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State plans PowerSchool-to-Infinite Campus switch July 1, 2026; DPI warns integrations and data migration will need stop‑gaps
Summary
DPI and NDIT told lawmakers the state will replace PowerSchool with Infinite Campus across 160+ LEAs, with a July 1, 2026 go‑live for core functions. DPI said not all integrations will be ready on day one, a vendor was contracted to extract PowerSchool data for import templates, and districts will be onboarded in cohorts.
Tony Ambrose, lead for the BRIDGE project at the Department of Public Instruction, and Greg Hoffman from the North Dakota Information Technology (NDIT) department presented the state’s plan to move the statewide student information system from PowerSchool to Infinite Campus.
Ambrose said the project’s vision is to transform education data management so administrators and teachers can focus on students. The plan replaces district PowerSchool instances with Infinite Campus at each LEA and adds a statewide roll‑up (a state edition) to consolidate and replace many homegrown systems. The project will split districts into two cohorts (districts with more than 250 students in an earlier wave and districts with fewer than 250 in a later wave); fall 2025 activities begin with district engagement and cohort assignment.
DPI and Infinite Campus will handle imports but the state contracted a third party to assist with extracting data from PowerSchool and converting it into the templates required by Infinite Campus. Ambrose emphasized that while the team is confident the core cutover will occur on July 1, 2026, many integrations and other functions will not be 100% complete on day one; stop‑gap solutions and prioritization plans are being developed so operations can continue even if not all features are ready.
Ambrose described the change management effort: communication teams, open office hours for LEAs, start‑up kits for districts, and data sharing agreements to comply with legislation effective July 1. He said Infinite Campus includes built‑in special‑education functionality (Tynet replacement) and that Infinite Campus will provide ongoing support; the state is still evaluating how Edutech staff roles may evolve.
Lawmakers asked about the need for a third‑party contract for migration, reassigning or absorbing Edutech staff, and whether special education modules and other integrations will be ready by July 1. DPI said Infinite Campus is responsible for importing data into its templates and the contracted vendor’s role is to extract and transform district PowerSchool data to that midway format; funding for the extraction contract came from DPI’s budget rather than the NDIT continuity appropriation.
