NC SIS Weekly Email Bulletin

North Carolina Public Schools sent this bulletin at 10/25/2023 03:52 PM EDT

October 25, 2023

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Digital Teaching and Learning

DISTRICT SUPPORT

NC SIS Weekly Email Bulletin

Topics in this issue:

Upcoming Student & Staff UID Systems Maintenance
Powerschool Upgrade 23.8*
Admin Staff Username and Password Issue*
ALOT Report
Guarding Privacy: Why PII Should Never Be Shared via Email
Enhanced Health Module
Discipline Code Updates
Special Programs Enrollment Now Available for PRC 188 and 189
PowerSchool State Report Due Date
SparkNC Module Course Coding
SY2021-2022 CRDC Partner Support Announcement*
Has your PSU Opted into Home Base?
PSU Home Base Contact Updates for the 2023-2024 SY
2023-24 Home Base Maintenance Periods

Always available:

1. Webinars, Recordings and Trainings

New Self-Paced PD Courses for Canvas

Schoolnet Self-Paced PD Course

Home Base Admin Course

2. NCDPI Technology Support Center

3. Follow Us on Social Media

*indicates new article this week

Upcoming Student & Staff UID Systems Maintenance

The Student & Staff UID Systems will both require a brief maintenance period from 3:00pm until 5:00pm on Friday, October 27th, 2023. This maintenance will require an outage of both systems.

During this period, PSUs should not enroll new students or staff in the NC SIS (PowerSchool). Additionally, PSUs will be unable to log in to either Student UID or Staff UID until the maintenance is complete.

The team will attempt to complete this maintenance as quickly as possible to minimize disruption; however, we are reserving a two hour maintenance window. Users may resume using the Student and Staff UID Systems as soon as they are able to log in successfully, no later than 5:00pm.

Please contact john.mairs@dpi.nc.gov with any questions. Thank you!

PowerSchool Upgrade 23.8

SIS Upgrade Updates

Reminder: Please review the following resources regarding updates to the SIS.

September SIS Digital Leader Exchange slides. http://bit.ly/SIS_Sept2023
PowerSchool Insider videos: https://help.powerschool.com/t5/Insider-Videos/Insider-Index/ta-p/58564
The PowerSchool Release notes for versions 22.12.x - 23.8 are available in your PowerSchool instance under the System Help icon in the upper right corner.
- Click the ? icon in the upper right corner of the page
- Click the version selection menu and select 23.8
- From the left menu, expand the release notes for 22.x and 23.x

Disregard any release notes that reference the new PowerSchool UI (User Interface) as NC will not be enabling it at this time due to the testing and modifications that will need to be made to NC customizations.

NCDPI is aware of the following post-upgrade issues:

Admin Username and Password updates not saving (see workaround message below). Resolved in version 23.9
Issue with Destiny/Follett Remote Connection - PowerSchool is in contact with the vendor to resolve this issue.
Final Grade/Reporting Term screen does not appear correctly after the upgrade - this issue has been resolved in all instances.

If your PSU is experiencing PowerSchool issues, submit a case to PowerSchool support

Admin Staff Username and Password Issue

After the PowerSchool upgrade to 23.8, NCDPI is aware that the Admin Username and Password cannot be updated manually on the Admin Access and Roles tab.

Navigation: Select Staff > Security Settings > Admin Access and Roles tab.

This is especially an issue when adding new admin users to PowerSchool, as SAML (IAM/NCEdCloud) uses the Admin Username field when authenticating. A workaround for this has been developed and placed in all PSU instances.

A custom screen called User Credentials is now available under NCDPI Screens in the left menu when viewing a staff account. This custom screen can be used to update the Admin Username and Admin Password on the Admin Access and Roles tab.

To update the Username or Password under Admin Access and Roles tab:

Click User Credentials link
Enter new Username and Password on the Staff Usernames screen
Click Submit
Navigate back to the Admin Access and Roles tab and note the changes have been made.

ALOT Report

School Allotment Child Count Transfer (ALOT) Due November 10

This report is to track the movement of EC students transferring from an LEA to a Charter or vice versa or Charter to Charter. Transfers are counted during the first 60 days of school excluding holidays and weekends. The report should include any students that have transferred during the interval collection period.

NCDPI has been made aware of an issue with the ALOT state report failing. This has been identified as an issue with the state reporting package data views. If your PSU is experiencing this issue, please submit a case to PowerSchool support to have the data views reloaded.

This is different from the report running successfully and returning no data. If your report completes successfully and returns no data, it is possible this is correct. Verify your data, and if you determine a student should be reporting that is not, please submit a case with student examples.

The NCDPI business owner and contact for School Allotment Child Count Transfer (ALOT) is Kristie Weber Kristie.Weber@dpi.nc.gov Please reach out to Kristie for any policy questions.

Guarding Privacy: Why PII Should Never Be Shared via Email

Please be cognizant when sending emails and attachments that contain student PII. Attachments and screenshots of student records in emails should have identifiable information blurred out.

Sharing personally identifiable information (PII) in email poses a significant privacy risk, as emails can be intercepted or hacked, leading to unauthorized access to sensitive data. Moreover, email recipients can inadvertently forward or share these messages, potentially exposing the information to a wider audience. To protect students’ privacy and comply with FERPA requirements, it's crucial to collect, share, and store personal information securely, outside of email communication. For information about how to share PII securely, please see the Best Practices for Handling Personally Identifiable Information document on the NCDPI Research Data Request site.

Enhanced Health Module

The New Enhanced Health Module is live in PowerSchool!

SIS coordinators, school nurses, counselors, social workers, and psychologists will be able to access the new NC customized electronic health record system within the Statewide Student Information System (SIS).

Please remember access to this module should be limited and controlled. SIS coordinators will need to modify security group settings to ensure only the necessary staff have access to this module within the SIS.

Please see the attached education documents, created by the PowerSchool training team, which provide instructions on setup and recording student information in the Health Management Module.

Security and Access to the Health Module in PowerSchool was also covered in the SIS presentation at the NC Digital Leader Exchange, September 12 - 21, 2023. Legal and policy resources are also linked in the slides.

The SIS DLE slide deck is linked below for review. Slides 28 - 37 are specific to EHR.

SIS DLE Slide Deck http://bit.ly/SIS_Sept2023

Recorded training sessions will also be made available in the coming weeks in addition to an FAQ with responses to frequent questions from the live training sessions.

SIS coordinators will be the first line of support for functionality issues with the module. Please submit a PowerSchool case should there be any unresolvable functional issues.

For questions regarding nursing documentation standards, please reach out to your regional school health nurse consultant. Regional school health nurse consultant

Note: Some values for Vision Screening are missing. These values will be loaded September 29, 2023, and available in instances no later than Monday October 2, 2023.

Discipline Code Updates

New Behavior and Action Codes

New behavior and action codes for reporting incidents are now available in the PS Incident Management Module. Definitions and guidance on the use of these codes can be found in the 2023-2024 Discipline Data Manual.

Behavior Codes:

123: Non-School Related Offense
124-UB: Pornographic and/or profane material
125-UB: Possession of graphically violent material
126-UB: Threat of mass violence
127-UB: False threat of mass violence
128-Threat of harm to self – Suicide
129-Threat of harm to self or others
130-Nearby Neighborhood/Community Threat
131-RO: Possession of vaping device - CS/THC
132-RO: Use of vaping device - CS/THC
133-UB: Possession of vaping device – Tobacco
134-UB: Use of vaping device - Tobacco
135-UB: Possession of vaping device - Cannabinoid
136-UB: Use of vaping device - Cannabinoid
137-UB: Harassment – Gender identity

Actions Codes:

145 Concurrent Incident/Duplicative Action
146 School Safety Response Protocol - Hold
147 School Safety Response Protocol - Secure
148 School Safety Response Protocol - Lockdown
149 School Safety Response Protocol - Evacuate
150 School Safety Response Protocol - Shelter

Special Programs Enrollment Now Available for PRC 188 and 189

For 2023-2024, we are transitioning to data collection for PRC 188 and 189 within PowerSchool.

As a reminder, you will now input all student participation and attendance for these programs into PowerSchool. You will no longer need to turn in the Student and Staff Participation and Attendance Spreadsheet to the eMFTS server. Please use the following Quick Reference Document for further information.

PRC 189 programs are academic year programs. Therefore, all student data must be entered by June 30, 2024. All data for PRC 188 (Summer Career Accelerator) Programs must be entered by September 30, 2024.

Please Note: If you ran PRC 189 programs during SY22-23, you must still upload your student and staff participation survey to the eMFTS survey by NOVEMBER 2, 2023. Please refer to the guidance document for more information.

If you have questions, please reach out to ARP Administrator, Richard Lewis at Richard.lewis@dpi.nc.gov.

PowerSchool State Report Due Date

Navigate to Reports > State Reports (run and approve at school level and final approval at district level)

Retention/Promotion (RP) - Due Oct. 27

PS QRD: Summer Promotion/Retention Process

SparkNC Module Course Coding

Public School Units (PSUs) who are using SparkNC modules are to use the course code for local elective credit (96102X0) and title it locally with High-Tech Learning Accelerator.

It is up to the PSU to determine how and when to schedule the course.
When a student successfully completes enough modules to earn an elective credit, it is to be entered into the SIS as a “Pass” and will not count in a student’s GPA.
It is up to the PSU to determine when the student has passed enough modules with sufficient rigor, breadth, and depth to earn a course credit. This may occur across grade-levels.

SY2021-2022 CRDC Partner Support Announcement

Dear Coordinators,

Please inform other staff as appropriate.

Note: PSUs that were not open in the school year 2021-2022 are not required to participate in this collection.

The CRDC Partner Support Center (PSC) has announced the submission dates for the

SY2021-2022 collection documentation. The notification was sent to Superintendents October 4, 2023. The PSC message is on the NCDPI CRDC webpage.

The SY2021-2022 CRDC submission window opens December 11, 2023 and closes February 26, 2024.

All required federal documentation is located at the Civil Rights Data Collection Resource Center.

Action Items for PSU's

1. Verify the PSU CRDC contact records in EDDIE by November 1, 2023.

Staff documented in EDDIE for the CRDC as of November 1, 2023, will receive accounts to the Federal Submission and can provision accounts to others at the local level at the time of the collection.

2. Download and begin reviewing the updated required documents for CRDC Coordinators, which include:

· LEA Form

· School Form

These forms contain the complete set of survey questions that the LEA must complete for itself and its school(s).

3. Begin gathering data not collected by NCDPI

More detailed information will be provided for data PSUs will be required to collect on their own.

Updated examples include but are not limited to:

Please email nc.ocr.crdc@dpi.nc.gov with any questions you may have. 

Want information about the CRDC, but are not the CRDC Coordinator contact? Add your information here: 2122 CRDC – Info Only Contacts List

Has your PSU Opted into Home Base?

The NC Department of Public Instruction is pleased to announce that the Home Base Opt-in Process is now open. Finance officers and charter school directors/principals may begin opting into Home Base for their PSU. Click on the following link to see the full announcement and share with the appropriate staff: hb_pricing_memo 2023-24.

Note: Only finance officers and charter directors/principals should opt-in for their PSU.

This year, PSUs have the option of opting into Navvy, a Pearson computer-adaptive interim assessment add-on for Schoolnet. Navvy both formatively assesses and tracks standard-by-standard learning to provide immediate, actionable results to correctly inform personalized instruction. Navvy is made available to grades 3 – 8 for Reading and Math at an additional cost of $8 per ADM. If you have any questions about Navvy, please contact Rebecca Stokes.

Please visit the NCDPI Home Base Opt-in Website for detailed information concerning the Home Base Opt-in Process. Questions may be directed to home_base@dpi.nc.gov or Jennifer Causey

PSU Home Base Contact Updates for the 2023-2024 SY

We understand that with each new year, comes new personnel to fill those roles. To ensure the right people within your school are receiving the latest information, please visit our Support and Maintenance web page to see who is listed as your district or charter leads.

2023-24 Home Base Maintenance Periods

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 2023-2024 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.

New Self-Paced PD Courses for Canvas

Digital Teaching and Learning is excited to share two new self-paced professional development courses on the LMS, Canvas.

Growing with Canvas - The Growing with Canvas course is a “Level 1” introduction to all things Canvas.
Diving Deeper with Canvas - Educators more familiar with the LMS can utilize the Diving Deeper with Canvas course for specific training on personalized learning, feedback, and course design.

If you are interested in these PD opportunities, enrollment information can be found in the NCEES Self-Paced PD Guide.

Schoolnet Self-Paced PD Course

The Continuing to Keep It Simple in Schoolnet 24 course is a “Level 1” introduction to all things Schoolnet. If you are interested in this PD opportunity, enrollment information can be found in the NCEES Self-Paced PD Guide.

Home Base Admin Course

Feedback from PSUs identified a need for resource hubs for the Home Base products. The product managers have created Admin Resource Courses for each area. These resource courses are located in the NCDPI Canvas instance.

Please visit these courses. Below are the steps to enroll:

How to access these resources:

Sign in to the Blue Canvas icon within NCEdCloud
Using the Global Navigation (on the left), click the Home Base Resources button
On the menu that opens, select the course(s) you would like to enroll into
After enrolling, the course will appear on your Canvas Dashboard

Access for PSU PowerSchool SIS Admins

Any PSU PowerSchool SIS admin who does not have access to the NCDPI “Blue” Canvas located in the NCEdCloud portal and would like to have access or grant access to data managers within their PSU, please complete the form below. In this form, you can enter up to 5 accounts manually or upload a CSV/Excel file if you have more than 5 account requests.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with Corey McNeill.

Link to Form

Other Information:

Feel free to provide feedback on these courses. They all contain a feedback button on their homepage.
We will continue to update these courses as more product information becomes available
**Click on the new SIS Conference icon on the home page to access the SIS Conference 2022 Presentations.

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)

Submitting a ServiceNow Ticket How to Document

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

Follow Us on Social Media!

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: @ncdpidtl Facebook: @ndpidtl Twitter: @ncdpidtl

NC Department of Public Instruction

Education Building, 3rd Floor North

301 North Wilmington Street

Raleigh, NC 27601

Email: home_base@dpi.nc.gov

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