In November of 2005, Arkansas was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Institute for Education Sciences (IES) for the construction of a statewide longitudinal data system. The objectives of the grant are to help Arkansas better manage and more effectively use individual student data for decision making and reporting. As part of this grant, Triand, Inc. will provide a system for assigning a unique student indentifying number so that each student in the state can be identified throughout the school career, even if transfers to other districts occur.
The process for assigning the unique student ID will not involve any school district interaction. The numbers will be automatically downloaded into the school district database and will be placed in the STATE REPORTING ID field on the main student demographic screen. As a general rule, this field currently should not be used for anything except to store old student ID numbers. ONCE THIS NUMBER IS DOWNLOADED IT SHOULD NOT BE CHANGED IN ANY WAY. If there is currently information in the STATE REPORTING ID field, and that information needs to be retained, please contact the APSCN Help Desk (800-435-7989) for help in locating another field for storing the existing data.
The download is scheduled for Saturday, May 27, 2006, beginning at 8:00 a.m. If this date and time will create a hardship, please notify the Help Desk prior to May 26th.