USB updates USIMS/UCIMS rollout, APIs and validation work; WIDA screener fields to be shared

USB product and IT staff briefed attendees on technical modernization and specific data fields that will change LEA workflows.

Katrina Brinkley (chief product owner, USIMS) said USIMS is organized into educator, student and finance domains. Educator licensing and personal-information modules are complete; background-check and university-recommendation workflows are in beta test. Student-domain work includes an Ed-Fi API, a statewide enrollment exchange, and movement of assessment and course-history data with a target of July 1, 2024 for key milestones. Finance-domain work is in progress with several vendor integrations and indirect-cost functionality in development; Don Moody is leading finance vendor outreach.

Cliff (USB IT lead) warned about SSID-merge behavior (new SSIDs merge back to the original) and urged LEAs to address duplicate SSIDs quickly to avoid a 'snowball' of associated records. Cliff and other staff stressed daily validation resolution to avoid fatal errors that prevent students from loading into state systems, which in turn affects assessments and funding. Several validations (district of residence, invalid district code, invalid address) are currently warnings for districts and will become fatal errors by next October, USB said.

USB also previewed adding two WIDA screener fields—the overall screener proficiency score and the screener date—to the data gateway and the student find pages. The change aims to let LEAs check whether a screener has already been administered and where, reducing duplicate screeners and making transfers between LEAs faster. USB said these screeners are not intended to block student loading if unavailable; the feature is meant to support efficiency.