The days in session is used to calculate average daily membership (ADM) for students associated with this calendar.

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1 Overview of PIMS Maintenance Throughout the year school data, staff data, and student data are submitted to the Pennsylvania Information Management System (PIMS). The data is grouped into eight domains (Table 1). Each domain is broken down into sixteen templates. Templates are then uploaded to the state during six pre-determined submission periods. Templates can be submitted multiple times during a school year. Currently, there are a total of forty-five template submissions in a school year. The state also identifies certain data elements contained within specified templates to require an Accuracy Statement. Data elements in the Accuracy Statement must be verified. The PIMS administrator, the data administrator, and the chief school officer must sign the statement. The statement is then sent to The Pennsylvania Department of (PDE) via fax. There are currently nine Accuracy Statements submitted each year. PIMS Template Descriptions PIMS Student Calendar Fact- This template is used to identify each unique calendar associated with a student or group of students. One School Calendar can be submitted for multiple schools with the same days in session, the same number of approved Act 80 days, and the same total instructional time. The information collected will be used to calculate the total days in session and total instructional time for each calendar as follows: Days in Session = Number of Scheduled School Days minus Total Days in Session Lost Due to Strike minus Total Days in Session Lost Due to Act 80 minus Total Days in Session Lost Due to Other Reasons plus Total Make-Up Days. Total Instructional Time = Days in Session times Instructional Minutes in Standard Day minus Total Instructional Minutes Due to Planned Shortened Days. The days in session is used to calculate average daily membership (ADM) for students associated with this calendar. PIMS School Calendar- This template is used to identify each unique calendar associated with a student or group of students. One School Calendar can be submitted for multiple schools with the same days in session, the same number of approved Act 80 days, and the same total instructional time. The information collected will be used to calculate the total days in session and total instructional time for each calendar as follows:

2 Days in Session = Number of Scheduled School Days minus Total Days In Session Lost Due to Strike minus Total Days in Session Lost Due to Act 80 minus Total Days in Session Lost Due to Other Reasons plus Total Make-Up Days. Total Instructional Time = Days in Session times Instructional Minutes in Standard Day minus Total Instructional Minutes Due to Planned Shortened Days. The days in session is used to calculate average daily membership (ADM) for students associated with this calendar. Course- This template is used to store the attributes of each course, The Course and Course Instructor templates are used to associate courses with the students enrolled in each section and the instructors of each section, respectively. This table describes the attributes of each course offered by each school. The Course template includes all courses offered during the school year. Course Instructor- The Course Instructor Template is used to identify the instructor(s) of each course/section offering. The Course Instructor template is submitted in a cumulative fashion indicating all instructors associated with a specific course /section for the school year. Student Course - The Student Course Template contains information on student enrollment in each course/section combination. The Student Course template must be submitted in a cumulative fashion indicating all students enrolled in a specific section of a course for the school year. School - This template contains the student enrollment and withdrawal transactions at each school within each LEA. This template will be used to track student mobility. All mobility transactions are submitted for all students throughout the entire year, not just students active at the end of the year, and not just the last transaction for a student. At least one record should exist in this template for every student enrolled in a LEA at any time during the school year. Program Facts- This template is used to track participation for specific state and federal programs. A complete list of programs to be collected can be found in Volume 2 of the PIMS Users Manual. Schools must report the actual beginning date (and if applicable, the actual ending date) for a studentʼs participation in a particular program during a school year.

3 Special Snapshot- This template describes the primary details of students' participation in special education as of 12/1 of the current school year. Special Services- This template contains the details of the services provided to special education students. Special Events- This template records the details of special education events. The Special events identified at this time are Initial Evaluations and Transitions. (Reevaluations and Gifted Evaluations are not included on this template.) Evaluations: The Evaluation information collected in this template is will be used to recreate Table 8A from the PennData Resource Guide. Transitions: These are the coordinated set of activities designed within a goal-oriented process that promotes movement from school to post school. Please enter 1 record for each goal identified in Section III of the IEP. Staff- This Template is meant to reflect the current Professional employee situation. Staff Assignment- This template is used to track point-in-time information on staff assignments. One record per staff assignment is included in this template. All assignments for each staff member are included. Staff Snapshot- This table is used to record a point-in-time view of the staff population. The Staff Snapshot Template can be used to track changes over time since there is one record for each staff member for each snapshot date. All types of Professional staff are included in this template. Student- The Student Template contains one record for each student for each school year. This template is used to report comprehensive demographic and curricular information for each student. Student Snapshot- The Student Snapshot Template contains the same information as the Student Template with the addition of a snapshot date. Student Grades- The Student Grades Template contains information on student grades in each course/section combination.

4 Table 1. PIMS Reporting Schedule PIMS Reporting Attributes Reporting Date Domain Template Data October December January March May Summer Items Per Record Child Accounting PIMS Student Calendar Fact 18 X PIMS 10 X School Calendar Course Course 14 X X Course Instructor 8 X X Student 12 X X Course School 9 X X X X X Groups and Programs Special Staff Student Program Facts 9 X X X X X Special 19 X X Snapshot Special Services 7 X X Special 10 X X Events Staff 32 X X X Staff 8 X X X Assignment Staff 33 X X Snapshot Student 59 X X X X X Student 60 X X X X X Snapshot Student 12 X Grades

5 Cleaning, Staging and Submitting Data Before data can be submitted, it must first be staged in a central repository. Typically the central repository is the Student Information System, Special Database, and the Staffing Database. On occasion ad hoc data repositories must be created to accommodate certain templates. Using ODBC and other data transports, information, is pushed to the appropriate information system. This procedure is performed every submission period. Once the data is centralized it then must be cleaned. The data must be validated against the PIMS business rules. Certain data attributes are check by the districtʼs information systems for validity and other data attributes are checked by hand. During the data cleaning process many of the data items are also check for accuracy. After the data has been validated and checked for accuracy, it is then submitted to PIMS at a specified date (Table 1). PIMS then checks the data to make sure it adheres to business rules. Frequently, templates are re-submitted several times to correct errors. When the data is submitted successfully, reports are available to double-check data accuracy. Accuracy Certification Statements Over the course of the school year, nine accuracy certification statements (ACS) must be sent to PDE (Table 2). The districtʼs PIMS administrator, the districtʼs data administrator, and the districtʼs chief officer must sign these statements. All information addressed by the ACS is checked by hand at the time of submission and then is verified by the appropriate data administrator prior to the signing of the ACS. Any time a change is made to a PIMS submission that has an ACS associated with it, a new ACS must be sent to PDE.

6 Table 2 Accuracy Certification Statements Collection to be Templates Snapshot Date ACS Due Date Certified Enrolment Student Snapshot 10/1/ /12/2008 Graduate Student N/A 4/29/ Dropouts Student N/A 4/29/ Low Income Student Snapshot 10/1/ /10/2008 Percentage Staff Staff Snapshot, 1/5/2009 2/2/2009 Staff Assignment Limited English Student Snapshot 3/2/2009 4/13/2009 Proficiency Course / Instructor Course, Course Instructor, Student Course NA 5/5/2009 Highly Qualified Teacher Course, Course Instructor, Student Course, 3/2/2009 5/5/2009 Correcting Data PDE frequently checks the accuracy of the data contained in PIMS. When PDE finds a discrepancy in a submitting they notify the PIMS administrator for the district. The PIMS administrator then either makes a correction or verifies the data is accurate. Since there are currently forty-five template submissions in a given school year and PDE can request data verification for any year, a database has been created to store all PIMS related information and documents.