Laws & Guidance ELEMENTARY & SECONDARY EDUCATION
Key Policy Letters Signed by the Education Secretary or Deputy Secretary
February 28, 2007
Archived Information


February 28, 2007

Dear Chief State School Officer:

The U. S. Department of Education (ED) has now published final regulations formalizing the Annual Mandatory Collection of Elementary and Secondary Education Data for EDFacts, a copy of which is attached. These regulations establish the EDFacts/EDEN systems as ED's primary method of data collection from K-12 State education agencies, starting with data on the 2006-2007 school year.

We recognize that while many States will be able to provide complete electronic data in a timely way starting this year, others will not. For this reason the new regulations permit States to propose a transition plan that details the process each will use to submit timely annual data starting with the 2006-2007 school year. The first step in developing this plan is to ensure that you have already submitted a 2006-2007 EDFacts data submission plan to the Department. About half of the States have already filed a preliminary version of this plan with ED. The plans will need to show the timeline you will use to enable timely reporting of all annual data through the EDFacts systems by the 2008-2009 data submission cycle, which will open in January 2009. Representatives from our EDFacts staff will be present at the National Center for Education Statistics MIS Conference in Atlanta and will be available to work with your staff to finalize the 2006-07 submission plans.

In recent years ED has provided significant help to States in the ongoing work to improve data use and reporting capabilities. In the coming months, we will continue to work with the Council of Chief State School Officers and its Education Information Management Advisory Consortium to engage with States as they continue to improve their internal systems, data quality, and data usage. Subject to continued appropriations, the Department will make additional State Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) grants, which have totaled over $50 million to date. To address and resolve short-term and long-term State data reporting issues, please contact our EDFacts Partner Support Center (877-457-3336).

I want to thank you, in advance, for your leadership in guiding your state data coordinators and program managers to implement these regulations, and for your continuing efforts as we move to a new level in providing management information for better educational outcomes.

  Sincerely,
 
/s/
  Raymond Simon

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Last Modified: 03/09/2007