The Student Diagnostic Search is an extremely useful search for identifying issues in student data that can potentially prevent them from accurately populating your NRS tables.
This search is run using summarized, fiscal year data, not raw data, which means you want to run this search after LACES has run FY summaries, which is automatically done nightly or after you have manually run FY summaries for your agency. Refer to the instructions to create FY Summaries prior to running the diagnostic search. Once summaries have been run, whether by LACES automatically or manually by you, you are ready to run a Student Diagnostic Search.
This search is intended to be run for students in the current reporting year. Go to Searches > Student Diagnostic Search (Add).
Interpreting the Results of the Student Diagnostic Search
Students missing ethnicity/race information
It is very unlikely that you will see students reported in this section, since LACES requires you to enter that data to save the record, but some agencies migrated data from other systems, so it is possible.
If you see numbers in this category, click on the number. You will be taken to the list of students missing that data. You can open the record, go to the Demographics panel, edit the record to add the data, and save. Remember that you will need to run a new FY summary after any corrective changes made so that they will be picked up for the search and reporting purposes.
Students missing sex information
It is very unlikely that you will see students reported in this section, since LACES requires you to enter that data to save the record, but some agencies migrated data from other systems, so it is possible.
If you see numbers in this category, click on the number. You will be taken to the list of students missing that data. You can open the record, go to the Demographics panel, edit the record to add the data, and save. Remember that you will need to run a new FY summary after any corrective changes made so that they will be picked up for the search and reporting purposes.
Students missing Highest Education Level Completed on Entry
The Highest Education fields are required for new, incoming students, but students who were prior FY students may have returned and because these fields were not required when they did their initial intake, you may have students missing these fields.
Click on the number for students missing Highest Education Level Completed on Entry. You will be taken to the list of students missing that data. Open the first record and go to the Education tab. Click to expand the Education panel. Edit the Highest Education Level Completed on Entry and Highest Education Level Completed on Entry Location fields as needed, then click the Save button in the bottom right hand corner. Run a new FY summary to be sure the updates have been captured.
Students missing Highest Education Level Completed on Entry Location
Typically, the same students in the Highest Education Level Completed on Entry diagnostic are also in the Highest Education Level Completed on Entry Location diagnostic, so the same steps are used to correct each.
Students with invalid data for Highest Education Level Completed at Entry
When the Highest Education Level Completed on Entry was first added to LACES, the choice list was available for agencies to modify, but only the LACES default options are used for NRS reporting. The Highest Education Level Completed on Entry choice list is no longer available for agencies to modify, but you have returning students who have invalid education information. Use the same steps to correct this as for missing Highest Education Level.
Students with Employment Status as No Value or Other
This is another search that usually has little to no results, because Employment Status is required on intake. However, again, migrated data may cause issues, as can students returning from prior FYs who had invalid statuses, or incorrect dates that do not correspond to the intake date or are invalid dates.
Click on the number for students found with this error and go to the History > Work History panels to correct any issues.
The most common issue is that the student may not have a line of work history with the same date as his Intake Date. In LACES, there must be a row of work history with a valid employment status where the Start Date is equal to or earlier than the Intake Date (found in the student header). You can either add a new line of work history with a date that matches the Intake Date or edit the Start Date on the work history record with the earliest Start Date so it matches the Intake Date. Save, and run a new FY summary.
Students Whose Age at Intake is Less Than 16 or Greater Than 99
This search locates students who were less than 16 at Intake, as a student must be at least 16 years of age at intake for federal tracking purposes and inclusion on the NRS tables. The Greater than 99 indicator is usually due to a typographical error.
Click on the number for students found with this error and go to the Demographics > Demographics panels to correct any issues in the Birthdate field. Save, and run a new FY summary.
Students who are under 16 years of age are not considered NRS fundable, nor are they current FY students so if the person is under 16, they will not be returned in these results if you begin with either of those selections of students. You may want to begin with Searches > History > Active/Enrolled (Replace) when checking this diagnostic.
Students with Current FY Instruction Hours totals not matching the recalculated total
This search will bring up any students whose current FY hours totals do not equal the sum of their hours for the Fiscal Year. Most often, this is because hours have been added since the most recent FY summary was created. This can be avoided by always waiting to run the Student Diagnostic Search until immediately after summaries have been run.
To correct the records: Click on the number returned in the search. Create new FY summaries on these students and then run this search again. If the search is still returning students, contact Tech Support to run an hours recalculation on your data.
Run a new summary for any students in this category BEFORE attempting to fix other NRS non-reportable students, as this often clears up non-reportables.
Students with 12+ instruction hours but not in a PoP
This search will return any student who has 12+ instruction hours in the FY, but is not in a Period of Participation. There are two common causes for this:
The student was not assessed. You can verify this by including the Assess Status in the view. If this field indicates 'never assessed this FY' the student won't have a PoP.
The student attended for less than 12 hours, exited for 90+ days and then returned for less than 12 hours. You can verify this by opening the student record and going to the Hours tab. Check the hours to see if the student attended less than 12 hours, exited 90+ days and then returned and attended less than 12 hours.
Any student who meets either of the above criteria is correctly included in the diagnostic and won't be removed unless the student is assessed or attends 12+ hours without a gap.
If the student has an assessment and does not have a gap in instruction, contact tech support if you're not able to determine why the student does not have a PoP.
Students not NRS Reportable
This search should be run after all the other data has been cleaned up. If you run this search only on NRS Fundables and have no issues in any other areas, you should have no non-reportable students. If you run the search on non-participants, you may find other problems with records that cause them to not be counted that are not included in the other diagnostic searches. To correct those records, you will need to review the records for common issues including a lack of hours or a valid assessment in the current FY. If you cannot determine the problem, then send the list to Tech Support for analysis.