NEW: Nominations Sought for Data Exchange Advisory Council

The Data Exchange Advisory Council is being formed to enhance Indiana's collection and use of educational data and will advise IDOE on matters related to the operation, management, and development of Data Exchange. The membership of the council will be around 10 members from schools and members of IDOE's team. The composition of the council will be diverse in school type and size and will have representation from multiple student information system (SIS) vendors. The council will meet monthly for approximately one hour. Initial membership on the council will be for the 2023-2024 school year which extends through June 30, 2024. Nominations will remain open until Thursday, August 31. IDOE plans to form the council quickly and convene the group for the first time in September. Contact the Data Exchange team with any questions.

REMINDER: Application Center Reporting - Educator Evaluation Rating (ER) 2023

The ER2023 Data reporting guidance layout is currently posted to the Data Exchange Moodle Community under resources and in the Data Exchange Knowledge Hub at School Support Hub > Reporting Guides > Staff Employment > References > ER (Educator Rating) Data Layout 2023. Educator Evaluation Rating data will be submitted via the STN Application Center. The Application Center reporting window will open August 30, 2023 at 8:00 am ET and is set to close October 27, 2023 at 4:00 pm ET. The ER 2023 layout will be posted soon. Remember that this is a rating report for educator staff that were employed in the 2022-2023 school year.

IMPORTANT REMINDER!!!! Staff Contact and Staff Association School Year 2024 Submission Required

Welcome back to the 2023/2024 school year! Below are a few important announcements for Security Coordinators.  Please note that IDOE will stop recognizing last year's Staff Contact and Staff Association roles on September 1st, 2023. This includes the Student Support Plans role, which provides access to the EdPlan application.  Therefore, it is an urgent matter that Staff Contact and Staff Association records be submitted to DEX by COB Thursday, August 31, 2023.

REMINDER: LINK Portal Setup and Review of Security Coordinators

The LINK Portal is able to recognize all public, charter, and accredited non-public schools’ local Google G-Suite or Microsoft 365 accounts. IDOE configures the organization’s leader as the first account, and the organization leader must log in to designate up to two security coordinators responsible for overseeing the setup of roles for others in the organization. All superintendents and leaders of non-public schools should log in to the LINK Portal and review/update their security coordinator information.

• Instructions for organization leaders on how to review/designate the security coordinators can be found online at https://www.in.gov/doe/it/link-initiative/.

• New public and Choice schools registration process for the LINK Portal can be found here. 

• New superintendents or organization leaders of non-public schools who need the first account configured should email link@doe.in.gov.

 REMINDER: Designation of Key Contacts

Security coordinators for all traditional public, charter, and accredited non-public schools are responsible for ensuring their organization’s key contacts for the 2023-2024 school year are set. Key contacts including the roles of Superintendent, Financial Contact, Special Education Director, Principal, Data Exchange Contact, etc. are needed for the 2023-2024 school year even if those contacts were provided last school year. 

For school corporations that have an Ed-fi student information system (SIS), key contacts and other staff role assignments should be entered and managed in the local SIS and then provided to Data Exchange/LINK for the new school year. However, all three options below are available:

1. Provide staff classifications in the local SIS per vendor’s instructions,

2. Add a staff type manually for the 2023-2024 school year via the Security Portal, or

3. Upload templates 008_StaffAssociation_StaffEdOrgAssignmentAssociation and 0009_StaffOrganizationContactAssociation into Data Exchange. 

Schools utilizing options two and three may cause overriding or loss of data. Schools should connect with their SIS vendor to better understand how to avoid data loss when providing data via multiple methods. 

IDOE will recognize active staff assignments/roles during the summer months from the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years and will begin recognizing only the 2023-2024 school year assignments beginning Friday, September 1. Security coordinator instructions can be found here. Contact the Data Exchange Team with any questions.

NEW: Ed-ID Reminders

1. Good news: Data Reporting Specialists have made good progress with catching up with Ed-ID requests.

2. Please take care not to submit duplicate requests. If you are not certain how the Ed-ID request functionality works in your SIS, please reach out to your vendor for assistance.

3. Specialists are concerned that Ed-ID request submitters are not monitoring the Student Management and Staff Management area of Ed-ID.

   1. When a specialist finds that a close match is found a processing note is added to the request pointing out their findings and providing the Data Reporting help phone number asking that the request submitter call the Help Desk to resolve the findings. Processing notes are available in the Student Management/Staff Management area.

   2. Additionally, if an update is requested that requires documentation to support the change, the specialist will add a processing note asking that a ticket be created and attach the documentation in the ticket. Again, the processing note is found in the Student Management or Staff Management area of Ed-ID.

REMINDER: Tips for the New Year

• When Calendar Grid on the October certification tab has zero days, check that the Calendar Dates Event Duration and EventMinutes data are completed.

• Did you remember to renew your Alternative Education Program for the 2023-2024 school year? There were a few corporations that forgot last year and were not able to submit Alternative Education student data for certification in July 2023.

• IDOE expects that all PK students enrolled and attending be submitted to DEX including student section associations and attendance data.

• Please submit student program records at the beginning of the school year for such things as Multilingual Learner, High Ability, Military family, Homeless, Food Service, Special Education, Title I, Alternative Education. You should not wait to add these records later in the school year.

• Note that IDOE expects that student attendance data for public, charter, and non-public schools be submitted every two weeks at a minimum.

• Calendar data must have been successfully submitted before any other data sets can be submitted to DEX.

New Schools

New schools may find value in reviewing the information in the New School Onboarding Community in Moodle. This is a new community that was created to bring together the information that new schools need to get started.

NEW: Good Cause Exemption (GCE) Reporting Due Friday, September 1

GCEs granted in 2023 must be reported using the GCE Intervention Plan Jotform by Friday, September 1, to ensure that necessary remediation is in place for the 2023-2024 school year. The form allows for multi-entry and single student entry options. An Excel template is provided here and within the form for a data upload option. Schools can download the template, add entries, and submit it through the Jotform once complete. Schools should allow two weeks for the GCE submission status to appear on the EdData IREAD-3 and ILEARN report in the LINK Portal. IDOE will begin reviewing corporation and school GCE submissions after Friday, September 1, and will follow up as needed. Contact IDOE’s Office of Student Assessment with any questions.

REMINDER: Membership and Enrollment

As the membership census date approaches, enrollment questions have increased. Please read the following memos regarding residency requirements, out of state enrollment, and enrollment denial. Contact Cathy Danyluk with any questions.

REMINDER: School and Corporation Profile Amendment Window

The school and corporation profile amendment submission window for the 2023-2024 school year is open through Thursday, August 31. In order for IDOE to maintain accurate information, all schools and corporations must provide notice when changes are made that affect school openings, closures, and reconfigurations. Information on the submission process can be found here. Contact IDOE's Office of Accountability with any questions.

REMINDER: Adjunct Teacher Permit Reporting

The Indiana General Assembly authorized local governing bodies to hire adjunct teachers and issue adjunct teacher permits in 2022 and added authority for hiring adjunct teachers and issuing local adjunct permits to charter schools and non-public schools during the 2023 legislative session. Schools hiring adjunct teachers on locally-issued adjunct teacher permits are required to report certain information to IDOE at the time of employment. Fill out this JotForm to report adjunct teacher permits.

To be included in statewide educator workforce data, each adjunct permit holder must also create an account in the Licensing Verification and Information System (LVIS) if they do not already have one, and each permit holder needs a school personnel number (SPN). If the permit holder does not already have an SPN, the school employer must request one via the LINK Portal’s Ed-ID system. Contact IDOE's Office of Educator Licensing with any questions.

REMINDER: 2023-2024 Alternative Education Program Renewal 

All approved alternative education programs must complete the annual renewal application by Saturday, September 30. In order to remain an approved program eligible for alternative education funding, this renewal must be submitted by the September deadline and approved by IDOE's Office of Student Pathways and Opportunities. Upon submission of the JotForm, a confirmation email with a copy of the responses will be sent to the superintendent. Contact studentpathways_alted@doe.in.gov with any questions.

REMINDER: Resolution of Conflicts for Membership 2023

Beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, the department will no longer be brokering the resolution of conflicts after the certification date.  If, after the certification date, schools are unable to resolve an outstanding conflict, schools may petition the State Board of Education for an adjustment in their ADM count by providing the Board with evidence supporting an adjustment in their membership claim. The process for petitioning the board will be made available this fall and communicated in Dr. Jenner’s Friday message. IDOE wants to make sure each school receives full funding for the students they are serving and complete the Membership count within two-three weeks of the count date.  This process will help achieve both of these goals. See the attached memo for a more complete explanation of this change.

School and Corporation Profile Amendment Window

The school and corporation profile amendment submission window for the 2023-2024 school year opens Friday, March 31. In order to ensure the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) maintains accurate information, all schools and corporations must provide notice when changes are made that affect school openings, closures, and reconfigurations. Information on the submission process can be found here. Contact IDOE's Office of Accountability with any questions.

Legislatively-Required and Other Guidance Surrounding Newly-Enacted Legislation

Following the close of each legislative session, the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) immediately begins working to implement newly-enacted legislation impacting K-12 education, which includes compiling guidance for educators. Guidance is a product of robust cross-agency collaboration and partnership with countless stakeholders. Any future updates will be added to this comprehensive guidance document and shared via the weekly newsletter.

REMINDER: Student Academic Record Collection 

Changes implemented for reporting course enrollments (student academic record replacing course completion collection) and outcomes will impact all schools that report course-level data to IDOE. These updates are occurring to improve the completeness of academic records for each student, to support metrics on the Indiana Graduates Prepared to Succeed dashboard, and to monitor Graduation Pathways progress. The full memo is available here and the related FAQ document is available here. Contact IDOE's Data Exchange Team with any questions.