SISB

Schools may now enter and edit student enrollments for the 2016-2017 school year.   For details, see the new Reference Guide, REF-6554.1 2016-2017 Opening Day Procedures.  Here are some tips to remember:

No Show Screen Reminders – ALL students that do not show up on the first day of school must be marked absent, and a No Show record must be entered on the No Show Screen (No Show Job Aid – click here).  In order for an enrollment to be successfully deleted by the No Show screen, ALL attendance must be invalidated by making sure Absent-UC is selected for any and all days.  To prevent the teacher from taking attendance again after you made all the dates Absent-UC, drop the student from the section(s) by entering an end date in the Walk-In Scheduling screen.  DO NOT WITHDRAW no show students.  In order to delete them from the enrollment history, you MUST use the No Show screen.  (Special Reminder:  Before the No Show screen was created, schools were asked to withdraw no show students by exiting them on the same day they enrolled---THAT IS NO LONGER THE PROCESS THIS YEAR—however, if done by accident, please call the MiSiS help desk.)

Enrollment Search – When searching for previous enrollments, NEVER type the entire last and first names.  INSTEAD, start by only entering the first 3 letters, and the correct birthdate from the verified birth certificate.  DO NOT call the previous school to ask them to correct or create a new enrollment just because spelling is slightly different.  If the student’s name or other demographics were entered incorrectly by the previous school but you have verified the student is the same one enrolling at your school, make the corrections as needed during the enrollment process. 

Mandatory Fields – When enrolling students new to the district, there are required fields designated with the red asterisk (*) on the enrollment screen.   The following data fields must be complete and accurate as they make up the basic information used to correctly enroll a student to the school:

• School Year - be careful to select 2016-2017
• Entry Date & Entry Code
• Grade Level
• First & Last Names
• Gender
• Ethnicity & Race
• Twin – enter “yes” for all multiple birth cases
• Home Phone Number
• Birthdate & Birth Verification
• Student Address 
• Permit Type and Issue Date
• Birth Country
• School of Residence
• Residence Verification – You will find this field may be missing for a student enrolled prior to MiSiS - must be entered to save enrollment

To ensure a smoother data entry process, be sure to review that all required fields were completed on the enrollment forms, such as the home language survey section (i.e., only one language per question, as indicated); previous school information; parent addresses; phone numbers; etc.  Note that Student Ethnicity and Race fields are also found on the Student Home Language screen.  (See Home Language Survey, Page 3).

Address Search – When clicking on the Address Search, the students address is validated against school attendance boundaries.  Keep the following in mind:

·         If you need to enroll a student and the address check does not recognize the address, verify the street suffix (ST, AV, BLVD), zip code, and other address information is correctly spelled.

·         If there is a suggested address in the error message, clicking on the corrected address will fix the address fields for you.

·         If the address check does not show an error message or the correct attendance area school names, check that the address is correct and click on Address Search one more time. (Good practice after updating or correcting any student address information.)

·         If the address is not recognized, but is known to be in your area, select UNVERIFIED ADDRESS as permit, so that you can enroll the student.  Otherwise, select the student’s valid permit and enter start and end dates as required. 

Permits – This field is only required when the student resident address does not validate and may be out of the school’s attendance area.  For continuing students, permit codes should rollover, but will require that dates be updated in order to remain valid.   Do not confuse Special Ed and Special Program.   Special Ed is used as a permit only for students assigned to a school out of their attendance area due to IEP placement needs.  

Special Program applies when the student is accepted to a school with a special program offered, like dual or foreign language programs.   The system will allow you to enroll magnet, Pre-K, and options school students without a permit since attendance area does not apply to enrollment in these special cases.

Common Enrollment Issues – Sometimes mistakes are made during the enrollment process.  If possible, make corrections to enrollment PRIOR to the first day of school to avoid issues with attendance taken.  Here are some possible accidental enrollments scenarios:

·         Accidentally enrolled a student multiple times (has multiple temp IDs) – Make sure that all the of demographic student information on the duplicate enrollments: All Names, Gender, Birthdate, Birth country—MUST be identical.   If you must assign to class(es), only assign section to the first one created, or wait until the IDs are merged before assigning to class(es) to avoid attendance issues.  The duplicate records will be merged to one record and assigned the district ID automatically.  Call the Helpdesk to report the duplicate enrollments.

·         Accidentally enrolled a student as new to district that was previously enrolled with the district -  Most likely you will not know of this until the School Information Branch (SIB) identifies the student when attempting to assign a district ID.  If you have already assigned the student to class(es), and started taking attendance, continue to do so.  SIB will attempt to merge the new enrollment to the existing record, so DO NOT re-enroll the student with the correct ID to avoid delay to the merge process.  You may also receive a call from SIB requesting additional action on your part is needed to merge the records.
 

·         Accidentally enrolled a new student using a previous BUT DIFFERENT student’s ID – There are many students with the same name in our district, so it is crucial to remember when performing the enrollment search to verify that you have found the same exact student by carefully examining the student profile data:  Verify last, first AND middle name spellings, birthdate, parent & contact names, and any available profile data to compare and validate you have the correct student.  Never type over names, birthdates, or other enrollment information.  While sometimes birthdates may have errors, if the month day and year are all different, most likely you have enrolled the wrong student.  If you accidentally enrolled a student, call the MiSiS Helpdesk immediately so you can be provided with the correct instructions to correct the error as soon as possible.  The School Information Branch will contact you in order to assist in separating the students and correcting any information you may have accidentally altered on the wrong student record.

IMPORTANT REMINDER:  Immunizations for new Enrollments – DO NOT ENTER any immunizations on the health screen until the district ID number has been assigned.   If you enter immunization data while the enrollment still has a temporary ID, the data will disappear when the district ID is assigned.

As of last school year, the state of California's Kindergarten age eligibility rules are the following:

·         A child shall be admitted to Kindergarten (grade K) if the child will have his/her FIFTH birthday on or before SEPTEMBER 1st of the enrollment year.

·         A child that has his/her FIFTH birthday from SEPTEMBER 2 to DECEMBER 2, qualifies to be enrolled as Transitional Kindergarten (grade TK).

·         If the child is not five years until after December 2, then the only option is enrolling in a Expanded Transitional Kindergarten (grade TE) program where available – see info below.

Expanded Transitional Kindergarten (Grade level in MiSiS: TE) - This new program is opening up at various elementary schools throughout the district.  In addition to the schools that began offering the program last year, the remaining SRLDP programs at schools will transition to this program.  Please see REF-6595.1 Expanded Transitional Kindergarten Implementation for details regarding major changes for 2016-2017 as well as guidelines for eligibility and enrollment procedures.

Promoting Last Year’s TK to 1st grade – Previous TK students were automatically promoted to K.  However, if it is determined that the student is ready for 1^st grade, you can change the grade level on the enrollment screen and save. If you use the grade change link, be sure the “correction” radio button is selected.

IMPORTANT REMINDER: Initial CELDT -  Please note that new enrollees in both Transitional Kindergarten and Expanded Traditional Kindergarten with a primary language other than English must also be administered the Initial CELDT like other Kindergarten students.  Follow the same directions to score and enter ILC and ILC date (see next article).

The Home Language Survey (HLS) is a vital part of the initial enrollment process for every student.  If the primary language is not English, the student will need to be tested for English Proficiency within 30 calendar days.  However, if the primary language is English, the student will be automatically classified as EO.

In order to facilitate correct entry of the student’s primary language (also known as the student’s home language), special programming will automatically select the primary language based upon the first three home language survey questions entered.  For students first time in a California school, you can enter the questions provided by the parent on the enrollment form to complete the screen in MiSiS.   However, if the student has attended K-12 in another district, the original HLS from the previous district must be used.  In these cases, please call the School Information Branch (213-241-2450).  The School Information Branch will attempt to research the original HLS primary language and previous EL information from CALPADS.

Once the HLS has been saved during first enrollment to MiSiS, changes to the HLS can only be made by the School Information Branch.   If a change is needed due to error or for whatever reason, please fax the original home language survey —the very first, even if from Pre-K—to the School Information Branch. (fax: 213-241-8969)

After assessment with Initial CELDT is completed and scored, the EL designee or other designated person for the school must enter LEP or IFEP as the Initial Language Classification (ILC) and the Initial Language Classification Date (ILC date) on the English Learner screen.  THIS MUST BE ENTERED BY 10/5/2016 (Fall Census Count Day)