Dolores Romero, from Santa Clara Day School, has been working on NASIS since it started in the fall of 2006. From the onset, she made sure she had a thorough understanding of NASIS and how to record and use the data. Before NASIS, the school did not have a student information system; everything was done on paper and put in student files.

Save the Dates

Access Native America Conference
June 3-5, 2008
More than 30 NASIS sessions will be offered. Topics will range from “NASIS Portal” to “Data Analysis for Principals” to “Scheduling – Elementary Schools.” Other sessions will focus on the needs of dormitories and residential schools, special education, and annual reporting.

Plan to attend the 2008 NASIS Interchange.
This year, the NASIS Interchange will not be divided by region, but rather, we are offering two identical sessions so you can choose the best time that works for you.

WHEN: (Choose one)
NASIS Interchange 1
Monday and Tuesday
October 20 and 21, 2008

NASIS Interchange 2
Thursday and Friday
October 23 and 24, 2008

WHERE:
National Indian Training Program Center
Albuquerque, NM

Registration and session descriptions will be available soon.

TECH FOCUS

If you went through the conversion and go-live process in 2006, you may remember that NASIS imported your legacy data into a conversion database. After the conversion was verified and approved, two copies of the conversion database were made; one as your live production database and the other to be used as your training or sandbox site. The sandbox site is there for you to set up and test different scenarios before you set them up in your live production database. The URL for your sandbox is almost identical to that of your live site. Your sandbox will include the word training in two places in the URL. Also, please note that the SCHOOLNAME referenced below is the same school name that is used in your production URL.

Sandbox site:
https_://training.bie.infinitecampus.com/campus/SCHOOLNAME_training.jsp

Production Site:
https_://bie.infinitecampus.com/campus/SCHOOLNAME.jsp

The sandbox site is a snapshot of the your production database so you would use your regular logon credentials to access the database. The data in your sandbox site should now be up to date as well. As an added benefit Infinite Campus will be refreshing your sandbox with your production data twice a year.

So, feel free to play in your sandbox! Set up those additional calendars you’ve wanted to test. Check out how to set up Athletic Eligibility. Try different scenarios. Experiment. Enjoy!

BEST PRACTICES
End of Year Best Practices

Calendar:
Create or roll forward a calendar for 2008-2009. Ensure that all tabs in System Administration>Calendar are populated with current and accurate information. If you want to change your calendar configuration (additional schedule structures, period schedules, etc.) from last year, now is the time to do it. It is also recommended that you have your new calendar setup completed by the end of the current school year.

Are You Ready?
Calendar Part two:

What are the next steps after the calendar is rolled forward for the new school year?

Enrollment Records in the New Calendar
Enrollment records, like calendar data, can be rolled forward from the current school calendar into the next school year’s calendar. Before using the Enrollment Roll Forward wizard, certain settings on a student’s enrollment record and on a student’s demographic information will need to be verified.

Hot Topics
Summer School Calendar

Your summer school calendar is setup the same as your academic and/or residential calendar and can be used to document and track data and information for your summer school program.

Most schools create a separate calendar for their summer school session. The best way to generate a summer calendar is to use the Calendar Wizard found in System Administration > Calendar > Calendar Wizard.

Absent Statuses
You know residential facilities can keep track of as many bed checks as they want, as long as their after school and night bed checks are not flagged as Non-Instructional. Also that instructional schools can track attendance in the morning and afternoon, or in as many periods as they want throughout the day. It’s now time to talk about the various excuses associated with an attendance status.

When it comes to ISEP reporting and Average Daily Attendance (ADA) calculations, only the ‘Status’ of ‘Absent’ is taken into account. All absences recorded by a teacher have the ‘Excuse’ of ‘Unknown’ until they have been verified by an attendance clerk. All excuses other than ‘Exempt’ absences are counted against a student during their residential count week or in the ADA report.

Active Year:
The School Years tab lists all the years for which data is stored in the Campus program. Only one school year is marked as the active year at any given time. New school years may need to be added and activated subsequent to a calendar roll forward. You will find this setting under System Administration>Calendar>School Years.

Sandbox:
This is a site you can use to test different scenarios before implementing them on your live site. This site is a copy of your live site, but is intended for testing purposes only. Your production data will not be changed in any way.

Attendance Codes:
This is one of the most important areas for all schools. The process of taking daily attendance and using the correct Attendance codes helps when running the many different reports such as the ISEP Verification report. It is also factor when calculating Average Daily Attendance (ADA).