PowerSchool HBMU Recording 

In last Friday's bulletin, we mentioned that we would include the link to the PowerSchool Home Base Meet Up recording.  If you were unable to attend the session or would like a refresher, links to the slides and recording are listed below.

PowerSchool HBMU Sept. 2021 Slides:  https://bit.ly/PS_Sept29   

PowerSchool HBMU Sept. 2021 Recording:  https://youtu.be/Ad4FcdKWaBk

We look forward to seeing you at the next set of meet-ups which will take place Nov. 15-19, 2021.  All meet-ups held during the 2021-22 school year will be virtual to alleviate safety concerns. A calendar of HBMU events is proved below.  Please mark your calendars accordingly.

Survey in Daily Bulletin

The Home Base Team’s mission is to provide digital tools to NC public school educators that will enhance instruction and learning.  To ensure our products are meeting the expectations of our customers, we are requesting your feedback.

The survey did not go out this week as planned but it is scheduled to be available in the Daily Bulletin on Moinday, October 11. 

Please take a few minutes to complete the short Home Base survey for teachers and administrators in the PowerSchool Daily Bulletin.  This survey will provide the information we need to determine what is working and what is deficient.  The information received will be used in making key managerial decisions and/or enhancements to our products; therefore, it is imperative that we receive your feedback.  Please click on the link below:

https://ncsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9pkzBQqS7MyfYb4

Do Not Run Fall Legislative Class Report

While the reporting window is open for the Fall Legislative Class Collection in PowerSchool, the latest logic changes have not been moved to production at this time; therefore, we are asking PSUs to NOT run or approve these reports until further communication has been shared by the Home Base team. Currently, the logic for combination classes are not in production as well as the latest changes to the class maximum enrollment numbers. 

PowerSchool Mobile App Issue

Some PSUs have reported that the PS mobile app is not working correctly or is returning an error message. PowerSchool has been able to fix this issue with a simple restart, but we have been asked to have PSUs that are still experiencing this issue to submit a case to PowerSchool Support.

Advanced Courses in Mathematics Report

As per the December 2020 Advanced Courses in Mathematics legislation, the PowerSchool Advanced Mathematics Courses (AMC) report collects enrollment in advanced mathematics courses for students in grades 6 – 12 during the current school year. The report submission window for 2021-2022 is from October 15 – October 31, 2021.  This information will aid in NCDPI’s reporting to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee.

The report shows enrollment counts and demographic information for both students who are currently placed in an advanced mathematics course and students not placed in an advanced mathematics course, for all students who achieved at the highest level on an End of Grade (EOG) or End of Course (EOC) mathematics assessment during the 2020-21 school year.  

LEAs are expected to run and approve the report both at the school and LEA levels for all schools offering grades 6 and higher.  AMC report submission is optional for Charter schools. 

Please contact Stephanie Cyrus at stephanie.cyrus@dpi.nc.gov with the Division of Advanced Learning and Gifted Education with questions.

Canvas Beginning of the Year Process

In collaboration with our Instructure Team, we have developed a Beginning of the Year document for NC Canvas Admins. This document goes through all of the necessary steps to stop and start your Canvas sync.  Please click the link and make a copy of the document, and share any feedback you may have.  

Link: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11efOdBnEkjQ4X5IHnxT1pbt7mWzOsepob028hebOoTc/copy

Amplify Support Services

Amplify continues to work to improve their technical support services. They have added an option for a North Carolina-specific support team with special training on our implementation. To access this support line:

Call 1-800-823-1969 and select:  

• 1–current customers
• 1–technical support
• 5–NC educators

Learning.com Needs Assessment Survey

This survey is designed for district-level administrators/coordinators to provide feedback on what outstanding professional development and support resources are needed to ensure successful implementation of Learning.com. 

Please complete this survey by Friday, October 22, 2021.  The results of this survey will drive professional learning, resources, and communication methods for North Carolina Learning.com participants for the 2021-2022 school year. 

Survey link- https://bit.ly/LCOMNCSurvey2021

If you have any questions, reach out to State Program Manager, Tiffany Kinney at tkinney@learning.com.

Reminder:  FTE School

NCDPI would like to inform all PSUs that the DPI FTE school should not be used as a holding school during the school year and there should not be any student records in this school within your instance. This school may be used as a temporary holding school during the EOY process, but students must be moved back to their previous school and transferred out as a no-show within your instance after EOY. Failure to remove these students causes double enrollment in ECATS, resulting in record transfer issues. Please see page 7 of the End-of-Year User Guide for instructions.

What is a No-Show student?

When a student is enrolled in a school but did not show up on the first day of school, they are referred to as a " No-Show".  For the No-Show students to report correctly, the Entry Date must be equal to the Exit Date. Summer No-Show students should have summer entry/withdrawal dates after July 1 and before the first day of school. NCDPI recommends summer dates of 7/6 – 7/6 to avoid enrollment, reporting, and transfer student record issues. Always ensure student Entry Dates and Exit Dates in PowerSchool are correct. For example, the exit date should never be before the entry date.

Reminder:  OCR/CRDC - SY2021 Getting Started Information - PowerSchool Setup

Please inform other staff as appropriate.

Note:  PSUs that were not open in the school year 2020-2021 are not required to participate in this collection.

Dear Coordinators,

Thank you for submitting your contact information in EDDIE for the CRDC collection.  EDDIE will continue to be the authoritative source for CRDC contacts moving forward.  Please remember to update the system if the collection process has been assigned to another staff member.  Contact information recorded in EDDIE as of September 24, 2021, for this collection will be sent to the federal partner support team for the first log-ins to the CRDC Federal Submission Tool.

SY20-21 CRDC Screens in PowerSchool are Ready for Update

All PSUs must perform specific functional tasks within the PowerSchool system prior to running the PowerSchool CRDC Preview report.  These tasks can be performed by a single staff member with access to all entities within the PowerSchool instance or some school level tasks can be delegated.  Update these screens before the PowerSchool CRDC Preview Report opens in October.

Download the ‘Setting Up PowerSchool for the CRDC’ on the NCDPI CRDC Documentation and Webinars page under the North Carolina Specific Process and Procedures tab.  On this page you will also see NCDPI's timeline the collection process, links to federal resources, and NC specific documentation.  Webinar events are still pending.

The OCR will Open the Federal Submission Tool in December 2021

For those of you who may not be aware, the OCR sent a communication on August 13, 2021, stating they will open the Federal Submission Tool to the nation December 13, 2021.  Users across the nation will have 75 days to make corrections and must Certify the data in the tool by February 28, 2022. The OCR also announced there will be back-to-back submissions.  The official OMB package has yet to be published for the school year 2021-2022 collection.   You can read this message and others on the NCDPI CRDC Communication and Support page.

PowerSchool CRDC Preview Report Opens October 25, 2021

To provide all PSUs as much time as possible to review data in the Federal Submission Tool, NCDPI will open the PowerSchool CRDC Preview Report Monday October 25, 2021.  The PowerSchool report will close midnight of Friday December 1, 2021. 

NCDPI has also been working with the PowerSchool vendor on improvements to the PowerSchool CRDC report.  Most noticeably this year is that all views reside in one report.  Also included are views at the LEA level that allow you as the data collector a more global view of the CRDC setup process within your schools.  In addition, the student detail reports at the school level have been grouped by data set and the logic has been improved.

Thank you again for submitting your information.  NCDPI wishes you a smooth collection year!

Please contact me (Terra Dominguez) at any time with questions.

Reminder:  Guidance for Attendance

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.

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

2021-22 NCEES Webinars

NCEES Webinars are held most Tuesdays from 4-5 PM.

Click on the Titles to Register. Navigate to Webinars 2021-22 to view webinar descriptions.

• NCEES Do you know tips  Tues. Oct. 12, 4-5 PM
• Utilizing Staff Groups and PD Playlists  Tues. Oct. 26, 4-5 PM
• Middle of Year Processes for Principals Tues. Nov. 30, 4-5 PM
• Middle of Year Teachers/Support Staff  Tues. Dec. 7, 4-5 PM
• Admin Reporting in NCEES  Tues. Dec. 14, 4-5 PM
• Understanding the Teacher Rubric - 2 hours  

RECORDING - PRESENTATION - FAQs

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.