AzEDS 915 Process

This document describes the steps required to publish previous school year data through AzEDS, commonly referred to as 'Opening a 915'. A 915 is a request to ADE School Finance to correct previous school year data. Once the request is approved, School Finance opens the previous school year database for specified students and records for submission.

Overview

1. Turn On Previous School Year Publishing

2. Clear Unpublished Dashboard Requests

3. Generate New Records for Publishing

4. Update Existing Records That Need Correction

5. Create 915 File (csv formatted file)

6. Submit 915 File to School Finance for Approval

7. Retry Errors

8. Turn Off Previous School Year Publishing
   

Turn On Previous School Year Publishing

Take the following steps to enable AzEDS publishing for a previous school year. We are using the 2020-21 school year as an example.

Enable Previous School Year Profile

1. On the start page, choose System under Setup in the main menu. 

2. Under Server, click System Settings. 

3. Click Plugin Management Configuration.

4. Click PowerSchool Data Exchange (DEX).

5. In the PowerSchool Data Exchange (DEX) Setup page, click Profile Configuration. 

6. For the applicable school year profile (Example: AzEDS 2020-21), select Edit.

   1. Select Enabled On, and Save the profile

Configure Previous School Year Publishing

1. On the Start page, click the School link at the top of the page and choose District Office from the menu. 

2. Choose System under Setup in the main menu.

3. Under Data Exchange, click General Setup.

4. Select the Profile Name. (In this example, select the AzEDS 2020-21 profile.)
   Important Note: All Communication Settings, including LEA settings, are profile-specific. Verify that you have selected the correct profile before making the following changes.

5. The Data Exchange URL and Authentication URL will be automatically populated.

6. Select the School Years for AzEDS publishing. (Check the 2020-21 checkbox.)

7. Verify 'Data Changes' and 'Publish' Service Options are checked. Other options can be checked, but are not needed for this process.

8. Click Configure for any LEAs that will be published.

   1. Verify LEA is Enabled.

   2. Save the communication settings. 

      1. PowerSchool recommends that you test your connection after completing these communication settings. Click Test Connection. A message appears to inform you whether or not the test was successful. Click the Save button to record your settings once the test is successful.

9. Click Save.

Clear Unpublished Dashboard Requests (If Needed)

There may be outstanding unpublished previous school year records that need to be cleared before generating 20-21 school year adds and corrections. For instance, depending on when the PowerSchool End of Year Process was run and when AzEDS was turned off, there may be unpublished republishing requested that should be purged.  

Note: After enabling 20-21 school year publishing using the steps above, check your 2020-21 AzEDS Dashboard (be sure your term at the top of the page is the 20-21 year term). If there are large numbers of records in the Errors or Dependencies columns for students that do not need corrections or additions sent to AzEDS, follow the steps below to clear all unpublished dashboard data.

1. On the start page, change your browser address (url) to the following: https://YourServerAddress/admin/tech/dexspecialops.html

2. Select the Operation Purge Unpublished Dashboard Data

   1. For Param 1, enter the profile name containing the data to purge (AzEDS 2020-21 for example).

   2. For Param 2, enter the school year of unpublished data to purge (2021 for example), then Submit.

3. After the above operation finishes, select the operation Cancel Pending Publish Requests.

   1. For Param 1, enter the profile name containing publish requests to cancel (AzEDS 2020-21 for example).

4. It may also be necessary to run a Reset Published Records if records that were previously published are stuck in Error or Dependency status.

   1. For Param 1, enter the profile name containing the data to reset (AzEDS 2020-21 for example).

   2. For Param 2, enter the school year of unpublished data to reset (2021 for example), then Submit.

   3. For Param 3, enter the resource name of the data to reset (Students for example), then Submit.

Important: Care should be taken when using functions on the AzEDS Special Operations page. These Operations should only be used when directed by PowerSchool Support, or as part of a documented procedure.

Generate New Records For Publishing

If there are missing records in the ADE AzEDS Database for students, take the appropriate steps to generate the transactions for the missing records. The appropriate steps will vary depending on the data Scenario.

Data Scenarios:

• The data does not exist in PowerSchool

  • Example: A SPED Student has no Program Enrollments or Needs at the State, and has no SPED Service Participation Records on the SAIS Needs page in PowerSchool.

  • Action: Add the data to the applicable Student Screen. PowerSchool will detect the change and generate a transaction.

• The record exists in PowerSchool, but is not listed on the student's Publishing page.

  • Example: You can see an SLI SPED Service Participation record (service code A) on the student's SAIS Needs page, but the student's Publishing page does not have an SLI Need or Program A Participation record.

  • Action: Run a Publish Missing on the AzEDS 2016-17 Dashboard to generate transactions for the missing records.

• The record exists on the student's Publishing page, but does not exist at the state.

  • Example: You can see the SLI Need (service code A) on the Student Needs page and can see the SLI Need and Program record on the Publishing page, but the records are not in the ADE AzEDS Database.

  • Action: From the student's Publishing page, click the Up Arrow box to the left of the missing records.

As long as there are no dependencies that need to be resolved, the newly generated transactions will process through PowerSchool AzEDS. PowerSchool will attempt to publish the records, but you will receive the following error from ADE: Failure while publishing data to remote service (401 Unauthorized). Failure Message: Unauthorized. This error is expected because ADE School finance has not granted authorization to publish records for the students yet.

Update Existing Records That Need Correction

If there are records in the ADE AzEDS Database that have incorrect values for certain fields, take the appropriate action to publish/republish the data.

Data Scenarios:

• The record has incorrect date in PowerSchool and at the State.

  • Example: The student has an exit code of R (Retained) in PowerSchool and an R (Retained) at the state, but he should have an Exit Code of P - Promoted.

  • Action: Change the data to have the correct value in PowerSchool. The system will automatically publish the change.

• The record is currently correct in PowerSchool, but incorrect at the state.

  • Example: The student has an Exit Code of P (Promoted) in PowerSchool, but has an R (Retained) value at the state. The student should be reported as Promoted.

  • Action: From the student's Publishing page, click the Up Arrow box to the left of the records needing to be republished.

  • Tip: If you have a large number of students that all need the same correction, try using DDA or Student Field Value to generate the changes.

As long as there are no dependencies that need to be resolved, the newly generated transactions will process through PowerSchool AzEDS. PowerSchool will attempt to publish the records, but you will receive the following error from ADE: Failure while publishing data to remote service (401 Unauthorized). Failure Message: Unauthorized. This error is expected because ADE School finance has not granted authorization to publish records for the students yet.

Create 915 File (csv formatted file)

After generating transactions for previous school year corrections, a file will need to be created and sent to ADE School Finance for approval. The file is used by School Finance to review the requested changes and to 'white-list' specified resources for students for the previous school year. Once a resource is 'white-listed' for a student, ADE will accept the specified resource transactions for the specified student. Students are approved by ADE at the resource level, not at the field/record level. For example, if your 915 Request file has a line item requesting a change to an Absence Amount on 1/18/2017 in the studentSchoolAttendanceEvents resource for student ID 123456789, School Finance will allow (white-list) publishing studentSchoolAttendanceEvents records for student 123456789.

The 915 Request File must be in csv format and needs to conform to the 915 File Format Requirements. Information about the 915 File requirements and specifications can be found on ADE's Website:

Guidelines for Requesting Prior Year Corrections to State Aid or Budget Capacity (A.R.S. § 15-915)

Note: To help districts with the 915 process, PowerSchool has created an Arizona 915 Data Change Requests view in the DEX Diagnostic Viewer. This view can be used as a starting point for creating the 915 file to send to ADE School Finance.

Submit File to School Finance

After the 915 file is created, send the file to your ADE School Finance Analyst for approval. School Finance will use the file to review requested changes and 'white-list' requested resources for specified students.

Retry Errors

When approval is given and School Finance opens previous year publishing for specified student records, go to the PowerSchool AzEDS Dashboard and Retry Errors.

1. Change to District Office, Term Year 2020-2021

2. Navigate to Start Page > AzEDS 2020-21

3. Click Run Now > Retry Errors for dashboard items displaying Errors.

Note: If records get a 401 Unauthorized message after re-submission, there may have been an issue with the 915 Request File. Work with ADE School Finance to verify the file's accuracy and verify 'white-list' status of the resource in question.

Turn Off Previous School Year Publishing

After corrected records are submitted for the previous school year, turn off previous year publishing.

1. Follow the steps in the 'Configure Previous School Year Publishing' portion of this document, un-checking the 2020-21 School Year checkbox.

2. Follow the steps in the 'Enable Previous School Year Profile' portion of this document, selecting Enabled Off, then saving.

The process is now complete.