IMS Data Entry Personnel and Technicians Notes – 5/6/08 10:00 A.M. – 11:00 A.M.
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Agenda |
1. Introductions 2. New IMS Website 3. Vision of 4. Networking and Sharing
Preview of Future Business 1. Next meeting: June 3, 2008; 10:00 – 12:00? · Training on the new field in building profile
Announcements 1. CAR Reports 2. Regional Meetings 3. Nightly Download
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Introductions |
The sites checked in.
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New IMS Website |
Michelle demonstrated the new IMS Website. Click here for the Iowa IDEA site presentation. · New website launched last week · http://www.iowaidea.org/ replaces the old IMS http://www.aeaims.k12.ia.us/aeaims.htm · Some of the information on the old website were not transferred. · New site may link back to specific areas of the old IMS site. · Purpose of this website: To keep you informed at this time of events, information, etc. related to web IEP, IMS and the OGC. In the future, news about other applications will also be posted here. ·
This site is
not hosted at Grant Wood AEA but at an organization in ·
Kirby Leland, Front Page, or Home Page o Messages (called banners) can be posted across the top of the screen or even below the Iowa IDEA logo. An example of a banner could be to announce a planned outage. Banner messages may even scroll. o There are three articles on the Front Page. One article welcomes the reader to Iowa IDEA, one encourages people to sign up for a news update list and another is about the agenda for today’s meeting. o There are buttons on the right side of each page, not only the front page. These buttons do change slightly, based on the section. o Web IEP button connects to the web IEP server. Access to the IMS server should be accomplished with the current method, eliminating heavy traffic slow down. o The site is organized by the following tabs (sections): IEP, IMS, Medicaid, Governance, Resources and Archives. o Each section can have left column subsection choices to help structure the use of the site. For example: IMS section: Meeting Notes, Contacts, Resources, and Manual. o There are 3 features explained below: § How to sign up for a News Update list. Ø Currently, e-mails are sent to a list of addresses, alerting postings of: agendas, meeting notes, planned server maintenance or planned ICN outage. The Iowa IDEA site will replace these lists and users will determine which messages they want to receive. Ø In this system, mailing lists are handled with a News Update. It is easy to sign up for News Update: 1. Click on the “Sign Up for the News Update” in the upper left hand corner of the front page or from any section. 2. Fill out the form. 3. There are 4 mailing lists: AEA Primary Data Entry Person; AEA Web IEP Administrators; IMS Data Entry Personnel; Users of Web IEP. 4. Sign up for one or more mailing lists. 5. Only 1 person per AEA is asked to sign up as the AEA primary data entry person. There may be some AEAs where a data entry person and the IMS manager will both want to be on the primary data entry person list. That is OK. 6. We are trying to keep the number of mailing lists to a minimal number. There is no Medicaid only list as the users on that list were generally a subset of the IMS Data Entry Personnel. If we need to add another mailing list, we can do so for an additional charge. 7. After the form is completed, click on Submit. 8. After submission, you will receive a confirmation e-mail for each list you signed up for. 9. Pay attention to each e-mail. It requires confirmation response that you want to be on the list. 10. This prevents other people from signing you up without your knowledge. 11. If you don’t respond to the e-mail, your “registration” to the e-mail list is incomplete. 12. If you wish to unsubscribe to any mailing list, you will go to the News Update. 13. When an important or time sensitive document is posted, News Update will be used to notify. We will not use the News Update feature each time we make a change in the website. Ø In the IMS system, the current email lists will no longer be used. The user profile information on the left side of the screen still needs to be maintained. From now on ignore the right side of the screen with email lists. § How to sign up for the calendar functions Ø On the front page, in the Current Highlights section, there are directions on how to sign up for the calendar functions. Ø Access to the calendar is the calendar button on the right side of the front page. Ø By either going from that previous screen or clicking on calendar, sign up for free event reminders. Ø Categories for the calendar: Governance meeting, IEP web Administrators, IMS Data Entry Personnel; IMS state ID and Medicaid Claims transmission. Ø Sign up for as many categories as you wish. Ø You can edit your reminder preferences. § Searching the website Ø To find documents that “you know are posted on the site but just aren’t sure where”. Ø The Search Site feature is accessible only from the Front Page. Ø Meeting notes and other documents are being set up to facilitate search on key words. Ø Example: if you want to see everything that we have posted for secondary and tertiary disabilities, type in secondary. Ø At this time, the search is an exact word match. Don’t type in the partial word “second”, but the whole word. Ø It has been brought to the attention of the company, we would prefer partial word matches.
Request:
Question: Are the FoxPro reports on this new site? Answer: In the IMS section, there is a right column button which will link you to the list of FoxPro Reports.
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Vision of |
Michelle provided a follow-up to Vision of Iowa IDEA Data System information shared in January. Click here for the Iowa IDEA System presentation. •
Recently
presented to the Chief Administrators and provided them with the following definition
of the special education data system:
Currently the data system is the organization and alignment of
software, resources and procedures required to collect, store, manage and
distribute special education data for use in decision-making and meeting
state and federal reporting requirements such as section 618 and NCLB. •
This system's
primary function is to provide the DE, the AEAs and their constituent
districts with data organized around the service delivery system for special
education services in •
A by-product of
the data gathered, edited and managed by the system is a cadre of reports and
data files, which partially fulfill state and federal informational
requirements. •
History
overview of past 30 years. °
Initially, the
special education database was housed in the Ø
Around 1993,
the system then evolved to each AEA having their own server and the same
application and uploading data on a regular basis to a Ø
The next
iteration was for the data to be housed centrally. A web application was written for this to
occur. °
The next
application to be developed was the web IEP. The pilot version of the web IEP
was first released in January 2005. °
Currently
writing the requirements for the web IFSP. °
Rough estimate of
one year for development to be completed. °
Added an
application called the Iowa Instructional Plan. •
Currently two
separate applications: IMS and web IEP •
Databases are
separate for those two applications.
Some overlap data: such as the log in information. Student data is not shared between the two
systems. •
What this means
it that: °
Data that comes
in on an IEP needs to be reentered into IMS. °
Student name,
for example is entered and stored in two different databases. °
IEP may pull
from IMS, but not update in IMS. °
IMS contains
most of the data. •
Currently
rewriting applications into one system.
•
IEP and IFSP
applications will be the primary applications for entering Part B and Part C
or IDEA data. •
Data entry
personnel will not receive paper or electronic versions of the IEP to reenter
data into IMS. •
Data that is
not child specific but is needed to support the IEPs and IFSPs will be
entered via IMS. Building profiles is
one example. •
The new
application, the Iowa Instructional Plan will be a separate application that
may share some features such as a graphing tool with the IEP. •
When the
rewrite is completed, one database will be shared by the multiple
applications. •
This combining
of the applications and databases will eliminate or reduce the reentering of data
at those times when children move from IFSPs to IEPs and when students move
from instructional plans to IEPs.
Auditing data that are entered via the web IEP and IFSP will be
critical. •
Web IEP,
Version 5 °
Kirby is
organizing product testing to be done in °
These testers
will be expert in specific areas, not necessarily representative of each AEA. °
Teachers,
possibly some service providers test the last week in July. °
Version 5 web IEP
release scheduled: August 4 or 5. •
Web IFSP: °
Status:
Michelle is facilitating a group of 4 people who are writing the
requirements. Input portion close to
being finished, then start work on output. °
Web IFSP
processes differ across the state, standardization is the goal. °
When
requirements are finalized, more timelines will follow. •
°
An application
that AEAs 10 and 15 are using, which was developed by AEA 10, is being
modified for statewide use. °
Release goal:
2009 late summer/early fall. °
Each AEA will
determine the timelines for rollout. °
Application
will be under direction of the OGC. Question: When will the Iowa Instructional Plan (IIP) be used? Answer: IIP will be used for students in general
education who need interventions. The
customers are different, more general education versus special
education. It is not anticipated that
data will be entered into IMS. Question: Will this be similar to problem-solving
intervention? Answer: Yes, the IIP is along the same lines as problem-solving
intervention. Question: Could the Web IEP Administrator be the Web
IIP administrator? Answer: That decision will be up to each AEA. An example of when that may be the same
person would be using one’s expertise in the graphing tool on both systems. |
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Networking and Sharing / Announcements
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1. CAR Reports · The dates on the web CAR reports have been changed to July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2008 so the data should now reflect the current school year.
2. Regional Meetings · Registration is now closed for the regional meetings. Here is a breakdown of the 166 registrations that have been sent in: · Monday, 5/19/2008: 46 registrants, site changed to Holiday Inn in Coralville · Tuesday, May 20 in Cedar Falls; 38 registrants ·
Wednesday, May
28 in ·
Thursday, May
29 in ·
Friday, May 30
in
3. Nightly Download Here are the figures from the past several months on how the nightly ran without being restarted: · January: Ran 30 out of 31 nights or 96.77%. · February: Ran 28 out of 29 nights or 96.55%. · March: Ran 31 out of 31 nights or 100%. |
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