Special Education Submission Preparation

This procedure will guide you through publishing data for the Indiana Ed-Fi Special Education report.

Step 1 - Review General Ed-Fi Guidance

Ed-Fi is a real-time data standard that synchronizes data between Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and State Education Agencies (SEAs).

Ed-Fi synchronizes data continuously and asks users to correct errors after synchronization is complete.

Review the Ed-Fi term glossary and general Ed-Fi best practices.

Step 2 - Set Up Data Exchange (DEX) Plugin

Prior to publishing with Ed-Fi, you must enable and configure the PowerSchool Data Exchange (DEX) plugin. The following are general setup instructions for PowerSchool Data Exchange. You may have additional settings for your installation. Refer to your state documentation for detailed technical instructions specific to your installation.

Install and Load Configuration Files

These configuration files are loaded by the State Reporting installer for state instances or by the PowerSchool Services Group for individual districts using Ed-Fi.

1. For sites with multiple App Node Servers:

   1. On the main menu, navigate to Setup and choose System, then choose Server Array Settings, then choose Server List.

   2. The App Node displays on this page.

   3. Find the corresponding entry on the server list and make note of the hostname.

2. Copy and replace the unzipped Ed-Fi Configuration source file into the location \\[hostname]\c$\Program Files\PowerSchool\application\components\reporting-common-{version-number}\config. Only enter the hostname if you have multiple App Node Servers.

3. Login to PowerSchool SIS. Navigate to Setup, then choose System, then choose Data Management, then choose Special Operations.

4. Select Load Server Reports and enter solo flight (with a space in between) for the Code.

5. Leave the Param 1 and Param 2 prompts blank.

6. Click Submit.

The configuration file may take anywhere between a few seconds to a few minutes to load. Loading time depends on whether you are loading the configuration file for the first time or whether the configuration file has been loaded before.

Enable PowerSchool Data Exchange Plugin

DEX is delivered to PowerSchool as a plugin. You must enable the plugin to be able to have access to the data exchange components, such as Ed-Fi. The DEX plugin is installed automatically as part of state reporting releases and can be enabled on the Plugin Management Dashboard.

To access the Plugin Management Dashboard, sign in to PowerSchool at the district level.

1. Navigate to Setup and choose System, then choose System Settings, then choose Plugin Management Configuration.

2. On the Plugin Management Dashboard, select the Enable/Disable checkbox next to PowerSchool Data Exchange (DEX).

3. Choose PowerSchool Data Exchange (DEX).

4. On the DEX Setup page, choose Profile Configuration.

5. Choose Add Profile.

   1. Enter a Profile Name. This name displays on the Data Exchange menu list on the main menu. It is recommended that the name is fewer than 20 characters.

   2. Select the Profile Type.

      

      If you do not see a value on the Profile Type menu, it means that the configuration files have not yet been loaded. These files are loaded by the State Reporting installer for state instances or by the PowerSchool Services Group for individual districts using Ed-Fi.

   3. Select Enabled On.

   4. Click Save.

When a plugin is updated, PowerSchool may disable the plugin for security reasons to require a review of the changes and again agree to the terms and conditions for using the software. After a release is installed, verify that all applicable plugins are enabled.

Configure PowerSchool DEX Profile and School Year

The setup page provides a user interface for entering various configurable settings including enabling and disabling the entire framework, authentication, and operational frequencies. PowerSchool supports multiple LEAs in a single instance. The setup page contains a section where the individual authentication keys and secrets are entered for each LEA through the Configure hyperlink.

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

2. Under Data Exchange, choose General Setup.

3. In the Data Exchange Setup page, select System Enabled to On. Leave the remaining fields at their default values.

4. Select the Profile Name.

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

6. Select the School Years for Ed-Fi publishing.

7. Verify all applicable Service Options are checked.

8. choose Configure for any LEAs that will publish.

   1. Select On to enable the LEA.

   2. Enter the Authentication Key.

   3. Enter the Authentication Secret.

   4. Test the connection and save communication settings.

      1. PowerSchool recommends that you test your connection after completing these communication settings. choose Test Connection. If the test is successful, click Save to record your settings.

9. Click Save.

Step 3 - Review Code Mappings

When data is published to the destination server, local mapping is used when necessary to determine the correct value to transmit with the data. Any local values that are not properly mapped will be excluded from the data exchange.

After downloading data from the destination server, you will be ready to enter information on the Code Set Mappings page. Schools do not have the ability to modify codes separately from other schools. This mapping must be completed by the LEA.

Some states will not have this option. Instead, the system will display the values already provided by the education agency. If your state uses this option, you must first download the provided data for it to map on the Code Set Mappings page.

To access the Code Set Mappings page, sign in to PowerSchool at the district level.

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

2. choose the Code Set Mappings or Code Set Mappings (Other) link located under Data Exchange.

3. Select a Profile.

4. Select a Code Set category to modify. The code set list can be different for each implementation.

5. Once selected, use the table on the page to associate the PowerSchool codes on the left with the downloaded values from the state on the right.

6. Match up the locally configured PowerSchool codes with the supplied downloaded codes using Selected Downloaded State Code.

   

   Data using values that are not mapped cannot be published to the destination server.

7. Click Save after each Code Set category is mapped.

Step 4 - Prepare Special Education Report Data

Review Ed-Fi Dashboard Guidance

In the Publish Data and On Demand sections of the Ed-Fi Reporting page, there are several columns of information to notify you of any potential records with problems as well as the records queued for publishing. These columns are:

• Processing - the publish data notification of Waiting indicates that the request to publish data has been made but is not yet processing. A notification of Started indicates that the process has begun, then the count of records identified for publishing and starting the process of data quality and dependency checks displays.

• Dependencies - the count of records that cannot be published because it is dependent on other data sequencing; for example, student demographic data must have a unique person ID; course sections are dependent on courses, etc.

• Publishing - the count of records that passed data quality and dependency checks queued for publishing.

• Errors - the count of error messages received in response from the state system.

• Data Exceptions - the count of records with data quality issues that cannot be published.

  • Fatal count - the number of records that cannot be published because it does not meet minimum requirements. Make the correction to the data in PowerSchool.

  • Non-Fatal count - the number of records that are missing or incomplete but are not critical for data publishing or successful operation of PowerSchool. Review and correct this data in PowerSchool.

• Published - the count of records published for the category to the state ODS.

• Last Activity - the time that has elapsed since the last attempt to exchange data with the state Ed-Fi system.

Periodically review the Ed-Fi Dashboard to resolve errors and dependencies and ensure On Demand categories like Attendance are scheduled to run periodically.

The following are the functional buttons on the Ed-Fi dashboard.

• Review - choose to access the page to select the different views for the published data.

• Errors - if there are additional errors, a red Errors button appears instead of the blue Review button. Choose Errors to access the page to view the errors.

• Run Now - choose to download or publish data.

• Schedule - choose to access the page to schedule on-demand publishing.

Review Indiana Special Education Program Guidance

There are three general types of Special Education program records for Indiana:

• Evaluation Records - Student being evaluated, not yet receiving services

• Special Education Service Records - Student is receiving services

• Choice Voucher - Student is receiving services at a private institution under a Choice Voucher scholarship.

All three types are published using the same Ed-Fi resource, studentSpecialEducationProgramAssociations. All three types are entered on the Special Education History page.

Navigate to State/Province - IN, then choose the SE/EV (Special Education) tab, then choose Special Education History.

1. Choose New for a new evaluation or to change a student's Special Education Placement. Otherwise, select an existing record to edit. Records are published if valid during the school year

2. Select Exclude from Ed-Fi = 1 Yes to exclude a record from publishing.

For a new (Type 1) Evaluation Record

1. For Special Education Placement, enter 58 Undefined

2. Enter Primary Exceptionality (required) and Secondary Exceptionality (if applicable)

3. Enter the Parental Consent Date (Referral Date)

4. When the student is found eligible, update the record with the appropriate Special Education Placement value, enter the Case Conference Date and Initial Evaluation Date, and change Student Eligibilty to 1 Yes. If student is found ineligible, enter the IEP Review date (Case Conference) and set Reason For Termination = 99. You may optionally add Service Termination Date.

Prepare Prerequisite Data Resources

Before you publish Special Education data, verify that all state data has been downloaded in the Ed-Fi dashboard. Then, review the following prerequisite data resources for Special Education. Errors or missing data for these resources will cause dependency errors for the Special Education data resource:

• localEducationAgencies

• schools

• programs

• student

• studentSchoolAssociations

• studentEducationOrganizationAssociations

Prepare The Special Education Data Resource

The Special Education data resource (studentSpecialEducationProgramAssociations) contains the following data elements:

Prepare the Special Education Indiana Extensions

Indiana Extensions adds the following data elements to the studentSpecialEducationProgramAssociations data resource:

Additional Guidance for Choice Voucher Students

Choice Voucher Student status is determined by a Special Education Placement value of 99. Additionally, the following field must be set to "Yes" for Choice Voucher students to publish:

• On the State/Province - IN page, choose the General tab. Verify that the Choice Scholarship Student the field is set to "Yes".

                                                                                                          OR

• On the Transfer Info page, choose Current Enrollment. Verify that the Choice Scholarship Student the field is set to "Yes".

The value for educationOrganizationId is 1088000000 for all private institutions.

The following fields are not published for Choice Voucher students:

• iepReviewFate

• lastEvaluationDate

• specialEducationSettingDescriptor

• firstStepsTransitionDate

• parentalConsentDate

• SpecialEducationEvaluationTimelineDescriptor

• TimelineComplianceDescriptor

Step 5 - Publish Data

Publishing data is typically done at the school level. The LEA can publish data for all schools; however, the data is published to the state Ed-Fi ODS per school. The following two methods are used to publish data:

• Real Time - Publishing occurs automatically as records are updated in PowerSchool. Additionally, you can run the publishing process at any time by clicking Run Now in the Ed-Fi Dashboard.

• On Demand - Schedule publication by selecting a date and time for the upload to run. On Demand publishing is used for heavy processing loads such as Student Attendance, Student Gradebook, Student Discipline, and Student Transcripts. These may be scheduled to process on a nightly or weekly basis depending on your specific state and district business rules and processes.

Each installation may be different depending on the state in which your PowerSchool installation is located.

Real Time Publishing

Publishing from the Ed-Fi Reporting page.

1. On the start page, choose a profile under Data Exchange in the main menu. The Ed-Fi Reporting page displays.

2. Under the Publish Data section, click the Run Now button next to the data group to publish.

3. From the Data Publishing Options menu, choose one of the following:

   • Publish Missing - Run checks and publish valid unpublished data

   • Publish All - Run checks and publish all valid data

   • Retry Errors - Retry publishing data currently marked with an error status

   • Publish Errors - Run checks and publish data currently marked with an error status

   • Publish Dependencies - Run checks and publish data currently marked with a dependency status

   • Purge Unpublished - Remove the data identified for publishing that has never published

   • Unpublish Ineligible - Send delete events for published records that are no longer eligible

   • Initiate Reconciliation - Download current ODS data to facilitate reconciliation
     If this is your first time publishing data, select Publish All.

4. Click Submit.

Scheduled (On Demand) Publishing

Schedule publishing from the Ed-Fi Reporting page.

1. On the start page, choose a profile under Data Exchange in the main menu. The Ed-Fi Reporting page displays.

2. Under the On Demand section, click the Schedule button next to the data group that you are publishing. The On Demand Data listed below may vary depending on the state's requirements.

   

   When publishing from the District office, all schools will be included in the scheduled publish.

On the pop-up menu, click OK.

1. On the scheduling page, navigate to the Report Parameters section and choose one of the following from the Data Publishing Options menu:

   • Publish Missing - Run checks and publish valid unpublished data

   • Publish All - Run checks and publish all valid data

   • Retry Errors - Retry publishing data currently marked with an error status

   • Publish Errors - Run checks and publish data currently marked with an error status

   • Publish Dependencies - Run checks and publish data currently marked with a dependency status

   • Purge Unpublished - Remove the data identified for publishing that has never published

   • Initiate Reconciliation - Download current ODS data to facilitate reconciliation

     Attendance records only:

     • Publish Changes - Publish recently added or changed attendance data

     • Publish 7 Days - Publish all attendance for the past 7 days

     • Publish 14 Days - Publish all attendance for the last 14 days

     • Publish 30 Days - Publish all attendance for the last 30 days

     • Publish All - Publish all attendance data for the entire school year

     • Retry Errors - Retry publishing attendance data currently marked with an error status

     • Publish Errors - Run checks and publish data currently marked with an error status

     • Publish Dependencies - Run checks and publish data currently marked with a dependency status

     • Initiate Reconciliation - Download current ODS data to facilitate reconciliation

2. If this is your first time publishing data, select Publish All.

3. Select Run Now or Schedule. If Schedule is selected, set schedule options.

4. Click Submit.

Schedule the publishing in the prioritized order in which they are displayed on the Ed-Fi Reporting page to minimalize any data dependency issues when using the schedule publishing method.

• Periodically review the Ed-Fi Dashboard to resolve errors and dependencies and ensure On Demand categories like Attendance are scheduled to run periodically. Refer to Data Views and Publish Data for more information.

• Click Publish Missing or Publish All for each category on the Ed-Fi Dashboard a few days prior to state funding deadlines and at the beginning and end of the school year to verify that all records are updated to the state ODS. Refer to Publish Data for more information.

Publish Data View

Publish data views allow you to review the details of the data to be published. The views include Statistical Summary, Published, Dependencies, and Errors. For each data group in the publish data list,

1. Click either the Review or Errors button next to the data group. The Review page displays.

2. Select a view option from the Choose Category menu. Examples of the selections available may include but are not limited to:

   • Statistical Summary: by data type, total missing data, total dependencies, total publishing, total errors, last update, and total published.

   • Published: a detailed list of the data successfully published to the state ODS. When demographic data is published, the system automatically requests a Unique Person Identifier (State Number) when needed in order for the demographic record to be published.

   • Dependencies: a detailed list of records that cannot be published to the state ODS because it is dependent on other data sequencing.

   • Errors: a list of error messages associated with publishing data. These messages are received from the state system in response to the publishing data. In some cases, these errors may be difficult to interpret and may only be useful for PowerSchool support and Development teams. If there are errors, a red Errors button displays next to the data group.

     • Click the red Errors button. The Review page displays.

     • Select the Errors view from the Choose Data View menu.

3. Select the resource view from the Choose Data View menu.

4. Click the Clear Cache button on the Results panel to ensure that you are not looking at old data and attempting to fix a problem that no longer exists.

5. Each column has a filter icon to use to specify the filters you want to be applied. Sort the data by clicking on the heading for each column. Data views are read-only.

6. Click Export to export the data results to an Excel spreadsheet.

Summary View

The Summary View provides the cumulative statistics for publishing a resource and related information to the ODS.

1. Click either the Review or Errors button next to the data group with dependencies record count greater than zero.

2. Select Summary from the Choose Category menu.

3. Select the resource view from the Choose Data View menu.

4. Click the Clear Cache button located on the bottom right of the Results panel to refresh the page.

5. Click Export to export the data results to an Excel spreadsheet.

Published View

The Published View provides a detailed list of the resource successfully published to the ODS.

1. Click either the Review or Errors button next to the data group with published record count greater than zero.

2. Select Published from the Choose Category menu.

3. Select the resource view from the Choose Data View menu.

4. Click the Clear Cache button located on the bottom right of the Results panel to refresh the page.

   • Student demographic record must have a unique person ID

   • Student course section record must first have a course record published

   • School calendar must have calendar dates and a district calendar

5. Resolve the dependencies in PowerSchool, if applicable.

   • There will be times when you will not have to do anything but wait for all the data to finish publishing in order to resolve the data dependency. Other times, dependent data may have data quality issues and will not be published until the problem is corrected. You can view the details of data quality issues on the Exceptions View.

6. Click Export to export the data results to an Excel spreadsheet.

Dependencies View

Before PowerSchool data is submitted to the state as published data, the data is validated using a set of rules that are defined by the Ed-Fi specifications intended for data dependencies.

If dependencies are found, the Ed-Fi Reports page will display record counts in the Dependencies column.

1. Click either the Review or Errors button next to the data group with dependencies record count greater than zero.

2. Select Dependencies from the Choose Category menu.

3. Select the resource view from the Choose Data View menu.

4. Click the Clear Cache button located on the bottom right of the Results panel to refresh the page.

   • Student demographic record must have a unique person ID

   • Student course section record must first have a course record published

   • School calendar must have calendar dates and a district calendar

5. Resolve the dependencies in PowerSchool, if applicable. Examples of types of dependencies that may be encountered:

   

   There will be times when you will not have to do anything but wait for all the data to finish publishing in order to resolve the data dependency. Other times, dependent data may have data quality issues and will not be published until the problem is corrected. You can view the details of data quality issues on the Exceptions View.

6. Click Export to export the data results to an Excel spreadsheet.

   

   To see the Dependencies hierarchy for each resource, refer to the Troubleshooting - Dependencies page.

Errors View

Before PowerSchool data is submitted to the state as published data or requested from the state, the data is validated using a set of rules that are defined by the state and embedded in PowerSchool. If information is missing or data quality issues are found, the Ed-Fi Reports page will display record counts in the Errors column.

1. Click either the Review or Errors button next to the data group with data exceptions record counts greater than zero. The Review page will display.

2. Select Errors from the Select Area to Review menu.

3. Select the resource view from the Choose Data View menu.

4. Click the Clear Cache button located on the bottom right of the Results panel to refresh the page.

5. Resolve the errors in PowerSchool, if applicable. Examples of types of errors that may be encountered:

   • Student missing or incorrect mailing address for publishing

   • School calendar missing required data

   • Students missing required data to receive a unique person ID

6. Click Export to export the data results to an Excel spreadsheet.

Step 6 - Resolve State Errors

After all data for the reporting period has been published through PowerSchool SIS, there may be additional state errors that require resolution as your SEA processes your published data.

Ed-Fi synchronizes data continuously and asks users to correct errors after synchronization is complete.

SEA errors are only available through your state Ed-Fi portal. They are not available through PowerSchool SIS. After reviewing SEA errors in your state portal, return to PowerSchool SIS and resolve the errors by editing fields on the Special Education History, Student Selection, and Transfer Info pages.