Section Summary:

A. Determining the Agency's Student Data Needs and Uses

• Data collectors must justify the need for every item of information that in an individual education record.
• Maintaining data efficiently allows data to be used for multiple purposes. However, you must justify all uses under existing policies inform data providers of these uses.

• You should consult state and local laws, policies of school boards, and professional ethics in deciding what information to collect and maintain about students.
• Data providers should be informed about why the information is collected and if providing such information is mandatory.
• Data collectors should demonstrate that the data produced will be of sufficient value, applicability, and usefulness to justify the cost and burden of collecting them.

• Written policies help you to classify the data into directory information, transcript information, or supplemental information, and to determine how you should maintain and release each piece of information.

• When you choose data elements and the procedures to collect them, you should consider the quality of the data.

• You can derive unique identification codes by a variety of methods (e.g., assigning sequential numbers or adopting algorithms to generate codes using selected characteristics).
• Many agencies and schools use social security numbers as the identification codes. School may ask for social security numbers but cannot require them.
• Using social security numbers may be helpful to agencies or schools in maintaining appropriate and accurate information about the students. However, school officials must protect the numbers from illegal access and unauthorized release.

• In addition to federal and state requirements, agencies or schools should establish policies to determine the length of time each type of data is maintained and how data will be expunged or replaced.

 
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