We've been adding a lot of new features to the MIS2000 web app and I'll be covering some of the other big ones in future blog entries, but today I'd like to talk about using the web in your COE verification and approval processs. Most states use the MIS2000 tablet system and almost all of them use the approval process. Until recently, the entire approval COE process had to be carried out in the old desktop application. Most verifiers just review the data on the COE and then either reject it or send it on up the chain with remarks. There's really no editing involved, so for many of them, having a full desktop install of MIS2000 is way more than they need.

Last year Alabama became the first MIS2000 state to introduce a fully automated way to set the migrant flag in their state student data system using MIS2000. It has been working smoothly in production for nearly a year now and we're starting to use this same approach in other states to allow MIS2000 to integrate more tightly with other state systems. For Alabama, we basically just hammered out a Snap Report that could be run at any time to produce a list of currently eligible migrant students that the state was interested in. Then we turned that into a web service. See my earlier blog post about how Maine is using Snap Reports as web services. From there we gave their IT folks a way to access the web service.

We've been working rather quietly (but frantically) to bring Arizona up on MIS2000 over the past couple of months, and I think we're finally far enough along to announce it. Everyone involved with the AZ MEP, but especially Mary, Patrick, and Laura, and have been remarkably patient and tireless in working out the myriad issues that have to be sorted to bring up a new system.

I did a blog entry just last May COE Rejection Email Notifications about a new feature that would let Recruiters know when they have COEs that have been rejected. It didn't take long to get requests for emails about other COE statuses. So I went back and took another run at this feature. Now all users can get emails when they have COEs in their work queue. As I mentioned in the previous post, the process runs overnight by default, so users will only get one email each morning. But we can make it run throughout the day as well if that's desirable.

So we're counting down the last few days before the ESSA COEs go live. We've put new releases in every state that should automatically support the conversion to the new ESSA COEs on July 1. Everyone should find all the new fields in place and the new wording in the "Qualifying Moves & Work Section", but you may not find all the wording across the entire COE completely consistent with the ESSA National COE. The reason for this is that almost no state was consistent with the old NCLB National COE across all the labeling and wording, and this was in general by design. So when you get a look at the new ESSA COE on your system, if it's not exactly what you're expecting, just let us know and we'll make whatever tweaks are necessary to bring it into line with your expectations.

Jay made it back home last night. He's had a couple surgeries but is in good spirits and on the mend. He'll definitely be out another day or so, but he's talking big about trying to get some work done on Friday. We'll see. I think it will be weeks or months before he's typing normally again. He plans on getting pretty cozy with Siri and Cortana in the meantime.

Our friend and colleague Jay took a tumble on his motorcycle yesterday and banged up his hand and his ankle pretty badly. He's going to be fine but it's going to take a while before he'll be back to his job duties. I ask that everyone be a little extra patient over the next few weeks as we help him get back on his feet and productive. He's pretty out of it right now, but I'm sure the boredom of being stuck in bed will settle in by Tuesday morning and he'll be checking his email. If you want to wish him well, that would probably be the best way to go. I'll post updates in this blog.

If you aren't already familiar with the Resources part of MIS2000, you should take a look at Jay's post for a general overview. Tennessee uses their resources to share a variety of reports and spreadsheets with LEAs around the state.

We've added in support for sending out emails whenever a COE going through the verification process gets rejected. This will be going out to all states in their next release of the system. The way it works is that whenever a COE gets rejected, and then the rejecting user does their next upload to the server, if the COE hasn't yet been reworked by that evening, the user to whom it has been rejected will be sent an email during the nightly processing letting them know there's one to be worked. By default the process just runs once during the evening, but we can set it up to run as often you'd like throughout the day to give people a quicker notification.

If you're like us, you enjoy getting to put a face to a voice on the phone or words of an email. So here's everyone's chance. Jeff, Natasha, and I will all be working the booth at the NASDME conference next week in Orlando. Come by and say hi to us, stranded out there in the vendor space. We'll show you some of the latest things we've been working on, but we'll also be happy just to see everyone.