We have a student  that has a 504 and not a special ed student. They receive instruction at home. Are they counted anywhere?

The student is not identified as disabled per Article7/ Part B, IDEA so he/she would not be reported on the SE. It does not appear that the student is homebound as a result of illness or injury so he/he would not be included on the new DOE-HB report. The student may be counted on some other reports such as AT, PE, ME, DM since the receive instruction from a certified teacher.

We have a student who legally has only one name, not a first and last name. How do we submit this student for the DOE-STN?

First, please be sure that this is the student's legal name. It is extremely rare - but possible - for a student to have only one name. In this case, use the student's name in both the First Name and Last Name fields.

STNs for ISTEP/ISTAR: Many of the students that attend our facility are funded through DFC or DOE and come from throughout the state. These students participate in either ISTEP or ISTAR. Some corporations are not cooperating in assigning STNs and thus the students are not participating in statewide assessments. Any thoughts?

All students are required to have assigned to them an STN.

We had a student last year that was assigned a STN, He dropped out before the STN numbers were sent to the doe. I am trying to do the drop out report and when I try to submit the info the message says, The STN does not exist in the STN Lookup System and will not let me submit him. What do I do?

Please submit the information for the student in the STN LOOKUP data file again. Check the LOOKUP first to make sure the student did not have another number assigned to him/her. Then submit the DR report again.

Student left/never got an STN/is inactive. I get "STN does not exist in the STN Lookup System." error. What do I do?

Perform a lookup in the STN Application Center to make sure the student doesn't already have an STN. If there is one, use that STN. Otherwise, assign an STN to the student from your school and submit an STN update. Then enter the expulsion information for that student.

I performed an STN lookup, and I found more than one record for the same student. What should I do?

1. First, verify that the numbers are actually duplicates (either by your own records or by getting in touch with the corresponding schools). Occasionally, 2 (or more) students really have the same first name, last name, gender, and birth date.

2. Once you have verified that the numbers are duplicates, decide which record to keep. IF THE STUDENT HAD TAKEN THE ISTEP UNDER ONE OF THE NUMBERS, THAT STN SHOULD BE THE NUMBER USED FROM NOW ON. If the student had not taken the ISTEP, choose the STN that corresponds with their other records – these include Attendance, English Proficiency, and Pupil Enrollment. If each STN is associated with student records, choose the STN that was first assigned.

3. Once you decide which STN to keep, send a fax on School or Corporation letterhead to the Department of Education at 317-233-6326 stating which STN to delete and which STN to keep. DO NOT include the student's name (for security purposes). Include your email address in the
fax so we contact you if we have questions.

I performed an STN lookup and found a misspelling in a student's name. What should I do?

Correct the mistake in your next STN Lookup file upload. This is one of the purposes of the monthly STN updates. As a reminder, names should appear exactly as they do on
the students' birth certificates.

I accidentally assigned students to my school that should not have been assigned. How do I correct the error and unassign them from my school?

When this situation occurs, send an email to ahart@doe.in.gov. Include in your email the date of the transfer, the login you used for the transfer, the school the students were transferred from, and the school the students were transferred to. Please send an email to this address only if you have incorrectly assigned students to your school.

It is the end of the school year, and we are currently enrolling students and/or registering kindergartners for the next school year. When would be a good time to assign them to my school for the STN Lookup?

Wait until the students actually show up in the fall before assigning them to your school. It is common for students to plan on enrolling but never actually attend that school. Waiting until the fall to assign them to your school will help prevent inaccurate information in our system.

Will district offices and/or schools access the Test Number Lookup System or will access be allowed to only one of the two?

This question will be answered by the superintendent of each public school corporation or by the headmaster of each accredited non-public school. Superintendents will be asked to provide a list of individuals who are to be given user names and passwords required to use the system. It will be important for personnel who actually enroll new students to have access to the STN lookup system. If new students are enrolled at the building level, building level staff will need to have access to the system. No decision has been made yet about the maximum number of users for each school or school corporation. Final determination of the number of authorized users per school must take into consideration legal and security requirements.

What grade levels do we begin pre-K or K?

Student test numbers should be assigned for all students in a school. If a school contains both kindergarten and pre-kindergarten students, numbers should be assigned to both pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students.

Who assigns STNs for Special Education co-ops?

Whichever entity maintains records for the students enrolled in a school corporation but attending a special education coop is probably in the best position to assign and report the numbers. It makes no difference in terms of the usefulness of the STN; the important requirement is that the STN not be reported twice. Communication among school corporations, special education coops and vendors will be needed to assure that only one number is assigned and reported.

After this year’s assignment of numbers, no other numbers will need to be assigned except for students entering kindergarten or transferring in from out of state, true or untrue?

This statement is almost correct. It should read “After this year’s assignment of numbers, no other numbers will need to be assigned except for students entering kindergarten, transferring in from out of state, transferring from a home school environment, or transferring from a non- accredited non-public school. A check of the Student Test Number Lookup System will indicate whether the student already has a Test Number or needs to be assigned one.

Do you change the first few characters when you get a new student with a previous number and will the “02” part of the child’s number change each year?

No. The importance of this point cannot be overstated Once assigned; the STNs will stay the same throughout the student’s Indiana education experience.

Will a number be assigned to students in accredited nonpublic schools?

Accredited non-public schools have the same authority and responsibility to assign STNs as public schools/corporations.

Will evening high school and adult education programs that test ISTEP+ use the same numbering system?

Yes.

How are the nonpublic test numbers different from the public schools?

The only difference is that nonpublic schools have a school ID that begins with a letter.

Has the Department considered taking responsibility for generation of all student test numbers as opposed to the districts?

This alternative has been discussed, considered, and rejected. We have selected an approach that leaves control of student records where it should be – at the local level.

In regards to digits five and six of the student number, why not use the year of graduation at first enroll? This immediately adds an additional piece of data, whether the student was ever retained.

The STN is nothing more than a unique identifier. It does not have, and should not have, any substantive meaning. In designing relational data bases, key fields such as the student test number should have no inherent meaning. This is a basic premise of data base design.

What do we do with a new school that will not open until August 2007?

Most of the students enrolling in a new school in August 2007 will already have been assigned STNs by the schools they attended during the 2005- 2006 school year. A new school opening in August 2007 will assign STNs only to new Indiana students (including previously home-schooled students, out-of-state students, and students from non-accredited schools).

If you are a school with an extremely high mobility rate and students retain their ID numbers will building level aggregate reports be skewed (i.e., how do you identify all the different ID numbers as belonging to one building)?

Attendance and enrollment in a particular building will be reported through Attendance and Enrollment reports, and are not part of the requirements for assigning and reporting STNs or to the development of the lookup data base. This question illustrates why the creation of STNs is essential to implementation of Public Law 221. Only by being able to recognize students’ movement from school to school and from corporation to corporation is it possible to establish mobility rates as required by the law.

I have a secretary who is registering new students and wanted to assign them to us in the STN database. We cannot find the assign button. Has it moved or been removed.

The "Assign To My School" button appears only when the following conditions have been met:

1. The user performing the lookup is assigned to a specific school and not the central office and

2. The user has been granted the "STN Lookup - Transfer" access permission through user maintenance and

3. The student is not currently enrolled in the user's assigned school.

Most likely, it is that the user account being used is assigned to Central Office.

Indicators for STN duplicates:

1. An error message that states you are trying to update the first and last name of a student at the same time.
2. A warning message saying you have updated school along with the student’s core
   information (name, birth date, gender, or ethnicity)
3. A warning message: “STN was in the file prior to record #XXX”

If you suspect a STN duplicate:

• Perform a lookup for that STN
• Check the school history for repeated transfers between schools
• Check the “STN Audit” tab for changes to the core information.

What is a STN?

What does a STN look like?

The first 4 characters of the STN are the school number assigned by the DOE: 0000 The middle 2 characters represent the ending academic year of which the STN was assigned: 07 The last 3 characters are sequentially assigned to students: 039 (this is the 39th student you’ve assigned a STN to this year [this may require you to keep a separate file for students that you’ve assigned STN’s to. That way you’ll know where you left off when it comes time to assign another STN]) The STN would look like this: 000007039

Why do I always do a lookup on a student before assigning a STN number?

Duplicate STNs can cause problems during a collection transfer. Avoid the hassle and save time
by performing a lookup first.

How do I lookup a student using STN Lookup?

When searching for a student using the STN Lookup, it is best to search with the least criteria
possible. Search just by last name only. If the search returns too many results, add a few letters of the first name and search again. If the search returns nothing, use “sounds-like” search.

How do I assign a STN?

First, you must make sure that your User Status has Data Transfer Access. Only then can you move on. There are 2 options when assigning a STN:

Option 1:

In Application Center Mouse over Data Transfer Mouse over Input Forms

Click on STN Lookup

Input Select School Type required information into boxes marked with a * (red asterisk) Click Save

Option 2:

This may be the most efficient option of you as this collection (STN Collection) is sent to the DOE monthly.

Once you assign your new student with a STN, you’ll add him/her to your existing STN file.

When it’s time to transfer the STN Collection, you’ll be up to date and ready to go. Transfer your file as usual

I’ve never transferred a file before, how do I do that?

Log in to Application Center

*remember you must have “Transfer Data” user access to transfer files.*

Mouse over to Data Transfer.
Click on File Transfer.
In File Location click Browse to search for you saved data on your computer. When you
find it, click on it.
In File Type click the (black, upside down triangle) to select the type of file you are sending
In File Format click the (black, upside down triangle) to select the type of format you are sending your file in.
Click Transfer Data

After I transfer my STN collection, how do I check my transfer results?

Select the following menu:

• Message Center
• Data Transfer Log
• Find your transfer by matching the date, file type and format, and login
• Click on the magnifying glass icon to the left of the correct transfer information.

Check your results:

• In the Transfer Details page:
• Number of records processed, added, and updated
• File Type specific breakdown of data
• MOST IMPORTANTLY: Number and details of errors and warnings.

*Note* Records with errors DID NOT get transferred.

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FOLLOW UP
ON ALL RECORDS WITH ERRORS AND WARNING

What kind of errors will I see?

Three types of errors can be reported: (first 2 errors addressed here)

1. If the whole file failed, verify that what you submitted matched the data layout on the STN
   homepage. Perhaps you left out a field.
2. If you’ve received an error for a specific data field, it is likely that Microsoft Excel is
   assigned to open comma-delimited files on your computer.
   

Opening comma-delimited files in Excel can:

1. Drop leading zeros from dates and STN’s
2. Hide empty rows and columns that cause errors in processing the file

What to do?

Open these files in Notepad:

I keep losing my zeros!

Here are three ways to enter/maintain leading zeros in Excel:

If you haven't entered the data yet, you can format the entire column as text (Select the column,
then Format > Cells > Select "Number" tab, then under "Category," select "Text"). Ignore the
"Number stored as text" warning that Excel puts on the cell.

You can also enter or fix items with leading zeros one at a time by putting an apostrophe in front
of the item. (This is another way to store digits as text.)

Before or after entering data, you can format the whole column to fill in the leading zeros. For
example, for public school STNs (which have must have nine digits), select the column, then
Format > Cells > Select "Number" tab, then under "Category," select "Custom" and a box labeled
"Type" will appear; enter nine zeros there: 000000000. (For a three-character numbers such as
Field 10 "Service Site" in the DOE-SE, you would enter three zeros: 000.)

NOTE: Opening a comma-delimited file (CSV) in Excel is usually not a good idea: If you open a
CSV file in Excel, it will automatically remove leading zeros from your numbers (including STN,
social security numbers, dates, and grades). If there are problems in your CSV data file that you
need to correct, either go back to your original Excel data file or open your file in Word or
Notepad. (You may need to save the file from Word or Notepad as TXT, but that extension won't
be a problem - you can still submit as comma delimited.

Can a school technology coordinator be included and kept informed of the information given to vendors to help prepare?