Creating Incidents
Contents
Incident Description
Note: The user must identify the incident type(s), participants, codes, and subcodes.
Use the steps below to populate the Incident Description portion of an incident. See the Appendix for code values.
1. Log into the school associated with the incident.
2. Navigate to Start Page > Special Functions > Incident Management > Create New Incident.
3. Choose School from the pop-up menu.
Note: The field is required and reflects the name of the school at which the incident occurred.
School level users will only be able to view and enter incidents that occurred at their individual schools. The information entered by school-level users will only be assigned to the users’ individual schools. District office users will only be able to view and enter incidents that occurred at schools located in their individual districts. A pop-up menu will display a list of schools in the district. Users should select the school where the incident occurred.
4. Choose Discipline or Truancy from the Incident Type pop-up menu.
Note: This field is required and reflects the type of incident being reported. Based on the security rights, one or both incident types will display in the pop-up menu.
5. Populate the Incident Date and Time based on when the incident occurred.
Note: The date and time are required. In reference to Truancy, this field reflects the dates on which the student accumulated enough unexcused/unlawful absences to be considered truant. Refer to the Truancy definitions included in the Appendix to ensure that students are coded properly based on the definitions.
The system defaults to the current date. It may be necessary to make a change to reflect the actual date of the incident.
6. Choose the Time Frame based on when the incident occurred.
Note: This field is required and reflects the part of the day during which the incident took place. The options are During School Hours or Outside of School Hours.
Once an option is chosen, another pop-up menu appears. Choose an appropriate value. These options are useful when running trend reports to pinpoint when certain behaviors occur most often.
7. Populate the Title and Description. The description is recommended, but not required.
Note: The title may be up to 80 characters and appears on the Incident List, Search Results from the Incident List, and the SC Incident Management Query results.
The district may choose to standardize the Title field to ensure consistency in searching and reporting.
The Description reflects the Description shown in the Behavior Codes.
8. Choose the Location and populate Location Description based on the area or place where the incident occurred.
Note: The location is required. When a location is chosen, an optional Location Comment field appears. This field allows for the input of additional detail regarding the location of the incident. The Location Comment will not be collected by the SCDE.
The description is optional and is provided for the entry of additional detail regarding the setting or site of the incident.
9. Populate the Prepared By if desired.
Note: This field is optional and reflects the name of the person entering the data. This person could be the assistant principal, hearing officer, attendance clerk, etc. School districts should decide what information to enter into this field.
10. Populate the Financial Impact if desired.
Note: This field is optional and reflects any known costs associated with the incident. The field accepts only positive whole numbers.
11. Click Submit Incident to save the changes.
Incident Builder: Participants
Use the steps below to populate the Participants portion of an incident. See the Appendix for code values.
Use this first set of steps to add a student or staff member from PowerSchool.
1. On the Incident List page, click the ID or title of the incident you’d like to edit.
2. Click the Plus (+) button next to Participants. The Search for Student, Staff, or Other Participants dialog appears.
3. Enter criteria for the search and click Search. The Results section is populated with matching participants.
Note: You may search by Last Name, Type, Grade Level, Context (school), and Only Active. Only Active is the default option and reflects the enrollment status of a student or the employment status of a staff member.
4. Highlight the appropriate participant in the search results.
5. Click Add.
6. Choose a role from the Select Role(s) pop-up menu. There must be at least one student Offender per incident.
7. Choose a role from the Attributes pop-up menu.
Note: There are three types of Participant Attributes:
- Participant – Choose the type of participant from the pop-up menu. This is required. Each participant must have one of these types assigned to him/her unless the participant is either unknown or does not fall into one of these categories.
- If Student is chosen from the Attributes, another pop-up menu appears with all of the schools in your district. Choose the school where the student was enrolled on the date of the incident (required). This information is very important for UMIRS reporting of suspensions and expulsions due to violent and drug-related incidents.
- Multiple participant attributes may be assigned to a participant. Click the Plus (+) button and choose the appropriate Participant Attribute code and subcode from the pop-up menu.
- Physical Injury – This is required for Federal Reporting if there was physical injury to a participant during an incident. Definitions of the various levels of physical injury are located in the Appendix.
- Possible Motivation – Optional. This information is used in behavior data collection systems such as SWIS and AIMSWEB. The Appendix contains definitions of possible motivations and descriptions of these attributes.
- Participant – Choose the type of participant from the pop-up menu. This is required. Each participant must have one of these types assigned to him/her unless the participant is either unknown or does not fall into one of these categories.
If an identified participant is not listed in the PowerSchool database:
- Click Create Other.
- Enter the name, position, age, and gender in the appropriate fields.
- If the participant has not been identified, select the checkbox Mark Person as Unknown and leave the other fields blank.
- Click Add.
Note: The individual’s name appears in the Results area after choosing Others in the Search for Student, Staff, or Other Participants pop-up menu.
8. Click Add Participant Attributes.
9. Click Submit Incident to save the changes.
Incident Builder: Incident Elements
Use the steps below to add behaviors, actions and attributes to the incident. See the Appendix for code values.
1. On the Incident List page, click the ID or title of the incident you’d like to edit.
2. Click the Plus (+) button next to Incident Elements.
3. Choose Add Behavior from the pop-up menu.
Note: This field is required and reflects the offense or incident that occurred.
4. Choose the appropriate behavior from the pop-up menu.
5. A behavior subcode pop-up menu will appear if the behavior code chosen is further categorized with subcodes.
If a Behavior code has subcodes attached to it, a subcode must be chosen.
6. Select the Primary Behavior checkbox if this is the primary behavior for the incident.
7. Click Add Behavior. The behavior appears under the Incident Elements heading.
8. Click and drag the behavior to the appropriate offender. The behavior appears under the name of the offender and also remains listed under the Incident Elements heading.
9. Click the Plus (+) button next to Incident Elements.
10. Choose Add Object from the pop-up menu.
11. Choose the appropriate object from the pop-up menu.
Note: Enter objects in the order of importance. The first object entered and associated with a participant is considered the primary object, the second object is secondary and the third object is tertiary.
Object codes are required when weapons or other objects are found or used in the incident. If a weapon is assigned to an Incident, the Behavior Code, 789 – Weapon to the Incident, must be assigned.
Object codes, particularly those involving knives, are classified according to the length of the knife blade. The length of the knife blade determines if the weapon is included in state reporting only, both state and federal reporting, or neither state nor federal reporting.
- If a knife blade is greater than 2 inches, but less than 2.5 inches, code that object as Knife > 2 inches. This weapon will then be included in State UMIRS reporting, but will not be included in Federal Reporting.
- If the knife blade is coded as > 2.5 inches, then the weapon will be reported in both State UMIRS and Federal reports.
Other objects may be entered as a Miscellaneous Object. If this option is chosen, then a user must enter a description of the object.
12. An object subcode pop-up menu will appear if the object code is Weapon. A subcode is required to identify the type of weapon.
13. Choose the appropriate object subcode from the pop-up menu, if applicable.
14. Click Add Object.
15. Click and drag the object to the appropriate offender. The object appears under the name of the offender and also remains listed under the Incident Elements heading.
16. Click the Plus (+) button next to Incident Elements.
17. Choose Add Action from the pop-up menu.
18. Choose the appropriate action from the pop-up menu.
Note: This field is required to identify the actions that occurred or were assigned to a participant as a result of the incident. For state and federal reporting, each action must have an Action Code, Action Date Range, and Duration Code. Providing the Action Date Range and Duration code assists users that compile the Table 5 Report for the Office of Exceptional Children.
19. Based on the action code, an action subcode pop-up menu may appear. If so, choose the appropriate subcode from the pop-up menu.
20. Populate the appropriate Action Date Range for the duration of the disciplinary action from the pop-up menu.
Note: This is the period of time, from the first day to the last, of the imposed consequences.
21. Choose the appropriate Duration Code for the duration of the disciplinary action from the pop-up menu.
Note: This is the number of days suspended or hours of detention a student receives as a result of committing an offense. If Hours (Less than a day) is chosen, an additional pop-up menu appears where the user must choose the actual number of hours the student was in detention.
All forms of removals (Unilateral Removals, Removals by Hearing Officer, In-School Suspensions, Out of School Suspensions, and Expulsions) from the regular education setting involving students in special education must reflect the duration for use with Table 5.
Modified Expulsion refers to any expulsion period that is less than a full calendar year, 365 days.
22. Click Add Action. The action appears under the Incident Elements heading.
23. Click and drag the action to the appropriate behavior, which should be listed under the name of an offender. The action appears under the behavior and is no longer listed under the Incident Elements heading.
24. Click the Plus (+) button next to Incident Elements.
25. Click Submit Incident to save the changes.
Note: If the same Behavior, Action, or Object is associated with more than one participant and any part of the Action or Object varies among the participants, then the same Action or Object must be added to the Incident and associated with each of the individuals as appropriate. If an Action has been added more than once, a number will be assigned to each action in brackets.