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Student Information System --> Siras
Contact Data Transfer File Specification
SIS generally have quite different structures for contact information. We have designed this process to be very flexible with receiving data with several variations.
- Each row in the file should represent a parent, guardian, or emergency contact for communications regarding the student.
- The core required data elements are the Student identifying info (primary key SSID), the Contact's Name, Phone Number(s) and Address
For other elements: Relationship, Indexing, Phone Types, and Contact Type-related fields, there are some different options and most are not required. Siras will map and read the headers, and convert the data to our own structure. Therefore the columns are not required to be in any specific order, only to have meaningful headers.
| Column Header | Data | Notes | |
|
SSID |
10 digits |
Required KEY1 * |
|
|
LOCAL_ID |
String |
This should be the identifier for the student record that is in the Student Information System. |
|
|
STUDENT_FIRST_NAME |
String |
KEY2 * |
|
|
STUDENT_LAST_NAME |
String |
KEY2 * |
|
|
STUDENT_BIRTHDATE |
DD/MM/YYYY or YYYYMMDD |
KEY2 * |
|
|
CONTACT_FIRST_NAME |
String |
Required |
|
|
CONTACT_LAST_NAME |
String |
Required |
|
|
CONTACT_NAME |
String |
Alternate combined name field for when it cannot be split into first/last |
|
|
CONTACT_TYPE |
String |
Guardian/Emergency/Physician/etc. (Can contain custom descriptor string from SIS) |
|
|
RELATIONSHIP |
String |
Mother/Father/etc representing person's relationship to the student. Any string value is accepted. |
|
|
ADDRESS |
String |
Required Street address. |
|
|
CITY |
String |
Required |
|
|
STATE |
String |
Will default to CA if unspecified |
|
|
ZIP |
String |
Required |
|
|
|
String |
Recommended to be populated to facilitate email communication |
|
|
HOME_PHONE |
String |
(optionally, specify phone type as part of the column header) |
|
|
WORK_PHONE |
String |
|
|
|
MOBILE_PHONE |
String |
|
|
|
PRIMARY_PHONE |
String |
(Alternatively, provide primary phone and type in separate column) |
|
|
PRIMARY_PHONE_TYPE |
String |
|
|
|
MAILING_ADDRESS |
Y or N/blank |
* optional, see notes below |
|
|
CURRENT_RESIDENCE |
Y or N/blank |
* optional |
|
|
PRIMARY |
Y or N/blank |
* optional |
|
|
INDEX |
Number |
* optional |
Data Specification
Not all fields are required, but all columns require a descriptive header. The ordering of the columns is not important, because the header is used for data mapping.
Alternate headers (such as synonyms, replacing underscore with space, or lower case) are supported, if they are clear enough to be mapped. Siras will review the headers and map as needed.
File should contain only those students who are enrolled in the Special Ed. or 504 Programs if possible. Special Ed. and 504 contact data may be provided in a single, or separate files.
If this is not possible the contact file is allowed to contain the entire general ed student population, it is just slower to process nightly.
The primary and secondary contacts will appear on the IEP forms so it is important that at least one of the measures to ensure the correct priority is observed (see Data Processing Notes below).
File Specification
Filename can be anything but for clarity it is preferred: "0000000_contacts.csv" substituting 0's for the 7 digit CDE district code.
File format must be one CSV, XLS, XLSX
File is expected to be uploaded to SIRAS SFTP in the district home directory daily, weekly, or as frequently as updates are required
Contact data will be replaced in SIRAS for each matched student record nightly
Data Processing Notes
We assume the first contact is Primary, second is Secondary, etc. if not specified otherwise.
If SIS happens to export out of order, for ex. the Last contact as first and Primary contact last,
then the optional INDEX field can be used to indicate which contact truly is the Primary,
Secondary, etc. Alternatively in lieu of INDEX or export order, PRIMARY can be set to Y which is equivalent to setting an INDEX of 0.
The MAILING_ADDRESS property (Y/N) is used to indicate specific contacts for batch label printing from Siras.
The CURRENT_RESIDENCE property (Y/N) should be unique to one record. If unspecified the Primary contact will
be assumed to be the current residence.
KEY1: SSID, state assigned unique student ID
KEY2: Alternate Key Fields for younger students with no SSID yet
Contact Priority, optional data. We recommended using only those of these which may match how the SIS stores contact data.
For many integrations, we have found that all of these parameters are best left unspecified because the SIS does not have a matching data structure, and it is better to assume the first contact in the file is the Primary Contact, Mailing Address, and Current Residence.
INDEX: Not required if the first line in the file is the Primary Contact.
An INDEX of 0 will be the Primary Contact, 1 will be Secondary, 2 would be Tertiary.
MAILING_ADDRESS: Siras flags any number of contacts as the mailing address(es). If not present, the primary contact will be the only mailing address.
Any contact with Y can be a mailing address.
CURRENT_RESIDENCE: Only one contact can be the current residence, where the student lives.
Not required if the primary contact is also the Current Residence - this will be assumed unless otherwise specified.
PRIMARY: The first contact that will be listed on IEP Forms and elsewhere and Siras, synonymous with the lowest Indexed contact.
This optional column is an alternate way to specify the index, and is not required if either natural sequence of contacts is the correct indexing, or if INDEX is specified.
