Department

1. Department DeSoto County Schools 2013-2014

2. Packet Contents: • MIS PowerPoint • Administrative Data Sheet – Leave with Melissa today or return to Patty Jackson by August 15th • Training Schedule • 2013-2016 Technology Plan • PowerSchool User Form • Parental Use & Responsibility Form for Parent Portal • AUP for Teachers and Guests – file these at your school • Instructional Minutes • SmartTrack Survey Reports • Discipline Reports from MSIS • 12-13 List of Graduates • 12-13 List of Promotions/Non-Promotions • Student Attendance Schedule

3. POWERSCHOOL USER/EMPLOYEE AUP FORMS • There is a PowerSchool User form and an Employee AUP in your packet. • All users must sign these forms. • Forms should be filed at your school.

4. ON-LINE REGISTRATION VIA INFOSNAP DeSoto County Schools has moved to on-line registration. Parents are able to go on-line and register their children cutting the registration time to only a few minutes. Parents of returning students have the option to upload proofs of residency via on-line registration. Parents of new students will need to take proofs of residency to the their child’s school. All proofs must be scanned into the system so that we have an electronic copy of those documents. Documents must be scanned in order for MSIS Coordinators to approve students in InfoSnap. Students must be approved before data can be entered into PowerSchool. 4

5. TEACHER GRADEBOOK • We will have a Train-the-Trainer session for PowerTeacher on August 6th. These trainings will be done via the internet, allowing your personnel to remain in your school and access the training via the web. • Please have your MSIS coordinator access the training site and as many teachers as you wish to view this session.

6. TEACHER GRADEBOOK • All teachers must keep a grade book. This includes coaches, SPED teachers, Physical Education teachers, etc. • Set your own deadlines for printing verification sheets. • Follow the district calendar for printing report cards.

7. TEACHER GRADEBOOK • Since PowerSchool and PowerTeacher are web-based, it is necessary for our office to store grades. • Grades must be stored before Honor Rolls can be generated and high school report cards can be printed.

8. TEACHER GRADEBOOK • TEACHERS MUST ENTER GRADES IN A TIMELY MANNER AND KEEP THE GRADEBOOKS UP-TO-DATE. • Board Policy IHA states that teachers will utilize the electronic grade book provided by DCS to post grades Bi-WEEKLY. • Parent Portal works in conjunction with the Grade book in Real Time!

9. ATTENDANCE • Students who do not report to school at the beginning of the year MUST have a Start Date of the day they first report to your school. They cannot be counted absent for those days they did not attend. • No Show lists must be emailed to the State Attendance Officer by August 22, 2013. • Attendance for DCAC will be emailed daily from our office. • Walter Ward will email JDC from his office. • Attendance Clerks must keep attendance up-to-date.

10. ATTENDANCE • Students must be in attendance 63% of their instructional day. Please see attached attendance schedule. • HB 1530AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 37-13-91, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972,  TO PROVIDETHAT A COMPULSORY-SCHOOL-AGE CHILD WHO IS ABSENT MORE THAN 37% OF THE INSTRUCTIONAL DAY MUST BE CONSIDERED ABSENT THE ENTIRE DAY; TO AMEND SECTION 37-151-5, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REVISE THE DEFINITION OF THE TERMS "MINIMUM SCHOOL TERM" AND "AVERAGE DAILY ATTENDANCE" AS SUCH TERMS ARE USED FOR DETERMINING ALLOCATIONS TO SCHOOL DISTRICTS UNDER THE ADEQUATE EDUCATION PROGRAM; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

11. ATTENDANCE • Students shall be counted PRESENT who are not at school, BUT are involved in school-related activities that may include, but are not limited to the following: ·        Official organized events sponsored by the 4-H or Future Farmers of American (FFA); ·        Official organized junior livestock shows and rodeo events; ·        Official service as a page at the State Capitol for the Mississippi House of Representatives or Senate; ·        Official subject-matter field trips; ·        Official student conventions; ·        District sanctioned or other State authorized sanctioning entities (i.e., Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) athletic contests, music festivals, contests, competitions); ·        Any similar school-related activity sanctioned or sponsored by the State Board of Education

12. ATTENDANCE • Students must be reported to the state attendance officer within twodays of the student reaching the 5th unexcused absence. • You must make time for your MSIS Coordinator and Attendance Clerk to effectively do her job. • Procedures and guidelines have been or will be given to each attendance clerk during training. • All correspondence to the State Attendance Officer must be done via email.

13. DISCIPLINE • Suspensions and ExpulsionsMUST be reported to the State Attendance Officer the day they occur. • Attendance must reflect suspension dates (if you send a student home during the day and allow that day to be one of the suspension days, then that day must be counted as a suspension day in attendance. • TSUS and DSUS (tardy suspension and dress code suspension) codes may no longer be used in discipline. If you are going to suspend a student you must use the SUS (suspension) code. • Procedures and guidelines have been or will be given to each attendance clerk during training. • All correspondence to the State Attendance Officer must be done via email.

14. Why is the Accuracy of this data so important? • Data is global throughout the district and it feeds many other programs • MAEP Funding • Teacher Units • Accreditation • Cohort Groups • Testing • State Department is building an electronic transcript • The Federal Government uses our data for statistics. • School Status

15. How important is MSIS? • MSIS is a reporting tool to MDE. • Transmits attendance • Transmits personnel (monitors accreditation, • MAEP funding, teacher units) • Transmits student information and grades • (creating an electronic transcript) • Transmits student discipline (monitors safe • and orderly schools) • Transmits Special Education, Gifted, • Vocational, ELL, CEIS, Title I, Diploma type, • etc.

16. Instructional Minutes • Instructional Minutes for Accreditation • Begins with the Instructional Minutes Form • Minutes go into PowerSchool on the Teacher Schedule • Minutes go into MSIS on the Teacher Schedule • These minutes MUST match • From these minutes, the State calculates LRE and Self Contained students • Fill out and send in your Instructional minutes to Melissa Green by August 15th. • You need to consider lunch time, recess, and/or between class time

17. Instructional Minutes Form

18. MSIS Procedures • MSIS Clerks must have a success on their monthly student data reported to the State Department in order for your Attendance Clerk to run and verify reports. • The deadline for having a success and verifying reports is the 6th of each month beginning in October. • Once your school has a success and all reports have been verified, the Principal, MSIS Clerk and ADA Clerk must sign the End-of-Month Verification form. • This form must be faxed to our office to the attention of Patty Jackson, by the end of the day on the 6th of the month. • ADA Clerks must email a spreadsheet of where they have reported unexcused absences and suspensions to the state attendance officer to Melissa Green by the 6th of each month.

19. DESOTO COUNTY SCHOOLS INTERNAL DATA AUDITORS • DeSoto County Schools has implemented a student data audit plan. There will be two auditors for our district. Mrs. Vickie Bullock will assist them with the data audits. They will audit 100% of our schools. • The audit plan calls for a review of the following: • Student records and reports, • Cumulative records and Inserts, • Proofs of Residency, • Attendance (which includes reporting 5 or more absences to the State Attendance officer), • Discipline (which includes reporting of suspensions and expulsions to the State Attendance officer), • Student Data in PowerSchool, • Release and Transfer of records in a timely manner, and • Requests of records in a timely manner. 19

20. MSIS/ADA DATA Audits • The State Performance Audit Division audit cycle: • The audit cycle is a three year cycle, which began in the 2012-2013 school year. • Schools to be audited will be randomly selected. • You will notified once the State Department notifies our district. DESOTO COUNTY SCHOOLS WILL BE AUDITED for the next two years by the Performance Audit Division!

21. AUDIT CITATIONS • 2012-2013 SCHOOLS WHO WERE AUDITED LESWESHSESPHESSMSDCMSOBHSLCHS

22. AUDIT CITATIONS • Residency • Proofs of Residence • Attendance • Excuse notes • Reporting of 5 or more unexcused • absences to the State Attendance • Officer • Discipline • Reporting of Suspensions and Expulsions to the State Attendance Officer the day that they occur. • Graduation • Graduation Requirements

23. Data Collection Policy • This manual provides auditors with local guidelines for: • Roles/Responsibilities of district personnel • District-wide collection methods • Data collection and reporting process • Data validation and error correction • Data protection and system security • The data Collection Policies and Procedures guide will be delivered in August.

24. Grades and Promotion Indicators • Due to the electronic transcript and required interventions, it is imperative that MSIS records and Cum records match. • Any numeric grade change or promotion indicator change made after month 9 must be submitted to our office in order to update MSIS.

25. Parent Communication • We communicate with parents via PowerAnnouncement regarding attendance and notifications.

26. PARENT PORTAL • ParentPortal will inform the parents of assignments, grades, attendance, and demographics. • Assignments are pulled from the information that the teacher has in PowerTeacher. Parents will see exactly what the teacher enters into the gradebook. • Data is REAL-TIME.

27. PARENT PORTAL • A Parent User Responsibility Form must be signed, with photo ID. • All of this is to be done at the school level. • Passwords are encrypted in ParentPortal. If a parent forgets their log-in and/or password, they need to call their child’s school and the ParentPortal contact person will assist them.

28. PARENT PORTAL • Each school will need a person responsible for verifying parents, distributing the Login and password information and resetting passwords. This information is accessible at the school level.

29. Smarttrack • Smarttrack is a survey mandated by MDE for all middle and high schools. It pertains to drug prevalence and school safety. • We have printed the results of the surveys taken in all middle and high schools. The survey results are in your packet. • Please put this survey in your black box.

30. DeSoto County Schools Technology Plan • In your packet is a new Technology Plan for 2013—2016. If you need additional copies, please contact our office. • Please place a copy of the technology plan in your black box.

31. STUDENT AUP (Acceptable User Policy) • The Student AUP (Acceptable User Policy) is part of on-line registration. • Those students who did not register online, must sign a paper copy of the AUP. • If you need this form, email Melissa Green.

32. STUDENT DIRECTORY INFORMATION • Student directory information must be tracked on each student. • Student directory information states that the District may disclose any of the items on the form without prior written consent. This form is part of online registration. Those students who did not register online, must complete this form. The data must be entered in to PowerSchool. If you need this form, please email Melissa Green. • A custom screen has been created in PowerSchool to track this information.

33. If our office can be of assistance at any time throughout the year, please feel free to call upon us. 662-449-7279 MIS Director -- Melissa Green MIS Ass’t Director -- Laura Melton Angel Phillips – Call Coordinator Patty Jackson – Coordinator for Discipline / Personnel Natalie Welch - Coordinator for ADA / Pupil Services Cassandra Spencer – Student Data Auditor Debbie Hamm – Student Data Auditor Wanda Johnson – MIS Support Have a great school year!!!