Quick Guide: Preparing for Massachusetts March and EOY State Reporting (Updated 2020)

SIF Districts:

Districts that have certified their October state reports can now work on your March SIMS submission and begin to review SCS, EPIMS and SSDR for June/EOY. 

Districts that have certified their March SIMS state report can now set up for their End of Year (EOY) SIMS, SCS, EPIMS and SSDR submissions.

Step 1: Set the transmission “As of Date”.

** March 1, 2020 falls on a Sunday. March SIMS should be reported as of Monday, March 2 this year. **

• For March 1 SIMS:
  • Set the “Last Transmission Date” to 03/02/2020. This is set on the DOE ID Manager > DOE Maintenance > MA DOE Parameters screen. DOE Parameters are school specific so this must be done for EACH school. Setting it to March 2 is for the SIMS submission. It will also make sure that SCS and SSDR data for students enrolled after October 1 is transmitted when sending SIF Objects, helping you prepare for EOY SCS and SSDR.
• For June/EOY SIMS:
  • ​After the March SIMS is CERTIFIED: The Days in Membership and Days in Attendance for June/EOY SIMS is based upon the Tem End Dates in the Academic Year Settings. Check to make sure the Term End Dates reflect the anticipated/actual Last Day of School. This is set in Scheduling System > Maintenance Scheduling > Academid Year Settings. Academic Year Settings are school specific so this must by does for EACH school. 
• For June/EOY SCS: 
  • After the March SIMS is CERTIFIED: Set the "Last Transmission Date" to the "day BEFORE the last day of school." This should be set to the proposed “day BEFORE the last day of school”. This is set By School and may vary by school. This is set on the DOE ID Manager > DOE Maintenance > MA DOE Parameters screen. DOE Parameters are school specific so this must be done for EACH school.

• For June/EOY EPIMS:
  • Set the “EPIMS Export As-of Date” to the "day BEFORE the last day of school." This should be set to the proposed “day BEFORE the last day of school.” If your district has multiple schools with different last days of school, use the day before the last day of school at the first school that finishes the school year. This is set on the iStaff Biographical > iStaff Procedures – iStaff Bio > iStaff Configuration screen.

NOTE: If the last day of school falls on a Monday then the As-of Date needs to be set to the SCHOOL DAY BEFORE the last day of school, which would be the preceding Friday.

NOTE: When you get closer to the end of the school year and are certain of your actual last day of school, you will want to confirm/update the EPIMS Export As-of Date to be the day BEFORE the actual last day of school. After March SIMS is CERTIFIED you can update your “Last Transmission Date” to the day before the last day of school for June/EOY SIMS and SCS reporting. If the last day of school falls on a Monday then the As-of Date needs to be set to the SCHOOL DAY BEFORE the last day of school, which would be the preceding Friday.

Step 2: Check the School Calendar and the Academic Year Settings screens at each school to confirm holiday/no school days are entered correctly and the Start Dates/End Dates are accurate for your terms. Adjustments may need to be made if you had any school days cancelled due to weather/snow.

Step 3: Create EPIMS Work Assignments “as of” June/EOY.

• All SIF districts need to run the EPIMS Export with “Recalculate FTE” = Yes and “Reset Term Codes” = Yes to create the Work Assignment records and update the Active/Inactive Terms. (Note that SIF Work Assignment FTEs values are generated from the Career FTE divided by the number of Work Assignments and are not pulled from the Work Assignments.) This is found under iStaff Biographical > iStaff Procedures > Export DOE EPIMS Data. If you run the EPIMS Export again, please note that if you have been editing Work Assignments, if you run the export again with Recalculate/Reset set to Yes it will overwrite any changes you have made to the records. Typically this reset is only done on your initial run or to start over.

Step 4:  Recycle the SIF Processors

• Go to SIF Agent > SIF Processors
• Shutdown and Restart the SIF Events and Response Processors

Step 5: Purge previous submission log files. Prior to sending your SIF Objects for the new transmission period it is recommended that you check off “Purge All Log Files Except Current Day” to remove logs from the last transmission period, making it easier to reference your active transmission log files.

Step 6:  Make sure DESE has you set up for the next submission window (ie. March or June/EOY). If you want to get started early you may need to ask the DESE to flip you to the the next submission window . At the same time confirm they have you set to SIF for all state reports (SIMS, SCS,  EPIMS and SSDR).

Step 7: Send SIF Objects. Clear the SIF Temp Table and send the SIMS, SCS, EPIMS and SSDR SIF Objects to the DOE using SIF Agent > SIF – Send Objects. For more information on which Objects to send, go to iPass Help > SIF > Help > How do I send SIF data objects to the DOE and which objects to I send for each state report?