Known Differences and Information

There are a handful of known differences between the flat file extract of data and the Ed-Fi extract of data. These differences are listed below.

Local Student Number

In the PowerSchool extract, the local student number is formatted as a 10-digit number with leading zeros. In Ed-Fi, the local student number is published as the value stored in PowerSchool without any additional formatting.

School Food Service - Economic Indicator

In the PowerSchool extract for Economic Indicator field, the extract looks at the student's Economic Indicator per enrollment and publishes the value accordingly.

For Ed-Fi, the state has chosen to handle this a little differently. When we publish the School Food Service program record that contains the Economic Indicator value, we publish with the student's Entry and Exit dates of their enrollment records. The state then uses this information to populate the Economic Indicator field on the MARSS B report using the following rules:

MARSS Translation Logic:

There are several steps to convert the Ed-Fi FRP program code to the MARSSWES Economic Indicator Code. This logic changes depending on the date of the extract compared to the closing of the FALL submission cycle.

FALL Extracts: If the transformation date is on or before the final FALL submission for that year:

• If the food service program record begins on or before December 15, the corresponding FRP Meal Code will be set as the Economic Indicator code on all enrollment records for the student in that district for that year.
• If there are 2 or more food service program records beginning on or before December 15, the higher value FRP code will be used
• Any other food service program records beginning after December 15 will be ignored.
• If December 15 falls on a weekend, the following Monday is used as the cutoff date.

EOY Extracts: If the transformation date is after the final FALL submission for that year:

• The highest FRP Meal Code at any time during the year will be set as the Economic Indicator code on all enrollment records for the student in that district for that year.

For both extract cycles:

• The schools do not need to match between the program record and the enrollment record.
• The program begin and end dates do not need to match to the enrollment dates.
• There does not need to be any enrollment period overlapping the program period. If identified as FRP, the highest value (following the extract rules above) will be used on all enrollment records.
• Program records that end before July 1 of the previous school year are not used in the translation process.

* From the Minnesota Department of Education

Special Education Hours Show 0 When Special Education Status Is 3

When doing the comparison reports between Ed-Fi and the file extract, the comparison may show a difference between the Special Education Hours.  In discussions with the state, it has been verified that if a student has a Special Education Status of 3, then service hours are not required.  The state has chosen that when the Special Education Status is 3, then they will put a 0 in for the hours even when hours are sent.  This will cause a different between Ed-Fi and the extract.  There are a couple of options that acne be done.  

1. Remove the Special Education Hours from PowerSchool so that the extract and Ed-Fi match in value.
2. Leave the hours for internal purposes and ignore the comparison discrepancy.