1. SIMS and EPIMS for School Business Officials
MASBO Annual Institute, May 17, 2018

2. Calculating foundation enrollment01
SIMS Reporting 02
Calculating foundation enrollment
CONTENTS 03
EPIMS Reporting 04
EPIMS-EOYR crosswalk

3. SIMS Reporting 01

4. SIMS highlights
52 data elements: student demographics, enrollment status, attendance, and program information
Collected 3 times a year
October 1: Foundation enrollment, drop-out rates, Profiles reports
March 1: MCAS administration
EOY: Average attendance, membership, chronic absenteeism, graduation rates
Cross-validated/linked with SCS. Every student linked to a course schedule, every course schedule linked to a student.

5. What is SIF? SIF = School Interoperability Framework
SIF is a standard data structure for exchanging and communicating education data. It packages the data into objects that house like information and transmits the information electronically via XML messaging.
In 2013, MA began the initiative to convert all major state reporting collections (SIMS, SCS, EPIMS and SSDR) to the SIF data structure. This will eventually replace the file upload method of state reporting. 87% of Massachusetts school districts currently send information via SIF.
The SIF project is a joint effort between MA ESE and EOE IT, and requires collaboration with SIS vendors. SIS vendors must go through a MA SIF certification process to verify their ability to transmit state reporting data via SIF.

6. SIF allows for a real-time data exchange from school districts to ESE.
Why SIF?
SIF allows for a real-time data exchange from school districts to ESE.
SIF relies on high quality data at the source, so more useful data in the SIS for school and district personnel
Error reports available all the time.
Constant data flow allows ESE to produce data quality reports to help districts address issues proactively ahead of state reporting deadlines.

7. SIMS summary reports – Foundation Enrollment
SIMS summary reports are designed to help districts review their submissions for accuracy prior to certifying
Each October, there are 3 summary reports related to Foundation Enrollment. Reports 1, 2 and 3
Summary report review is a critical step in the data submission process. Corrections or adds/deletes are not accepted after a collection is closed.

8. SIMS Summary Report 1: Resident Enrollment

9. SIMS Summary Report 2: Students not counted toward Foundation Enrollment

10. SIMS Summary Report 3: Tuitioned Out Students

11. Reporting of outplaced students
Situation: Outplaced students who transfer from one district to another
Problem: Districts continue to report the student as enrolled in SIMS after the student has moved/transferred. This results in inaccurate reporting of enrollment status, and also duplicate enrollment conflicts.
Resolution/tips to avoid: SIMS should always reflect an accurate enrollment status for report date. Being responsible for outplacement bills does not mean that the district should continue to report as enrolled if the student has transferred to another public district.
**When districts seek Circuit Breaker reimbursement for outplacement bills, all 3 SIMS collections are looked at.

12. Importance of DOE011,012,013,014
There are 4 SIMS elements that are critical to Foundation Enrollment calculations.
DOE011 = Reason for Reporting
DOE012 = Enrollment Status
DOE013 = Reason for Enrollment
DOE014 = Town of Residence
Home enrollments must be coded as 01 in DOE011. Outplaced students are coded as 02 in DOE011. Students received from other towns must be coded as 03 in DOE011.

13. Calculating foundation enrollment02

14. Calculating the Foundation Budget: Key Concepts
Includes all students that district is financially responsible for as of the prior October
All students are assigned to a discrete category based on grade, demographics, and program
Special education enrollment is assumed based on a percentage of district headcount, 3.75% of regular in-district, 1% out-of-district
In general, economically disadvantaged enrollment includes all qualified students who attend school in your district, where the extra costs occur
Enrollment is multiplied by a set of rates
Rates are based on a model school budget, which includes staffing, class size and salary assumptions. Rates are annually adjusted by inflation
Salary categories are further adjusted by a wage factor, which varies according to location
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

15. Foundation enrollment reflects all students that districts are financially responsible for enrolled as of October 1
Includes
Does not include
Local resident schoolchildren attending their community’s local or regional school district
Students for whom the district is paying tuition, such as
Commonwealth charter schools
Other school districts: School choice, tuition agreements, non-resident vocational programs
Special education schools and other settings
Tuitioned-in students from other districts, such as
School choice
Non-resident vocational tuition programs
Tuition agreements with other districts

16. Economically disadvantaged students
Economically disadvantaged (EcoDis) enrollment continues to replace free and reduced price lunch data, which is no longer available for all districts as a result of districts’ participation in the USDA’s Community Eligibility Program
Includes students qualifying as a match in the following programs included in the Commonwealth's direct certification system (EOHHS Virtual Gateway)
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Medicaid (MassHealth)
Foster care
Districts are assigned deciles and the foundation budget rate applied to a district’s economically disadvantaged students is based on a district’s concentration of those students
Number of economically disadvantaged students / Foundation enrollment = % economically disadvantaged
Districts are then sorted into deciles based on this calculation. Each decile group corresponds to a foundation budget rate. Decile 10 includes those districts with the highest concentration of eco dis students.
Due to an expansion of Medicaid programs being used to identify qualifying matches with foundation enrollments, the measure now aligns more closely with the criteria used for other programs administered by the Department and adds 24 thousand students to the measure statewide over FY18 levels

17. Foundation budget report
All in-district and tuitioned-out students regardless of program
EcoDis students identified through EOHHS match
Special education enrollment is an assumed rate of total foundation enrollment (sum of 1-10) 3.75% or 4.75% in-district and 1% out-of-district
Sum of 1-10 adjusting half-day programs by 0.5

18. EPIMS Reporting 03

19. Collection periods: October 1 and EOY
EPIMS highlights
What is EPIMS?
Staff roster (38 elements): staff demographics, licensure information, employment status, evaluation data, salary source, attendance
Work assignment (17 elements): Job assignments, course codes
Collection periods: October 1 and EOY
Cross validated/linked with SCS. Every instructional assignment linked to a section of students.

20. Important to remember Job classification codes
Understanding job classification definitions and reporting these accurately
EPIMS job classifications and definitions can be found in EPIMS appendices document online:
Staff who hold multiple roles
Make sure assignments are reported for each role with an appropriate FTE for each
EPIMS summary reports review is important. EPIMS data informs:
Average teacher salary calculation
Staff evaluation reports
FTE count and percent of teachers in General Education, Special Education, CVTE and ELL

21. EPIMS Summary Report 1: FTE by Job Classification

22. EPIMS-EOYR crosswalk 03

23. EOYR-EPIMS crosswalk Improve alignment between the two systems
Update guidance for both EOYR and EPIMS
Improve data quality: Add validations to EOYR
Improve comparability—future data validations

24. Questions?

25. THANK YOU Melissa Marino, Data Collection Supervisor
Rob O’Donnell, Director of School Finance
75 Pleasant Street, Malden, MA 02148