Essential Education Integration
LACES has integrated with Essential Education in an effort to both alleviate data entry efforts and provide agencies the ability to search for those hours and analyze their impact on performance measures. Instead of manually entering Essential Education hours as Distance Learning, the integration will identify and automatically import Out of Class hours that were earned in Essential Education, represented in LACES as the Hours Type Essential Education Instruction - Distance Learning.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Essential Education Instruction - Distance Learning Hours count towards a Period of Participation and hours required for post-testing.
Integration Schedule
Hours are imported every Sunday night at 6:35 p.m. MST and round to the quarter hour. Time earned in Essential Education must meet at least .25 hours in order to import. Please note that rounding is based on the attendance policy of the specific State client and can be changed.
In order for Essential Education Out of Class Hours to import, students must match on the following data points in both Essential Education and LACES:
Email Address
First Name
Last Name
How Hours are Imported
Students earning hours via Essential Education must be enrolled in a LACES class titled Essential Education Distance Learning. The title of the class MUST be exact.
This class should not replace any content related classes the student should otherwise be enrolled in – it simply acts as a vessel for the hours to import into the student record.
For example:
A student is enrolled in a Math class at the agency where they receive face-to-face Instruction hours.
The student is also using Essential Education for supplemental Math help at home.
the student should be enrolled in both the face-to-face Math class and the Essential Education Distance Learning class.
The agency could have more than one Essential Education Distance Learning class (see below for additional details); however, it is discouraged to have students enrolled in more than one Essential Education Distance Learning class in LACES if the Classes have different Start and End Dates as it could cause unintended consequences, such as hours duplication.
Sites (if applicable)
Some Agencies use Sites in Essential Education and LACES. Agencies that are configured for Sites must ensure that the Site in the LACES 'Essential Education Distance Learning' Class lines up with the Site in Essential Education. Sites in LACES can be set up during Class Intake or updated in the Class details > Class Data. If your Site is not listed in the Site Choice List, it can be added in the Agency Settings > Sites tab.
Details on How the Integration Handles Multiple Classes
The Essential Education integration has received important quality of life updates. It is now more discerning whenever there are students enrolled in multiple Essential Education classes. If a student is enrolled in more than one class with the same Title, Start Date, and End Date, hours will only be added to the most recent Enrollment. This is done to prevent unintended hours duplication.
For example, Student A is enrolled in two classes called ‘Essential Education Distance Learning’ and both have the exact same Start and End Dates. The first Class was created on 7/01/2025 and then it was later duplicated with the same dates and same enrolled Student. When the integration runs, hours will only be added to the latter Class because it was the most recently created.
Pro Tip: if the Start and End Dates are different across classes, even if the Title is exactly the same, make sure one of the classes is no longer Active (i.e. Completed). If the dates are different, the integration assumes they are different classes and hours will be added to each Class, accordingly.as it could cause unintended consequences, such as hours duplication.
Additional Notes and Reminders on Essential Education Hours
Hours imported from Essential Education appear as "External" and cannot be edited or deleted. Contact the Help Desk if hours need to be deleted.
Hours records that do not total at least .25 in Essential Education in a 14-day time period will not be imported for that day.
The integration “looks back” 14 days from when it runs – this means that any hours earned in Essential Education earlier than 14 days prior to the integration running should be manually entered in the student record.
Hours that were below the .25 threshold will be picked up on subsequent imports if the number of hours for that day now totals at least .25. However, records that did not make the 14-day range will have to be manually entered or LACES can manually schedule the job to look further back.
The following calculations are used to round the hours prior to import to LACES:
0 - 7 minutes and 29 seconds will not import in LACES
7 minutes and 30 seconds - 22 minutes and 29 seconds will import as .25 in LACES
22 minutes and 30 seconds - 37 minutes and 29 seconds will import as .50 in LACES
37 minutes and 29 seconds - 52 minutes and 29 seconds will import as .75 in LACES
52 minutes and 30 seconds - 1 hour, 7 minutes, and 29 seconds will import as 1.00 in LACES
1 hour, 7 minutes, and 30 seconds - 1 hour, 22 minutes, and 29 seconds will import as 1.25 in LACES
Last Update: 1/14/2026