Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is eSIS and what makes it a good tool for Oregon school districts?
   eSIS is a complete student records management system that operates through a school district’s web server host. eSIS incorporates integrated modules for special education, co-op education, and teacher grade book/lesson planning functionality—all linked to the basic SIS application. The vendor that created eSIS (AAL) tracks and updates changes in Oregon and Federal rules and requirements in multiple areas. Features include:
2. • Student Registration: tracks student registration data from enrollment at any level to high school graduation.
   • Student Demographics: maintains information on individual students such as immunizations, emergency contacts, locker assignments, etc.
   • Attendance: Meets state attendance reporting requirements.
   • Incident and Discipline Tracking: tracks incidents and follow-up actions.
   • Grade Reporting: Allows grade entry and teacher comments; computes GPAs for secondary schools.
   • Master Timetable / Scheduling: Builds student schedules, allows iterative modifications to accommodate changing student, course or staffing needs.
   • Official School Transfers: Records student transfer data.
   • School Set-Up: Enables establishment of school calendars, staff assignments, and room assignments.
   • Reporting: Generates standard and limited custom reports.
   • State Reporting: Meets state and federal state reporting requirements.
   • Teacher Assistant: Enables teachers to enter and review attendance and grades information.
   • Standardized Testing: Manages and reports test scores as required by an individual district.
   • Special Education: Provides a separate module for IEP records.
   • Other: Tracks reduced price meals, medical information, student fees, sports eligibility, career plans, and more. 
     
     
3. What platforms can support the eSIS application?
   The eSIS system operates on the platforms used in most Oregon school districts including Windows, Mac, and Linux.
   
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5. What security measures are used in eSIS?
   Passwords, role authority, and read/edit restrictions govern security. User roles of no access, read-only, or full update are used. These roles extend to all on-line screens and reporting functions. Field level security can also be incorporated, however because of the overhead involved this incurs a significant cost in terms of system performance.  Individual school districts are responsible for establishing any network access via either the Internet or an intranet.
   
   
6. How does eSIS support school districts in meeting ongoing Oregon Department of Education reporting requirements?
   The originating vendor of eSIS (AAL) provides updates of state reporting requirements as part of the maintenance agreement with AAL.  eSIS will provide a method to provide the required information from eSIS to the Oregon Department of Education in the department’s requested format.
   
   
7. What kind of reports does Oregon eSIS provide?
   eSIS has the capability to generate over 500 standardized reports; these reports can be customized by specifying which students to include. There is also a limited capacity to create custom reports.
   
   
8. Does eSIS provide letter writing and label processing capability?
   Yes.  School districts may create a letter and insert eSIS student data (such as address, name, date of birth, etc.) into the letter.  eSIS can generate letters and labels, and even envelopes.  Districts can specify printing a single label per student, a label per family, even a label for non-custodial parents.  The system can also generate a single label for a family with multiple students enrolled in a school or district to reduce the number of mailings to the home address.
   
   
9. How can teachers benefit from using eSIS?
   The "Teacher's Assistant Module" (a module within eSIS) includes an assignment-building capability that can support a teacher's lesson planning process.  It can also connect graded assignments and provide accumulation and weight of marks/grades for the term and final grades for the teacher’s class(es).  In addition, teachers may use the attendance function on a daily or period basis.
   
   
10. Does eSIS provide the capability to track incidents of violence and discipline problems?
    Yes, eSIS has incidence and discipline tracking features.   
    
    
11. Does the system have the ability to edit, interface, and import/export data to/from other software packages?
    eSIS already has preset protocols in the system to interface with SynreVoice, Phonemaster and Edulog. eSIS also has an Export function that allows users to select eSIS data elements in an ASCII delimited (fixed, comma, and tab) format, which can then be exported from eSIS into a target software package such as Microsoft Excel or Word.

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FAQs for all MESD Schools         

FAQs for Portland Public Schools