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WISEid: Info, Help and User Guide

 

WISEid Info, Help and FAQs

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What is WISEid?

What is WISEid

WISEid is a secure web application used to maintain basic demographic information about people in schools. WISEid provides identity management through the assigning of a secure, individual identification number.

Through the use of these unique identification numbers, WISEid aims to prevent some data quality issues, namely duplicate identifiers and mismatched records, in state and federal reports while also enabling detailed data collection/reporting in other WISE applications. In WISEid, you'll work with person records and their ID codes, including Local Person IDs and WISEids.

For more detailed instruction on WISEid, you can take this WISEid eLearning course. 

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What is a WISEid?

What is a WISEid

A WISEid is a unique, permanent, and unduplicated person identifier assigned to each person by DPI.

It's important to note that a WISEid is NOT the same as a Local Person ID, nor does it serve the same function. Assigning a Local Person ID to a student or staff allows a district to "claim" or link the district to that person. This is essential because the person's unique WISEid record is shared among any district associated with that staff or student; therefore, in order to send data for a particular person from your district, you need to assign a Local Person ID. If you don't populate the Local Person ID field, those person records are not pulled during a student or staff download file.

A student’s WISEid is considered PII (Personally Identifiable Information). The definition below is directly from the Forum Guide to Privacy:

FERPA generally prohibits schools from disclosing personally identifiable information (PII) from a student’s education records to a third party without written consent from the parent or eligible student. Each school year, LEAs must notify parents and eligible students of their rights under FERPA. The FERPA definition of PII includes direct student identifiers (e.g., name, student identification number, Social Security number), indirect identifiers (e.g., date of birth, address), and any other information that alone, or in combination with other information, is linked or linkable to a specific individual and would allow a reasonable person in the school community to identify the student (34CFR §99.3). Because this definition includes indirect identifiers and other linked or linkable information about the student, there is no definitive list of data elements considered to be PII under FERPA. Any student information may potentially be PII if it can be used by a reasonable person in the school community to identify the student. Aggregate or tabular data may be considered PII under FERPA if it includes information about individuals or small groups with unique or uncommon characteristics or extreme values.

Staff members who need to be associated to a section in Roster are also required to have Local Person IDs assigned. Schools must assign staff both a WISEid and Local Person ID to properly pull into WISEdata for Roster.

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How Do I Access and Log in to WISEid?

How do I access and login to WISEid

This application is available to school personnel who have had their DSA (District Security Administrator) set them up with WISEid roles using WISEsecure by using their district provided email address or their WAMS account user ID.

To access the WISEid application you must log in to the application via WISEhome.

For more detailed information about the different ways to gain access to applications via WISEhome, please visit the WISEhome and WISEsecure Information page.

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WISEid: User Guide

WISEstaff - WISEid toggle

The WISEid portal is very nearly identical to the WISEstaff portal. You should also notice that by clicking on the expander tool (tiny triangle) next to the words WISEstaff in the upper left corner, you can toggle between WISEid and WISEstaff, as some     functions in one portal require work to be completed in the other.

 Across the top of the WISEid portal screen is a dark colored band with the following menu topics:

Reports

Reports Overview

Download Transaction History

Merge Report

Staff Download

Student Download

Resources

Resources Overview

Update Contact Info

User Privileges

WISEid Feedback

Need Help?

Need Help? Overview

WISEstaff help Ticket

Site Map

User Guide

Each menu, when clicked, will show a row of tabs below, indicating functions within each menu.This tutorial will walk through each of the menu topics and the functions of their respective tabs.

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Home - Menu in WISEid Portal

Home - Overview

If there are important news items or announcements, they will be posted on this main page.

image of the WISEid home page

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Message Center - Menu in WISEid Portal

Message Center Overview      Agency Notifications      Change Requests      Duplicate Merge Requests      Notification Inbox

Message Center Overview

General introductory information is provided here.

Agency Notification

This is the WISEid user "opt in" page where you can choose to receive an email alerting you of new system notifications and the frequency for receiving those emails. Most, if not all, notifications require user attention. Examples include: changes requested to student or staff demographic data requiring your approval, addition of comments from dependent districts or DPI regarding changes requested by your district, or existence of errors in recent person uploads.

Change Requests

Use the links below to navigate to specific sections of the Change Request Menu:

A change request occurs for the purpose of updating previously entered demographic information that now needs to be changed. Every student and staff member is assigned a WISEid when they enter the school system. For this reason, change requests can be found on either WISEid or WISEstaff in the Message Center menu. There are two main types of change requests - to correct a name, or to correct a date of birth.

For students, there is a nightly job that replicates name and birth date changes from the SIS to WISEdata, and then into WISEid for the active school year's most recent, current, and primary enrollment. These replications will generate a Change Request, if warranted.

FILTERS and FUNCTIONS of the Change Request tab in WISEid: 

The Change Requests page provides a view and status of changes requested to personal demographic data. Requests made by your district and by other districts who have former students enrolled or staff employed by your district are displayed. If there are change requests that require your approval this will be indicated by a large orange banner spanning the top of the screen. The number of new change requests for your district will appear in a red circle next to the message icon.

Moving across the screen are the following filters and functions:

WISEid Change Request filters

  • Status - This filter tells you the status of your change requests. Filter can be set to:
    • All

    • Pending - Waiting for the dependent agency to complete the request work.

    • Approved - Your change request was successfully granted.

    • Denied - There was a problem with your change request. One big reason for denial of a change request is that a required comment was not provided. You can appeal denied change requests. Please read the example on Date of Birth  Change requests for details on how to appeal a denied change request.

    • Canceled - This change request no longer needed to be completed.

    • Appeal Pending - You have submitted an appeal to a previously denied request and are now waiting for the dependent agency to complete the request.

    • Appeal Denied - You have submitted an appeal to a previously denied request but the dependent agency denied the appeal. Read the comments section to learn more about why your appeal was denied.

  • Action Needed - By clicking this blank box, you can filter to see only change requests that require your attention.

  • New Comments - There is a new comment attached to this change request. New comments should be viewed in the comment section. NOTE: Replying to comments is not the same as appealing a denied request!

  • WISEid - Lets you see change requests that only apply to a specific WISEid.

  • Requesting Agency - The requesting agency is the source of the change request.

    • If you are (i.e., District A) receiving the change request from another district (i.e., District B), District B is the requesting agency and District A is the dependent agency.

  • Upload File - Allows you to see change requests that you have created for other districts to review.

  • Local Person ID Type - Lets you see change requests that only apply to a specific Local Person ID.

  • Change Type - Shows a list of all possible change requests:View the examples below for more details on requirements for each type of change request

  • Dependent Agency - The dependent agency is the agency receiving the change request. Dependent agencies have work to do to complete, and submit or deny change requests.

    • If you are (i.e., District A) sending a change request to another district (i.e., District B), District A is the requesting agency, and District B is the dependent agency.

    • DPI is agency number 7300, listed as - Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. DPI is always the dependent agency for birth date change requests.

  • Filter - This button is blue; once you have selected all of your desired filters, click this button to apply the filters to the results you will see in the table below.

  • Reset - Clears all filters and resets to default settings

  • Download Change Requests - Click this to download a .csv file of all change requests visible in your table

  • Cancel Selected - On the table below, there is a column titled Cancel CR; you may click in the blank boxes to select any change requests in your table. Selected change requests will be indicated with a blue checkmark. Clicking the ‘Cancel Selected’ button will bring up a hovering information window, asking “Are you sure you want to cancel all selected Change Requests?” and you may either select Yes to cancel them, or No to not cancel.

Below the field of filters and functions will be a table. All of the headers in this table are clickable and can sort the information in the entire table in either ascending (indicated with an upward pointing arrow) or descending order (indicated with a downward pointing arrow) for the header that was clicked. Column headers are as follows:

Change Request table of filter results

Column headers on the filter results table are as follows:

  • Action Needed: Requests with a red flag mean they are waiting on your district for action. This means you are the dependent agency and someone else is requesting your help.

  • New Comments: The ability to add comments to change requests which can help to clarify the reason for the change. Comments are very helpful for other districts and for DPI when reviewing and determining whether to approve the change. Sometimes comments are required, and if they are not present your change request will be denied.

  • (View): To see more about the request, click View and the request will expand. Here you can see the requested change. If you need to deny a change request, you are required to to enter a comment about why you are denying it. Conversations can happen in the comments sections to determine if the change is correct or not.

  • Cancel CR: See "Cancel Selected" in the filters section above

  • Status: This will have one of the status labels listed, view them above for definitions.

  • WISEid: Shows the WISEid of the person connected to the change request.

    • WISEid and WISEstaff are secure portals, so you are not divulging personally identifiable information (PII) by sharing WISEids on this platform.

    • Use the comment function to communicate using WISEids.

    • DO NOT share WISEids via district or other emails as they are not considered secure and you may be at risk of sharing PII to persons without a need to know.

  • Create Date: Change requests are displayed in that order with a date - time stamp.

  • Requesting Agency: Shows the four-digit District Code and the name of the school/district requesting the change request.

  • Modified Date: Displays the date - time stamp when the change request was last modified by either the requesting or dependent agency.

  • Not Responded / Approved / Denied: These columns display the number of requests with this status.

Bundled Change Requests

In an effort to prevent cases where the wrong person has been chosen from being incorrectly updated, last name and suffix (if applicable) are required fields on Change Requests for first name, middle name and/or birth date changes.

As such, there are no more change requests available solely for last name changes. Last name change requests will only occur if they are 'bundled'. Bundled Change Requests include multiple fields being changed at one time (for example - the last name and the first/middle name are being changed at the same time, or the student's last name and birth date are being changed at the same time).

Bundled Change Requests of any name type that also include a birth date change will go to DPI to review. Read the sections below for more details on how to perform Change Requests for first names and how to perform Change Requests for middle names

Otherwise, bundled Change Requests will go to dependent agencies with Local Person IDs for review.

Date of Birth Change - Change Request

First, verify the student's date of birth. Check it against the information in your SIS. Schools/districts have local control in Wisconsin, so each LEA may create its own list of acceptable documents to serve as evidence for birthdate verifications and changes (meaning, "x" document verified the student's real birthdate, so we need to change the incorrect birthdate we have listed on the school SIS). Common examples include but are not limited to documentation such as a birth certificate, passport, immigration form, legal affidavits, etc. to verify this change of birth date. The document used to verify a student's date of birth does not need to be seen by DPI.

Next, add comments to the WISEid Change request regarding how the birthdate was verified. The agency requesting the change must indicate what document required by the LEA has been viewed by the attending school/district to validate the change. Change requests for date of birth are routed to the DPI. Birth dates are used for match review purposes, so DPI must approve them.

Birth date change requests require comments.

Comments entered on change requests for birth dates must indicate that the district has approved the change request based on district policy for such changes. District policies determine what document or information is required by a district to prove the birth date and what is required may vary by district.

One example is:

  • "The parent brought in a birth certificate, which I viewed, and the birth date on the student record now does not match their birth certificate."

If a birth date change request is submitted without the proper comment, DPI will automatically deny the change request with the following comment:

“Comments entered on change requests for birth dates must indicate that the district has approved the change request based on district policy for such changes. District policies determine what document or information is required by a district to prove the birth date and what is required may vary by district.”

Here is an example of what a denied change request looks like:

Birthdate Change Request Post Comment

Notice DPI’s denial statement highlighted in yellow. Also notice that the requesting agency must respond with a comment,  such as “Verified with Birth Certificate, as per school districts policy,” then click 'Post Comment.' 

NOTE: Comments may not presented in chronological date order.

Six Steps to Appeal a Denied Change Request

If your change request is denied, that means DPI has closed the change request in their queue. The next step for the school/district requesting the change is to:

  1. Login to WISEid, and get to the Change Request tab in the Message Center menu.
  2. On the Message Center Change Request screen, find the Change Request you want to check on using the filters (i.e., Status, Denied, or Change Type, Birth date).

  3. Click View to see the expanded view, including the Comments. Here you will read DPI’s denial comment. (Example highlighted in yellow in the image above.)

  4. Write your comment in the comment box - indicating that you have viewed legal documentation to support the change request - and click the blue ‘Post Comment’ button. (Example outlined in a red box in the image above.)

    1. Provide a comment that states the required documentation was viewed.

    2. Name the specific form of legal documentation in the comment.

    3. NOTE: Adding a comment and clicking the “Post Comment” button does not change the status of the Change request.

  5. Click on the Requested Changes tab. 

  6. artifactClick the blue button that says, “Appeal to DPI”. If you do not click this button, your change request will not send the appeal to DPI and DPI will not be able to help you with this change request.

    1. NOTE: If you do not click the "Appeal" button, your comments will never make it to DPI. When DPI denies a change request, it closes that change request in DPI’s queue. Clicking the "Appeal" button is the only way to re-open the item and return it to the queue.

Birthdate Change Request Appeal to DPI

Student First Name Change - Change Request

Change requests for student first names do not come to DPI initially. Rather, change requests for first names will go to all districts besides the requesting agency who have a Local Person ID, regardless of year of enrollment, attached to this student in WISEid. Some common reasons for a ‘first name’ type change request is to correct the spelling of a first name, or if a student's first name changes. In an effort to prevent cases where the wrong person has been chosen from being incorrectly updated, last name and suffix (if applicable) are required fields on Change Requests for first name, middle name and/or birth date changes. Comments are not required for name type change requests, but are very helpful to the dependent agency and DPI. If the dependent agency denies a change request for a first name, that appeal will come to the DPI. Please refer to the Bundled Change Requests section for information on change requests for last names. 

WISEid Name Change Request Post Comment

Change requests will be sent by the current attending school, who is the requesting agency. The change request will be received by the previous attending school, who is the dependent agency. The job of the previous attending school / dependent agency is to:

  1. Verify that the student on the change request previously attended that school/district - AND -

  2. Agree that the student on the change request is the correct student. Do this by checking multiple points of verification - especially by checking that the WISEid for the student matches, and that you can confirm the transfer with a request form.

WISEid Name Change Request  Approve Deny

When the prior attending school can successfully achieve the two steps above, it is their job to Approve the change request. Prior schools do not need to update the student's name, nor should they.

Name change requests - for first name and middle names - that are not responded to by the prior attending school within seven (7) days will be automatically approved by the WISEid system, thereby allowing the new school/district to adjust the WISEid record.

Suffix change requests - do not process for additional approval. They can get changed automatically within an agency’s student information system (SIS).

Student Middle Name Change - Change Request

Change requests for student middle names do not come to DPI initially (but, like first name change requests, if the dependent agency denies the request the requesting agency can appeal that denial - that appeal comes to DPI). Rather, change requests for middle names will go to all districts besides the requesting agency who have a Local Person ID, regardless of year of enrollment, attached to this student in WISEid. In an effort to prevent cases where the wrong person has been chosen from being incorrectly updated, last name and suffix (if applicable) are required fields on Change Requests for first name, middle name and/or birth date changes. Comments are not required for name type change requests, but are very helpful to the dependent agency and DPI, especially if the middle name is changing to an entirely new/different middle name. Change requests that are expansions of current middle names, such as from middle initial 'M' to middle name 'Michael', do not generate a Change Request. This change can be made by the school/district directly in their SIS.

When Should You Deny a Change Request?

Denying a change request should only occur when the prior attending school is absolutely certain that the student being referenced in the change request is not attending the new school (i.e. it is likely that the new school has mistakenly chosen the wrong person in the change request). This should be verified by using multiple points of identification for every student that gets a change request, such as matching WISEids, transfer request forms. If legal documentation provided does not support the change, - or - DPI special rules don't apply for overriding the legal name, such as for transgender or similar protected student group rules, the request should also be denied.

Change requests for birth dates will be denied by DPI when there are no comments provided indicating that legal documentation(for example, a Birth Certificate) proving that the request has been viewed .

Race and gender changes are up to parent choice and should not be denied unless you believe that incorrect persons may be linked together. If you believe that two persons are incorrectly linked, please create a Help Desk Ticket. A WISEsupport member will investigate and can help you separate the people.

Duplicate Merge Requests

This is where WISEid Administrators can resolve duplicate WISEid records. Also, agencies can view the status of submitted duplicates.

Notification Inbox

The inbox provides a view of system notifications which alert you to missing, incomplete, or updated WISEid person data. The number of new, unread notifications will appear in a red circle next to the envelope icon in the sub-menu. Within the inbox, click on any notification subject line to navigate to the page where the requested update can be made.

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Manage Person Data - Menu in WISEid Portal

Manage Person Data Overview      Person Search/Edit      Advanced Search Feature     Report Duplicates      Review Matches      Upload Person Data      View Upload Results

Having Accurate WISEid Records:

It is essential that ALL students and staff have WISEids assigned. This is accomplished within the Manage Person Data menu in WISEid.

Manage person Data Overview

General Introductory information is provided here.

Person Search / Edit

The Person Search/Edit feature allows you to look up person records by entering known information about that person and clicking Search.

Screenshot of the Person Search screen in WISEid.

An initial search requires the person’s first and last name, as indicated by the red asterisks next to those data fields. 

To get more detailed results, you can also type in additional data for:

  • WISEid
    • If you search for a WISEid that was deactivated because of merged duplicate WISEids, you will see the results for the active WISEid (not the deactivated WISEid).
  • Middle Name
  • Entity ID
  • Birthday
  • Gender
  • Suffix

Click the blue ‘Search’ button to see your results, or click clear to start over.

The Person Search feature looks for exact matches as well as near matches (e.g., a search for Jennifer Andrews might bring back results of Jennifer Anders, Andrew, and Anderson).

Screenshot of a table of results following a WISEid person search.

 

Person suggestions results will display as a table below the search data fields. All results display up to 35 results on one table, so be aware that the table may be long and require a bit of scrolling. NOTE: There may be more than 35 results for the standard search, but only 35 will display. If you do not see the results you were expecting, you can conduct an Advanced Search.

Green highlighted boxes match your search criteria as entered.

To View Expanded Information from the Standard Search:

  • Click the triangle at the far left of each row to expand more summary details about the person in that row.
  • Click the WISEid number to see the full details about the person.

Helpful Search Tips:

The WISEid search engine is very reliable, but there are times when a search may prove difficult. It is possible that the person for whom you are searching may have incorrect information or information appearing differently than expected. Here are some things to keep in mind as you search:

  • Middle Name: This field is not always populated or only contains an initial, which may or may not include a period. If you are having difficulty searching, leaving this field blank may help, or you may try common variations of names (e.g., “Bobbie” instead of “Bobby”).
  • Last Name: Hyphenated/multiple last names can sometimes make a search difficult. If you are having trouble searching, entering only one of the last names may help.
  • Former Name: Using a name the person previously used may help you locate their record.
  • Misspellings: Occasionally names are misspelled. Sometimes searching with common misspellings may help.

If the results do not provide the match you wanted, you should conduct an Advanced Search before clicking the red “Create New Record” button.

Screenshot of the Create New Record button.

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Advanced Search Feature (NEW! for 2024-25 SY)

New for the 2024-25 school year, users can now refine the results of the WISEid Person Search with an Advanced Search. You can only reach the Advanced Search tool by conducting a standard Person Search first.

Sometimes the logic within the WISEid Person Search feature does not provide the match you are looking for the first time. The Advanced Search feature can assist you with obtaining more accurate results.

An Advanced Search provides you with four data fields as options to refine your search:

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Birth Year
  • Former School Districts/Agency 

Screenshot of the Advanced Search feature within the WISEid Person Search screen.

The Advanced Search tool requires you to enter data into at least two of the following fields: First Name, Last Name, Birth Year, as indicated by the red asterisks next to those data fields.

You can enter partial name in First Name and Last Name fields to find results containing the name entered. The partial name search allows you to continue searching even if you are unsure of the person's exact first or last name, or unsure of the exact spelling of the person’s first or last name. You can use just the first letter of a person’s first or last name, or a few letters that you know must be in the results to find the person you are searching for.

  • An example: Enter Anders if you are unsure if the last name spelling is Anderson or Andersen. Using the partial spelling ‘anders’ will also bring up results for names like Sanders, Landers, Andersen, Anderson, Randerson, etc.

The logic of the Advanced Search tool allows WISEid to provide more accurate search results  than the standard Person Search with less information.

Click the Advanced Search button in the lower left corner to get your results.

The Advanced Search tool will display all results on one table, so be aware that the table may be long and require a bit of scrolling to view all results.

To refine those results, you can use additional filters if you know that information:

  • First name, last name, birth year, former agency. 
 

To View Expanded Information from the Standard Search:

  • Click the triangle at the far left of each row to expand more summary details about the person in that row.
  • Click the WISEid number to see the full details about the person.

DPI strongly recommends conducting an Advanced Search before creating a new record or making any other changes to a person record. This would be especially true for popular or common names (e.g., Muhammed, Mia, Riley, Jones, Smith, etc.).

Still No Matches Appear, After Advanced Search

If the person you are searching for doesn't have an existing WISEid you can create a new WISEid for the person. Click the 'Create New Record' button, located at the bottom, below the 'Search Results Returned'.

  • Be sure that no results match your criteria before creating a new WISEid.

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Report Duplicates

If you find that one person has two different WISEids associated, you should report the WISEids as duplicates. Type the two WISEids into the fields provided and explain in the comment section what you think happened, as well as which WISEid should be retained.

image of reporting duplicate person records in wise ID

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Review Matches

Only records uploaded without a WISEid in a person file upload are put through a match review process. The match review process is done to try and find an existing, matching WISEid.

NOTE: There may be occasional scenarios where a new students may already have a WISEid assigned if they were evaluated for special education services as part of a transition from the Birth to Three program under the Department of Health Services (DHS). Timely Special Education (Indicator 11) Evaluations conducted for children below age three require these children to have a WISEid, assigned to them by the LEA performing the evaluation. Children who are not yet three cannot have an enrollment record, but they are required to have a responsibility record associated with their WISEid. Whether the student ended up qualifying to receive special education services or not, the WISEid assigned to them should continue to be their WISEid once the student attends school/enrolls in kindergarten (be that four- or five-year-old kindergarten). Please ensure your LEA always looks for existing WISEid matches before creating a new one. This unique scenario can potentially cause LEAs to unknowingly create a second WISEid for a new student during the Upload Person process

The match review process has been refined for the 2024-25 school year to reduce the amount of scrolling and clicking, allowing you to see results much more clearly and quickly.

The Review Matches screen displays persons with your LEA who may match existing people within the WISEid system. Matches could be the result of :

  • An LEA receives a new student or staff and doesn’t know their WISEid yet, so they leave that field empty when they do the initial file upload. As part of it’s regular cycles, the WISEid application locates persons with matching data elements (name, gender, birthdate, etc.) that could be referring to the new person who does not have a WISEid yet. LEAs can then view the results that the application has discovered and review that information thoroughly and carefully to determine if any of the located matches are indeed that new person.
  • A student moving and attending school in a different district, and the new/receiving district creating a WISEid record even though the former LEA already had a record for this student in WISEid.

Each person (student or staff)  can only ever have one WISEid. A WISEid cannot be shared by two persons. Since the person’s WISEid is a keystone piece of data for every data record associated to that person, the match review process should be a regularly scheduled part of your data quality routine. Review all matches to avoid creating duplicate records.

Screenshot of the WISEid Review Matches landing screen.

 

Notice that the match review tables only display five records at a time. The table extends using the numbered ‘tab’ system along the bottom of the table. The bottom right-hand corner of the table displays the total number of records that could be potential matches (e.g., the example agency in the screenshot above has a total of 41 records). While 41 is a reasonable number of records to manage, it still emphasizes that the match review process should be a regularly scheduled part of your data quality routine.

How to Conduct a Match Review

  1. Click Review for the person who has a potential match.
  2. A new screen will appear displaying two sections. The top section displays the record, and the bottom section displays potential matches for the record. When the record is expanded, subsections are visible. Subsections are indicated by light blue headers. Pay attention to whether the record belongs to a student or a staff member.
    • If the uploaded record (displayed at the top) belongs to a student, the record will be expanded. Notice the record has three sub-sections:
      • Parent Guardian Information,
      • Birth Location, and
      • Other Names. 

        Resolve Potential Matches screen for a student in WISEid.

         

      • Since these items are generally not helpful for matching staff, if the uploaded record (displayed at the top) belongs to a staff member, the record will not be expanded.

        Resolve Potential Matches screen for a staff in WISEid.

         
  3. Below the uploaded record will be a table displaying existing people whose data look similar, potential matches for the person in the top record. The bottom has green squares. These green squares show you boxes that match what you have uploaded. Be careful when matching; a name matching doesn’t mean it is the same person. If you aren’t certain, check other information available to verify the match. Click the expander icon (small triangle) located in the far left of each row on the potential match table. Verify the birth date and gender as well, along with any other data to ensure your match is indeed a match.

    Screenshot of a table with results for potential matches in WISEid.

A handy new feature on the potential matches is that ‘Other Names’ appears as a column, making this data element much easier to review.

The 'other names' column is a great way to decide on potential matches in WISEid.

You will either find a matching person, or you will not find a matching person. Be very sure your match is accurate before you accept the match to merge the person records. If you do not find a match, you will need to create a new person record. 

I Found A Match

Once you believe you have a match, click the radio button next to the existing match and then click Next.

Screenshot of a potential match with the radio button for the match selected and the next button in WISEid.

This will bring you to a new screen that allows you to review your match one last time before combining the records. This review will either be successful or unsuccessful. Steps for both scenarios are below.

Review Is Successful

An example of a successful match in the WISEid Match Review process.

The potential match in this screenshot should easily be accepted due to the high number of identical data elements. This is an example where the user should click “Accept”.

Final stage of the match review process in WISEid.

You will then see a banner across the screen telling you your match was completed.  Two buttons in the bottom left corner give you options for next steps:

  • Review Next Match: Brings you to the next record to review.
  • Return to Review Matches Page: Return to the Review Matches screen to select a different record.

If you see an error banner appear, please submit a Help Ticket.

Review Is Unsuccessful

Screenshot example of an unsuccessful match. This match should be canceled/ not accepted.

The potential match in this screenshot should not be accepted since there is not a direct match in data for the local person ID, middle name, or birth date. This is an example where the user should click “Cancel.”  If there are other potential matches to review, that work should continue.  If there is no matching record in existence, then the user should click the radio button at the very bottom of the potential match table to indicate, “Create a new person (this person does not match any of the above)”.

I Have Not Found A Match

If the existing records do not match your person, select the Create a new person radio button, and then click Next. This will bring you to a new screen, again, allowing for one last opportunity to review your decision. 

Existing potential student matches in WISEid.

Your new record will appear on a new screen:

The WISEid screen within the Match Review process where you accept the new record you  have created.

Click “Accept” to create a new record.  

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Staff and Student Identity Integration (SII)

Staff and Student Identity Integration allows student information system (SIS)/HR/payroll vendor tools to integrate with the WISEid application, which assigns a unique ID to a person. Vendor tools that implement this integration provide a means for their schools and districts to retrieve and review potential student matches and to create WISEids for students and staff through the vendor tool. The matches displayed on the vendor tool should be examined before creating a new WISEid. 

NEW! for the 2024-25 School Year: Staff Identity Integration: Select vendors will support the capacity to create WISEids for staff using the Identity API. Stay tuned to the to the Vendor List located on the Staff and Student Identity Integration webpage to find out if your vendor support this new feature!

If your SIS/HR/payroll vendor tool supports the Staff and Student Identity Integration feature, you can perform several WISEid tasks directly in your vendor tool, including reviewing potential student matches and creating WISEids for students. Refer to your vendor's documentation for instructions on using these features in your vendor tool(s).

Schools and districts must continue to upload student records to WISEid through the Upload Person Data tool at least twice per year: once at the beginning of the school year, and once at the end of the school year.

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Upload Person Data

The Upload Person Data option under Manage Person Data allows users with access to upload files into WISEid and to work with them once processed. Uploading a Person record will create WISEids and/or update WISEid data during the process.

It is essential that ALL students and staff have WISEids assigned. It is also imperative that ALL students and any staff members associated with Roster coursework have Local Person IDs assigned as well, so their data can be claimed and linked to your district.

The results of a file upload should be examined and corrected as needed. The information below will guide you through this file upload and examination process. DPI suggests running WISEid File uploads once a week to maintain accurate data within WISEid. If your SIS/HR/payroll vendor tool is utilizing SII, these weekly uploads will be accomplished for you through this feature.

NOTE: Even if your vendor tool is utilizing Staff and Student Identity Integration schools and districts must continue to upload student records to WISEid through the Upload Person Data tool at least twice per year: once at the beginning of the school year, and once at the end of the school year. If your vendor tool does not utilize Staff and Student Identity Integration, these manual uploads are suggested for both student and staff throughout the year.

Staff records must continue to be managed through the normal WISEid person upload processes, while Contract and Assignment uploads needed for the WISEstaff collection can be completed through the WISEstaff application.

NOTE: If you do not have access to WISEstaff, you will not be able to upload a Person file with staff names. To obtain access to WISEstaff, please contact your local WISEstaff security administrator.

At the beginning of the school year, you can break this into manageable parts. Suggestions include, but are not limited to:

  • New students who would not have a WISEid assigned to them yet because they have not been enrolled in a Wisconsin school
    • NOTE: There may be occasional scenarios where a new students may already have a WISEid assigned if they were evaluated for special education services as part of a transition from the Birth to Three program under the Department of Health Services (DHS). Timely Special Education (Indicator 11) Evaluations conducted for children below age three require these children to have a WISEid, assigned to them by the LEA performing the evaluation. Children who are not yet three cannot have an enrollment record, but they are required to have a responsibility record associated with their WISEid. Whether the student ended up qualifying to receive special education services or not, the WISEid assigned to them should continue to be their WISEid once the student attends school/enrolls in kindergarten (be that four- or five-year-old kindergarten). Please ensure your LEA

      always looks for existing WISEid matches before creating a new one. This can be done during the Match Review process

       
  • Students new to your school who already have a WISEid
    • Follow the Match Review Section for these students carefully.
  • School breakdowns (e.g., Elementary School, Middle School, etc.)

WISEstaff Collection Checklist - Step 1b: Enter and Edit WISEid Person Records for all Staff; Ensure All have a Local Person ID for your Agency

Read the section above for important information about this process. Read the steps below to learn how to conduct an Upload in WISEid. When you are done, you can return to Step 1c of the WISEstaff Staff Collection Checklist

How to Upload Person Data (File Upload)

There are many ways to accomplish this task as an upload, but the file being uploaded must be in” .csv” format and must contain Local Person IDs to be successful.

An orange error banner will appear if there are problems with your upload. If you plan on entering data through the File Upload process, follow these steps.

Upload Person Data screen in WISEstaff is Step 1b on the Staff Collection Checklist.

Follow the steps below to complete the file upload process:

1.) Download your WISEid file out of your SIS for either your students or your staff members (if you are unsure on how to do this, contact your SIS vendor). This file should be a .CSV file. Save it where you can find it later.

2.) Under Manage Person Data, select Upload Person Data.

image of upload person data screen

3.) Click Choose File to select your saved .CSV file you downloaded from your SIS.

4.) Click Upload.

You can also enter data manually one person at a time. To do this you must click on the Person Search menu from WISEstaff and use the Person Search/Edit tab.

When your updates are complete, you must return the Staff Collection Checklist by clicking on the WISEid/WISEstaff toggle, selecting the WISEstaff Home menu, then clicking on Staff Collection Checklist. You must manually click in the blank box to obtain the blue check mark to indicate that step 1b is complete. You can then proceed to Step 1c

Reading Upload Results

Once you have completed your upload, you should check your results to see your data in the View Upload Results tab.

image of upload person data results

  • Type: This can be Person, Contract, or Assignment. Contracts and Assignments can be uploaded through WISEstaff and reviewed through the Results tab.
    • NOTE: Choice Schools are not required to submit data to WISEstaff
  • File Name: Clicking this hyperlink will show you the file you have uploaded.

  • Status: This shows you the status of your upload. You cannot work with your data until the status is “completed”.
  • Errors: These are issues within the file that you uploaded; you will need to fix these errors in your file and re-upload a new file to correct them.

  • Potential Matches: These are possible matches to people whom you have uploaded. The system will check for matching names and birth dates within the WISEid system and then ask you to review to make sure that duplicates are not created.
  • Committed: This is the number of lines from your file upload that were processed and do not need any manual review.

  • Changes: This is the number of change requests created from this file upload, for example, a student whose last name has changed. When you upload the student to WISEid with the new last name, the system will create a change request to the student’s associated school districts to approve or deny before the change sticks. This process is in place to ensure person record changes are applied correctly prior to writing them to the database.
  • Upload Date: This identifies when the file was uploaded.

  • User ID: This identifies who uploaded the file.

  • Download: This button allows you to download your committed file. If you uploaded a file of students missing WISEids, the Download button will return your file with the WISEid column completed. This file can then be uploaded into your SIS to save the new WISEids to your person records.

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View Upload Results

Errors

If you have an error, you will see it in the View Upload Results tab (under the Manage Persons Data menu), once you scroll down to see your results. Click on the blue box with a number in it, located in the errors column.

View Upload Results Errors 1

This will bring you to the Person Error Review Screen (shown below). You can see the details of the error by clicking the [⏵] at the far left end of the row. You should make your corrections within your student information system (SIS), download a new file with corrected records in a .CSV file, and re-upload the records to WISEid. Remember to save your upload file on your hard drive for future reference. Corrections must be made in the .CSV file saved to your computer and re-uploaded to WISEid. After the error has been corrected and your upload has finished processing, errors on your new upload should appear as “0”.

image of person error review screen

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Reports - Menu in WISEid Portal

Report Overview

General introductory information is provided here.

Download Transaction History

By filling in the dates in the fields provided, you can then click the blue ‘download’ button to obtain a report showing all transaction results history including errors. It will download in a CSV format.

Merge Report

When a date range is entered, this report will show you WISEids that have gone through the report duplicate process.

Staff Download by Local Person ID

Clicking this text will automatically download a .CSV file. Within this file you can see ALL staff who have ever been uploaded by your district. These staff will be sorted by Local Person ID. Any users who also have access to the WISEstaff application can see this same or similar information via available downloads in that applications Reports menu options.

Student Download by Local Person ID

Clicking this text will automatically download a .CSV file. Within this file you can see ALL students who have ever been uploaded by your district. These students will be sorted by Local Person ID.

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Resources - Menu in WISEid Portal

Depending on their role, some users may also have access to the Resources menu.

Resources Overview

General introductory information is provided here.

Update Contact Info

WISEid Primary and Secondary contacts need to be updated with each new school year. These updates be accomplished directly in the WISEid application when viewing the Update Contact Info screen under the Resources menu. The 'Update Contact Info' screen has a banner across the top, reminding users to get this done.

The WISEid user roles of Admin or Data Entry are required to make these changes. Persons with the user roles of 'Support' or 'View' cannot make changes to agency contacts for the WISEid application. 

Contacts are carried over from year to year, so agencies need to click the "Contacts Verified" button for each new school year when updates to LEA contacts are complete. 

Remember to make any updates throughout the school year if/when staff changes occur. 

Screenshot of WISEid, Resources menu, Update Contact Information.

Each LEA needs to have contacts listed here, naming the staff members who are responsible for maintaining the digital health of their agency's WISEid information. Best Practice is to list at least three contacts:

  • The Primary Contact is the person within the LEA responsible for completing WISEid data. This is a required contact.
  • The Secondary Contact is the person responsible for verifying WISEid data. This is a required contact. 
  • Generic Contacts support the primary and secondary contact's work.

WISEid Update Contact: Add new, edit or delete contact buttons

The Agency Administrator should use the Edit or Delete icons to the right of the email address to make changes or delete a contact.

New staff contacts can be added by clicking the ‘+Add Contact’ button located above the list of contacts. At the far right of each listed staff member is the edit button and the delete button. You will then see the 'Create Contact' screen. Select the type of contact from the dropdown menu. Then, at a minimum, enter the person's: first name, last name, email address and phone number; information entered into other fields is also welcome. Click the checkboxes below to indicate if this contact is responsible for Staff data, Student data or both. Click 'Save' when done. 

WISEid Update Contact Info - Add new contact screen

Once the Agency Administrator confirms the accuracy of the contact information, click the ‘Contact Verified’ box to get a green ‘success’ message.

Screenshot of WISEid, Resources Menu, Update Agency Contacts, Verification success message

User Privileges

Displays user information of the person who is logged in, along with their roles and access within WISEid.

WISEid Feedback

Clicking this will open a new tab, outside of the WISEid application, where users can report suggestions or problems about the application to DPI. We read all feedback and use this information in our continuous improvement efforts to make these apps as useful and friendly as possible.

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Need Help? - Menu in WISEid Portal

Need Help? Overview

General introductory information is provided here.

Open a Help Ticket

Clicking this opens a new tab in your browser allowing you to submit a Help Ticket to the Customer Service Team. We are happy to help! Please be as specific as you can in your help ticket request, being careful to not reveal personally identifiable information (PII) about students or staff.

Site Map

Displays a site map of all WISEid menus and tabs.

User Guide

Clicking this opens a new tab in your browser linking you to WISEid: Info, Help and FAQs.

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WISEid Resource Links

Resource Links

User Groups

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Didn't Find What You Needed?

WISEsupport Help Ticket

The Customer Services Team is here to help!

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

Want help from a live DPI employee about a WISEstaff or WISEid question you have about your agency's staff? Please join us! Every Tuesday at 11am there is a WISEstaff & WISEid User Group. The WISEstaff and WISEid User Group Agenda allows Users like you to add questions to our agenda as a comment, and also provides the link you need to join the Teams Meet.

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