MICIP Continuous Communication: Clarification of Data Usage and Access

Data Usage and Access in MICIP

The information below is in response to a request during a recent statewide meeting to clarify the use of data in the Michigan Integrated Continuous Improvement Process (MICIP) platform.

The MICIP platform integrates with MiSchool Data and MiDataHub systems to provide district data views within the MICIP platform. No reports or district data from these systems are stored within the MICIP platform, but only URL’s and parameters needed to access the reports.

No student information as defined by Personal Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Heather information (PHI), and The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) information will be presented via the embedded reports. Based on the intake of reports into MICIP platform, it is not possible for individual student data to be displayed using these data sources.

Which reports are brought into the MICIP platform is determined by the district user. Each report is represented as a data tile within a data set. A user adds a report within the MICIP platform by navigating through a menu structure that is maintained by MiSchoolData and MiDataHub systems.  

The MICIP Application and Data Sharing Agreement is between local districts and the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) to stipulate terms assuring safety of data usage and access. Specific data shared by the district to MiDataHub is based on a district’s data indicated in Schedule A.

MICIP users will receive reports with aggregate data only.

The MDE does not possess student information nor does it otherwise have access to such information.

If, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), MCL 15.231 et seq, the MDE were required to respond to a request for student information, the MDE generally would deny the request under section 5(5)(b) of the FOIA, MCL 15.235(5)(b), which provides that, “[a] written notice denying a request for a public record in whole or in part is a public body’s final determination to deny the request or portion of that request [and] must contain . . . [a] certificate that the public record does not exist under the name given by the requester or by another name reasonably known to the public body, if that is the reason for denying the request or a portion of the request.”

Finally, the MDE observes that the disclosure of student education records, including personally identifiable information, is regulated by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) 20 USC § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99.  

It should be noted that this requirement of not sharing individual student data will be maintained for future generations of MICIP.