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SSD pilots countywide student data platform with Hancock Place; districts can opt into full adoption or connector-only
Summary
Chief technology officer Doug Austin briefed the governing council on an EDFI-based data warehouse pilot ("Kids") built with MORNet; Hancock Place is the pilot district. SSD said the platform aims to centralize SSD and partner-district data and that full adoption carries a $5,000 initial implementation fee plus ongoing per-student licensing, while a connector-only option would have no partner-district licensing fee.
Doug Austin, SSD's chief technology officer, presented a countywide data-integration project intended to centralize student information from SSD and partner districts in a single EDFI-based data warehouse. The platform was developed in partnership with the Missouri Research and Education Network (MORNet) and is piloting with Hancock Place School District.
"What we wanted to do is bring together all of those data points into a single system to allow better data-driven decisions for students," Austin said. He described two participation options for partner districts: full adoption, which SSD said would require an initial $5,000 implementation fee and an ongoing per-student license (cited as about $3 per student per year), or a connector-only approach that supplies SSD with the data needed for students receiving SSD services without charging the partner district a licensing fee.
Austin said SSD has built the platform, connected its IEP system and its student-information system (Focus K12), and is working with Hancock Place to finalize data mappings before synchronizing in January and rolling out training in spring. The pilot will inform timing and technical-resource estimates for onboarding additional partner districts.
Questions from council members focused on costs, timing and workload for partner-district IT staff. Austin said SSD covered the special-education connectors and that the fee structure for full adoption is intended to reflect licensing costs for partner districts that wish to use the platform for their general-education populations.
Why it matters: Council members heard the platform described as a tool to reduce the need for SSD staff to compile information from multiple district systems in advance of evaluations or IEP meetings. Austin said the aim is a single place to view key indicators to inform educational decisions while respecting each district's existing systems.
Austin said the first full pilot (Hancock Place) will provide practical data on time and staffing requirements; SSD will then reach out to partners to discuss adoption options and schedules.
