New York State Student Identification System (NYSSIS)

System Overview

Creation Date: February 3, 2004

Last Updated: October 23, 2004

What is NYSSIS:

The New York State Student Identification System (NYSSIS) is an electronic information system that assigns a unique statewide identifier to students in New York State public schools. NYSSIS enables school districts to retrieve identification numbers that have been previously assigned to students and to obtain new identifiers for students that do not have an existing identifier. The statewide identifier assigned by NYSSIS will be used by districts to report student-level data to the State Education Department. The statewide identifier can also be used by districts to obtain or provide information from other districts when a student transfers in or out of a district.

NYSSIS relies on a set of 23 data items that provide characteristics about a student. These data items are stored in a secure and confidential database and are used to identify a student uniquely. Each time a districts makes a request for a new unique identifier for a student, the district must submit these 23 data items (or as many of the data items that are available) to NYSSIS. NYSSIS checks the database to determine whether the data submitted by the district matches any records already in the database. If a match is found, the unique identifier already assigned to the student is returned to the district. If no match is found, a new identifier is created and returned to the district. In some cases, it is not possible to determine if the data submitted matches an existing record in the database. In these cases, a staff member from the district must log on to NYSSIS and make the determination.

NYSSIS identifiers will be provided to districts through the statewide student data warehouse. In addition, districts may also receive identifiers directly so that the district may use the statewide identifier in their local system. However, local implementation of the statewide identifier is not required.

As stated above, the core function of NYSSIS is software system that compares basic student identification information (the 23 data items) to the NYSSIS database to determine whether:

· An Student ID already exists for a given student

· A new Student ID should be issued , or

· Whether human intervention is needed to determine if the data submitted matches existing student data.

Student Ids are assigned and retrieved via two methods: Batch Processing and Web Based Processing.

· Batch Processing – is used to submit a request for and retrieve a collection of student identifiers via a file upload and download process. The core activities in Batch Processing are:

o Submission of Student Identification data in formatted files via secure FTP

o Processing of those Student Identification records to match existing Student ID’s, identify new matches or create new Student ID’s

o Retrieval of assigned Student IDs via secure FTP

· Web Based Processing – which is used to resolve “near matches” of students that require school district personnel to determine if the student already has a statewide student ID or to submit a request for a statewide student ID for a single student. The core activities in Online Processing are:

o Logging In

o Changing Institutions to work with (affects Regional Information Centers or “RICs” only)

o Resolving Hold Queue student records via Web interface

o Adding a Student via the NYSSIS Web interface

o Obtaining Online Help

o Determining whether a Student ID number is valid via a Web interface

Authorized Users/Security

The NYSSIS System is accessible only to authorized users. The following are the types of access and levels of user access:

1. Batch Submission Account: This is a single, specialized account that enables submission of student data files in Batch mode. Only Big 5 City School District and Regional Information Center personnel will receive authorization to submit files in batch mode. The username for this process is ricdata (see below). The password is supplied separately to the authorized user for the RIC or Big 5 District.

2. Batch File Retrieval Account: This account allows retrieval of Statewide student ID data files for upload into regional data warehouses and local systems. Only Big 5 City School District and Regional Information Center personnel will receive authorization to submit files in batch mode. Each RIC and Big 5 District will receive a separate username and password. This information will be provided to the authorized user for the RIC or Big 5 District.

3. NYSSIS Login Account: This account enables evaluation of “near matches” and submission of individual requests for Statewide student identifiers for individual students via the web based interface. Each LEA, BOCES and RIC will have at least one authorized user, who will log into the NYSSIS system. The userid and password for each user will be provided to the authorized user for each district.

To identify an authorized user and obtain an account, complete the Authorized Contact for NYSSIS form found at the end of this User Manual in Appendix B.

Submission of Student Records

NYSSIS relies on a set of 23 data items that collectively can identify a student uniquely. These 23 data items comprise the student identification data set. Most districts will obtain unique student identifiers through the batch submission process, where a file containing the 23 data items is submitted to NYSSIS for the matching process.

Only the local student identifier is required for processing in NYSSIS. However, the more complete the data set that is submitted, the greater likelihood of a correct match with an existing student or accurate determination of a new student. Districts are strongly encouraged to begin processes to capture all 23 data items as part of the registration process and the management of local student information systems.

School districts outside of the Big 5 City School Districts will rely on a Regional Information Centers (RIC) to submit requests for student identifiers via a file upload. The Big 5 City School districts have the option of working through RIC or submitting files on their own. Charter schools should contact the NYSSIS system administrator to develop an approach that meets their specific needs.

The Regional Information Centers (RICs) and the “Big Five” school districts will submit multiple student records in delimited files to one, secure, FTP directory. Files will be uploaded utilizing the “Binary” transport method. All files transmitted must be zipped (i.e. compressed). All files within the zipped file will end in “.csv” suffix.

Users must access FTP site listserv.nysed.gov utilizing subdirectory “ftpfiles” with a User ID of “ricdata” and unique passwords. The password will be supplied to the authorized user via e-mail from the NYSSIS administrator.

When a file is placed in this secure FTP location it is automatically moved to a specific location for further processing. Therefore, it is impossible to perform such operations as listing files. The only operations that are allowed at this FTP location are changing directories and putting files.

Each file placed in this directory will employ the following naming convention:

For Big 5 City School Districts not participating in RIC warehouses:

CTYXXXXXXXXXXXXYYYYMMDD.csv

For Regional Information Centers: RICXXXXXXXXXXXXYYYYMMDD.csv

RIC = The letters “RIC”

CITY = The letters “CTY”

XXXXXXXXXXXX = The 12 Character/Digit District or RICs BEDS Code

YYYY = The 4 digit year

MM = The 2 digit month

DD = The 2 digit day

Note especially that the file extensions (.csv and .zip) are lower case. Please take care to ensure that your files also have a lower case extension.

Therefore, a zipped file from the Syracuse City School District on December 15, 2003 will look like this:

CTY42180001000020031215.zip

The file itself will look like this:

CTY42180001000020031215.csv

Each record in the file will follow the format below. Fields within records will be “PIPE DELIMITED” utilizing the pipe (|) character as a separator.

Files should not contain quotes. Commas are acceptable.

A complete row for a file should look like this:

170500010000|170500010009|1999-09-01|12345|Doe|Jane|A|1999-09-01|9TH|1986-08-27|FEMALE|ENGLISH|HISPANIC|1986-09-22|123 MAIN ST||ANYTOWN|NY|55555-3333|SALLY DOE|JOHN DOE|123-123-1234|BROOKLYN, NY

NYSSIS File Fields	Size	Format	Description
District BEDS Code	12		12 digit BEDS code assigned to the district.
Building BEDS Code	12		12 digit BEDS code assigned to the specific building
School Year		YYYY-MM-DD	Ordinarily YYYY-06-30
Submitter’s Student ID	12		Local Identifier assigned by the local student information system for this student. Alternatively, this may be the identifier assigned by the regional warehouse. This ID will be used to map the NYSSIS statewide ID back to the record in the warehouse or local system
Student’s Last Name	25		Student's Last Name
Student’s First Name	25		Student's First Name
Student’s Middle Initial	1		Student's Middle Initial
Date of Entry into Grade 9		YYYY-MM-DD	This is the actual date that the student entered grade 9. It is not necessary to project this date and should be blank for students in grades Pre-K – 8. Ordinarily YYYY-09-01
Current Grade	4		Use NYSSIS Standard NYSSIS001 (appendix A)
Date of Birth		YYYY-MM-DD	This is the date of the student’s birth derived from sone official source as dictated by district policy.
Gender	10	Male, Female, Unknown
Home Language	16		First choice, use Dominant Language. Second choice use Home Language. Third choice use Native Language. Use language codes in NYSSIS Standard NYSSIS002 Student Primary Language Code (Appendix A)
Ethnic Description	40		Use NYSSIS Standard NYSSIS003 (Appendix A)
Immunization date for first Polio vaccination		YYYY-MM-DD	This is the date of the FIRST polio vaccination either IPV or OPV. Use the first day of the month if day is not indicated.
Address line 1	30		Home Address
Address line 2	30		Address1 not null if Address2 is populated
City	25
State	2
Zip code	10	XXXXX-XXXX	Zip code can be either 5 digits no dash or nine digits with a dash
Guardian One Name	40	FirstName LastName	The full name of a primary guardian.
Guardian Two Name	40	FirstName LastName	The full name of a second guardian
Phone at primary residence	14	XXX-XXX-XXXX	Phone number at the student’s primary residence.
Student’s Place of Birth	50		Indicates the location where the student was born. The best possible data is the city, state and country for non-US born students and City and State for US born citizens. However, any data available is acceptable, but should follow the format of City, State, Country.

Batch File Processing

After submission, the file will be automatically retrieved from the FTP file location by NYSSIS and will be processed. There are a number of possible results and result combinations that can occur during batch file processing. The five major result areas are:

· 1. File and Record validation – this process evaluates the file that is submitted to ensure that it can be read, is in the correct format and is complete. All fields, whether they are blank or not must be accounted for in the file. There are three possible results from the File and Record validation process:

· Unreadable Batch file – this indicates that the file could not be read and understood by NYSSIS. This may be due to an incorrect file name, a non-standard encryption format or missing fields. If the file is unreadable no records will be processed and the entire file will be rejected.

· Good Records – this indicates that the file could be opened and read and records can be processed by NYSSIS. This is the default result of the File and Record validation process.

· Bad Records – this indicates that the file could be opened and read, but some of the records in the file could not be processed. This may be due to incorrect BEDS Codes, improperly formatted data (especially dates) or missing fields within the file.

NYSSIS will send an e-mail message to the authorized individual (see above) indicating the status of the file and record validation process.

Once the file and record validation process is complete, the file is processed by NYSSIS.

· 2. New / Existing Student ID issuance- this is the core NYSSIS process. The data that is submitted via the file is processed by NYSSIS to assign new unique student identifiers or match the data to an existing student identifier.

· Issue a new student identifier: This process creates a new student id because no records in the NYSSIS database match the data submitted.

· Retrieve an existing student identifier: This process retrieves an existing student identifier because the data submitted matches (within an acceptable range) data that is already in the NYSSIS database.

· 3. Place Records in the Hold Queue for Human Review – The NYSSIS process cannot, in all cases, automatically determine whether a student is new or matches an existing student. In some cases the data submitted nearly matches an existing record, but the software cannot make the final determination on its own. Therefore, NYSSIS places records that cannot be automatically matched into a holding area or Hold Queue to await human review and final determination of whether they match an existing record or represent a new, unique student. Authorized officials at school districts will be given a NYSSIS Login Account to log into NYSSIS and review the records.

· 4. E-mail Notification - As indicated above, the NYSSIS system will notify authorized officials of status of the processing of batch files submitted.

· 5. Response File Retrieval – The final step in the student ID matching process is the creation of a Response File that contains the statewide unique student ID associated with the local identifier that is submitted as part of the student identification data set. This response file is retrieved by authorized officials at the Big 5 city school district and the RIC. School District personnel may also elect to obtain their response file by contacting the NYSSIS system administrator.