DATE:	October 18, 2007 (Email)
TO:	WSLS/ISES Administrators WSLS/ISES Assistant Administrators
FROM:	WSLS/ISES Help Desk
SUBJECT:	WSLS/ISES Update

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS MESSAGE TO ALL DISTRICT STAFF WORKING IN WSLS or ISES

ISES OCTOBER 1 SUPPLEMENT FOR CHILD COUNT FALL 2007 COLLECTION IS OPEN

The ISES October 1 Supplement for Child Count is currently open for submission pf students whose Special Education status changed between 09/21/2007 and 10/01/2007.

We suggest that districts concentrate on completion of the ISES Discipline and ISES Count Date / Year End applications before beginning work with the ISES October 1 Supplement of Child Count. On November 5th at 8 AM, the WSLS and ISES Count Date / Year End will close for the State-wide validation. The week of November 5th could be utilized to generate the October 1 Supplement. Remember that because ISES will be closed, you will not be able to request or download files from the CD / YE collection. Plan ahead and generate files, if needed, before November 4th.

ISES DATA QUALITY CHECKS

The help desk is proactively notifying targeted districts of Count Date and Year End data which are inconsistent or unusual. We ask that you contact the helpdesk via the Help Desk Expert Tool upon receiving such notification such that we may assist you with the resolution.

ISES DISCIPLINE COLLECTION - PAST DUE

The ISES Discipline Collection was due Monday, October 15th. Several districts have not yet locked the discipline application. If your district has no discipline data to report, you must still log into the application and request a District Lock. Targeted emails will be sent to districts which have not yet locked the ISES Discipline Collection.

WSLS - BIRTH STATE

As part of the department's collection of Birth State, the DPI only collects the state of birth or, if the child was born outside the United States, the code of ZZ. DPI does not require information on where a student was born outside the US; if the 'ZZ' code is used, the birth city may be provided (for WSLS matching purposes only) or listed as UNKNOWN. DPI does not collect information on the legal basis for any student’s current residence in the US (e.g. citizenship status, permanent residency, visas, etc.).

DPI has received a number of questions regarding the collection of Birth State data in the Wisconsin Student Locator System (WSLS) Data Collection. As you know, Birth State information was optional prior to the 2008-09 school year, however beginning in 2008-09 school year Birth State will be a mandatory field. This change was made because Wisconsin needs to identify students "not born in any state" (code 'ZZ') in order to provide required counts of immigrant children and youth to the U.S. Department of Education. Counts must be based on the definition of immigrant in Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act. Title III provides funding to promote the academic achievement of limited English proficient and immigrant children and youth based in part on these counts. The Department of Education also requires that certain other counts be disaggregated according to the Title III definition of immigrant.

WSAS ROSTER LABELS FOR PARENTALLY PLACED PRIVATE STUDENTS

Labels were generated for Parentally Placed Private students and distributed to districts. Parentally Placed Private students are not included in WSAS testing. These labels should be destroyed.

"Parentally Placed Private" is an indication of a student placed by a parent or guardian in a private school who receives special education or related services from the submitting district that meet state standards under a service plan (34 CFR 300.452--300.462).

REMINDER - HELPDESK EXPERT TOOL

We have implemented the Helpdesk Expert Tool to aide in providing support for our web applications, http://dpi.wi.gov/lbstat/helptool.html. We encourage use of the on-line Help Desk Expert Tool in place of emails to dpistats and telephone calls. Our hope is that the tool will provide better tracking of issues and problems as well as where we need to provide better training to the districts.

Please do not hesitate to contact the WSLS/ISES helpdesk if you have questions or concerns: Help Desk Expert On-line Tool.

cc:	DPI list of vendors with active district technology contracts
	State Superintendent's Education Data Advisory Committee
	CESA School Improvement Services Directors
	Directors of Special Education / Pupil Services
	RSN Directors

Submit questions, comments, and suggestions about the WSLS or ISES to dpistats@dpi.wi.gov or call 1-800-507-5744.

Submit questions regarding the ESEA Report Card Requirements to dpieseadata@dpi.wi.gov.

For help with this page contact the DPI Helpdesk Expert

Last updated on 2/28/2008 7:56:08 AM

WSLS / ISES Update