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Q & A Around Data

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Matt Dale
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Where does the data in Illuminate come from?  The demographic information, such as contacts, phone number, DOB, etc. all come from your SIS (Student Information System) (PowerSchool).   

Why?  Having two places be the authoritative source for demographic information allows for data inaccuracies.  By having PowerSchool (your Student Information System or SIS) be the authoritative source for all things demographic this means that what is in Illuminate will be the same as what is in PowerSchool.   Additionally, Illuminate should be the authoritative source for a special education data.

How?  Files get pulled nightly from PowerSchool and then get imported into Illuminate.  This means that if you see something that is not correct in Illuminate then you must clean it up in PowerSchool as it is the authoritative source for all of the data below:

  • Student Information:  This includes student UIC, first name, last name, middle name, etc.
  • Contacts:  This includes parent(s)/guardian(s) names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.  
  • Enrollment:  This includes new enrollments and ending enrollment.  If the student’s enrollment is not ended in PowerSchool this does not get sent to Illuminate and the student will continue to show with active enrollment and all special education widgets will assume he is still a student.
  • Resident District, Operating District and Attending Building

When can I expect a change made in PowerSchool to show up in Illuminate? 

If you have made the change by the end of the school day in PowerSchool you should see the change the next morning in Illuminate.

What if I made a change in PowerSchool but it is not showing up in Illuminate? 

Verify that the information was changed and check your Import Logs in Illuminate for errors.  If it was not entered into PowerSchool correctly then it will not import into Illuminate.

Typical Data Needs and Solutions

Data Need

FYI(s)

What to Do

Student information is not correct or needs to be changed.   This includes student UIC, first name, last name, middle name, DOB, etc.)  

A file gets pulled nightly from PowerSchool that then gets imported into Illuminate.  If you are seeing a wrong DOB then this would also be wrong in PowerSchool.

Contact the key person at the building with the corrections needed.

Contacts need to be updated:  This includes parent(s)/ guardian(s) names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.  

A file gets pulled nightly from PowerSchool that then gets imported into Illuminate.  This means that the contact information has not been updated in PowerSchool yet and needs to be.

Contact the key person at the building with the changes needed.

There are no parent(s)/ guardian(s) showing up in the IEP, REED, etc. on the Participants Page

The contacts file that gets pulled from PowerSchool includes if the parent(s)/guardian(s) are legal guardians.  If this is not checked in PowerSchool then legal guardian will not come over into Illuminate.  This means that there are no parent(s)/guardian(s) considered as legal and so this field will be empty for the IEP, etc.

Contact  the key person at the building to ensure the parent(s)/guardian(s) are marked as legal guardian.

Student is showing up as having an overdue IEP but you know s/he has left the district.

If the student’s enrollment is not ended in PowerSchool this does not get sent to Illuminate and the student will continue to show with active enrollment and all special education widgets will assume he is still an active student.

Contact the key person at the building to assist with enrollment end dates, etc. within PowerSchool.

You cannot find a student in Illuminate that just moved into the district.

*The student’s information (including the UIC) may not have been added yet to PowerSchool.  NOTE:  You must have the UIC in order to add a new student in Illuminate as this is the one piece of data unique to the student.

*Student may not have enrollment added in PowerSchool yet.

*Student might not be entered into PowerSchool yet.

Contact the key person at the building to see if the information has been added to PowerSchool.

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