District SES Administrator Refresher August 2011

To get set up on the system, get your login information, or get other questions answered:

SuperSTARS Providers do not enroll students in SuperSTARS. The district assigns students to specific providers for specific periods Providers can see their assigned students on-line at any time (Rosters) Providers enter ILPs and student attendance on-line

SuperSTARS SuperSTARS provides “official billing reports” that account for attendance exceptions by the districts and for student PPA use Providers are able to see these adjustments on-line Students without approved ILPs will not be included on the official billing reports

Accessing SuperSTARS Go to Don’t forget the “s” at the end of http! If you do, you will be trying to log in to STARS, a separate system! Set a bookmark or favorite after arriving at the site. Enter your username and password and click “Login”.

Home” Link Clicking “Home” on the blue bar at the top will always bring you to the start page (the Main Menu).

State Functions There are some actions that State-level users must perform: Define SES Districts Set District PPAs Define SES Providers Define SES Schools Set provider rates in each district

Basic District Functions For each program year Districts MUST: Enter or update student records Enable providers in your district Assign students to providers Review and approve ILPs Review and print official billing reports Districts SHOULD Verify attendance entered by providers Districts MAY Track the status of applications received Tracking applications does not have any impact on student assignments. These processes are completely independent.

District Functions The “Home” page is where most functions are accessed. You will use buttons on the page and links in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Entering Students for the Program Year Student records can only be entered by District users. New student records must be added or existing student records must be updated before students can be assigned to providers in There are three ways to enter/update students for the program year: Add new student Manually update existing student records Batch update existing student records by uploading data

Required information for each student is: 1. District ID number (unique) 2. SSN 3. First name 4. Last name 5. DOB 6. Gender 7. Ethnicity 8. School 9. Grade 10. Lunch Status Integer district ID numbers should be prefixed with a unique district identifier. We recommend the district name or abbreviation (e.g. EBRNNNN or CADDONNNN) If no district ID exists, the SSN can be used for this field Information Required for Each Student

District Functions Adding New Students Manually To add new students (students that have not been entered in the system before): Click “Students” on the top bar: Click “Add Student” on the form that comes up:

Complete the required fields marked with a red * and click “Add Student”. Note that the District ID number and the SSN must be unique within SuperSTARS. District Functions Adding New Students Manually

If a student was entered into SuperSTARS last year, their record must be updated before they can be assigned to providers in the program year (note that this illustration reflects the program year). At a minimum, the student’s School and Grade must be re-entered. Other fields should be updated if more current information is available. To update student information entered in a prior year for use in , click “Students” on the top bar and then click the “Update Students for the Program Year” button on the form that comes up: District Functions Manually Updating Existing Student Records

Select the program year that the student record will come from, enter all or part of the last name of the student to update, then click the “Search” button: District Functions Manually Updating Existing Student Records UPDATED

Matching student records will be displayed. Click “Edit” next to the student that you want to update: District Functions Manually Updating Existing Student Records UPDATED

That will open the information fields for editing. Note that the student’s School and Grade must be re-entered. When done, click “Update”. When the update is done, the student will disappear from this list and will now be available in TIP: If you have a lot of students to update manually you might consider searching on just the first letter of the last name to return a list of students. Once they are displayed on the update screen you can edit each one and each one will disappear from the list when the update is done. This can be faster than looking up each student individually. District Functions Manually Updating Existing Student Records UPDATED

You can update the records of a large number of existing students and/or add new students by uploading student records from a spreadsheet. The format of the spreadsheet is the same as it was in and can be provided to you on request. Batch updates are only practical for large number of students and may require support from your IT department to accomplish. When a spreadsheet of student records is uploaded: Students that are not in the system (no matching SSN is found) are added to the system. Students that are in the system from a previous year have information records for created, making them available for assignment in Batch update student records by uploading data

Enabling Providers The district enables data entry for each provider that is providing services in their district This is done one time each year for each provider Note that provider rates in districts are maintained by the State

Click “Providers” on the top bar: District Functions Enabling Providers

Click on the “Search Providers” button District Functions Enabling Providers

Click the name of the provider that you want to enable We will choose Education Station District Functions Enabling Providers

At the bottom of the page that is displayed, select the program year and click the “Enable Provider” button. District Functions Enabling Providers UPDATED

Districts must assign students to providers in order for the providers to enter ILPs and attendance Each assignment has a specific start date and end date Providers cannot enter attendance data for dates before the start date, or after the end date Managing Student Assignments

Students can be assigned to more than one provider during the program year Students cannot be assigned to more than one provider on any given day Assignment start and end dates can be adjusted, but only if the adjustment does not conflict with another assignment Managing Student Assignments

Quick Assignment Process Designed to allow districts to rapidly assign students to providers during high-activity times, such as program startup each year A student can only be “quick assigned” if no other assignments for the student exist during the program year Any adjustments to a quick assignment must be made using the normal assignment tools Managing Student Assignments

Normal Assignment Process Operates on a selected student Create new assignment Adjust an existing assignment Delete an assignment Shows the student’s assignment history, if more than one assignment has been made Managing Student Assignments

Assigning Students to Providers - “Normal” Method Managing Student Assignments Click “Students” then use the form to find the student that you want to assign. Click the student’s name.

Assigning Students to Providers - Normal” Method Managing Student Assignments When the student’s record is displayed, click “Assignments” at the bottom of the page.

Assigning Students to Providers - “Normal” Method Managing Student Assignments Select the provider and the start and end dates of the assignment. The program year should default to the current program year. Click “Add Assignment” when these are set. Assignments are shown at the bottom. No list means no assignments. Multiple assignments may exist. You can edit the assignment as needed.

Assigning Students to Providers - “Normal” Method Managing Student Assignments When a student is assigned to a provider on a given day they will then show up on the provider’s roster for that day.

Deleting Assignments A student assignment should only be deleted if the assignment was a mistake. Deleting an assignment makes it look like the assignment never occurred. It takes all associated data with it! Normally an assignment should be adjusted Managing Student Assignments As a general rule, do not delete assignments. If you are unsure what action to take, send an to to ask a

Adjusting Assignments Managing Student Assignments Clicking the “Edit” link next to an assignment will open the edit boxes. Click “Update” to save your changes.

Adjusting Assignments Here we are making an assignment to T-Provider 2 from 12/15/2007 through 2/29/2008. Note that the student already has an assignment to T-Provider 1. We clicked the “Add Assignment” button and we got the error message shown in red. Why did this assignment not work? The start date of the assignment to T-Provider 2 overlaps the end date of the existing assignment to T-Provider 1! If 12/15/2007 is the desired start date for provider 2 then …

Adjusting Assignments Adjust Provider 1’s end date Managing Student Assignments

Adjusting Assignments Complete the second assignment Managing Student Assignments

Quick Assignments Quick assignments let you make student assignments to a selected provider for a selected period very quickly. Quick assignments only work for students with no existing assignments, regardless of who the provider is or when the assignment is for. Quick Assignments work “at the click of a button.” As such you should use it carefully because … There is no Quick UN-Assign! Managing Student Assignments

Quick Assignments Managing Student Assignments After clicking the Quick Assignments button on the home page you select the provider and start and end dates of the assignments that you want to make. The program year should default to the current program year. When you are done, accept the settings.

Quick Assignments Managing Student Assignments Filter the student list by entering all or part of the last name. Leaving the field blank and pressing Enter will return *all* eligible students. Click “Select” next to a student to quick assign that student. When the assignment is made, the student disappears from this list.

Approving ILPs Clicking the “ILP” button on the home page takes you to the Student ILPs page. Once providers mark ILPS as complete they will show up on the district’s ILP status screen. Select the program year and provider, click the “Completed Awaiting Approval” selection, and then click “Search ILPs” to get a listing of ILPs. To review and approve an ILP, click the student’s name.

Approving ILPs The ILP will display with Approve and Disapprove buttons at the top. If you disapprove an ILP remember to enter a reason so the provider will know what they need to fix.

Attendance Verification Districts can verify recorded attendance against sign-in sheets. Click “Attendance” on the home page.

Attendance Verification On the page that comes up you specify the provider and month of attendance, and all or part of the student’s last name. A list of students assigned in that month is displayed and you select one to display their attendance along with “verified” and “exception” checkboxes.

Attendance Verification Consider the following billing report for provider T-Provider 1 in Tensas for September 1 through September 30, Angelic Oliger has 8 hours recorded.

Attendance Verification Note that two of Angelic’s hours are now marked as exceptions by the district. Also note that a reason is recorded.

Attendance Verification Consider the same billing report now. Exception hours are automatically excluded from the billing. Angelic only shows 6 hours now.

Attendance Verification An exception report is available.

Attendance Verification Locking Attendance Districts can lock a provider’s attendance records for a specified period. This is a way to ensure that providers do not make changes to attendance while it is being verified. After the verification is complete, the attendance can be unlocked – at the district’s discretion - to allow the provider to make corrections or additions. All attendance in the period can be unlocked, or only the unverified attendance, or only the unverified, non-zero attendance. If a provider makes corrections that are acceptable, the district can remove exceptions by un-checking the appropriate exceptions box. Once all changes to a period’s attendance are made locking the attendance is recommended.

Locking Attendance Click “Lock/Unlock Attendance” on the home page

Select the program year, the provider, and the start and end dates of the period to lock Then click the “Lock Attendance” button Locking Attendance

(1) Select the program year, provider, and start and end dates of the attendance to unlock (2) Select to unlock all, only the unverified attendance, or only the non- verified non-zero attendance (3) Click the “Unlock Attendance” button Unlocking Attendance

District Function Unlocking Attendance How do you decide what attendance to unlock? Unlocking all attendance will allow a provider to make changes to any data, even data that you have marked as verified. This generally should *not* be done unless there are special circumstances. Unlocking only unverified attendance will not allow the provider to change any attendance that you have already verified. Unlocking only unverified non-zero attendance prevents a provider from entering additional attendance where none was recorded after they have reported that all attendance was entered. This is recommended, and it gives the providers incentive to get all of their attendance in on time. You can always unlock attendance if you need to, but these options give you more control over what the provider can do after you have started your review.

The Monthly Attendance Status Report The Monthly Attendance Status Report gives you a quick overview of attendance data status Click the “Attendance” button on the home page

Click the Monthly Attendance Status Report Button District and Providers The Monthly Attendance Status Report

Specify the district, provider, program year, month and year as needed Then click the “Return Results” button The Monthly Attendance Status Report

black digits – attendance is unlocked clear background – attendance has not been verified or excepted student ILP status Attendance does not have to be verified to appear on the Official Billing Report. In this example, that report would show that the provider would be reimbursed for 16 of the 20 hours entered for Kevin Hackenjous, because only 4 hours have been excepted. The Monthly Attendance Status Report

In October two of T-Provider 1’s students exhausted their PPA. Note the revisions to the charges. Automatic PPA Adjustments

The SuperSTARS Official Billing Report is the approved billing document. Providers may submit their own invoices For Information Only at the discretion of the district. They are not needed. Providers can see attendance verified (approved) or exception (disapproved) status on-line. Adjustments due to PPA exhaustion are also shown. NOTE: Accurate PPA tracking depends on timely and accurate data entry by the providers. Districts should complete a monthly billing cycle for all providers before beginning on the next month. SuperSTARS tracks student PPA used even if there have been multiple providers of services to the student. The Official Billing Report

District-Provider Cooperative Function RECOMMENDED Invoice Reconciliation Process Provider informs District that all attendance is entered and ready for review. Provider submits required hardcopy verification documents (sign-in sheets) District LOCKS provider’s attendance data for the period under review District verifies or takes exception to each attendance entry* District informs provider that data is ready for review and UNLOCKS UNVerified, NonZero attendance. Note that this unlocking mechanism prevents providers from entering “late” attendance after the verification process has begun. PROVIDERS: be sure that *all* of your attendance is entered by the district’s deadline! Provider reviews exceptions and make corrections/takes corrective action as allowed by the District, and notifies District on completion

District-Provider Cooperative Function RECOMMENDED Invoice Reconciliation Process District reviews exceptions and reverses where acceptable changes have been made At this point District and Provider should be able to agree on the adjustments that are made. Additional iterations are the District’s option District LOCKS provider attendance data for the period District prints out final period Official Billing Report as basis for payment

ILPs and Billing Reports If a student does not have an ILP approved by the district, that student’s hours will not show on the official billing report.