DPI cuts data‑migration vendor, hires Aurora to steady Infinite Campus rollout
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Summary
The Department of Public Instruction terminated its original data‑migration contractor after performance shortfalls and signed Aurora Educational Technology to pick up statewide data migrations for the Infinite Campus student information system, citing a narrow window to complete cutover tasks before July 1.
Tony Ambrose, executive lead for the K–12 Infinite Campus project at the Department of Public Instruction, told the Legislative IT Committee that DPI has ended a contract with the vendor handling district data migration and agreed to a mutual termination after the vendor failed to meet performance expectations. "We have terminated that contract with that vendor," Ambrose said, adding that the vendor no longer has access to state data and districts were instructed to stop working with the partner.
Ambrose said DPI signed a new contract this week with Aurora Educational Technology, an Illinois firm with recent statewide migration experience. "We've signed the contract on Monday, Aurora Educational Technology. They are the vendor that successfully assisted implementation and data migration in North Carolina," Ambrose said, adding that early work with Aurora has been positive but results will determine whether the June 30 target for going live statewide can be met.
DPI stressed the migration work is complex and staggered across districts: some districts have completed discovery and begun data migration; others will follow a different schedule. Ambrose also called out specific risks beyond data migration — identity authentication, integrations with special‑education records (migrating Tynet data), and the ability of related education services such as eTranscripts and third‑party tools (Choice Ready) to operate at go‑live. "It's not going to work exactly the same way, especially out of the gate," he said, warning of "some level of ugly" during the first weeks after cutover.
Committee members pressed DPI on procurement and cost containment. Ambrose said the cost of replacing the failed vendor plus onboarding Aurora remains below the price of the original contract and that Aurora missed the earlier RFP deadline by a few days, which is why it was not part of the original procurement.
Ambrose said DPI is implementing a generation‑based rollout (six‑month increments) to limit scope and report incremental successes. He told the committee DPI will follow up with regular status updates and provide more detailed KPIs before the next meeting.
The committee asked DPI for a focused update on data migration, identity/authentication plans and contingency steps for summer‑school cutovers, and Ambrose acknowledged districts have made different operational choices (some districts altering or pausing summer school to accommodate cutover work). The committee directed staff to schedule a progress report in June.