This blog is intended to share an upcoming change to EOE calculations when QAD has been used as the basis of EOE.  EOE is generally calculated as QAD + 3 years or when a student turns 22, whichever comes first.  Some states have chosed to have MIS2000 automatically calculate EOE for enrollments and this functionality has been in place and unchanged for quite a few years now.  Recently, it was brought to our attention that the QAD + 3 year calculation was off by 1 day.   If the QAD is being used to determine EOE, then the EOE date should be 1 less than 3 years.  For example, given a QAD of 9/1/2016, the EOE would be 8/31/2019.   The calculation logic has been updated to fix this issue and that will begin rolling out with subsequent releases.    We feel like this is a good change and so we are rolling it out to all of our states.  If you would prefer not to receive this minor change, please contact us and we will revert that cha ...

We've blogged here about the Resources page in the MIS2000 web before but we've made some tweaks to it recently to make it a bit easy to use. The main use of the page is to serve as a secure area to exchange files with the schools and LEAs. It's particularly useful for files that aren't related to a specific Student or COE so you wouldn't want to attach them directly. Each folder can be restricted to individual users or groups of users and they can also be given upload capabilities or restricted to just download.

MIS2000 provides a lot of ways for our users to get at their data and as of today, you can add one more option to that tool box.  With your next release, you will have the ability to export data to a csv file directly from a data grid !   This will primarily be useful within the context of the code table editor, where you may want to export your facilities or supplemental programs, or data from any of the other code tables displayed in the editor.   To access this new feature, simply right-click on a data grid and choose "Export to CSV...".   Once you choose a location and file name, your data will be saved and you'll be able to work with that csv file in Excel or whatever your favorite editor may be.  Enjoy !

Awhile back, we added a search option to the Draft COE view that gave users the ability to easily see COEs that are in the approval queue but not yet fully approved.   This was a great way for users to get a feel for the state of things and to also spot COEs that, for one reason or another, might not be advancing.   Today, we have extended that functionality to the Main COE view with a new "Incomplete COEs" search option.   Like it's companion in the Draft COE view, it will give users a good view of the overall state of incomplete COEs which have either not been yet submitted for review or have been rejected back to the originator. Like the other search options, each line in the search results is clickable so that you can view a selected COE in detail.   This feature will start going out in new releases as of 11/30.   Check it out and let us know how it works for you !

Occasionally, we hear from customers who want to know how to identify COEs which have recently been approved.  There are several options that can be used to do this and we have developed a few customized reports to meet specific needs, but there is one approach that everyone has which couldn't be easier to use.   I'm referring to the Recently Approved tab on the COE search dialog on the COE view.  There is a single search criteria on this tab, the date from which you'd like to see COEs that have been approved.   Once you've chosen a date and executed the search, you'll see a list of COEs that have been approved on or after that date along with a bit of information about the COE such as recruiter, approver, approval date, etc.  Each line in the search results is clickable so that you can view the COE in detail.  Give it a try and see how it works for you ! 

Our customers who work with the approval of electronic COEs have been familiar with the Draft COE view for some time.  This is the view where all COEs that have been submitted for approval are viewed and processed up until the time that they become fully approved.    Prior to now, users could scroll through all COEs which have a draft status, but outside of creating a report, there was no way to view all draft COEs at a glance.  The COE Search functionality on the Draft COE View now has a Draft COEs search capability.  This will show all the COEs in the system that have been submitted for approval along with their current owner, recruiter, and status.  This new functionality will go out with the next you receive so be looking for it !   

Over the last few years, especially as more and more states have been taking advantage of the tablet system to collect electronic COEs, we have updated the COE Eligibility panels for several states to be much more in line with the National COE’s Qualifying Move & Work section.    The updated panel follows the numbering and wording on the paper COE and that even extends to the text in many of the drop down controls.   Even though this change has been primarily requested by states using the tablet system, it is a nice enhancement that might be appreciated by many MIS2000 users.    Below is a screen shot of the Kentucky COE Eligibility panel which was recently updated.   Please let us know if you’d like to consider making a similar update to your Eligibility panel and we’ll work through the details and make it happen.

Over the last couple of years, a few of our states have expressed interest in pre-screening families for eligibility before actually filling out a COE.   For these states, pre-screening families seemed useful when they were completing paper COEs and they wanted to move that pre-screening process into MIS2000 to work hand in hand with their electronic COEs.  In honor of the first state who requested this functionality (KY), we refer to this pre-screening data as the BIP (Basic Interview Pattern for Determining Eligibility).  Basically, the BIP is a short set of questions that can be used to help determine if a family is eligible for the Migrant Education Program.  The set of questions in the BIP is completely customizable to fit your needs and depending on the implementation, we can even create and transfer BIP data into a new COE if it is determined that the family is likely eligible! 

One of the reasons that we started the MS/EdD blog was to be able to share information about enhancements and features of MIS2000 with our users which they might not otherwise know are available.    For this blog entry, I’d like to talk about COE Snapshots.   COE snapshots are a relatively new enhancement to MIS2000 which can be enabled for states using electronic COEs.   A COE snapshot is a snapshot of a COE, in the form of a pdf,  which is taken at the time that a COE becomes approved.   This snapshot is permanently stored with the COE and will always reflect the state of the COE at the time of approval, even if some of that data is altered at a future point time.  These snapshots can be displayed from within MIS2000 and can be printed or saved if desired.