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August 21, 2024

SIS Weekly Updates

Topics in this issue:

1. Welcome Back!
2. Digital Leaders Exchange - September
3. Reminder: Scheduling in PowerSchool*
4. NCBOLD 2024 - Thank you!
5. School Attendance and Student Accounting (SASA) Manual
6. ECATS Beginning-of-Year (BOY) Process
7. Office of Learning Recovery (OLR) Program Enrollment Reminders
8. Stored Grades Process Update
9. PowerSchool Student Transfers
10. Data Conversion and Address Validation
11. PowerSchool State Reporting
12. Phase I Bulletin Sign-Up
13. 2024-2025 Home Base Maintenance Periods
14. Save the Date! - SIS Conference 2024

*indicates new article this week

Welcome Back! Dear North Carolina K-12 Leaders, As the Director of Digital Teaching and Learning, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the start of another exciting school year! I hope you found some time to rest this summer and are recharged for the journey ahead. We are entering a year filled with opportunities for growth, innovation, and meaningful engagement throughout our schools. The integration of NCSIS and other resources in our educational practices continues to be a cornerstone in enhancing student learning experiences. Our goal is to support you in harnessing the power of technology to create dynamic and interactive learning environments that cater to the diverse needs of our students. This year, we are thrilled to introduce several new initiatives designed to support and empower you: Professional Development Workshops: We will be offering a series of workshops and webinars focused on the latest trends in digital education, effective use of learning management systems, and strategies for integrating technology into your curriculum. Resource Hub: Our new and improved Digital Teaching and Learning Resource Hub will provide you with access to a wealth of instructional materials, lesson plans, and best practices from educators across the state. (www.dpi.nc.gov/dtl) NCSIS Support and Training: Our dedicated team of professional learning consultant staff are here to assist you through the implementation process whether you are in Phase I or II, we’ve got you covered. Full professional development plan with dates are located by clicking HERE.  Digital Leaders Exchanges: Join us as we continue to grow together through our professional learning communities to connect with fellow edtech leaders, SIS leaders, share experiences, and collaborate on innovative projects. Full calendar can be viewed by clicking HERE. Your commitment to providing high-quality education is the driving force behind our efforts. Together, we can leverage our partnerships to inspire and engage our students, preparing them for a future where digital literacy is paramount. Thank you for your dedication and passion. Here’s to a successful and transformative school year ahead! Warm regards, Matthew Mayo Director of Digital Teaching and Learning North Carolina Department of Public Instruction

Digital Leaders Exchange - September The NC Digital Leaders Exchange is coming to a location near you September 9-12th!  Each event will run from the East to the West while also aligning each “exchange” with a part of the Digital Learning Plan.  In September, we will be highlighting Cybersecurity and Data Privacy along with the typical offerings of Home Base product update sessions.  Special Guests: John Mairs (NCEdCloud), Tim Wease & Sammie Carter (Cybersecurity), Diane Dulaney (Data Privacy), Home Base Team, E-Rate team, DTL Team We will meet from 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM and lunch will be catered.  Register for a date & location that best fits your schedule. Register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/digital-leaders-exchange-3571799

Reminder: Scheduling in PowerSchool*

Student and Teacher schedules in PowerSchool should reflect their real-life schedules as closely as possible. Improper scheduling in PowerSchool can cause errors in reporting numbers on federal and state reports, legislative data, and school report cards (as shown below).

A teacher can only be in one place at a time. Therefore, teachers should only be scheduled into one section during the same period and term. Doing so will skew the class size averages, as shown below.

Note: This is not concerning combo classes.

Additionally, only staff with a valid UID should be assigned to a section - no invalid “placeholder” accounts. This includes Community College teachers.

NCBOLD 2024 - Thank you! Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to our NCBOLD conference! Participants described the event as enlightening, refreshing, relevant, informative, and innovative. Check out our stats from this year's events! If you missed it, explore our backpack of resources. We couldn't have done it without your enthusiasm and support! #NCBOLD

School Attendance and Student Accounting (SASA) Manual

The SASA Manual was amended to implement pertinent legislation, funding in arrears, and the new Student Information System (SIS). Revisions include the admission of out-of-state and foreign exchange students to charter schools, withdrawing students from school, coding attendance on individual student make-up days, the class size waiver request process, guidance about eligibility for use of a modified school calendar, retention of digitized student records, and assignment of Student User Identification numbers. Information about the addition of Pre-K ADM to the K–13 ADM for purposes of school principal salary calculation was added as well; changes to the Principal Salary Schedule are effective January 2025 and will be brought before the Board in the fall for final approval.

Link to SASA: https://www.dpi.nc.gov/bsopsasa-2024pdf/download?attachment

ECATS Beginning-of-Year (BOY) Process ECATS has completed its Beginning-of-Year (BOY) process for Phase II (PowerSchool) PSUs. Data for the 2024-2025 school year, including new students and updated PowerSchool data, has been loaded. All files have returned to their normal load schedules. Please submit a Zendesk ticket if you see any data issues. The process to update graduation data in ECATS will occur after the August deadline for entering graduation data into PowerSchool. Once this file is processed, students who have graduated will be exited from ECATS. After that point, districts will be able to select the Modified Exit Reason in ECATS for the 2023-2024 Exit Count, and these students will no longer appear active in ECATS. BOY for Phase I (Infinite Campus) PSUs is ongoing and expected to be completed the week of August 12. More information concerning Phase I BOY status will be provided as received. Please share the ECATS: PowerSchool to IC Crosswalk with your IC SIS coordinators for a smooth transition.

Office of Learning Recovery (OLR) Program Enrollment Reminders

Reminder: Students Must be Enrolled in PowerSchool

As a reminder, PSUs are responsible for enrolling students in PRC 188 and 189 programs in PowerSchool during the 23-24 school year. Please utilize the HomeBase Quick Reference Guide if you have not yet enrolled students. 

Due dates for data entry are as follows: 

• PRC 189- Afterschool Academic Enrichment Programs: June 30, 2024

• PRC 188- Summer Career Accelerator: August 31, 2024

Please refer to the guidance document for additional information about PRC 189 reporting. 

Phase I Schools & Districts for Infinite Campus Transition

If you are a Phase I PSU in transition to Infinite Campus this summer, please ensure that you have entered all PRC 189 (Afterschool Academic Enrichment Programs) enrollment prior to June 30, 2024. 

If you are running PRC 188 prior to June 30, 2024, please enroll all students prior to the EOY deadline (6/30/2024)

If you are not running summer programming prior to June 30, 2024, we will be providing more information about enrolling students in PRC 188 once your PSU transitions to Infinite Campus. If you have questions about this, please reach out to OLR Program Manager, Jay Johnson at jay.johnson@dpi.nc.gov

Stored Grades Process Update Changes have been made to the Permanently Store Grades process in PowerSchool for the 24-25 school year to help PSUs correctly enter, store, and update students' grades. To keep you informed and prepared for the 24-25 school year, the Permanently Store Grades QRD has been updated to reflect these changes.  When storing a final grade (F1), you can be confident that the options for store methods and the percentage of course credit will be automatically updated, ensuring the accuracy and efficiency of the process. When F1 is entered as the Historical Store Code, the only available store methods are Do not store and Store with credit.  If the Store with credit option is chosen the % of course credit field will automatically populate with 100%, and cannot be modified.

When a Historical Store Code other than F1 is entered, the only options in the drop-down under Store are Do not store or Store with no credit.

Additionally, under the Advanced Potential and Earned Credit Options the only option available for storing grades will be Store both Potential and Earned Credit.

PowerSchool Student Transfers

Student Transfers in PowerSchool from Phase I Schools to Phase II Schools

Since PowerSchool returned to service post-EOY, NCDPI has been working with PowerSchool to run scripts in all Phase I PowerSchool instances to close them out. These scripts included transferring all students' records out as no-show records with an exit comment of “Infinite Campus.” This will allow Phase II PSUs still using PowerSchool SIS to transfer in the students' records.

We are pleased to announce that as of July 12, 2024, all students have been successfully transferred out of Phase I PSU PowerSchool Instances, and their records are now ready for transfer into Phase II PSUs. 

It is important to note that student records in the inactive Phase 1 PowerSchool instances will remain available for transfer to active Phase 2 PowerSchool instances throughout the year. If a student transfers to your PSU from a Phase 1 PSU, it is your responsibility to not only pull in the student's historical records from PowerSchool, but also update the most recent enrollment from the prior PSU to reflect the correct entry and exit dates. You may need to contact the student's prior Phase 2 PSU to ask for this information. 

For students who move between Phase I and Phase II schools multiple times during the year, only the enrollment record created at EOY will be maintained. Therefore, students moving from a Phase I PSU must be treated as an out-of-state transfer for subsequent enrollments, and data must be manually entered. We know there will be enrollment record gaps throughout the year as PSUs cannot recreate enrollment records for a Phase I PSU when transferring records. This is okay; we are working on resolving this when Phase II PSUs move to Infinite Campus.

The Student UID System can be checked to determine whether a student record has been moved between Phase I and II PSUs. When a student is enrolled in Infinite Campus for the first time, the UID System will be updated to reflect a “Source System” of “IC,” and the user creating the update is “ic-studentws” as shown in the screenshot below.

Data Conversion and Address Validation

Address verification and validation are critical for the data conversion in Infinite Campus. As PSUs work to clean up addresses, they should collaborate with the transportation department to ensure the address changes won’t disrupt the current bus route information. 

When updated student information is loaded into the school bus routing system, any change in street address will remove a student from their bus route pending reassignment. Please coordinate closely with the transportation department to minimize disruption and use valid County GIS map addresses. Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, and other consumer mapping applications are more likely to provide invalid addresses in most PSUs.

PowerSchool State Reporting Navigate to Reports > State Reports (run and approve at school level and final approval at PSU level) Final Graduate Verification Report - Due 8/12/2024 Submission end date has been updated in PowerSchool Fall School Start-Time and End-Time Report - Due 9/15/2024 Common Follow-up System Collection - Due 9/30/2024 High Schools only

Phase I Bulletin Sign-Up

Phase I PSUs- Want to stay in the loop? Click on the link below to learn how to sign up to receive the weekly NCSIS Phase I bulletin. 

How to Subscribe to a NC DPI DTL Bulletin/Newsletter

Stay informed with the latest NCSIS news and information by visiting- http://ncsis.gov

2024-2025 Home Base Maintenance Periods Each year, a list of scheduled maintenance windows is 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 2024-2025 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.

Save the Date! - SIS Conference 2024

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 follow these steps: Log into my.ncedcloud.org Find the Blue Canvas icon and click to launch it. Agree to the Canvas use policy question and Blue Canvas will open.  If you have any questions, please contact Rebecca Stokes.   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

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! 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:  @ncdpidtl        Facebook: @ndpidtl       X: @ncdpidtl