SIPS Specs&Reqs

* MARSS Certified or able to support WHS MARSS reporting

The housing of cumulative folders.

The ability within the database to differentiate between annual and perennial data fields.

Basic demographic information (name, age, address, guardian, gender, etc.)

Ability to maintain multiple student IDs (e.g. feeder school, state, current school, SSAN, etc.).

Ability to maintain multiple addresses and status indicators for parents & guardians.

Ability to track student by legal and preferred name including lineage with further ability to generate reports by legal or preferred name.

Archiving capabilities

Ability to store scanned documents pertinent to the student record (e.g. paper copy of transfer documents, etc.)

Linkage to attendance module.

Linkage to student grades module.

Linkage to Special Education (IEP and/or 504) module.

Linkage to discipline module.

Ability to track/report athletic eligibility

Linkage to library management/catalog module or software.

Linkage to food services module.

Student ID card information/capabilities.

Ability to interface with Personal Data Assistants (PDAs).

Drops/Adds/Level changes via e-mail (and/or automatic update to grade books) to teachers, students, and administrators when they occur.

Attendance data recorded by period and day.

Excused and unexcused tardies recorded by period and day.

Ability to accept scanned input via ID cards.

User-defined reasons for absences to assist in reporting and analysis.

Ability to define type of school day at the classroom level (e.g. test day, field trip, etc.) to allow for tracking of absence patterns.

Two-way attendance system interface with teacher grade books.

Daily class size listed.

Linkage to student information modules.

Imbedded capability or linkage to autodial, email, or web-based parent notification systems.

A master district calendar (or linkage thereto) for events that are viewable by others.

The ability to pre-define the calendar or do multi-projections.

The ability to synchronize the calendar with PDAs.

If there is a personal calendar available, the ability to keep it private.

A teacher calendar (for field trips, parent-teacher conferences, and regular school calendar).

Event planning.

Building of the master schedule.

Built-in dated, waiting list for filled classes.

Flexible time modules (block, 8 period, 9 period, drop, etc.).

Automatic limit of no more classes than number of periods.

Special override to schedule more than the normal number of periods in a day.

Ability to balance gender.

Ability to balance special needs.

Ability to track class adds and date.

Ability to track class drops and date.

Ability to track level changes and date.

Ability to "lock" individual or multiple classes, students, etc.

Ability to balance multiple level courses during the same period.

Ability to request classes via an online interface.

Ability to accommodate summer school programs and registration.

Student Attendance System Interface

Real time attendance input/review capabilities.

Ability to open attendance module  separately from grade module or to mask grades visibility from attendance  (for privacy reasons)

The system should allow for user-defined grading. A teacher should be able to enter assignments within the gradebook and be able to weight them with the overall grade as necessary, as well as report them as such on a student's grade or progress report.

The ability to easily generate progress reports and informal report cards.

Linkage with grade reporting and assessments.

Linkage to the student information and records module.

Grading categories defined by the user (such as homework, tests, quizzes, projects, oral reports).

Weighted grades have the ability to be factored into the system.

Various levels of access and security (e.g. limiting substitute teacher access and enabling technical assistance access).

Ability to notify others of eligibility for athletics.

Linkage to the classroom assessment module.

Linkage to the district assessment module.

Linkage to the reporting and analysis system.

The ability to interface with third party gradebook software.

A grading program that accepts a variety of data (letter, percentage, scale values, rubrics).

The ability to write anecdotal comments.

Linkage to the health module.

Interface with Parent/Teacher Conference scheduling sub-systems.

Reports. Teachers often need various reports to track progress or status of individual students or the class as a whole. The reporting system (or specific report formats) should be fully accessible from the gradebook interface. For instance, a teacher may

Memo. A memo system should be integrated with the student database for tracking notes about a student. These should follow the student when viewed in any interface that supports the memos. For instance, the office could attach a memo on a student's record

Public Access. The public (parents, guardians, and students) should have web access to a subset of the information related to the gradebook interface. For instance, a student or parent should be able to ascertain current status on critical elements like a

Communications. The gradebook system should integrate with using district's email systems to support automated email (and/or other notifications) to/from parents.

Linkage to Curriculum and Assessment Management sub-systems.

Seating charts feature.

Link to student photos

Calendar Access (See specs above)

Teacher gradebook interface.

Report cards can be generated in variable pre-set and customized formats using differing scales (e.g. numeric, standards-based, etc.).

Ability to produce traditional as well as standards-based report cards.

Ability to write anecdotal comments.

Ability to define pre-set comments.

A web interface for students and parents.

Attendance system interface.

Linkage to student demographic data.

Linkage to Transcript module.

Ability to over-ride automatic updates and entries.

Ability to describe type of infraction.

Ability to describe remediation/intervention.

Ability to create memos or anecdotal comments.

Ability to scan & store documents.

Notification system that advises all concerned of critical events (e.g. start or end of an imposed intervention).

Upon infraction limit (including excessive absences), the system auto-generates and/or prompts parent/guardian information by e-mail, phone, fax, or letter.

Linkage to student information module.

Linkage to attendance module.

Ability to generate infraction reports by student, category and incident option.

Ability to track physical examination history

Vision & hearing data

Dental Exam data

Vaccination history

Special medical considerations (e.g. allergies, medical conditions, etc.)

Doctor name & contact information

Dentist name & contact information

Emergency medical contact information

Linkage to athletic eligibility system

Ability to synchronize with PDAs

Ability to document and report nurse's office visits

Ability to generate special reports

Manage trimester, semester and annual transcripts.

Define inclusion into Grade Point Averages by class and/or grade level.

Weight classes in GPA calculations by credit.

Vary transcript format by participating school and grade level.

Ability to make free-field course entries into transcripts to accommodate transfer credit.

Generate seventh semester high school transcripts for college applications based upon information from the College Application Management System.

The ability to customize transcripts for individual colleges.

The ability to pre-format transcripts for selected colleges.

Create & track graduation requirements.

Ability of separate district users to generate and activate detailed, flexible, and reusable reports in a "user friendly" manner.

Ability to disaggregate data on user selected fields like gender, SES, grade level, course level, etc.

Ability to create state and federal reports at the district and school level.

Allow a user to define the layout and content of reports and select queried data to populate it within strict bounds.

Ability to define user or function specific data fields and custom data view pages or screens.

Ability to define user or function specific data fields and custom input pages.

Ability to add static information in the layout as well as dynamic information pulled from the database.

The report generator should allow the user to develop and save report formats for repeated use.

Reporting features should be able to be directed to a printer, a Portable Document File, an Excel/CSV file, or a disk file (in a typical export form).

Capability to routinely and easily export and import user-defined data via CSV or spreadsheet formats to facilitate transmission of electronic data to state and federal agencies or other software packages.

Linked data "drill-down" capabilities.

A rich selection of pre-formatted reports (including state and federal reports).

A clearly defined process and pricing structure for obtaining vendor-developed custom reports.

The system should allow for routine (but secure) online access to information regarding the students' status (e.g. demographics, attendance, grades, schedules, school calendar events, etc.

The system should be able to schedule parent/teacher conferencing, taking into account such things as multiple children per parents (to maximize use of parents' time). 

The system should incorporate an email notification system that alerts parents regarding changes in student status and to forward student documents (e.g. progress reports, discipline reports, etc.) to households.

The system should be capable of interfacing with auto-dial telephone messaging systems for the purpose of broadcasting announcements and/or making student specific attendance/discipline calls.

The system should allow for routine email communication between parents and district staff (e.g. teachers, counselors, deans, etc.)

Custom student calendars linked to the student's schedule and activities.

The ability to track and record student fees and payment.

The ability to generate student invoices.

The ability to track student cafeteria fees

The ability to track library fines, overdues, and lost books.

The ability to track text book costs and fees.

Ability to interface or rapidly update district financial management systems.

Linkage to transcript system

Ability to provide seventh semester transcript requirements by student by application to the transcript system.  Ideal end result is the ability to generate a list of transcripts sorted by college then by student.

College/university data base.

Ability to create, track and verify college admission requirements.

Student qualification to college admission requirement matching capabilities.

Colleges applied to.

Colleges accepted to.

Application packet generation features.

General career exploration capabilities.

Recommendation letter management capabilities

Linkage to student grade & transcript modules.

Assessment data from multiple assessments can be maintained.

District-wide assessments (such as selected response, open-ended, performance tasks, rubrics) can be maintained.

Linkage to report and analysis module.

The ability to manage Illinois and local standards.

The ability to manage Illinois and local benchmarks.

The ability to manage Illinois and local performance indicators.

The ability to manage objectives.

The ability to manage units.

Lesson planning templates.

Linkage between curriculum and assessment modules.

Linkage to an editable test item bank or maintenance of a personal test items bank.

Tables of test specifications can be generated.

Linkage to curriculum modules with standards and benchmarks.

Storage of teacher generated assessments.

Linkage to the report and analysis module.

Student ability to take tests on-line and receive feedback.

Linkage to acceptable remediation software or systems

Online survey and reporting capabilities

Student portfolio management (including selected response assessments, audio files, video files, written and scanned work, pictures, etc.).

Date stamping.

A taxonomy of curriculum elements.

The ability to generate pre-formatted curriculum summary documents from existing data.

The ability to allow for multiple content areas in an interdisciplinary format.

Assessment instrument generation and printing.

Linkage to student information module.

Linkage to discipline module.

Linkage to attendance module.

Ability to create, modify and export tag field information to facilitate interface with state data systems

Individual IEPs generated.

Progress monitoring data management.

Alternate assessment data/results management.

Individual 504 plans generated.

Ability to track data fields and interface with state IEP systems.

Ability to automatically generate reports in required state and federal formats.

Ability to track testing accommodations

Ability to track age related service eligibilities across grades & districts

Ability to interface with student management system for rapid updates of student demographics.

Interface with financial aspects of student management system to account for library charges.

Interface with student photo & ID system.

The food services package should allow for tracking and maintenance of the various products needed to provide lunch to the districts' children among the various schools.

Ability to scan a student ID and charge for lunch.

Ability to discretely manage the multiple categories of subsidized lunch programs.

Ability to manage multiple categories of lunch purchasers (e.g. students, faculty, support staff, etc.)

Ability to manage accounts in cash, charge, and debit modes, or a combination thereof.

Ability to manage multiple points of sale per district.

Ability to allow fixed price and ala carte billing.

Ability to publish student account status and usage online for parental review.

The system should also allow for on-line payment for and pre-purchase of student lunches using appropriate secure payment methodologies.

Ability to generate invoices.

The system must be user friendly.

It must be easy to use.

It must be stable.

Must run on networks that use the TCP/IP protocol.

The application interface is based upon a web-based architecture.

All interfaces must be secure with SSL options.

Ability to back up system onsite and remotely.

* Must allow/accommodate external hosting of server environmentt

A platform independent client or user interface.

There must be capacity for expansion and growth.

It must be possible to easily and rapidly import/export data into industry accepted file formats (e.g. ASCII, CSV, Excel, etc.)

The application must support multiple methods of data input (e.g. file import, direct entry, web interface, barcode scans, mark sense forms, etc.)

It must be able to create reports in a variety of formats.

It must be able to easily create queries.

Well-documented help features

Software operates smoothly with minimal lag times.

It must have the ability to track changes to data fields by date, time and user.

Database access control based upon either school, userid, data field, or administratively defined groups (e.g. staff, faculty, student, parent, general community, etc.).

There must be a reasonable learning curve in learning how to operate it.

There must be accurate, easy translation of current data from our old system into the new system.

It must have the ability to provide parents with real-time data in terms of their student.

Proposal includes clearly defined training, maintenance and support procedures.