School Directory Management Portal User Guide for: Private School

Click the headers of the accordions below to navigate to different sections of this page:

Introduction to the School Directory Management Portal

The School Directory (SD) Management Portal (formerly called the School Directory Update application) has been updated for your convenience and to give it a more modern look, matching its ‘sister’ application, the Wisconsin School Directory Public Portal.

It is very important that every tile appearing on the home screen of the Management Portal is clicked, read, reviewed and edited as needed so that DPI has accurate and current data.

The tiles appearing on a home screen, and their sub-tiles/screens for a private school, are listed within each accordion below.

NOTE: The person making changes to the School Directory Management Portal application must have the user role of “Directory Update." If you do not hold this user role, you must request it from your agency’s District Security Administrator (DSA) or your agency’s Application Administrator. You can make the request, and they can assign this role to you all within WISEsecure.

The 'Opening' screen provides users with tips and general knowledge. Read over the information and then click the "Go to Home Page" button.

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User Guide

The Home Screen

“Application Open/Closed”

Each year the information submitted to DPI from the school Directory applications is used for a wide variety of purposes. Many people throughout the state create external data requests for Directory based information. Additionally, Directory information is compiled in over 80 reports that get submitted to the U.S. Department of Education.

In order to process data as it changes from one school year to the next, the Wisconsin School Directory Management Portal application has to "close," meaning that it cannot accept submitted data for that time. This annual event usually takes place sometime between mid-December until about mid-January, when the application re-opens.

If you log into the application during a "closed" period, the green icon that reads “Application Open” in the screenshot above will instead be a red and will state “Application closed.” While you will be able to log in and view the home screen, as long as the icon reads “Application Closed”, you cannot make any data edits within the application.

If you have an urgent change to your Directory information, but the application is Closed, please submit a Help Ticket. Select "School Directory Updates” from the application drop-down list and explain your needs in the free-text field.

It is also important to note that when the School Directory Management Portal reopens (usually in January or February), that the Directory is then accepting information for the following school year. For example, when the School Directory Management Portal opens in February of 2027, it is open to accept data for the 2027-28 school year (even though February 2027 is still in the calendar time frame for the 2026-27 school year).

• Application Open/Closed data element page

“Manage Data” Icon and the “Submit Review” Button

Follow all the steps provided within the user guide sections below. To edit and update information in the School Directory Management Portal, you need to click the purple pencil icon in the upper right corner of each tile that appears on your home screen. This is referred to as the "Manage" icon through the user guide. Clicking this icon brings you to screens where you can edit and update your School Directory data. 

Do not click the "Submit Review" button until you have reviewed and updated data on all tiles and screens within the School Directory Management Portal application. If you submit data that has not been reviewed, you will likely receive validation messages.

The Home Screen and Breadcrumbs as Navigation:

The home screen of the SD Management Portal displays tiles, each with a unique header. You must review each tile annually. You can periodically make smaller changes throughout the year during the application’s “Open” time frame. To edit information on any tile, click Manage. This opens a new screen. All screens are editable except for the basic information screen.

A message across the top of the home screen informs you of the progress of your data review. If you have not started your data review, the home screen indicates that your data has not been verified.

A message across the top of the home screen will inform you of the progress of your data review. If you have not started your data review, the home screen will indicate that your data has not been verified.

Once you begin your data review, the home screen message changes to indicate your progress. 

The tile headers are used to create the "breadcrumbs." Breadcrumbs are a list of screen names, separated by a > (greater than) symbol. They appear across the top of every screen. Use the breadcrumbs to navigate through this application.

Click a word in the breadcrumb trail to go to that screen. The breadcrumbs displayed are dynamic and change as you navigate screens. The breadcrumb path always starts from the home screen. Click Home to return to the home screen at any time.

The number of tiles appearing on the home screen depends on the type of agency accessing the SD Management Portal (i.e., public LEA, CESA, County CDEB, private school, State Agency Institute, or ICS Governance Board). For information on Agency Types that report through the School Directory Management Portal, visit the School Directory Management Portal: User Guide landing page.

Every time the “Manage” icon appears in this user guide, you will get a numbered list of tasks to complete on that screen:

To Manage:

1. Pay attention to the “Manage Data” icon throughout this user guide.
2. Start by updating the Basic Information screen.

Basic Information Tile

This is a view-only tile. It does allow users to click the “Manage Data” button. Edit the information displayed on this tile at the school level, using the "Public Schools" tile.

The information on this tile and its corresponding screen is agency level information. Of note, building level information is typically the same as agency level information for a private school, since the private school is the entirety of the agency.

Basic Information Tile Screen

This is an editable screen. Changes needed to the items bolded at the top (School District/Agency Name, School/Legal Name, Agency Type, CESA, County, and School Type) must be requested through a Help Ticket. The person submitting this ticket must have the user role of “Directory Update” because this role signifies the authority to request these changes. 

• Agency Name data element page
• Legal Name data element page
• Agency Types that report through the School Directory Management Portal are defined on the Definition of a School data element page.
• CESA data element page
• County data element page
• School Type data element page
• Partner Support Team Help Ticket: Click this if you need information changed on the School Directory School Basic Information screen that you cannot edit yourself. 

Low Grade and High Grade:

These values are set based on the parameters given from each of the schools within your district. Changes are made on screens within the Public Schools tile by selecting the specific schools from the listing. More details are available within the Public Schools tile section of this user guide. Please read that section carefully.

NOTE: The lowest possible grade is four-year-old kindergarten. PK is not a grade level, as it is not defined as a grade by state statute 115.02.

• Visit the Low grade/High grade data element page for more information. 

Grades Offered: 

Notice an expander icon for this section. It looks like a plus sign. The plus sign indicates there is more to display. Once clicked, the window expands and displays a list of all the grade levels offered across all the schools within your school district, again, based on the parameters given from each of the schools within your district.

• Visit the Grades Offered data element page for more details.
• NOTE: Private schools cannot offer PK. Visit the Grade Level Placement data element page for more details on PK.

To Manage:

1. Submit a Help Ticket if any of the following are incorrect on your screen:
   1. School District, Legal Name, Agency Type, LEA Code, CESA, and County
2. Low Grade, High Grade: Adjust low grade and high grade later, when you get to the Public Schools tile/screen.
3. Educational Service (PK) Select: Yes or No.
4. Grades Offered: Adjust grades offered later, when you get to the Public Schools tile/screen.
5. Click Home from the breadcrumbs.
6. Click Address and Contact on the home screen.

Address and Contact Person Tile

The "Address & Contact" tile is below the "Basic Information" tile on the home screen.

The information on this tile and its corresponding screen is agency-level information.

Update Address and Contact Tile Screen

This screen is editable. Make changes to all fields that require updating.

For the Contact Information section, remember to provide agency-level information for the following fields: Phone, Fax, Email, Web address.

• For more details about these fields, please visit the Contact Information data element page.
• NEW! for the 2026-27 School Year: A new data element is required in School Directory: Transcripts URL. 
  • Please provide a URL, or web address, for the website that provides information about how to obtain high school transcripts from your agency. 
  • NOTE: This data element only pertains to LEAs with 12th grade (i.e., graduating) students. If your LEA does not offer grades 9-12, this data element does not appear on your screen.
  • There is an optional contact that correlates to this data element, the Transcript/Graduation Record Contact.

To Manage:

1. Review the accuracy of your contact information at the district level. This should be information for the District/Central Offices, or for the District Administrator:
   1. Phone, 
   2. Fax, 
   3. Email address, 
   4. Web address/URL for the district webpage.
   5. Web address/URL for the district webpage pertaining to obtaining high school transcripts (LEAs with grades 9-12 only).

For private schools, the person listed here should be either for the Choice Administrator, or the Private School Primary Contact. This is the name of the person who will appear on the home screen Staff Contacts tile.

There are also three address types to manage on this screen: physical, mailing, and shipping.

PLEASE NOTE: Please fill out a Help Ticket to inform the Partner Support Team of the following:

• Your private school has an address change that moves you into the boundaries of a new/different school district.
• Your private school expands with another location not in the same district (i.e., School 1 is located in district A, and the next school year you open School 2 in District B). 

These are critical updates that need to be tracked within the DPI databases. We can also assist with vendor support to make sure your student information system (SIS) tools and other vended applications are aware of the move and able to support your data transfer needs from your new location/s. 

For the Physical Address section, remember to provide agency-level information for the following fields: Prefix, Street Address, Location, City, State, Zip Code.

• For more details about these fields, please visit the Address data element page.

Notice the boxes at the end of the physical address section. Some private schools also use their agency level physical address (e.g., "Central Office" or "Main Office" address) as the mailing address and the shipping address for the agency.

You may choose to check one, both, or neither of these boxes as they apply to your agency-level needs.

• Mailing Address: check box available if same as physical address
• Shipping Address: check box available if same as physical address

If both boxes are left unchecked, you will need to enter information for both the mailing and shipping address.

To Manage:

1. Review the accuracy of your address/es.
2. Make sure you follow the details provided about location if your district's location is in a difficult to locate area.
3. Either click the buttons to make the mailing/shipping address the same as the mailing address, or enter separate mailing/shipping address information.
4. Save changes.
5. Click Home from the breadcrumbs.
6. Click Staff Contacts on the home screen.

Staff Contacts Tile

The Staff Contacts tile displays the agency-level contact that was provided on the previous tile, the "Address and Contact" tile. This should be the person holding the role with the most authority within your school/ agency. For private schools, the person listed here should be the Choice Administrator or Private School Primary Contact.

This tile brings you to the "Staff Contacts" screen. There are a number of mandatory contact types required by DPI. If you are missing any, you will see a notification on the home screen Staff Contacts tile.

Mandatory Contacts Tile Screen

This screen is editable. Make changes to any and all fields that require updating. Address any notifications posted across the top of the screen for missing contact types.

For the Mandatory Contacts section, remember that this is still information required for the district level. Make sure you are not entering school level contacts. However, in some smaller LEAs, there may be some overlap in positions (i.e., one person may hold multiple position titles). Based on state statutes and other regulations, DPI is required to collect contact information from various staff positions. Edit these positions to ensure you submit current, accurate contact information to DPI. You cannot delete these same contacts because they are required. As such, the edit icon is available, but the trash can ("delete") icon is not available. When a specific contact type, such as the District Administrator, displays these icons, it indicates that it is a required position.

Mandatory Contacts for a private school Include:

• Choice Administrator
• Private School Primary Contact
• Visit the Staff/Mandatory Contacts data element page for more information.

NEW! for the 2026-27 School Year: A new, optional but highly recommended contact is available in School Directory: Transcript/Graduation Record Contact

• This person is an agency-level contact and subject matter expert about the agency’s policies and procedures for obtaining high school transcripts (e.g., registrar, guidance counselors, assistant principals, records clerk in school business office, etc.).
• This person should also be the person best able to help others use the resource link provided in the Transcripts URL data element.

To Manage:

1. Review the accuracy of your mandatory contact information.
2. Click the Manage icon to make changes.
3. Click +Add Contact to add any missing mandatory contacts. Read the steps on how to add contacts below.

Add Contacts Screen

Each Agency Type has a specific list of mandatory contacts, as listed above. If your district does not have anyone listed for a given mandatory contact, you need to provide the information into the Directory. To do this:

1. Click + Add Contact from the Staff Contacts screen.
2. The Add Contacts screen displays. This shows in the breadcrumbs: Home > Staff Contacts > Add Contact.

• Visit the Staff/Mandatory Contacts data element page for more information.

To add a new contact, complete the following steps:

1. Select the Contact Type for all required mandatory contacts, especially if they are missing.
2. Select an appropriate Local Title. If your specific Local Title is not available in the list, please submit a Help Ticket to the Partner Support Team.
3. Enter: First Name*, Last Name*, Middle Name, Gender, Suffix, Position Status*, Phone Number*, Phone Extension, Fax Number, and Email* for the current contact person. Items marked with an asterisk are required.
   • For more information, visit the Staff/Mandatory Contact Type data element page.
4. For position Status, if the position is neither vacant nor an interim, leave that field blank.
5. Below these fields, notice three buttons: "Cancel," "Clear," and "Add."
6. Click Add to save the new Mandatory Contact.

To Manage:

1. Add all required contacts.
2. Click Staff Contacts in the breadcrumbs to make sure your new contact appears in the listing.
3. Repeat as needed until all mandatory contacts are listed.
4. Return to the Staff Contacts screen using the breadcrumbs to review the Other Contacts section.

Other Contacts

Below the list of mandatory contacts are additional positions that you can post as other contacts. Again, make sure you are adding agency level contacts on this screen.

To Manage:

1. Ensure all other contacts listed are accurate for the current school year.
2. Edit or delete as needed for an accurate display of agency-level staff positions.
3. OPTIONAL: Add additional other contacts.
4. Click Home from the breadcrumbs.
5. Click the Mailing Preferences tile on the home screen.

Mailing Preference Tile

This Mailing Preference tile appears on the home screen below Staff Contacts. The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) generated separate education-related mailings in addition to required forms. Vendors sometimes request database-generated address listings for use in distribution of non-DPI mailings. Private schools have the option to not be included in such mailings. If the private school elects to participate in a federal program (e.g., IDEA, or Title I, etc.), DPI maintains the right to contact that private school regarding the implementation of the federal program.

The information on this tile and its corresponding screen is agency-level information.

Mailing Preferences Screen

This screen is editable. Make sure your selections are correct for each of the two options:

• Yes or No: Include (this school) in miscellaneous DPI mailings.
  • Selecting Yes means: your school will receive miscellaneous communications and mailing from DPI.
  • Selecting No means: your school may not receive notification of state and federal funding opportunities that DPI sends out. 
• Yes or No: Include (this school) in vendor-generated mailings.
  • Selecting Yes means: your school will receive miscellaneous communications from vendors.
  • Selecting No means: your school will not be in the private schools file which DPI posts on its website. Many scholarship agencies and free services use this file for their mailings, so your school will not receive notifications of some scholarship and free services. 

To Manage:

1. Make your selection for each of the mailing options.
2. Click Save.
3. Click Home from the breadcrumbs to return to the home screen.

Return to Home Screen: Submit Review Button

As mentioned at the beginning of this checklist, the “Submit Review” button is the first item that appears on the Home screen and is the last item you should complete. Scan the Home screen to make sure there are no validation messages for data to be reviewed. Address all tiles/screens to correct the data and resolve the validation message.

Across the very top of the home screen is an instructional message. It reads:

"Data has not been verified for the 202X-2X+1 school year. Review the data on all tiles and subsequent screens, make changes as needed, and save your changes. Areas with missing mandatory data will display an error message. When done, click the Submit Review button to mark that your data has been managed."

OR

"Data submission in Progress, last update MM/DD/YYYY."

Click Submit Review only after you have reviewed (updated and saved) all data for the current school year. This indicates to DPI that you have clicked every tile from the home screen and reviewed the data on every screen, saving changes along the way.

Clicking this “Submit Review” button means it’s time to celebrate data quality!

Once you click this button, you can still make changes with the SD Management Portal as needed until the application closes (typically, at the end of each calendar year). The application opens again within a few weeks of the closing.

• Visit the Submit Review data element page for more information.

For more information, visit the School Directory Management Portal: Annual Required Updates webpage.

• Please submit your feedback to Partner Support if you have feedback or suggestions about this form or its corresponding webpages.
• If you have questions and need help from a Partner Support Team representative, please submit a Help Ticket.

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Didn't Find What You Needed?

The Partner Support Team is here to help!

Please submit a Help Ticket so we may better assist you.

Choose “School Directory - Updates” from the Application dropdown, and one of our dedicated support staff will reach out to you.

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