Number of NRS Participants
It is important to know how many of your current FY students meet the requirements to be NRS participants, as these are the students who are eligible to populate the NRS Tables and result in federal funding for the state. These students may be located by going to the student grid, then Searches > NRS > NRS Participants (Replace). You can also display the NRS participant students by using the Dashboard widget “Students Enrolled- Actual vs. Target” and clicking the “NRS Participants Enrolled to Date” column. These are the students who are 16 years of age or older at intake, with 12+ hours of instruction and a valid assessment generating a valid Educational Functioning Level (EFL) in the current FY.
Number of NRS reportable participants on Tables 1-4 and totals for Table 6
The total number of NRS reportable participants should always equal the totals on Tables 1-4, and the sum of select rows on Table 6. To verify this, go to the student grid Searches > NRS > NRS Participants (Replace) and then Searches > NRS > NRS Table 1 (Add). In the search window, select the current fiscal year for the Reporting System and view the results. Verify that the number in the Total column matches the number of NRS reportable participants returned in your NRS Participants search. Repeat with Tables 2-4. Repeat with Table 6, but rather than looking in the Total column on Table 6, verify that the 4 lines of Employment Status (Employed, Employed but Received Notice of Termination of Employment or Military Separation is pending, Unemployed, Not in Labor Force) add up to the total of NRS reportable participants, and that the Total row for Highest Degree Level of School Completed also adds up to the total of NRS reportable participants.
If any of the totals do not add up, return to the list of NRS Participants, and go to Searches > NRS > Student Diagnostic Search (Add) to determine why.
Student Diagnostic Searches
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 should run this search after LPS has run FY summaries on the state schedule or after you have manually run FY summaries for your agency. Once summaries have been run, whether by LPS automatically or manually by you, you are ready to run the Student Diagnostic Search.
Generally speaking, it makes the most sense to run the Diagnostic Search on students who are NRS Participants. This search is intended to locate issues in student records that would populate the NRS tables if not for the errors. Start by going to Searches > Current Fiscal Year (Replace), then Searches > NRS Participants (Add). These are the students who should be populating your NRS tables.
Now, go to Searches > Student Diagnostic Search (Add).
Interpreting the Results of the Student Diagnostic Search
SEARCH FOR STUDENTS MISSING DEMOGRAPHIC DATA IN FISCAL YEAR RECORDS
Students missing ethnicity/race information
In most states, it is very unlikely that you will see students reported in this section, since LACES requires you to enter that data on the student intake before the record can be saved, but some agencies migrated data from other systems, so it is possible for this data to be missing.
If you see numbers in this category, click on the drill down number to be taken to the list of students missing that data. Open each student 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
In most states, it is very unlikely that you will see students reported in this section, since LACES requires you to enter that data on the student intake before the record can be saved, but some agencies migrated data from other systems, so it is possible.
If you see numbers in this category, click on the drill down number to be taken to the list of students missing that data. Open each student 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.
SEARCH FOR STUDENTS WITH MISSING OR INVALID EDUCATIONAL DATA
Students missing Highest Education Level Completed on Entry
The Highest Education fields are required for new, incoming students. Students returning from prior fiscal years may be missing these fields if the fields were not required when their initial intake was done. Some states may also have business rules in place that allow student records to be created without this data.
Click on the drill down number for students missing Highest Education Level Completed on Entry to be taken to the list of students missing that data. Open each student record and go to the Education tab. Click 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. 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 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 may have returning students who have invalid education information. Use the same steps to correct this as for missing Highest Education Level.
SEARCH FOR STUDENTS WITH INCORRECT OR MISSING EMPLOYMENT STATUS
Students with Employment Status as No Value or Other
Employment Status is required for new, incoming students. Students returning from prior fiscal years may be missing this field if the field was not required when their initial intake was done, or may have invalid statuses or invalid dates. Migrated data may also be missing this data.
If you see numbers in this category, click on the drill down number to be taken to the list of students. Open each student record 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 the 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. 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.
SEARCH FOR STUDENTS WHOSE AGE AT INTAKE IS LESS THAN 16 OR GREATER THAN 99
Students Whose Age at Intake is Less Than 16 or Greater Than 99
This search locates students who were less than 16 at Intake. Students 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 drill down number to be taken to the list of students for students found with this error. Open each student record and go to the Demographics > Demographics panels to correct any issues in the Birthdate field. 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 who are under 16 years of age are not considered NRS participants, nor are they current FY students, so if the person is under 16, they will not be included in the results if you begin with either of those selections of students. You may want to begin with Searches > History > Active/Enrolled (Replace) and search the current FY start and end date when checking this diagnostic.
SEARCH FOR STUDENTS WITH INCORRECT HOURS
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.
Click on the drill down number to be taken to the list of students with this issue. Create new FY summaries for 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 FY summary for any students in this category BEFORE attempting to fix other NRS non-reportable students, as this often clears up non-reportables.
SEARCH FOR STUDENT PERIOD OF PARTICIPATION DATA
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 has 12+ instruction hours but 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 and attended 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 for 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 with fiscal year data not matching PoP
This search will return any student for whom the PoP Summary record has an Exit Date, but there is not a PoP Exit Date in the FY Summary record.
If the FY Summaries are up-to-date, this should not return any students unless the Data Freeze has already happened. During the time after the Data Freeze, Exit Dates will continue to populate the PoP Summary record for students whose last hours date was in the 4th quarter of the FY as they reach 90 days past their last activity. Prior to states submitting their NRS Tables LPS runs a script to capture the 4th Quarter Exit Dates in the FY Summary.
If you are not in the time after the Data Freeze, your FY summaries are up-to-date, and you still have students in this diagnostic, contact tech support.
SEARCH FOR STUDENTS: TOTAL NOT PARTICIPANTS FOR NRS
Students not NRS Participants
This search should be run after all the other data has been corrected. If you run this search only on NRS Participants and do not have issues in any other areas, you should not have non-reportable students. If you run the search on non-participants, you may find other problems with records causing 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.
Assessment Diagnostic Searches
The assessment diagnostic searches are designed to identify students who have or have not been pretested, posttested and/or made level gains in a PoP or in the FY. Go to Searches > Assessments > Assessment Diagnostic Search (Add). Select the current fiscal year from the Select Reporting System field.
Students pretested in multiple subject areas with a PoP
Students post tested in multiple subject areas in any PoP
Students completed a level in a non-tracked subject area in any PoP
Students completed a level in any subject area in any PoP
Students with level gain in current PoP
Students without level gain in current PoP
Displays students without any level gain at all in the current PoP, including:
Students who were post tested with a level defining assessment but stayed at the same level or went down a level.
Students who were not post tested.
Students without a pretest
Students posttested in at least one subject area in any PoP
Students not posttested in any subject area in any PoP
Students never assessed in current FY
Students without any assessments at all in the selected fiscal year.
Students who were tested with a non-level defining assessment in the select fiscal year, such as any assessment where the assessed level is "Level Not Defined".
Students with post test level in any subject area lower than pretest level in current FY
Students with moved forward assessments
Students with moved forward assessments but a higher EFL in subject area was available
Displays students with a moved forward assessment that was not the highest EFL. For example, a student had two reading assessments in the previous fiscal year - one at ABE L3 and the other at ABE L4 - in the allowable date range to move assessments forward. Instead of moving forward the assessment with EFL ABE L4, the assessment with ABE L3 EFL was moved forward.
Number Non-NRS Participants and Reasons Why
Just as it is important to know which students are NRS participants, it is also important to know which students are not and why.
To locate these students, go to the Dashboard > Students Enrolled- Actual vs. Target. Students who have at least 1 hour in the fiscal year are included in this widget. Click the bar for Non-NRS Participant Enrolled to Date. This will take you to the list of students who currently do not meet the NRS requirements for inclusion on the NRS tables. You can also go to the Student grid and add the Current Fiscal Year and NRS Participants search tiles to your grid, then change the AND operator between the tiles to AND NOT.
Typically, most students are not NRS reportable because they do not have enough hours (12 or more) in the fiscal year to count as NRS participants. That is acceptable. Verify the hours for these students.
Occasionally, data entry errors in the required assessment or demographic information will prevent a student from being a participant as well. To check why these students are not counting, use the Shared View called “NRS Key Data” to look at their current FY information.
First, select "NRS Key Data" from the drop-down list on the View field at the upper left corner of the student area.
Sort the Current FY Instr Hrs column by clicking the column heading. This will sort by ascending order. Click once more on the column heading to sort in descending order. Alternatively, you could use the in-column filtering to filter by students who have greater than or equal to 12 hours, or the Hours Attended search to reduce your selection to just those students with at least 12 hours. To do this, go to Searches > Hours > Hours Attended (Add). Search for students who have at least 12 hours between the current fiscal year date range.
Students with <12 hours will not count as participants. This is not a concern, however, you may want to look for data trends to spot possible retention issues.
If a student has 12+ hours, check the "Assess Status in Subj Area" column. If it says “Never Assessed this FY," the student does not have a valid assessment entered in LACES for the current fiscal year. You can check this by opening the student record, then going to the Assessments tab. Look for any errors that may keep an assessment from counting. Additionally, check to see if the student had an assessment from last fiscal year that could be moved forward to count for this FY. You can retroactively push forward an assessment if you missed one from last FY. You can do an Assessment Search and search for students never assessed this year but who had assessments in the previous fiscal year that fall within the acceptable date range to be moved forward. The time period in which an assessment can be moved forward from the previous fiscal year to count for the current fiscal year varies according to state policy but is typically 90 days. (You can select Agency Settings from the Person Profile menu and open the Detail panel to see your agency's Max Days to Move Assessments Forward setting.)
To search for assessments from the previous FY that could be moved forward for the current FY, go to Searches > Assessments > Last Assessed within Date Range (Add). Enter the date range allowed by your state’s policy, such as 4-1 to 6-30, and Apply. Open each student record and view their assessments to determine if it is appropriate to push an assessment forward for this fiscal year.
If the student has a valid assessment and 12 or more instructional hours, check the following:
Demographics information to see if there is missing or incorrect data in the required fields, or if the student was not 16+ years of age at entry.
Make sure students do not have the program Work-based Project Learner unless they really are a Work-Based Project Learner, as that prevents them from being counted as an NRS participant.
If your state uses a Funding Stream field, check the Funding Stream to see if the students have a funding stream that prevents them from being counted a NRS participants.
Verify that the students did not have gaps of 90 or more days within their 12 hours of instruction. Students with less than 12 hours with 90+ day gaps will not have a period of participation and will not be NRS participants.
Check the Entry Level for any remaining non-NRS participants. Completed ESL L6 is not a valid Entry Level, since a student cannot show growth if they enter as Completed ESL L6, and the NRS is interested in tracking growth. Typically, students with this entry level should be re-assessed to generate a valid pre-test level.
Number of NRS participants post-tested/number of those who made level gains
Post-testing of students is important to show level gains for students and meet NRS Table 4 benchmarks. Most states have benchmarks in their assessment policies regarding the percentage of students expected to receive post-tests in the fiscal year.
Post-tested in any Subject Area
To see the number of students post-tested in any subject area during the year, go to Searches > NRS > NRS Table 4B (Replace). In the search window, select the Reporting System and then click the number in column B, Total row to get a list of students who were post-tested.
You can also go to Searches > NRS > Fiscal Year Data Search (Replace) and enter the following, then click the Apply button.
Reporting System: NRS FY {select year}
Fiscal Year Data Category: Student Data
Fiscal Year Data Field: Assess Status Any Subject
Operator: Starts with
Value: Post
EFL Gain based on assessment in any Subject Area
To see how many of the post-tested students have made a level gain in any subject area, go to Searches NRS > NRS Table 4B (Replace). In the search window, select the Reporting System and then click the number in column D, Total row to get a list of students who made an EFL gain based on post-testing.
You can also go to Searches > NRS > Fiscal Year Data Search (Replace) and enter the following and then click the Apply button:
Reporting System: NRS FY {select year}
Fiscal Year Data Category: Student Data
Fiscal Year Data Field: Completed Level Any Subject
Operator: Is
Value: {put a check in the box}
Finally, you can use the Dashboard Assessments > Measurable Skills Gain Completion by EFL widget. This dashboard shows a bar graph indicating the benchmark percentage of students expected to make level gains in each EFL (black), the percentage of students who have made gains in each EFL at your agency (blue), and the percentage of students who have made gains in each EFL state-wide (green). Clicking on the blue bars within the bar graphs will take you to those students who make up the percentage of level gains for that EFL.
IMPORTANT NOTES: Remember that in determining the percentage of gains for Table 4, all NRS participants are included, not just those who have been post-tested. Table 4B displays post-tested students and their EFL gains, but Table 4B is an optional table and is not part of the funding formula.
Number of Students Attained SSD/Equivalent
The number of students who attained an SSD (secondary school diploma) or its equivalent is important for both Table 4 and Table 5. SSD information can be entered in LACES in the Assessment tab of the student record if you have the scores, or can be entered in the Education tab > Diplomas/Credentials tab if you do not have score info.
To find students who have attained SSD based on the data in the Assessments and Diplomas/Credentials area, go to Searches > Adult Education Follow-Up > Secondary School Diploma Earned (Replace). In the search window, enter the relevant date range.
Keep in mind that only the most recent MSG is reported on Table 4, so if a student made a level gain or enrolled in PS Ed/Training after attaining the SSD, they will count on Table 4 for EFL gain instead of for attaining SSD.
Number of Students Entered/Attained Postsecondary
As with SSD, Postsecondary Education is reported on both Table 4 and Table 5 so it is important to know which students have entered postsecondary and which have attained a postsecondary credential.
At the student area, go to Searches > Adult Education Follow-Up > PS Ed Training (Replace). In the search window, select or enter the relevant search criteria. For NRS reporting, the Enroll Date and Earned Date are the significant fields.
Number of Students with Too Few Hours Between Assessments
In addition to checking who has been post tested and who has made gains, you may want to verify that the students were post tested within the correct number of hours based on state policy.
Hours between assessments has become an area of concern with OCTAE. Your state has an assessment policy indicating how many hours a student must have at a minimum in order to be eligible for post-assessment. These hours are required whether it is their first or second (or more) post-test within a fiscal year. Typically, the hours between assessment minimums are:
At least 30 for ASE students
At least 40 for ABE students
At least 50-60 for ESL students or ABE students with certain assessments
Most states do have exception policies for post-testing sooner, but assessments should never be given with fewer than 30 hours between assessments under any circumstances. Familiarize yourself with your state’s assessment policy.
Using one of the options above to narrow your selection to only post-tested students, you can run the student assessment report called "Hours Between Assessment" to verify that your agency is following policy. You can also narrow your selection by program (ABE/ESL) or by searching for Entry Level> Contains > ABE, or Entry Level>Contains >ESL since that will enable you to run the report for the specific hours parameter for those programs.
To run the report at the student area, click Reports from the toolbar, and select "Hours Between Assessment". In the right-hand panel, choose the appropriate number of hours, bearing in mind that you are searching for students who did not comply with the state policy, so you would want to search on students with fewer than the required number of hours. For example, if searching for students with fewer than 70 hours between assessments, you would enter 69 so the report runs on those with 69 or fewer hours between assessments. Click Print PDF or Print Excel to view the results.
The returned report includes students who were post-tested outside of the state’s assessment policy for minimum number of hours.
Sometimes it can appear that the student was post-tested too early because many agencies only enter hours monthly, at the end of the month. LACES looks at the assessment dates and the hours dates to determine the hours since last assessment. Based on the data entered in LACES, something like this can occur:
8/7/24 - TABE assessment
8/22/24 - TABE assessment
8/31/24 - 73 class hours entered for the student
While we understand that 8/31/24 is the date used to enter all of the hours for the month of August, LACES has no way of knowing if any of these hours were between 8/7/24 and 8/22/24; it simply looks at the assessment date and the hours date and sees that the student had 73 hours on a date after the 8/22/24 assessment, with no hours between the two assessments.
For the student to show the correct hours since last assessment (and the correct hours between the pre-test and post-test), you would need to break up the hours for the month. Delete the 73 hours record on 8/31/24 and re-enter the hours in two batches. Date the first hours record 8/22/24 and only enter the number of hours the student had in August up to that date (for example, if the student had 46 hours prior to the post-test, enter that amount). Then, add a second hours record dated 8/31/24 that captures the remainder of hour hours for the month (in the example above, you would enter the remaining 26 hours the student had after the post-test). Otherwise, you could consider doing data entry more frequently, such as daily or weekly. The hours functionality in LACES allows you to do batch hours entry on a daily or weekly basis.
Number of NRS participants with enough hours for post-testing but did not receive a post-test
This includes students who left with enough hours to be post tested but were not post tested, and excludes those with entry level ABE L6 and those who already made a level gain in FY.
There are many ways to locate students who are eligible for post testing. You can use the Dashboard Widget called "Post Test Eligible by EFL" or look at the Student Alerts row "Students eligible for post testing". At the student area, you can go to Searches > Assessments > More than X Instr Hours since Last Assessment Date, and search based on hours, or go to Searches > General > Student Quick Select and do the same. Use a range beginning with the minimum number of hours required.
Once you have your list of students with enough hours to be post-tested you can narrow it down further, if you choose to. For example, students with an ENTRY level of ABE L6 cannot be post-tested using the same instrument since they entered at the highest ABE level. You may prefer to use the column filters and search the Entry Level column grid field for Does Not Contain ABE L6.
Additionally, you may choose to remove students whose status indicates they have already exited your program, or those who have already made a level gain, or you can leave those students in your selection. Click the Add Search button at the student grid. Expand the Students category and select "Completed Level". Select "is equal to" at the operator list, but do not check the check box. Click Apply to find students with no gain. You can also create a custom view and include the field "Completed Level." Having this as an available column in the view enables you to search by that field.
Once you have this list, it can be helpful to use it to provide that information to the people who will be post testing the students, letting them know that they are eligible for post testing, and what their last Assessment data was.
Current FY students still enrolled with no hours in 90+ days*
Students should be properly exited in LACES at 90+ days without service, or at the time of their known exit. Use the Dashboard Student Alert "Enrolled students with no instructional hours in X Days (with x=91) to locate students who need to be exited.
Students should be exited from the program based on known departure or 90 days without service; however, please be aware that LACES does not use the class end date to populate the Exit Date field. Exit Date is the last date of attendance, based on Last Hours Date.
You can create a custom view that shows the Exit Date assigned by LACES. You may notice that sometimes an Exit Date will display for a student who is still enrolled. This indicates that the student has been gone for more than 90 days without attendance hours being entered into their record. Even though the student is still enrolled, LACES considers them left for reporting purposes. You should correctly exit these students. If you add hours for those students, the Exit Date will be removed.
*It is best to use this search throughout the year to find students who have randomly exited rather than at the end of the FY when you will probably be exiting all students from their current FY classes, but this search may be useful if you want to exit students from their classes with the date they stopped attending rather than with the Class End Date. You could either individually exit the students who stopped attending before the class ended or you could export this list of students with their Exit Dates and refer to it as you complete the classes so you can update the students' enrollment End Date accordingly.
Number of NRS Participants Remaining in Program Without a Measurable Skill Gain
The total number of NRS reportable participants who have not been exited from the program and who have not earned a Measurable Skill Gain can be found on NRS Table 4 > column I, Grand Total row (Number Remaining in Program Without Measurable Skill Gains). Drill down to the list of students populating this cell, and you can then run the report, Student Points for Next EFL on that selection of students. This report shows which of the students are eligible to post test (Instr Hrs Since Last Assess in Subj Area) and how many points are needed for that student to earn an EFL Gain in that subject area (Scaled Score Pts Req for Next EFL). Focus on students who are both eligible to post test and require only a small amount of scaled score points to earn an EFL Gain. This search and report can prove very helpful when trying to earn as many Measurable Skill Gains as possible before the program year ends. To run the Student Points for Next EFL report, click the Reports button in the upper right corner. From the Report Manager window, scroll down to the very bottom and put a check in the checkbox for the Student Points for Next EFL report. You can select to Print PDF, or Export Data. Pay particular attention to the columns for Instructional Hours since Last Assessment, Points to Next EFL, and columns for most recent assessment instrument and form.
You can also use Table 4, Column H, Grand Total row (Number Separated Before Achieving Measurable Skill Gains). Drill down to the list of students populating this cell to review if any of the participants exited may have exited due to an exclusion reason. If appropriate, an exclusion reason may be added to the student record to remove them from the performance based calculations on Tables 4 and 5.
Exclusion Reasons
An exclusion reason should be selected at the student’s Demographics tab>Demographics panel>Report Exclusion Reason field. Students with exclusions will not populate any of the primary indicator or outcome NRS tables except Column C of Table 4, and will not be calculated toward completion totals for any table. They will be included on non-outcome/indicator tables such as Tables 1-3 and 6.
Participants in correctional education programs (WIOA Section 225), who remain incarcerated at program exit, are excluded from all performance indicators except the Measurable Skill Gains indicator of Table 10.
To add or update an exclusion reason, go to the Demographics tab>Demographics panel and locate the field called Report Exclusion Reason. Exclusion reasons can be used for students who meet the criteria to be considered NRS participants but who have had an event that will likely result in them not being post tested, or completing other activity resulting in a measurable skills gain, or being absent from instruction for at least 90 days and may be excluded from populating performance-based tables. These students will populate tables 1, 2, 3, 4 (in one column only) and 6 so the state will receive funding for these students as NRS participants, but they will not be included in the denominator of any performance-based outcomes and will not affect your benchmark percentages. The allowable exclusion reasons are:
Be sure to follow state policy for evidence needed to support an exclusion reason, as these fields are required to have validation.
Exclusions must be removed if the student returns and the reason no longer applies.
Required Staff data:
This data must be populated for all staff members who were active in the fiscal year, even if they were not teachers.
OCTAE is interested in tracking the following certifications:
Adult Ed
K-12
Special Education
TESOL
If a staff member has any of those certifications, you should go to the Credentials panel of the Staff Data tab and click the Add button to add the Credential/Certification Type and Date Earned. Credential/Certification Type and Date Earned are required for the information to correctly populate Table 7, which is a mandatory table. If the staff member does not have any of the 4 tracked certifications, nothing needs to be entered. A staff member can have more than one credential type and each should be entered into the Credentials panel. Credentials are only included on Table 7 if the Date Earned is on or before the beginning of the fiscal year (for staff continuing from the previous fiscal year) or as of their start date (for staff who were hired in the fiscal year). If the staff member has additional certifications or credentials outside of the 4 tracked on Table 7, you should enter those based on your state policy. The rows and columns for Teacher Certifications on Table 7 should at least equal the sum of the Local Teachers (FT and PT) row on Table 7 (excluding volunteers.)
"Years of Teaching Exp in Adult Ed" only refers to teaching experience in adult education. For staff members who are not teachers, this should be 0. Otherwise, enter the number of years’ teaching experience specifically in adult education. This does not update automatically but must be manually updated every year by updating the staff record, or by batch editing. To batch edit, first select and subset the staff records to increment the number of years, and then select Batch Edit from the More toolbar drop-down list. The Years of Teaching Exp in Adult Ed rows should add up to exactly the sum of the Local Teachers (FT and PT) row on Table 7 (excluding volunteers).
To verify this data, add the shared staff view "NRS Key Data". This view includes the "Years Teaching Exp in Adult Ed" field.
You should not see blank fields in the staff information fields. If there are blanks for any staff member who was active in the FY, open the staff record and add the data at the Key Info and Classifications panels.
Updated data will not display on Table 7 until a new FY Summary has been run for the updated staff records. The instructions to create staff FY Summaries are the same as for students.
When viewing Table 7, the number of full and part-time local teachers (excluding volunteers) should add up to the total sum of the Years of Teaching Exp in Adult Ed rows and columns. The Certification rows and columns should add up to at least the sum of the full and part-time local teachers (excluding volunteers). However, since a staff member can have more than one certification, it may exceed the total. If staff are not counting correctly, please contact technical support.
Finally, your staff list should accurately reflect the active staff members in your agency. If people have left, mark them left. If people have been hired, add them. If you mark them left now but they actually left last year (or more years back), you must go into the Staff History panel of the History tab and update both the End Date of the Active status and the Start Date of the Left status so that they do not show activity in the current fiscal year date range. Click each cell with numbers in the first 5 rows on Table 7, (the Function area) columns B and C to ensure that the section is populating correctly. Remember that the Years of Teaching Exp in Adult Ed field must be manually updated or batch edited at the beginning of each new fiscal year for teachers whose experience has increased.
Preparation for the New Fiscal Year
Each of the steps outlined below can be done prior to the data freeze and rollover. In fact, it is best to complete these steps prior to the freeze and rollover to be sure your fiscal year summaries accurately reflect which students left your program in the current year and which will be continuing students in the new year. If your program is closed for more than 90 days in the summer before resuming in the fall, you can wait to create the new classes and enroll students in them after the rollover. Whether your program takes a 90+ day break in summer or not, you should complete all of your current FY classes prior to the data freeze.
Potential Duplicate Student Search
The Potential Duplicate Student Search is available at the student area. You should use this search prior to moving forward assessments or enrolling students to make sure you are selecting assessments from the appropriate student record or enrolling the appropriate student record. A duplicate record may exist for several reasons. A student migrated from another system may have been re-entered into LACES, with new data added to the re-entered record. Or a student may have been accidentally duplicated in the current FY, resulting in two records with data. Student records entered in the same fiscal year with no prior fiscal year records should be combined, and one record deleted.
Click Searches > General > Potential Duplicate Students. This search is intended to be run on its own, and can only be selected to Replace any current search in order to search all student records for duplicates. Also note that the Potential Duplicate Student search is intended to be run in a single agency, not the SEA. Potential duplicate students are returned by a) Duplicate SSN, b) Matches on First Name, Last Name, DOB, and Sex, and c) matches on First and Last Name. Duplicate student records may be merged.
Once you have verified your data is accurate, it is time to start taking the steps for rollover. This should include pushing forward assessments for carry-over students, if deemed appropriate. Familiarize yourself with your state assessment policy.
You can move forward assessments from last fiscal year to act as pretests for the new fiscal year and select which assessment will determine the Entry EFL for NRS reporting.
The EFL for initial placement should not be changed later to ensure accurate data reporting.
Measurable Skill Gain via EFL gain may be measured with a post test in any subject area in which a participant was pretested.
If a student has two assessments in the same subject area within the move forward window, only the one generating the highest assessed level should be moved forward.
In short, you will select which subject area a student is tracked in to determine the Entering EFL on the EFL-based NRS tables. However, you are no longer required to track the student in the lowest EFL, and EFL gains can be based on any subject area.
Batch Move Forward Assessments
Users may now batch move assessments forward for a selection of students. You may still manually move assessments forward in the individual student records, but the new "Move Assessments Forward" functionality allows you to move forward multiple assessment records with one process. A search has also been added at the Student Searches Assessments category called "Eligible to Move Forward." This search returns a selection of students who have assessments that are eligible to be moved forward. While you may also perform your own searches to display a selection of students, the search will return students with assessments that are eligible to be moved forward.
Eligible assessments are:
Select Agency Settings from the person profile menu and then click to open the Detail panel. The Data Value for the row MaxDaysToMoveAssessmentsForward shows the max number of days for moving assessments forward in your agency. For example, if the data value is 90, then assessment records with the assessed date 4/1 to 6/30 of the previous FY may be moved forward, depending on the CurrentFY setting in your agency. For example, if the MaxDaystoMoveAssessmentsForward data value is 180, and your agency is set for the 2024-2025 or 2025-2026 FY, the assessment records with the assessed date 1/1/2025 to 6/30/2025 may be moved forward to the 2025-2026 FY.
While you may manually move forward any assessment in the subject area, only the assessment with highest EFL in the subject area should be moved forward, with the exception of Completed ESL L6. The Move Forward Assessments process will only move forward the assessment in the subject area with the highest EFL.
Assessments NOT eligible to be moved forward:
HSE assessment records, such as GED and HiSET
Assessments at Completed ABE L6, Completed ESL L6, and Level Not Defined
BEST Literacy Assessments at ESL L6
Run the search before batch moving assessments forward.
Display all students.
Click the >Searches link and expand the Assessments category.
Select "Eligible to Move Forward."
Students who have eligible assessments will be returned on the student grid.
If you do not want to move forward the assessments for all eligible students, you can do additional searches such as Status = Enrolled to further limit the selection of students.
Before proceeding:
Remember that every student in the selection will be affected by the Move Assessments Forward process. Students who do not return in the next FY will still count on Table 2a because they have an assessment moved forward from the previous FY, so make sure you are updating the correct selection of students.
Assessments are typically moved forward during specific times of the year, such as right before or right after the rollover to the next FY when you are enrolling continuing students in upcoming classes. The agency FY settings and the date on which you run the Move Assessments Forward process - today's date - will determine which FY the assessments are moved to.
Agency current FY is 2023-2024 or 2024-2025 and today's date is 7/1/2024 to 12/31/2024
Agency current FY is 2024-2025 and today's date is 1/1/2025 to 6/30/2025
Once you have the correct selection of students:
Click the arrow on the More toolbar, and select Move Assessments Forward from the menu.
Read the warning message on the window. If you want to proceed, click Yes.
Read the warning message on the Confirm Save window. There is no automatic undo once you proceed. You will have to manually delete the moved forward assessment records individually if you did not have a correct selection of students. If you want to proceed, click Yes.
You will get a message indicating the number of assessments moved forward, the number of failed moved forward assessments, and the number of students.
Note that the number of assessments may be larger than the number of students, since students may have eligible assessments in multiple subject areas.
Steps to Manually Move Forward an Assessment
When moving forward assessments to the new fiscal year, move forward the most recent eligible assessment with the highest assessed level in each subject area rather than only moving forward the assessment you intend to use for initial placement to track the student for the fiscal year.
Open the student record and select the Assessments tab.
Click the Move Forward icon (the circle with the arrow) to the right of the assessment you want to move forward for the next fiscal year.
Select "Move forward to next fiscal year" and click Save.
Moving forward creates a duplicate record of the assessment with an updated Fiscal Year.
Only move forward valid, level-defining assessments. Do not move forward assessments that result in a Completed ESL L6 Entry Level, or assessments that will not be NRS-allowed in the new fiscal year.
Use the General Assessment search to manually locate assessments that are eligible to be pushed forward.
At the Student area, click Searches > Assessments > General Assessment Search (Replace).
Enter the date range appropriate for your state’s push forward period. (Ignore the list of assessment instruments at the top, as you are looking for any assessment in that date range.)
Click Apply.
Be aware that this search will return students who had an assessment in that date range, but will also include students with secondary credential assessments, which cannot be pushed forward, and students with assessments that resulted in a Completed ESL L6 level, which should not be moved forward.
Hours between assessments will count from the prior FY if an assessment is moved forward, potentially allowing you to post test sooner in the new fiscal year. Those hours only count for assessment purposes, not for 12-hour enrollment purposes. As an example, Sally Student was post-tested on 5/15/25, and earned 28 additional hours between 5/15/2025 and 6/30/2025. After the rollover to the 25/26 FY, the 5/15/2025 assessment is moved forward. She has 28 hours since her last assessment, even though the Current FY Instruct Hours for 25/26 would be 0 until she has attendance in that FY. This means that she has 28 hours towards the required number of hours for post-test in the current FY. This can be helpful for agencies who struggle to get students to the minimum number of hours acceptable for post-testing.
Create Classes for the New FY
Now that your students have assessments for the new year, you can create new classes or duplicate existing classes for the new year and begin enrolling new or carry-over students.
People often ask if classes for next fiscal year should be set up before or after the FY rollover. This will usually depend on whether your program runs over the summer or not. Remember that it is very important to correctly exit students based on the 90 days without activity or known departure. Whether or not students will have hours over the summer can affect this.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If your agency shuts down for more than 90 days over the summer, but students should not count as Exited in the current year, make sure the Enrollment Date is prior to the student's last activity in the current year when you enroll students in their classes for the new year. Please review the scheduled services documentation for additional information. As an example, if a student's last hours this FY are on 5/30 and the student will not be returning to class until 9/4 of the new year, there will be a 90-day gap in service. If this student should count as exited at the end of the current year, you can enroll the student in the fall class with an Enrollment Date of 9/4. But, if the student should not count as exited because a scheduled service will place the student in a continuing PoP, the Enrollment Date will need to be 5/30 or earlier.
If your state has customized LACES so a student must have an assessment in the fiscal year before the student can be enrolled, you will need to move forward assessments or enter new assessments prior to duplicating the classes or the students will not be enrolled.
Duplicating from the Class grid
Be sure that you look through the student list to clean up any class enrollment statuses that need to be changed prior to duplication. Only students with a class status of Enrolled will be brought over when duplicating from the class grid, which means you shouldn’t complete the current FY classes until after duplicating classes. Be sure to make the status of the duplicated classes “Active” not “Prospective” or you won’t be able to bring the enrolled students over. You can make edits to duplicated classes if needed, such as changing a course number or room number.
In the class list, put a check next to the class(es) you want to duplicate and go to Selection > Subset. All classes that display in the list will be duplicated so be absolutely sure to subset only the classes you need.
Go to More > Duplicate Classes.
In the resulting window:
Below the grid displaying the classes to be duplicated, enter the Term, Class Status, Start Date, End Date, and Max Enroll. Note that if the Class Status, Start Date, End Date and Max Hours aren't the same for each class, you can edit them in the grid displaying the classes to be duplicated.
In the grid of classes to be duplicated, there is a column for "Schedule." For each class being duplicated, you will need to select which schedule information, if any, to carry over to the new class. The options are None, All, Scheduled Instruction, or Asynchronous Instruction.
In the grid of classes to be duplicated, you can also edit the Class Title if a class being created does not have the same name as the the one being duplicated.
In the Student Options, select whether to "Include all currently enrolled students" or "Do not include any students."
Select the Enroll Date. This date will be used as the Enroll Date for all students being carried over into the new class. If students will have a 90+ day gap in activity before the new class starts, but should be in a continuing PoP, make sure the Enroll Date is before the student's last hours date in the class being duplicated.
In the Staff Options, select whether "Do not include," "Include Primary," or "Include all currently assigned."
Click "Save."
When you are returned to the Class list, the new classes will not be displayed since you subset the classes you wanted to duplicate. You can click the X on the green search tile for 'Subset: Selected Records' to remove the subset.
Duplicating from within the Class Record
To duplicate a class, select the class you intend to duplicate. Open the class record and go to the Enrollment tab. Click the Duplicate Class button.
You will get a Duplicate Class Setup data window to enter in the Status, Term, and Start and End Dates for your class. You can also select whether staff should not be brought over, only primary staff should be brought over, or all staff should be brought over. For the Schedule options, you can select "Do not include any Class Schedules," "Include all Class Schedules," "Scheduled Instruction only ," or "Asynchronous Instruction only."
The student list will automatically display only the students currently enrolled. You can uncheck the box indicating that only enrolled students should display in order to display all students, including those with a status of Left or Waiting. You can indicate which students from the list should be enrolled in the duplicated class by putting checkmarks (or removing checkmarks) from the checkboxes to the left of each name. If you remove the checks from all of the students, the class will be duplicated, but no students will be enrolled.
You will be returned to the original class record, but the class has been duplicated and can be searched for using the title, term or course number. Repeat as needed for additional classes.
The following fields will ‘carry over’ to the duplicated class, if the fields were entered in the original class.
Course Number
Program
Class Keyword
Level
Department
Scheduled Instruction - Automatically included when duplicating from the class grid. Can opt to include or not include it when duplicating from within the class record.
Asynchronous Instruction - Automatically included when duplicating from the class grid. Can opt to include or not include it when duplicating from within the class record.
If the Max Enroll number is less than the number of enrolled students in the class being duplicated, students who exceed the number will be enrolled with the status of Waiting.
Create New Classes
You can also choose to create new classes instead of duplicating. Go to the Class tab and click +Add New Class. Complete the blank class intake form. Once the class is created, enroll students for the new fiscal year.
To enroll, open the class record and click the Enrollment tab.
Click the Enroll button.
Only students who are eligible for enrollment will display on the data chooser (currently enrolled students will not display).
On the data chooser, select the students to enroll by checking the checkboxes.
Enter an Enroll Date at the bottom left of the window, or click Show Selected to display the students if they have different enrollment dates. Show Selected allows you to edit the enroll date if multiple students have been selected.
Click the “Enroll Students” button.
Complete Current FY Classes
Next, complete the current FY classes, unless you plan to leave them active until all students have gone more than 90 days without hours (although there is no need to do so because LACES will calculate and update the Exit Date based on the last hours date after 90 days without hours, automatically). Note that any students who were enrolled in the duplicated classes will still have an OVERALL status of “Active” or “Enrolled” because they are enrolled in the new FY class. Only students who have not received services in the last 90 days or students you know have left should be completed from their classes without being enrolled into new FY classes so that their status is updated to “Left.”
Keep in mind that even if a student's Overall Status is "Left," they won't have an Exit Date until 90 days without activity.
Complete Class
Open the class record. Click the Complete Students button at the Enrollment tab.
Only students whose class enrollment status is "Enrolled" will display on the data chooser.
Check all students by checking the box on the top header row. If there are multiple pages of students, you must select the top row checkbox on all pages.
Enter a Completed/End Date at the bottom left of the window or click Show Selected to display the students.
Show Selected allows you to edit fields on the grid for each student and add grade and fee information. Editable fields are indicated in green.
The Status field at the bottom of the window may be selected to display the status for all students. The status may also be changed on the grid after clicking Show Selected if some students will have a different status. Typically, the status for all students will be Completed Class.
Click the checkbox for "Change Class Status to Completed" to change the class status to Completed.
Click Complete.
All instructors assigned to the class will be updated to the assign status of "Inactive" when the class status is changed to Completed.
A class may be completed when there are waiting or on hold students still in the class. Students who are waiting or on hold may be deleted before completing, but this is optional. Students who waiting or on hold in one class, but completed or left in all other enrollments will still display the overall status of Left.
Auto-complete is configured for clients who opted to have this feature enabled. This allows classes and groups and groups to auto-complete after a configured number of days after the class or group end date, and update all enrolled students to Completed Class, or Left depending on configuration. To see how if your agency is configured for auto-complete, select Agency Settings from the Person Profile drop down menu. Click the Detail panel. If Auto-complete is configured in your agency, you will see:
AutoCompleteClasses = 1
AutoCompleteClassesStudentEnrollStatusToUpdateTo = Completed Class or Left
AutoCompleteClassesXDaysAfterEndDate = ##
Classes that have been auto-completed will have the class status of Auto-completed.
You should still complete your classes at the end of the fiscal year in preparation for the upcoming year. Auto-complete is not intended as a replacement for managing your classes, but is intended to complete classes that were overlooked, or to complete classes left active in previous fiscal years. Students who remain enrolled in a class that was not completed will continue to display the overall status of Active or Enrolled.
Date of Intake: Do NOT change the Intake Date for students each fiscal year. This should always be the date of INITIAL intake into the program and should not be edited unless an error is made.
Students with the Status of Prospective or Waiting: To keep your Current Fiscal Year list of students clean so it only includes students who either have activity with your agency in the year or who are truly still planning to attend, you should update students who are either Prospective or Waiting to Never Attended or Left if you know they no longer intend to attend. There is not a way to batch update students from Prospective/Waiting, so you will need to go to the Student Data tab > Key Info panel of the student record and manually update the status there. Students who are updated to Never Attended or Left who had no activity (Intake Date, Enrollment, Assessments, or Hours) in the fiscal year will be removed from the Current Fiscal Year selection of students.
Data Freeze – The Data Freeze removes the ability for an agency to create FY summaries for the reporting year. The Data Freeze Date is set by the state office. The time between the Data Freeze and Rollover provides the state office time to review and verify the data on the NRS reports. If there are issues in the NRS data after the data freeze, a state office may request that FY summaries be updated after the data freeze but prior to the rollover. After the Data Freeze, an agency can continue to enter data in LACES for the reporting year, but it will not be reflected on the NRS reports (unless the state requests a FY Summary update prior to the Rollover).
Fiscal Year Summary – A "snapshot" of the data required for NRS reporting. For each fiscal year, a student will only have a single FY summary record that includes all relevant NRS data for that reporting year. The FY summary contains cumulative data for the reporting year as of the most recent date the FY summaries were generated.
Move Forward/Push Forward Assessment
An assessment from the previous fiscal year can be "moved forward" to generate the Entry Level for the new fiscal year. Only assessments administered in the last X number of days of the previous fiscal year can be forward to generate the Entry Level for the new year. The default number of days in LACES is 90, but states can request that this be modified so check your state assessment policy or contact your state office if you are not sure of your state policy.
An assessment can only be moved forward to the fiscal year following the year in which it was administered. For example, an assessment from two fiscal years ago cannot be moved forward to set the entry level for the current fiscal year. When you move an assessment forward, it will always be updated to the next fiscal year regardless of the FY your agency is set for.
NRS Participant - a student who is at least 16 years of age at fiscal year intake, has at least 12 hours in the fiscal year and has an NRS approved assessment in the fiscal year.
NRS Reportable - a student who is an NRS Participant and has no other missing or conflicting data in the FY Summary that would prevent the student from being included correctly on the NRS reports.
Rollover - During the Rollover, the agency settings are updated to reflect data for the new fiscal year. This includes:
Assessments - Only students who have an NRS approved assessment within the current fiscal year will display level information. This includes both assessments dated within the new fiscal year and assessments that are moved forward from the previous year. Students who do not have an assessment in the fiscal year will be "Never Assessed this FY".
Current Fiscal Year search (Student area and Staff area) – will return people who meet the Current FY criteria in the new reporting year.
Hours - The Current FY Instruct Hours field will be updated to reflect hours in the new fiscal year.
FY Summaries - after the rollover, the prior year FY summaries can no longer be updated. There are processes in place for students who obtain the GED after the rollover and for the data match imports that update only the specific portions of the prior year FY summary that need to be changed. If there are additional updates needed to the prior year FY summaries other than those noted above, there is a charge associated with making the custom updates.