2026.6.0

Release Date: April 7, 2026

Release 2026.6.0 delivers critical enhancements to credential reporting, assessment logic, and integrations, with a focus on compliance, data accuracy, and client-specific needs. Major improvements include new search/reporting features, expanded duplicate detection, and technical optimizations for exports and integrations.

New Feature Highlight: PoP Summaries Include Outcome Attained Dates

The Period of Participation (PoP) Summary now shows attained dates for key Outcome Measures instead of simple Yes/No values, making it easier to report outcomes by specific date ranges.

What’s Included:

• In the Student > Outcomes > PoP Summary / Measurable Outcomes panel, Outcome Measure columns now display Date Attained, No, or blank instead of Yes/No

• This applies to the following Outcome Measures:

  1. Employed 2nd Qtr (Outcome Measure)

  2. Employed 4th Qtr (Outcome Measure)

  3. Attained SSD (Outcome Measure)

  4. Enrolled PS Ed/Trng (Outcome Measure)

  5. Employed w/n 1 year (Outcome Measure)

  6. Attained PS Cred w/n 1 year (Outcome Measure)

• For each Outcome Measure, new fields support searching and reporting:

  1. A display field showing Date Attained, No, or blank (matches the PoP Summary column)

  2. A Y/N field that preserves the original Yes/No/Empty values, renamed with a Y/N suffix (for example, “Employed 2nd Qtr (Outcome Measure) Y/N”)

  3. A Date Attained field (for example, “Employed 2nd Qtr (Outcome Measure) Date Attained”) for date-based filtering and reporting

• In the All Pops Summary area, default views continue to use the Y/N fields so existing behavior and totals remain unchanged

• All new and renamed fields are available for search, custom views, exports, and reporting wherever these Outcome Measure fields are expected

Why It Helps:

• Enables reporting on how many students attained specific outcomes within a date range (month, quarter, year, or custom)

• Preserves compatibility with existing views and reports that rely on Yes/No outcome flags

• Improves visibility into when key employment and education outcomes are actually attained within a PoP

• Provides a practical workaround for point-in-time NRS-style outcome reporting by leveraging PoP-level dates

New Feature Highlight: First Pre/Post EFL Gain Export

Users can now export Educational Functioning Level (EFL) gains based specifically on the first pretest → first posttest pairing in each subject area, rather than the highest-level test used for OCTAE reporting. This gives programs a clearer, more auditable view of level gains tied directly to a student’s initial assessment.

What’s Included:

• New on-demand export that uses the same mechanism as PIRL (SQL-based .csv generation)

• Pulls data from the existing Student Level Gains logic but changes the selection rules to use:

  • The first pretest in a subject area

  • The first posttest in that same subject area

• Export is driven by the current student selection in the grid

• Includes key student and test fields needed for analysis and audits, such as:

  • AgencyName, LastName, FirstName, StudentID

  • FiscalYearCode / Fiscal Year context

  • SubjectArea

  • PreTestLevel and PostTestLevel

  • PreTestDate and PostTestDate (with the time trimmed from the dates)

  • Instrument / Form / Level split into separate columns for easier filtering

  • Scaled Score for both Pre and Post tests

  • NonNegativeLevelGains, calculated as the non‑negative difference in EFL ordinal levels:

    • max(0, Post OrdinalValue – Pre OrdinalValue)

    • Represents level gains (0, 1, 2, …) rather than scaled-score differences

• Optional Subject Area parameter for narrowing the export (aligned with the report contents)

• Excludes test types that cannot produce an EFL gain, including:

  • Alternative Placement

  • GED

  • HiSET

Why It Helps:

• Gives programs a purpose-built export showing EFL gains from the very first pretest to the first posttest, matching how they want to analyze progress

• Improves audit readiness by making the pre/post pairing logic explicit and transparent

• Supports easier QA and local analysis with:

  • Separate Instrument / Form / Level columns for flexible filtering

  • Pre/Post Scaled Scores to verify gains alongside level changes

  • A clear NonNegativeLevelGains value that measures level movement, not raw score change

• Reduces confusion compared to existing reports that use “highest level” logic for OCTAE, while keeping the PIRL-style export workflow that users already understand

New Feature Highlight: Smarter Duplicate Student Warnings Using Demographics

The duplicate-student check in Student Intake now looks beyond exact first/last name matches and SSN. LACES can flag potential duplicates when a student shares either first OR last name plus matching demographics, helping data entry staff avoid fragmented records even when names don’t line up perfectly.

What’s Included:

• Expanded duplicate detection criteria in Student Intake so that a Potential Match warning appears when:

  • First or last name matches an existing person (but not both), and

  • Birthdate, Sex, Hispanic/Latino, and Race all match

• New “Potential Match on Combination of First or Last Name and Demographics” warning message shown in the intake footer action bar

• Demographic fields added to the duplicate-check model to support the new matching logic

• Person search logic updated to join to demographics and apply the new “name + demographics” matching rules

• Duplicate warnings consolidated into the footer action bar with a clear warning icon, instead of inline fields

• Real-time duplicate checks now fire when users change:

  • First Name, Last Name

  • SSN

  • Birthdate and Sex

  • Hispanic/Latino selection

  • Race checkboxes

• All duplicate triggers (SSN, exact name, birthdate+sex, name+demographics) coordinate so that only one warning message is displayed at a time, with SSN taking top priority

Why It Helps:

• Reduces duplicate student records when nicknames, married names, or family naming differences prevent exact first/last name matches

• Gives data entry staff a clearer, more prominent warning in the footer, making it easier to notice and act before saving a duplicate

• Uses demographics (DOB, Sex, race, Hispanic/Latino) to improve confidence that a “close” name really is the same person

Release Notes

🚀 New features & enhancements

Outcome Attained Dates in Student PoP Summary/Measurable Outcomes panel(LA-22256)
Outcome measures in the PoP Summary/Measurable Outcomes panel now track display the MSG actual date attained, enabling searching and reporting by outcome dates while preserving legacy Yes/No behavior for existing views and reports.

EFL Gain Export (LA-22262)
Introduced a new export/report for Educational Functioning Level (EFL) gain from first pretest to first posttest, with state-aligned logic and filtering for Tennessee programs.

✨ Improvements to existing features

Duplicate Student Detection Enhancements (LA-21898)
Expanded duplicate-warn logic to match on combinations of first/last name and demographic data, reducing the creation of accidental duplicate student records.

🐞 Bug fixes

PIRL Data Extract Updates (LA-22241, LA-22240)
Fixed cases where PIRL outcome fields incorrectly showed “N/A” and added/updated mappings so postsecondary credentials and outcomes are accurately represented in PIRL exports.

Allow Download of Documents with Unicode Characters (LA-21709)
LACES now stores file names exactly as uploaded, including Unicode and special characters, and allows those documents to be downloaded using the same names.

MSG Type 1d Assessment Logic (LA-21575)
Adjusted MSG Type 1d logic so the same non-HSE subtest cannot be counted multiple times across fiscal years; corrected current-year data where applicable.

Students in Agency of Duplicates Reporting – Non‑Binary Inclusion (LA-21582)
Resolved an issue where non-binary students in Agency of Duplicates (AoD) were omitted from NRS Tables 1 and 2, ensuring they are fully included in related totals.

🛠️ Technical changes

TopsPro / CASAS Email Matching Updates (LA-22320)
CASAS import now recognizes multiple potential email fields, improving matching of incoming records to existing LACES students and reducing unintended duplicates.

BE/EE Integration – Tennessee Time Rounding (LA-22104)
Removed rounding rules from imported time values in BE/EE integrations so LACES time totals align more closely with external proxy reports.

Pre/Post Assessment Report Performance Optimization (LA-22268)
Refactored stored procedures for pre/post assessment report logic to improve performance and maintainability, particularly in high-volume reporting scenarios.

Deployment and Infrastructure Updates (LA-22231)
Completed post-release infrastructure work, including cleanup and removal of legacy SFTP and export jobs that are no longer required.

🏛️ State Customizations