Ed-Fi Categories and Resources | PowerSchool SIS Compliance

Categories– Ed-Fi consists of a series of standard schemas, which define the structure of the XML that transports the data between systems. The Ed-Fi categories are transparent to the user and serve as "wrappers" for publishing resources to the state Ed-Fi ODS. As each state's Ed-Fi implementation is unique, only the categories currently used by Indiana are listed below.
Resources – Ed-Fi resources are persons, places, events, objects, or concepts about which data can be collected. An resource provides context for a data element, for example, K12 Student, K12 Staff, School, Program, etc. To supplement the standard Ed-Fi resources, the Indiana Department of Education has defined custom extensions to capture additional state-specific data. Only the resources used by Indiana are listed below.

Category	Description	Resource
Descriptor	The Descriptor category is used to describe metadata about the descriptors and their structure. Descriptors define enumeration vocabularies that are not fixed within the Ed-Fi schema and vary according to the specific state implementation.	descriptor
Students	The Student category describes students, and captures all their identifying information.	students
Organization Setup	The Organization Setup category captures information about the organization demographics, course catalog, programs, class periods, and locations.	localEducationAgencies
		schools
		locations
		classPeriods
		courses
		programs
		graduationPlans
Organization Calendars	The Organization Calendars category represents information about sessions, grading periods, and calendars.	sessions gradingPeriods calendarDates
Organization Schedules	The Organization Schedules category captures the information about course and section information for the school year.	courseOfferings sections
Student Enrollments	The Student Enrollment category describes student enrollments in schools.	studentSchoolAssociation
Staff Demographics	The Staff Demographics category captures staff demographic data and contains identifying information.	staffs
Staff Associations	The Staff Associations category defines staff and teacher information. It can be used to define employment, school associations, and assignments.	staffEducationOrganizationEmploymentAssociation staffSchoolAssociation staffEducationOrganizationAssignmentAssociation
Student Teacher Sections	The Student Teacher Sections category captures section teachers and student section enrollments.	staffSectionAssociation studentSectionAssociation
Student Programs	The Student Programs category captures student associations and information related to programs.	studentProgramAssociation studentSpecialEducationProgramAssociations
Contacts	The Contacts category captures any contacts linked to the student including their defined relationship.	parent studentParentAssociations
Attendance	The Student Attendance Data category captures student daily and section attendance information.	studentSchoolAttendanceEvent studentSectionAttendanceEvent
Grades (INSITE Only)	The Grades category captures student grades.	grades
Transcripts	The Transcripts category captures student record and course transcript data.	studentAcademicRecords courseTranscripts