Maine DOE Data Management Systems Summer Training

The Maine Department of Education Data Team is holding their annual summer training during the first two weeks of August. The focus of the training this year will be on tips and resources to assist districts with their data reporting and viewing/certifying their reports. The sessions will be focused on sharing resources to assist districts with the data tasks required.

Training Dates and Locations

August 6, Caribou High School, 308 Sweden St Caribou, ME 04736

August 7, Brewer High School, 79 Parkway south Brewer, ME 04412

August 8, Ellsworth Elementary/Middle School, 20 Forrest Avenue Ellsworth, ME 04605

August 12, Cony High School, 60 Pierce Drive Augusta, ME 04330

August 13, Mt. Blue High School, 129 Seamon Rd Farmington, ME 04938

August 14, Mt. Ararat Middle School, 66 Republic Avenue Topsham, ME 04086

August 15, Buxton Center Elementary School, 912 Long Plains Road Buxton, ME 04093

All sessions will begin with registration at 8:30, with presentations beginning at 9. We will serve a light lunch and will finish no later than 4:00. Coffee and water will also be provided throughout the day.

Agenda for each session:

The following is the daily agenda for this year’s summer data trainings Please note that these times are tentative and are subject to change. Thank you.

8:30 – 9:00 – Check-in, Meet & Greet, Welcome
9:00 – 9:30 – Why Data Matters – Charlotte Ellis and Paula Gravelle
9:30 – 9:45 – A.C.T. & Data Security – Ryan Cunningham
9: 45 – 10:15 – Web Page, Helpful Resources & What’s New for 2020 – Ryan Cunningham
10:15 – 10:30 – DC&R and Maine Schools/Approvals – Kathy Warren
10:30 – 10:45 – Break
10: 45 – 11:30 – NEO Staff Module & MEIS – Drew Mitchell
11: 30 – 12:45 – Synergy – Michael Mikrut
12:45 – 1:30 – Lunch
1:30 – 2:30 – Graduation/Student Reports– Trevor Burns
2:30 – 3:00 – Behavior/Bullying/RAS – Sarah Adkins
3:00 – 3:30 – Truancy – Gayle Erdheim
3:30 – 4:00 – Closing – Questions, Comments and Concerns

To register for the training, please visit Summer 2019 Training Registration.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding these training sessions, please contact Ryan Cunningham Maine DOE Data Systems Helpdesk Manager at (207) 624-6809 or Ryan.L.Cunningham@maine.gov.

Updated Maine DOE Home Instruction Portal Release

In March of this year, the Department of Education (DOE) released the online Home Instruction Portal. Since then, home instruction parents all over the state have begun to utilize the new portal, and have reported that the new process is less burdensome than the former paper-only process, which required double-reporting and greater expense and time due to mailing and requesting proof of receipt.

Many have also provided valuable feedback about what was confusing, or concerning, from a parent perspective. As a result, the DOE revisited the online forms to make some technical improvements, and has released an updated Home Instruction Portal as of July 9, 2019. If you submitted your Notice for 2019-2020 prior to this date, please be assured that it is still properly filed, and there is no need to repeat the submission.

If you have not yet filed your Notice, please check out the updated online portal. Other ways to file include submitting the revised Notice of Intent to Provide Home Instruction, or other form or letter, to either the Superintendent of Schools in the public school administrative unit where you reside, or to the DOE. You no longer need to file paperwork in both places. You may provide Notice in a different format, provided it contains all required information:

Applicable School Year
Parent/Guardian Full Name
Physical Address, City, Zip Code; and Mailing Address (if different)
Child’s Full Name
Child’s Date of Birth
Indicate First or Subsequent Year of Home Instruction
Date Home Instruction Will Begin (if First Year)
Assurance (if First Year): FIRST YEAR HOME INSTRUCTION PARENT ASSURANCE : The home instruction program will provide at least 175 days annually of instruction and will provide instruction in the following subject areas: English and language arts, math, science, social studies, physical education, health education, library skills, fine arts and, in at least one grade from grade 6 to 12, Maine studies. At one grade level from grade 7 to 12, the student will demonstrate proficiency in the use of computers. The home instruction program will include an annual assessment of the student’s academic progress that includes at least one of the forms of assessment described in 20-A M.R.S. § 5001-A (3)(A)(4)(b).
Prior Year Assessment (if Subsequent Year)
Statement of Intent to Continue Providing Home Instruction (if Subsequent Year): SUBSEQUENT YEAR HOME INSTRUCTION PARENT STATEMENT: I intend to continue providing home instruction and enclose the prior year annual assessment of the student’s academic progress as outlined in 20-A M.R.S. 5001-A(3)(A)(4)(b).
Signature
Date of Signature
A valid email address if parent would like an acknowledgment

As a reminder, the updated process will allow parents to provide first/subsequent year notice “simultaneously to the school officials of the administrative unit in which the student resides and to the commissioner” in one of three ways:

Enter information once annually directly on the new Home Instruction Portal, uploading any required prior year assessment information;
Complete the form or letter on paper once annually and take it, with any required prior year assessments, to the resident superintendent’s office; or
Complete the paper form or other form/letter once annually and mail it with any required prior year assessments to the Department of Education or to the Superintendent’s Office.

Submission using any of the methods described will result in the automatic generation of an acknowledgment to the parent/guardian via email, provided a valid email address is provided.

More information is available at https://www.maine.gov/doe/schools/schoolops/homeinstruction.

Please direct any questions or concerns to Pamela Ford-Taylor at pamela.ford-taylor@maine.gov or 207-624-6617.

Public Preschool Annual Report Due July 31, 2019

We are grateful to our school districts who are addressing the need for public preschool programming in their communities, and we are committed to fostering partnerships and increasing early intervention and educational opportunities for our youngest learners. As you are likely aware, all public preschool programs are required to complete the Public Preschool Annual Report. We have shortened the report for ease of use, and the Department of Education will refer to the data collected throughout the year to help inform policy, determine professional development needs, and provide follow up information or support.

The Public Preschool Annual report is now available and is due to the Department no later than close of business on July 31, 2019.

Before you start the survey, it will be useful to have the following information readily available:

Information related to staff turnover
Program operation:
- Number of hours per day
- Number of days per week
- Any major changes to the program, including, but not limited to:
  - partners
  - curriculum
  - location
- Successes/challenges experienced over the course of the year
- Student attendance-
  - number economically disadvantaged
  - number chronic absenteeism
  - transient students
- Students identified for additional support:
  - English Learners- screening process
  - Individualized Education Plan (IEP) information including but not limited to:
    - referrals
    - IDEA eligibility identification
    - no longer qualify
  - Student growth in all learning domains

For further information or questions, please contact Nicole Madore at Nicole.madore@maine.gov or 624-6677.

MaineCare Seed Adjustments to be Made, Review Q3’19 Reports by July 8, 2019

The recovery of Q3’19 MaineCare Seed will occur in the July 2019 subsidy payment, and the Maine Department of Education is asking SAUs to review their reports by July 8, 2019 to ensure accurate adjustments to subsidy. SAU staff must review student by student claims on both the public and private MaineCare reports for Q3’19 by July 8, 2019.

To access the MaineCare Seed reports, please follow the instructions below.

Log into NEO using the link, https://neo.maine.gov/DOE/neo/Dashboard Anyone who currently has Special Education Director permissions to the Special Education module will automatically have permissions to access MaineCare reports. For security purposes, if a new staff member needs permission to access this module, a request from the Superintendent to the Maine DOE helpdesk will be necessary. The helpdesk contact information is medms.helpdesk@maine.gov or 207-624-6896.

Click on the Student Data tab
Click on the Student Report tab
Select MaineCare in the Reporting Area drop-down
Choose the quarterly Seed report and the report type (private/public)
Click view report button
Once the report appears on the screen, choose the export button.
Export Button

You may export the reports to Excel, but please be aware that there may be multiple worksheet tabs within the workbook. Save the file to your computer.

If you disagree that a particular student or time period should be on the report, please provide the reason that you disagree along with the following to Denise.towers@maine.gov.

Identify the type of report (public or private) and the quarter in which the claims are located
State Student ID
Service provided dates (From and To)
Total amount of Seed being disputed

Summer services: Students must be enrolled for the time period they are receiving educational services. This means that students that are receiving extended school year services in district, or extended school year services in an out of district placement, must have a primary enrollment for that time period in order for the MDOE to have the most accurate enrollment data, to determine SAU responsibility for MaineCare Seed.

For more information or technical assistance related to MaineCare Seed, please contact Denise.towers@maine.gov.

Quarter 4 Attendance and Chronic Absenteeism Webinar

The final quarter of attendance reporting for school year 2018-2019 is coming soon. Quarter 4 attendance (end of year attendance certification) will finalize data for federal reporting of Chronic Absenteeism data to EDFacts, and for the calculation and reporting of the ESSA non-academic indicator of Chronic Absenteeism. This information is required to be made available to the public on the ESSA dashboards for each school. It is important for each school and district to verify that the attendance data is accurate and complete, prior to submitting by June 30^th. Once we pass into July, the school year will then roll over into the 2019-2020 school year. This will finalize all the information from the 2018-2019 school year, and no changes to the attendance or chronic absenteeism data for the 2018-2019 school year will be possible.

Open Date: June 1^st, 2019

Due Date: June 30^th, 2019

On June 5^th, the Maine DOE Data Team will be holding a webinar for Quarter 4 attendance reporting. This would be beneficial for data compliance staff and district leaders. The purpose of this webinar is to provide the following:

a refresher on how to complete the Quarter 4 Attendance reporting
a brief overview of how this data is used for DOE reporting
why the timeliness, accuracy, and completeness of this data matters to your district & community.

Webinar Registration:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3377460425957327627

More Information On Attendance Reporting:
https://www.maine.gov/doe/data-reporting/collection/helpdesk/resources/attendance

For assistance accessing attendance reporting, please contact the MEDMS Helpdesk at 207-624-6896

For questions regarding attendance certification or chronic absenteeism, please contact Student Data Coordinator Trevor Burns at 207-624-6678

PRIORITY NOTICE: Seeking Public Comment for a Tydings Amendment Waiver

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) is seeking 30 days of public comment from May 22 – June 20, 2019, on a Tydings amendment waiver application (waiver from §421(b) of the General Provisions Act) to the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE). The Tydings amendment waiver seeks an extension to the availability of Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) §1003(a) funds awarded during Federal fiscal year (FY) 2017.

Maine DOE Leadership participated in a call with USDOE program staff on Friday, May 10, 2019. During this call, the USDOE outlined next steps regarding Maine’s submission of an amendment to the Maine ESSA State Plan. The Maine DOE is working to provide the necessary information as expeditiously as possible. During this time of pause, the Maine DOE is unable to utilize 1003(a) funds. USDOE approval of the Tydings amendment waiver would allow the Maine DOE to make available 1003(a) funds to Maine schools identified for tiered supports, once the pause is lifted.

The U.S. Department of Education requires state educational agencies, when seeking waivers from statutory or regulatory requirements, solicit public comment on the application, respond to public comments, and provide evidence of the available comment period. The Maine Department is requesting the period of availability for $2,578,500.00 of 1003(a) funds be extended from September 30, 2019 to September 30, 2020.

A copy of the letter seeking waiver from §421(b) of the General Provisions Act can be downloaded with key elements of the request included below.

Federal program affected by the requested waiver

Maine’s Model of Support for eligible Tier III (Comprehensive Supports and Intervention or CSI) and Tier I (Additional Targeted Supports and Intervention or ATSI) support under section 1003(a) of ESEA, as amended by the ESSA of 2015, is immediately impacted by the Department’s waiver request. This request is seeking to extend the availability of $2,578,500.00 to support eligible Maine schools. The funding will assist schools in engaging in whole-school reform by meeting school and student needs.

Impact to Student Achievement

Waiving §421(b) of the General Provisions Act (Tydings waiver) will directly impact student achievement by allowing the Maine Department of Education to provide increased support for school and classroom leaders during the 2019-2020 school year. Maine is committed to providing a differentiated method of support to struggling schools. Maine’s Model of Support includes coaching and mentoring for school leaders, evidence-based professional learning for educators, and content-specific instructional coaching in classrooms. This process requires all eligible Tier III schools to annually partner with educators, families, and community members to complete a comprehensive needs assessment (CNA). During this process each school team analyzes local academic and non-academic data, identifies promising practices and concerning trends, determines root cause,and creates meaningful goals and a plan for continuous improvement.

Monitoring

The Department will continue to work with schools eligible to receive Tier III (CSI) and Tier I (ATSI) support to ensure funds are utilized in a manner that is reasonable, necessary and allowable under the ESEA, as amended by the ESSA of 2015. The Maine Department of Education will continue to ensure proposed uses of funds align with the school’s completed CNA. Schools eligible to receive Tier III (CSI) supports will continue to document all school improvement related work within DirigoStar (Indistar), the Department’s online project management tool. Each school is also supported and monitored by an assigned school leadership coach. Maine DOE leadership and instructional coaches visit each Tier III eligible school several times throughout the school year.

Continuity of Services to Students

Schools will continue to utilize their completed CNAs to direct and implement the work without negative impact to specific student populations. The extension to the period of availability of funds will ensure schools will have an increased opportunity to access funds to further target supports and meet the needs and goals of the schools, students, and educators as determined in the CNA. Schools will continue to share and engage with communities and families in ways they have found beneficial, and which meet the needs of schools and their communities.

Comments may be submitted to: ESSA.DOE@maine.gov

End of School Year 18’-19’Checklist for Completing Reports

The following checklist is designed to assist districts with publicly funded students in completing required end of year reports. The dates listed after each report are when the report is open for entry and due for certification, if required.

Synergy: The following items are available in the Synergy Student Information System. Please visit the Synergy Instructions Helpdesk Page for Synergy codes to be used for the items below.

Update Attendance – All students with an enrollment must have attendance entered.

Update Truancy – All students who have met the threshold for truancy must have a truancy incident entered.

Special Education – exit any students who have left special education: Special Education will not need to be ended unless the student is exiting the special education program. Special Education services will need to be uploaded each year.

Update Behavior – Note: all enrollments exited with an expulsion must have an expulsion incident in the Behavior module.

Update/End ALL Enrollments (done last):

DOE will NOT be automatically ending enrollments
Concurrent enrollment MUST be ended before the primary enrollment can be ended
All students will need to be exited on their actual last day of school. This may be verified using “Attending Student Report”
June 30 should not be automatically populated for the last day of school.
Future exit dates that are more than 7 days out are not permitted in the system.
Ending a student’s enrollment will end Economic Status and Truancy – to avoid this, update Truancy records prior to ending enrollments
Ending enrollments will prevent you from manually updating Attendance Data. Once an enrollment has been ended, attendance data can only be modified by uploading the data.
New enrollments will need to be uploaded/entered as well as special education information each school year.

Annual End of Year Reports and Certifications:

The following items are Annual Reports for the 2018/2019 school year. Instructions for these reports can be found here:

https://www.maine.gov/doe/data-reporting/collection/helpdesk/resources/data-reporting-instructions

The report listed below is linked directly to its corresponding certification report in NEO

Graduation Phase I : April 1 – May 15

Graduation Phase 1 Instructions

Maine Schools and School Approval – Verified and certified by Superintendent by May 3 – June 14th

Instructions for Maine Schools

Accountability– Verified and certified by Superintendent. May 13 – June 21

Accountability Report Instructions

Attendance – Verified and certified by Superintendent. June 4 – June 29

Attendance Reporting Instructions

Behavior – Verified and certified by Superintendent. June 4 – June 29

Behavior Reporting Instructions

Special Education Exit Report – Verified and certified by Special Ed Director or Superintendent. June 3 – June 30.

Special Education Exit Reporting Instructions

Truancy – Verified and certified by Superintendent. June 4 – June 29

Truancy Reporting Instructions

Bullying reporting – Verified and certified by Superintendent. June 15 -June 29.

Bullying Reporting Instructions

Report of Adult Education for Subsidy Purposes– June 1-July 15.

EF-M-39 Report of Adult Education Instructions

School Health Annual Report. May 25 – July 31.

School Health Annual Report Instructions

Restraint and Seclusion Report – Verified and certified by Superintendent. June 15 – August 1.

Restraint and Seclusion Reporting Instructions

Graduation Phase II: July 1 – August 30

Graduation Phase II Instructions

Q4 Actual Balance Sheet July 1 – August 23

Actual Balance Sheet Instructions

Q4 Actual Expenditure July 1 – August 23

Actual Expenditure Instructions

Q4 Actual Revenue July 1 – August 23

Actual Revenue Instructions

Q1 Budget Expenditure – Due by 8/2/2019 or 30 days after the budget passes, whichever is later

Budget Expenditure Instructions

Q1 Budget Revenue (coming soon) – Due by 8/2/2019 or 30 days after the budget passes, whichever is later.

Budget Revenue Instructions

Contacts and Questions: If you have questions about these reports, (i.e. what should be entered) please contact the specialist listed below:

Attendance: Trevor Burns 624-6678 Trevor.R.Burns@Maine.gov

Maine Schools: Katherine Warren 624-6716 Katherine.Warren@Maine.gov

Special Education: Brandi Giguere 624-6648 Brandi.A.Giguere@Maine.gov

Financial Reports: Tyler Backus 624-6635 Tyler.Backus@Maine.gov

Truancy: Gayle Erdheim 624-6637 Gayle.Erdheim@Maine.gov

School Approvals: Pam Ford-Taylor 624-6617 Pamela.Ford-Taylor@Maine.gov

Behavior/Bullying/Restraint and Seclusion: Sarah Adkins 624-6685 Sarah.Adkins@Maine.gov

Accountability: Katherine Warren 624-6855 Katherine.Warren@Maine.gov

School Nurse Report: Emily Poland 624-6688 Emily.Poland@Maine.gov

If you have questions about accessing the reports, please call or email the helpdesk, 624-6896 or MEDMS.helpdesk@maine.gov

If you do not have credentials for Synergy or NEO, the district superintendent may grant access using the appropriate webform on the Helpdesk Page:

Synergy Access Request

NEO Access Request

Maine DOE Data Management Systems Summer Training

The Maine Department of Education Data Team is holding their annual summer training during the first two weeks of August. The focus of the training this year will be on tips and resources to assist districts with their data reporting, and viewing/certifying their reports. The sessions will be focused on sharing resources to assist districts with the data tasks required.

Training Dates and Locations

August 6, Caribou High School, 308 Sweden St Caribou, ME 04736

August 7, Brewer High School, 79 Parkway south Brewer, ME 04412

August 8, Ellsworth Elementary/Middle School, 20 Forrest Avenue Ellsworth, ME 04605

August 12, Cony High School, 60 Pierce Drive Augusta, ME 04330

August 13, Mt. Blue High School, 129 Seamon Rd Farmington, ME 04938

August 14, Mt. Ararat Middle School, 66 Republic Avenue Topsham, ME 04086

August 15, Buxton Center Elementary School, 912 Long Plains Road Buxton, ME 04093

Topics for each session:

How student and staff data is used for EPS and Accountability
What’s new for 2019-2020
Accurate, Complete and Timely Data Submissions
Data Security
Our Website and Where to find helpful resources
Data Collection and Reporting Calendar
Maine Schools and School Approval changes
NEO Staff – Entering Staff information
MEIS – Maine Educator Information System
Synergy – Manual and Uploads
Graduation (NEO) requirements and reporting
Student Reports (NEO) – where to find them and how to utilize them
Behavior, Truancy and Attendance (NEO) – importance of these reports and important resources

To register for the training, please visit Summer 2019 Training Registration.

If you have any questions, comments. or concerns regardin these training sessions, please contact Ryan Cunningham Maine DOE Data Systems Helpdesk Manager at (207) 624-6809 or Ryan.L.Cunningham@maine.gov.

Accountability Certification Validation Due Date and Details

The Accountability Assessment Detail Report is currently available in NEO to allow districts to validate the detail student enrollment and demographic data that will provide the foundation for future Assessment and Accountability reporting for the 18-19 school year. The report lists student details which will be used to produce student groups for school support determinations and ESEA Dashboards. The report also identifies which assessments the students should have taken, full academic year enrollment for all students, and whether or not a student will be included for accountability measures or only for assessment reporting.

The Accountability Certification will need to be validated by each school/district and certified and submitted by each Superintendent by June 14, 2019.

Once validated, the data will be used for ESEA Data Dashboards and other assessment and accountability reporting on the 18-19 academic year. The due date is important, as the Department cannot release assessment data in the Maine Assessment and Accountability Reporting System (MAARS) until these student demographic data are certified to be matched up with the assessment results.

The Data Team will be hosting a May 29^th 1:00 PM webinar about the Accountability Report. Please use the following link, here, to register for the webinar https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7759757532334082317

COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS

If something is not right, who do we contact?

Please first validate that the information is correct in Synergy. If the data is correct in Synergy, or if it is not located in Synergy, please report your question to the Helpdesk – MEDMS.Helpdesk@maine.gov 207-624-6896.

ASSESSMENTS – What were the asterisks vs the blanks for on the Student Detail?

Asterisks indicate the assessment(s) that the student should have taken. A blank indicates that the student did not need to take any of the assessments.

TITLE 1 – Can you explain the Title 1 information?

Title 1 numbers have two sources:

If the school has a Schoolwide Title 1 program, then all of the students are flagged with Title1 ELA and Title1 Math.

If the school does not have a school wide Title 1 program, but rather a targeted assistance program, then the flags come from data entered into Synergy.

What is a school wide program?

School wide program is a type of Title 1 program. For further information, please contact Jackie Godbout at Jackie.Godbout@maine.gov or 624-6712.

SPPS – Are Special Purpose Private Schools responsible for entering and checking this data for their students or is this a requirement for the public schools only?

SPPS should review the data (if the report has been fixed so you can see it) to validate that student grade levels and enrollments are entered correctly.

Full Academic Year – We have a student that was enrolled the entire year, but is showing N in both District and School Full Year columns.

Students are considered to be school full year if they are enrolled on October 1 and May 3 at the same school.

Students are considered to be district full year if the same district is responsible for the student on October 1 and May 3.

October EPS enrollment data is utilized to determine the October 1 status, if enrollments were entered after October EPS was closed (even if they cover the October 1 date), then the student isn’t counted as Full Academic Year.

AOS – Our schools are each their own district because we are an AOS. I have some kids who are marked N for full year district and a Y for full year school?

Please review the enrollment data in Synergy. It is possible for a student to attend one of your schools for the full year, but whose resident district has changed, so the district full academic year would not be Y, but the school full academic year would be Y

EL Assessment – What does the E mean in the ELA Assessment column?

The “E” indicates Exempt.

EL students who arrived at a US school between April 1, 2018 and March 1, 2019 and who took the ACCESS for ELLs assessment are exempt from having to take the ELA assessment

EL students who arrive at a US school, or have an EL start date, between March 1, 2019 and May 3, 2019 are exempt from having to take the ELA assessment

WAIVERS – We have students with “waivers” who shouldn’t be on the list

The only “waivers” that the Department recognizes are

the EL exemption
special considerations – these students will have an S in the column for the assessment(s) for which the special consideration was granted

Students whose parents requested that the student not test will be counted as Non-Participants – there is no waiver for these students.

PRIORITY NOTICE: 2019-2020 NEO Maine Schools and Public School Approval Scheduled to Open May 3

It is that time of year again for each school administrative unit (SAU) to submit annual school reports, including the annual approval report for the unit, certifying progress on the Comprehensive Education Plan. This is in accordance with 20-A M.R.S. Chapter 206 and Maine Department of Education (DOE) Rule Chapter 125, which requires information to maintain continued approval status for the (SAU) and all schools within it.

Public SAUs and schools complete the annual public school approval process in the NEO information system, verifying required information in the NEO Maine Schools and Public School Approval module.

NEO Maine Schools and Public School Approval Module: FY2020 Changes

Last year, NEO Maine Schools and Public School Approval were integrated into a one-step process, thereby allowing submission of both organizational information and school approval checklist items in one sitting. While this new efficiency was generally well-received, the Department learned that the new process presented some challenges in implementation, particularly for some types of public units that require differentiated formats of school approval. As a result, further improvements to the NEO system have been implemented as outlined below.

NEO Public School Approval now delivers targeted school approval certification statements based on school administrative unit type, and has been revised to be more categorical in nature. This means that Superintendents will be responding to fewer questions, and only the questions that apply to the appropriate type of school.
In an effort to reduce unnecessary text and make the school approval form more user-friendly, the Department has omitted non-critical citations from certification statements, instead providing a link to a public school approval requirements list with associated citations.
The Department had several requests to “re-open” the NEO Public School Approval form to update specific items. While this is not part of the update process, NEO now allows communication between Superintendents and the DOE via the general comment field that appears at the bottom of the NEO Maine Schools and Public School Approval module. Responses entered here, by either the Department or by the Superintendent, will trigger emails regarding outstanding items.
Finally, the Department will be able to access some additional coding options, issuing “Waivers” only in situations where exceptions are needed; while an “Approved” option can be selected for items that were initially outstanding but are then brought into compliance.

The Department very much appreciates the effort and feedback that was provided to inform the system improvements over the past year, and hope it continues. An important item to remember, that will not change, is that NEO information may be saved when partially finished to complete at a later time. While completing the approval process, the page should be saved often, as there is a relatively short time-out period.

Maine Schools and Public School Approval NEO Module Directions

We are currently working with a target date of May 3, 2019 for the opening of The NEO Maine Schools and Public School Approval module. The intent of an earlier opening date is to allow time before the current school year ends, and vacations begin, to complete this important task. This change will also support an improved student enrollment upload process in the fall.

The Maine Schools portion is to inform the DOE of school and district contact information, changes in grade spans, and other school-related information. As a preliminary step, the superintendent or chief administrator of the school must first be entered into the NEO Staff Module. Access to NEO staff can be obtained by submitting a NEO Access Request Form to the DOE Data Helpdesk.

To begin: Log in to the NEO information system. Click on Maine Schools. If you do not see this option on your menu, and are a superintendent, technical coordinator, or administrative assistant, please contact the DOE Data Helpdesk.

Filling out the Maine Schools and Public School Approval Module: All fields with the exception of Administrative Office Fax are required. PO Boxes will not be accepted in the “Physical Address” box. Mailing address is needed only if different from Physical address. The Cost Center information references the three-digit code that the business office uses in the public financial system to assign building level costs (may require two codes).

Next, carefully mark all SAU level approval questions with a response, and if the response is “No, or partially No,” a comment must be entered. Additionally, mark to answer the school level approval question for each school listed.

As you move down the module/form, ensure that the SAU- and school-level section question is checked for each section: “Please confirm that the above section has been reviewed…”

At the bottom, date, sign and submit the form.

For questions related to the NEO information system or access, please contact the DOE Data Helpdesk at MEDMS.Helpdesk@maine.gov or 207-624-6896

Please contact Pamela Ford-Taylor, DOE School Enrollment Specialist at 207-624-6617 or Pamela.Ford-Taylor@maine.gov with questions or comments.