for state certification, 

    • works in a public or private school in grades preschool through secondary school in Indiana with a Deaf or hard of hearing student, and 

    • is hired as an interpreter or transliterator. This includes any interpreter/transliterator who uses American Sign Language, or who uses any code or method of communication used by Deaf or hard of hearing students including but not limited to Cued Speech, Signed English, Signing Exact English, Seeing Essential English, Conceptually Accurate Signed English (CASE), or oral methods of communication

  • This rule does not apply to certified teachers with endorsement to teach Deaf children unless the person is hired by a public or private school to work as an interpreter/transliterator.

English Learner

• A multilingual student, as defined above, aged 3-21, enrolled in K-12 schools, who

• Does not meet Indiana’s criteria for English proficiency, as determined by a WIDA placement or annual assessment. 

ESA Service Plan

• A document that describes Special Education services to be provided through the Education Scholarship Account program.

Expulsion

• Students removed from an educational setting to maintain an orderly and effective educational system.

NOTE: Schools are still responsible for the students until they either formally withdraw to another educational setting, dropout, or return after serving the term of the expulsion.

Former English Learner Student

• A student who met the above definition of an English learner but has since reached English proficiency via a WIDA assessment and has exited EL status. See IDOE EL Guidebook Chapter 8 for more information on exiting EL status.

Foster Student

• PER 45CFR Sec. 1355.20: Foster care means 24-hour substitute care for children placed away from their parents or guardians and for whom the title IV-E agency has placement and care responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, placements in foster family homes, foster homes of relatives, group homes, emergency shelters, residential facilities, child care institutions, and pre adoptive homes. A child is in foster care in accordance with this definition regardless of whether the foster care facility is licensed and payments are made by the State, Tribal or local agency for the care of the child, whether adoption subsidy payments are being made prior to the finalization of an adoption, or whether there is Federal matching of any payments that are made.

Foreign Exchange Student

• Student participating in a Foreign Exchange program agreement

• Student is not living in the US or US territory with a F1 Visa (these students are not considered foreign exchange students for purposes of reporting a foreign exchange program association record)

FTE

• Full Time Equivalency

High Ability Student

• High ability students are students that participate in a high ability program as defined by IC 20-36 and 511 IAC 6-9.1.

• High ability students have been formally identified by the school corporation’s multifaceted identification process, deemed eligible for high ability services, and are receiving services during the current school year.

• Students can be identified as High Ability in the following areas:

  1. General Intellectual

  2. Math

  3. Language Arts

  4. Other

Homeless Student

• A homeless student is defined as a student who meets one of the following criteria when considering their primary nighttime residence:

  • Doubled-Up: student shares housing due to loss of housing or economic hardship

  • Shelters and Transitional Housing: student lives there due to an emergency, domestic violence, or transitional shelter.

  • Unsheltered: student is living in a campground, trailer park, car, parks, public spaces, temporary trailers, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, or bus/train stations for lack of housing.

  • Hotels/Motels: Student living in hotels/motels for lack of housing.

Click here for more detail on the McKinney-Vento definition of homelessness.

HSE

• High School Equivalency

  • Formerly known as a “GED”

IEP

• Individualized Education Program

  • A legal document that documents and ensures access to a students' Special Education services & accommodations.

IIEP

• Indiana IEP

  • This system is utilized by Indiana schools to manage IEP’s under IDEA.

  • Measures student achievement and growth according to Indiana’s Content Connectors aligned to the Indiana Academic Standards. I AM is the summative accountability assessment for students with significant cognitive disabilities in grades 3-8 and grade 10. You can click here to learn more about I AM.

ILEARN

• Indiana’s Learning Evaluation Assessment Readiness Network (ILEARN)

  • the summative accountability assessment for Indiana students. ILEARN measures student achievement and growth according to Indiana Academic Standards for English/Language Arts for grades 3 - 8, Mathematics for grades 3 - 8, Science for grades 4 & 6, and Social Studies for grade 5, Biology for grades 7 - 12, and US Government for grades 9 - 12. Click here to learn more about ILEARN.

ILP

• Individual Learning Plan

  • for Indiana Multilingual Learner students.

IILP

• Indiana ILP

  • the system used for storing ILP data for Indiana Multilingual Learner students.

Immigrant Student

• Student age 3-21 as of census/count date of the reporting school year and NOT born in the US or US territories, and

• Student has not been attending a US school for more than three full academic years; including kindergarten and homeschooling (pre-school does not count)

• NOTE: The age at which the student came to the United States does not affect immigrant status. 

• NOTE: Immigrant students are not always English learners and can be native English speaking

Interim Alternation Education Setting (IAES)

• (511 IAC 7-32-53) (511 IAC Rule 44: Discipline Procedures)

• Student’s placement when the public school (traditional or charter) removes a student from the student’s current placement as a result of any of the following:

• Student has been removed for more than ten (10) cumulative instructional days in the same school year, but the removals do not constitute a pattern that results in a change of placement. The school may decide to provide services during the removal in an IAES setting.

• A Case Conference Committee determines a student’s conduct is not a manifestation of the student’s disability. The committee may determine that during any period of removal a student will receive services in an IAES setting.

• Student is removed by the school for not more than forty-five (45) instructional days for weapons drugs, or serious bodily injury. The student’s committee must determine the appropriate IAES setting for the period of removal.

In-School-Suspension (ISS)

• Student is removed from an assigned class or activity to another setting located within the school corporation or building in order to maintain an orderly and effective educational system.

• During the removal to another setting, the suspension must meet the definition of “instructional time,” pursuant to IC 20-30-2-1.

Instructional Time / Instructional Minutes

• Time in which students are participating in an approved course, curriculum or educationally related activity under the direction of a teacher.

• Instructional time includes a reasonable amount of passing time between classes within a single school building or on a single school campus, but does not include lunch or recess.

• Homework does not meet the criteria for “instructional time”.

NOTE: It is the responsibility of the local school or corporation to ensure the instruction provided meets the legal definition of “instructional time” (IC 20-30-2-1) which includes the criterion of being “under the direction of a teacher”.

IREAD-3

• Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination (IREAD-3)

  • A grade three reading assessment developed in accordance with state legislation. IREAD-3 is designed to measure foundational reading skills based on Indiana Academic Standards. The Indiana State Board of Education set forth guidance schools must use when making decisions about grade-level promotion, instructional plans, and Good Cause Exemption eligibility for individual students. The intent is to ensure each student receives the appropriate reading remediation based on IREAD-3 test data and their individual learning needs. Click here to learn more about IREAD-3.

LCP

• Locally Created Pathway

  • You can learn more about NLPS here.

LRE

• Least Restrictive Environment

  • LRE refers to the educational environment in which a student is educated. You can learn more about LRE, Program Names, and Setting Codes here.

LVIS

• (Licensing Verification and Information System), (pronounced “Elvis”)

  • is responsible for the assignment and management of Indiana teachers' and administrator’s licenses, as well as the generation of some SPN (Staff Personnel Numbers).

Mechanical Restraint

• Mechanical restraint means the use of:

  • a mechanical device

  • a material; or

  • equipment; attached or adjacent to a student’s body that the student cannot remove and that restricts the freedom of movement or all or part of the student’s body or restricts normal access to the student’s body

• NOTE: This does not include any mechanical, material, or equipment authorized by a licensed physician or other qualified healthcare professional. This does not include a bus harness or other safety equipment used during transport of the student for safety purposes as provided under 575 IAC 1.

Multilingual Learners

• Multilingual learner is a broad term inclusive of students of a variety of language backgrounds. Generally, Multilingual Learner refers to the following:

  • A student whose original Indiana Home Language Survey (HLS) identifies as least one of the following as ‘true’:

    • The native language of the student is other than English

    • The language most spoken by the student is other than English

    • The language spoken most often by the student in the student's home is other than English.

NLPS

• Next Level Programs of Study

  • The Office of CTE fully launched new secondary career and technical education courses in the 2022-2023 school year. This initiative, called Next Level Programs of Study (NLPS), aims to improve the consistency, quality, and intentionality of CTE instruction across Indiana. See a quick overview of NLPS in the CTE Career Guide here.

Non-English Speaking Student

• Student’s original Home Language Survey (HLS) identifies as least one of the following as ‘true’:

  • The native language of the student is other than English

  • The language most spoken by the student is other than English

  • The language spoken most often by the student in the student's home is other than English.

Non-Instructional Minutes

• Defined as time during which students are not participating in an approved course, a curriculum, or an educational activity under the direction of a teacher. Lunch and Recess qualify as Non-Instructional minutes.

Out-of-School Suspension (OSS)

• Students removed from an assigned class or activity to maintain an orderly and effective educational system; not allowed in building

• Students removed from an assigned class or activity to another setting located within the school corporation or building and does not meet the definition of instructional time; the suspension should be reported as an out-of-school suspension.

• Students can be suspended while waiting on an expulsion hearing (IC 20-33-8-23).

• Students may not be suspended from school pending a hearing on a student’s proposed expulsion if the expulsion is ordered for lack of legal settlement (IC 20-33-8-17).

• Students eligible for special education are subject to Article 7, Rule 44

Parental Consent Date

• the date which school personnel received written parental consent to conduct the Special Education evaluation, for either First Steps or initial Special Education evaluation.

Performance Qualified School Districts / High Schools

• Performance qualified school districts and high schools are established to provide flexibility in administration and instruction to school corporations and high schools that meet certain established performance criteria so that the school corporations and high schools may provide curriculum, instruction, programs, and educational innovations designed to engage students in achievement greater than the achievement required for the school corporations and high schools to be placed in the highest performance category or designation by the department under IC § 20-31-8.

Physical Restraint

• Physical contact between a school employee and a student:

  • in which the student unwillingly participates; and

  • involves the use of a manual hold to restrict freedom of movement of all or part of a student’s body or to restrict normal access to the student's body

• NOTE: This does not include briefly holding a student without undue force in order to calm or comfort the student, or to prevent unsafe behavior; such as running into traffic or engaging in a physical altercation. This does not include physical contact to escort or gently assist/prompt a student in performing a task or to guide or assist a student from one area to another.

Preschool Count

• The count of students aged 5A who will have turned five between August 2, 2023 up to and including December 1, 2023.

Primary School

• Identifies the school as providing the majority of the student’s education; as being the student’s Primary School

• Identifies if the student is included in overall certification counts

• Primary School = True – Student is enrolled and attending the majority of their day

  Primary School = False – Student is enrolled and attending less than the majority of their day

Refugee

• Newly arrived students who have been in the U.S. five years or less, and have refugee, asylee, or another eligible status as defined by the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). 

• Aged 0 to 18, or those 18 and older who are enrolled in high school or a high school equivalent GED program. 

• For more information on how ORR defines refugee and eligibility of services, please read ORR’s policy letter 16-01, and the Refugee Documentation Guide. 

School Resource Officer

• An individual who has completed the training and is employed by law enforcement agency.

School Wide Title I Program

• A Title I schoolwide program is a comprehensive reform strategy designed to upgrade the entire educational program in a Title I school in order to improve the achievement of the lowest-achieving students. In Schoolwide programs, all students are eligible. All students in the school are reported on the Title I collection.

Seclusion

• Confinement of a student alone in a room or area from which the student physically is prevented from leaving.

• NOTE: This does not include a supervised time-out or scheduled break as described in a student’s individualized education program, in which an adult is continuously present in the room with the student.

Section 504 Plan

• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires public schools to provide accommodations to students with disabilities even if they do not qualify for special education services under IDEA.

• To be protected under Section 504, a student must be determined to: (1) have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; or (2) have a record of such an impairment; or (3) be regarded as having such an impairment. See 504 FAC at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/504faq.

Service Plan

• A document that describes services provided by public schools for students enrolled in non-public school or homeschool settings.

STC

• School Testing Coordinator

Staff Classifications

• Staff Classifications refers to the roles, responsibilities, and permissions granted to a user inside of Data Exchange. The following staff classifications are available:

  • LEA Administrator - a superintendent or director level person within a corporation; responsible for the review and certification (sign-off) process of data

  • Financial Administrator - a CFO, financial officer, etc. within a corporation or non-public school; responsible for the review and certification (sign-off) process of data

  • School Administrator - a Director or Principal within a non-public school; responsible for the review and certification (sign-off) process of data

    • Above three classifications also required DATA CERTIFICATION staff classification to allow access to certifying (signing off) of data in each certification cycle

  • School Administrator - a principal within a corporation or non-public school that is not responsible for reviewing and certification of data (this classification should be used for public school building principals)

  • Data Administrator - ‘state reporting role’ staff responsible for uploading, reviewing data validation messages, and having an overall knowledge of student and staff reporting requirements

  • Data Viewer - staff only requiring view rights within Data Exchange; allows view rights to validation messages and total counts of student or staff data reported

Staff Employment

• This data is reported in compliance with IC 20-28-11.5-9 for the purpose of verifying staff employee years of service, IC 20-29-2-4 for the purpose of determining teacher retention rate, and 511 IAC 16-2-7(a) for determining credible services for licensing purposes.

Students of Active Duty Parent(s) or Guardians

• Students that have been identified as one or both parents/guardians are actively serving in any branch of the Armed Forces. Report students where the parents/guardians are or were active duty members of any Branch of the Armed Forces (Active Duty, National Guard and Reserve, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard) even if the parent becomes inactive during the school year OR if the parent becomes active during the school year AND you are notified; otherwise report the student the following year when data is collected for the new school year. 

Student Ed Org Responsibility Association

• Associates the student to the education organization identifying the student’s eligibility or non-eligibility for funding, the student’s Corporation of Legal Settlement, and the student’s Accountable school.

Student Program Association for English Language Learners

• Associates the student for reporting any of the English Language Learners programs.

Student Program Association for Curricular Material Reimbursement

• Associates the student for reporting the Curricular Material Reimbursement program.

Student Program Association for School Food Services

• Associates the student for reporting eligibility in the school food services program.

Student Program Association for Virtual Education

• Associates the student to the school identifying the student is participating in or being educated in a virtual education setting.

Student School Association

• Enrollment record – associates the student to the school with entry/exit dates and grade level of the student

Targeted Assistance Title I Program

• A Title I program where eligible children are identified as failing (or most at risk of failing) to meet the State’s challenging student academic achievement standards on the basis of using multiple, educationally related, objective criteria in a student selection process. In a Targeted Assistance school, the Title I funded activities and expenditures must benefit only students identified through the student selection process. Only the students receiving services are reported on the Title I collection.

Time Out

• Time Out means a behavior reduction procedure in which access to reinforcement is withdrawn for a certain period of time. Time-out occurs when the ability of a student to receive normal reinforcement in the school environment is restricted.

TIDE

• Test Information Distribution Engine

  • TIDE is the rostering system in Cambium (assessment vendor) used for Indiana state-wide assessments.

Ticket

• Also called a support ticket, tickets are a way to request 1:1 help from the Data Exchange Support Team. You can learn more about how to submit a ticket here.

Title I Eligible Students

• Refers to:

  • (a) those who are failing or most at risk of not meeting state student-performance
    standards in a Title I targeted assistance program or

  • (b) any student in a Title I school wide program

Unaccompanied Homeless Youth

• A student that is not in the physical custody of the parents or legal guardians and who fits the McKinney-Vento definition of homeless. See here for more detail.

Unaccompanied Youth

• A student that is not in the physical custody of the parents or legal guardians.

Waiver Days

• Pursuant to Indiana Code (IC) 20-30-2, all school corporations must conduct at least 180 instructional days during a given school year. Public schools that do not conduct at least 180 instructional days during a school year shall have the subsequent August tuition support distribution reduced to reflect the actual number of instructional days provided, unless the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) grants a waiver. IDOE may grant a waiver of a particular number of canceled days so long as the school or school corporation submits a waiver request to IDOE and the cancellations are due to extraordinary circumstances.

WIDA

• While WIDA used to be an acronym, WIDA now just means WIDA.

  • WIDA provides the English language proficiency placement and annual assessments administered in Indiana. WIDA Screener assessments are used to identify and inform initial programmatic placement of English Learners. WIDA ACCESS summative assessments are administered annually to determine an EL’s current level of English proficiency and to monitor students’ progress in learning academic English. WIDA ACCESS assessments are also used for accountability purposes. You can click here to learn more about WIDA.