The 2018-2019 Statewide Information System (SIS) handbook has been published on the ADE data Center website. The SIS handbook is released on March 1^st of every year.  The Statewide Information System is updated yearly; either to remove data elements that are no longer needed, modify current data collection items per cycle and/or, to add new data elements as required by Ad-hoc, State and Federal reporting requirements. 

On a high-level overview, this year the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) is making changes in few areas to improve the over-all data collection process.  A few examples of the data collection changes are the addition of the new Employee Leave Table and, restricting the Act 61 Tier I Table entries to the Superintendent and the CFO/Business Manager/Treasurer of the School District. The Class Table has Licensure Exception changes and has Personal Finance and a SPCED Class Overage Flag are added as well.  There have also been two elements added or modified in the Job Assignment Table to clarify and collect additional data for the Paraprofessional qualifications of employees.  The Private School Table and the Student Table have elements added to collect data for Title III Federal Program.  There have been two elements added or modified in the School Table to clarify and collect additional data for the Safe School Environment.  The SPCED School Age Table has had the Alternate Portfolio element changed and the table will now be collected in Cycle 6 to improve the student testing identification process.

A summary table and description for all the changes for 2018-2019 has been included under section “Data Changes for this Year’s SIS Handbook” on page 151 - 152 of the 2018-2019 SIS Handbook.

The 2018-2019 Statewide Information System (SIS) handbook is now published (posted) on the ADE Data Center under the SIS menu/icon and available via the link https://adedata.arkansas.gov/sis/SISHandbooks.aspx. 

The SIS implements the provisions of several Arkansas General Assembly enactments which mandate that the ADE make extensive use of information Technology (IT) at the state and the local levels to provide accurate and timely information to policy makers and to the reduce the state reporting burden. This is an important data collection and reporting process which requires continuous attention to detail throughout the year encompassing nine (9) submission cycles.