Napa County Office of Education/Napa Valley Unified School District/St. Helena Unified School District/Calistoga Unified School District*

R1

All school districts in Napa County provide NCOE with "read-only" access to their individual on- RECEIVED line student databases. JUL <b>1 9</b> 7011 Napa Superior Court

R2

NCOE provide "read-only" access to all school districts in Napa County to their on-line student databases. Response to R1 and R2: The recommendation will not be implemented because it is not warranted. The intent of the recommendations - sharing student records through an online database – is being implemented through the State's CALPADS initiative. The ability for an individual outside a district to view student information within another district Student Information System (SIS) would require an understanding of the peculiarities of each system, the custom data elements and definitions, assessment data, etc., which are not standard amongst districts. The State California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) initiative is intended to address these issues and as it develops will enable accurate and timely data transfer among districts. Napa County Local Education Agencies (LEAs) have a strong data- driven culture. The districts and NCOE were early adopters of the California School Information Services (CSIS) program and have been actively participating in the CALPADS initiative since its inception. Napa LEAs continuously strive to balance the interest in high quality, secure data systems with the increasing demands for accessibility, and are guided by the best practices identified through close relationships with the California Department of Education (CDE) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). We believe that CALPADS will give all Napa LEAs "read only" access to each others' student information. In terms of the specific recommendations – that Napa LEAs provide each other with "read only" access to their respective student databases, there are several reasons that make the State CALPADS initiative a better response than developing local read only access: Napa LEAs are already using CALPADS to access student records related to student • enrollment history and past English Language Learner designations. In the future the system will also allow access to student test scores, grades and transcripts. The district databases are electronic and stored within a server inside each district's • network. Outside access to this would require opening ports in the network firewall, thereby adding workload and security risks. The expansion of access to confidential student information to users outside a district • increases the risk of unintended consequences such as privacy violation, and possible violations of legal restrictions such as FERPA. Each district has a different version of the student database application, different custom • data elements and definitions within the application, and different systems and timelines for upgrades and patches. Synchronizing the various implementations would require identification and standardization of the components and features of the system. This would take time and cost resources to accomplish. When a student is transferred to an NCOE alternative school from a district, in addition to This response is jointly submitted by the Superintendent's of the Napa County Office of Education, the Napa Valley Unified School District, the St. Helena Unified School District, and the Calistoga Joint Unified School District on this 14^th day of July, 2011. Esmeralda Mondragon, Superintendent Bill McGuire, Superintendent St. Helena Unified School District Calistoga Joint Unified School District Patrick Sweeney, Superintendent Barbara Nemko, Superintendent Napa Valley Unified School District Napa County Office of Education