Next Home Base Maintenance Window - Sept. 17-20, 2021

The next Home Base maintenance window is scheduled to begin September 17, 2021.  Currently, PowerSchool is the only known application that will undergo maintenance.  All other Home Base applications will remain available.

The PowerSchool application will be brought down for one night only, Friday, September 17 at 7 p.m. and returned to service by 7 a.m., Saturday morning, September 18.  The application will be made accessible to all users once maintenance is complete.  Please share this message with other staff as appropriate.

Note:  Each year, a list of scheduled maintenance windows are published by NCDPI.  This is published in advance to help teachers and administrators better prepare for temporary outages and loss of access.  Please review the 2021-2022 maintenance schedule and put these dates on your calendar. In most cases, the entire window is not necessary and we can return systems to service earlier than listed. If emergency maintenance is required in addition to these scheduled dates, all users will be notified in advance.

State Reporting Reminder 

Start-Time and End-Time Collection

The Fall School Start-Time and End-Time Collection is due September 15, 2021, and should be approved at the school and district level in PowerSchool. Prior to running this report, remember to enter the school start-time and end-time in PowerSchool. Contact studentaccounting@dpi.nc.gov for further questions. 

Please review the QRD for assistance:

https://files.nc.gov/dpi/documents/school_info/PS_QRD_SET.pdf

State Assessments in Schoolnet

The Schoolnet team is currently working to input the preferences PSUs selected on the feature opt-in form. PSUs will begin seeing additional state assessments in the system very soon!

Currently, only the BOY and MOY Certica Testlets and NCDPI Math Sets have been made available. These tests were recommended to the district level only. A preliminary list of the available test IDs can be found here.

Please note: PSUs who requested these tests to be recommended directly to their teachers will utilize a separate copy of these assessments with different test IDs. A comprehensive list of test IDs will be shared as soon as it is available.

Please reach out to john.mairs@dpi.nc.gov if you have any questions about state assessments in Schoolnet for the 2021-2022 school year.

Reminder:  Attendance Code and Category Sync

NCDPI previously implemented the syncing of Attendance Codes from the enterprise controller. The 24 approved Attendance Codes and the following attendance code fields are syncing regularly from the enterprise controller:

• Code
• Description
• Presence Status
• This attendance code is considered in ADA calculations
• This attendance code counts towards membership

Removing the “New” button on the Attendance Code page and enabling the sync for the above fields was phase 1 of this project.

Reminder:  Guidance for Attendance - August 2021

Use of the 1R present off-site attendance code will continue to follow the guidelines as shown below from the SASA manual.

Initial Enrollment of Student

A student may not be enrolled in membership unless they are present on their initial date of enrollment.

• If a student is on-site on their initial date of enrollment and is present at least one-half of the instructional day, the student is “present on-site.
• If a student is scheduled for remote instruction on their initial date of enrollment, a positive two-way communication is required between the student/parent/family and a school official designated by the school. For instance, a documented phone call, electronic communication or meeting. If an email is used to communicate, the date of the response from the student is considered the date of the initial enrollment. The student is “present off-site.” An evidence of work is not sufficient for the initial date of enrollment.

Attendance

Attendance must be taken each day of the school year in PowerSchool for on-site and remote instruction days.

A student is considered present for the purposes of daily attendance during a remote instruction day and with the exception of the initial enrollment day as described above:

• If a student completes their assignments for each remote instruction day, either online or offline; and/or
• If a student has a daily check-in, a two-way communication, with the appropriate teacher(s):
• In grade K-5, homeroom teacher
• All other grade levels, each course teacher as scheduled

Public school units shall communicate the attendance procedures to students and parents/families before the first day of remote instruction begins. It is a local decision as to the method of this communication.

In order to be considered in attendance, a student must be present on-site for the school day or at a place other than on-site with the approval of the appropriate school official for the purpose of attending an authorized school activity.

Reminder:  OCR/CRDC - EDDIE Contacts 

Please read and inform other staff as appropriate.

Dear Coordinators,

The Office of Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) submission window for the 2020-2021 school year opens in December 2021. Note:  PSUs that were not open in the school year 2020-2021 are not required to participate in this collection.

PSUs  must verify and update the EDDIE system with two Staff who have been identified as the 'Office of Civil Rights Coordinator'.  Delete any records in EDDIE for OCR contacts that are no longer valid for your PSU.  These staff are the technical contacts for the CRDC and will be responsible for running the PowerSchool CRDC Preview Report, verifying data, correcting and adding data to the Federal CRDC tool, and certifying in the Federal CRDC tool when the collection is complete.

PSUs are also strongly advised to verify or update the Student Information Coordinator contact as well. 

Updates to the EDDIE system for the OCR Collection must be completed by the end of business, Friday, September 24, 2021. 

If you are unsure who your EDDIE administrator is, please visit the Subscribed User List located at https://www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/district-operations/financial-and-business-services/demographics-and-finances/eddie#help-using-eddie

More information about the CRDC is located at https://crdc.grads360.org/#program.  Notice on the homepage that there is a timeline of the CRDC phases. 

It is important to keep in mind that the NCDPI assists all PSUs with the CRDC by facilitating the transfer of data to the federal submission tool.  No action other than to update your contacts in EDDIE is required at this time.

Please contact Terra Dominguez at terra.dominguez@dpi.nc.gov with any questions you may have.

Welcome to Home Base - A Quick Video of Who We Are

Each year, PSUs experience an influx of new staff.  The Home Base Team is aware of these changes and has created a short video to help acquaint and reacquaint users with Home Base. 

Please checkout the  "Welcome to Home Base" video which gives a quick overview of what Home Base is and how all its components work together. Feel free to share it with your peers and use it in your trainings. 

Now Available: Keeping It Simple in Schoolnet 23 Self-Paced Course

The first self-paced Schoolnet course for the 2021-2022 school year is now available via NCEES, Canvas, and Home Base! This course is designed to be completed in about an hour and will award 0.1 Digital Learning Competency (DLC) CEUs. During this course, you will learn:

• What is Schoolnet?
• How do teachers and students access Schoolnet?
• How do teachers create Schoolnet assessments using readily available questions, including a look at the redesigned Test Details page?
• How do students take their tests?
• How do teachers analyze the results of Schoolnet assessments?

Complete the Canvas Studio video quiz as you watch, click Submit at the end of the video, and the credit will appear on your NCEES transcript automatically with a score of 80% or higher.

Register for this course: https://bit.ly/kisSN23reg

Follow Us on Social Media!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and begin receiving "Did You Know" tips featuring each Home Base product. 

These messages will include upcoming changes, tips, and even hidden treasures within each product to make your job easier.  If you are not following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, click on the links below and begin today!  Make sure you share this information with other staff within your school.

Instagram:  @nchomebase         Facebook:  @nchomebase       Twitter:  @nchomebase

NCDPI Technology Support Center

NCDPI's Technology Support Center continues to meet your support needs for:

• Schoolnet 
• NCEES/Unified Talent 
• Staff & Student UID (eScholar)

Support availability:

Web (NEW URL):  https://ncgov.servicenowservices.com/sp_dpi   -  24/7

Phone:  919-716-1840, Monday - Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. (excluding state holidays)

Technical support for SIS needs is handled directly by PowerSchool support using chat, phone, or by opening a case ticket.