IRS

Information and Reporting Services

Level 1 Host-Child (L1HC) application and relationships processing

Overview | Technical procedures || Resources: Level 1 Hosts defined
Hosted LEAs defined | L1HC file specs | Current L1HC Relationships | L1HC FAQ | Support

Overview

A Level 1 Host-Child (L1HC) "relationships file" contains a list of every LEA* (Local Education Agency, or "child" entity) within a given Level 1 (L1) regional data center (or "parent" host entity) where that Level 1 "parent" data center claims to host each such "child" LEA for the entirety of that school year (see also Level 1 Hosts defined below).

*(LEAs are the administrative institutions ultimately responsible/accountable for educational services provided to their students, whether at their own locations or at external placements. LEAs include Public districts, BOCES, Charter schools, Nonpublic schools, and State Agencies or State-operated facilities that provide educational services. See also Hosted LEAs defined below.)

"Hosting" is the act of collecting, validating and moving LEA data from the local level (Level 0, or L0) via the LEA's student management system (SMS), to be collected by the L1 Host center in their regional data warehouse, and then moved to Level 2 (L2), NYSED's statewide data warehouse (also known as the student information repository system, or SIRS). The L1 Host goes through a series of steps to collect and move LEA records from L0 to L2. An L1 data center will collect student (and staff) records from the LEA (usually through the "Level 0 Application" file validation process, hosted at each L1 Host site), make sure that each student is assigned a unique statewide NYSSIS ID, then submit records on the LEA's behalf to be stored in the SIRS for reporting purposes.

At the beginning of each school year, each L1 submits an "L1HC relationships file" to NYSED with the SED code/BEDS code (Basic Education Data System identification number) of every LEA whose data they will be responsible for submitting to SIRS that year.

An L1HC relationship is used to:

  • establish Level 1 access to the NYSSIS application, so that the L1 Host can request NYSSIS IDs on behalf of their hosted LEAs for the current school year, assist L1s in troubleshooting NYSSIS ID-related data issues, and make updates as needed to LEA records in the NYSSIS database;
  • establish the correlation between LEAs and their Level 1 hosts to provide appropriate access to Level 2 reporting systems (such as the L2RPT reports, the PD System, and the Level 0 Historical application, etc.) so that LEAs and L1 Hosts can view records and troubleshoot data issues; and
  • grant permission to select Level 1s (see Level 1 Hosts defined for details) to load data for hosted LEAs into L2's staging platform (called the Level 1 Container, or L1C), from which L2 then pulls data into the SIRS statewide data warehouse.

Technical procedures

  1. A request from NYSED for the first L1HC file submission of the school year will be sent to each L1's designated L1HC Point of Contact (PoC).
    • (L1HC PoCs are designated by each RIC/Big5 statewide data warehouse Project Manager.) This request usually occurs just after the close of SIRS data collection for the most recently ended school year, and just prior to the opening of SIRS for the new school year. If an L1 does not submit a new file at the beginning of a school year, the L1's "child" LEAs are "rolled over" ... in other words, assumed to remain exactly as they were in the L1's last successful file submission, until a new file is otherwise submitted.
  2. An L1 host must submit a file of "child" entities' (hosted LEAs') BEDS/SED codes via Datasupport:
    • Approved L1HC Points of Contact should click the blue Help button to open a Datasupport query form. The PoC may simply type "l1hc" in the "How can we help?" text box and Enter. This should expand the Help query box to show any possibly-related Datasupport articles, and, at the bottom, provide a "Contact us" button that will allow the L1HC PoC to submit the Contact us request form:
      • The L1HC PoC should enter their full name in the "Your name" field.
      • The L1HC PoC should enter their work email in the "Email address" field.
      • The L1HC PoC should enter "l1hc" or "L1HC" anywhere in the "How can we help you?" field.
      • The L1HC PoC should attach their latest L1HC submission file in the "Attachments" field (click inside Attachments to browse/select, or drag from a separate File explorer window and drop into Attachments) .
      • Latest files with valid names and formatting are moved to the L1HC application for processing on the next scheduled weekly run date (Monday mornings; Tuesday mornings when a Monday falls on a New York State holiday).
    • File contents (host and child institutions) are validated against NYSED SEDREF database tables and L1HC file specification business rules.
    • File relationships are checked against the latest Level 2 ACL (Access Control List) reference table.
  3. When all validation checks have been performed (and passed), sets of records are submitted to the following locations for further processing:
    • At NYSED, a current school year relationship record is created (or updated) in the NYSED SEDREF Relationships table (called SED_RELATIONSHIPS). This includes a value of type "1" for access to the NYSSIS application and a value of type "2" for Level 0 Historical and all other P-12 SIRS applications (L2RPT Reports, PD System, etc.). The L1HC process populates both types 1 and 2 for every host-child relationship pairing.
    • At Level 2, a current school year relationship record is created (or updated) in the Level 2 Access Control List (ACL) table. The ACL table includes a unique access control value that determines which L1 center is allowed to load data into the Level 1 Container (L1C) staging tables for each LEA (see Level 1 Hosts defined for further details).

Level 1 Hosts defined

A Level 1 Host Site is any regional data warehouse to whom an LEA first sends its data (to then be submitted to the SIRS on its behalf), or any Big 5 City School District that submits to SIRS directly (on its own behalf), or any third party who may be approved/contracted to move data.

Of the Big 5 CSDs, only NYC submits its own data, therefore NYCDOE is its own "L1". eScholar moves Yonkers data, and is thus the "L1" for Yonkers; Yonkers' record in the L2 ACL table (see technical procedures above) has a distinct code identifying eScholar as the Host allowed to load the L1C on Yonkers' behalf. Syracuse's record in the L2 ACL table shows Suffolk RIC as its host; Buffalo's and Rochester's show WNYRIC as theirs.

Even several RICs do not move their data directly, and contract with another center to act as their "L1" ... The distinction in this case means that while the SED_RELATIONSHIPS table will show that all their LEAs "belong" to them for the purposes of maintaining current access to the NYSSIS and L0H applications' features and/or functions, their LEAs' records in the L2 ACL table will instead show the unique identifier of their chosen "proxy" site, so that the proxy L1 can effectively move the primary RIC's LEAs' data on their behalf.

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Hosted LEAs defined

A hosted LEA (the "child" institution in the so-called "host-child" relationship) is an LEA who is administratively responsible, or accountable, for its students' participation in NYS assessments and whose students' data are collected in the NYSED SIRS data warehouse. LEA "A" submits student records (demographic, enrollment, program services, assessment data, etc.) from its student management system (SMS) to its Level 1 Host Site so that host can, in turn, move the LEA's data into the SIRS.

When an LEA ("B") provides educational services for students sent to them by another LEA (say, LEA "X"), but for such students LEA "B" is not otherwise responsible (i.e., under the terms of NYS Accountability, where the sending LEA – LEA X – is responsible), and when LEA "B" is NOT otherwise administering NYS assessments for its own students, such an LEA is NOT considered a Hosted LEA. (In many cases, Nonpublic and other specialized schools are approved locations for public school districts to place students with special needs and/or to provide specialized educational services. These schools may well have a combination of public district/LEA-placed students, whose records must be sent back to and reported by that public district/LEA who placed them, as well as parentally-enrolled students that are the Nonpub/specialty school's own responsibility, and whose records they must report through their own contracted L1 Host center.)

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L1HC file specification documentation and processing schedule

Detailed instructions for L1s on:

  • how to format submission files,
  • how to determine valid "child" entities by Institution Type and Subtype, and
  • how to submit files via Datasupport

L1HC file specifications documentation

L1HC file submissions sent to Datasupport during the week are processed at NYSED the following Monday morning. Updates to the NYSSIS Relationships table follow, and L1s can then submit NYSSIS ID requests for newly-hosted LEAs.

There may be a lag in processing Relationships at Level 2 (L2), where ACL (Access Control List) updates take place. L1 Hosts and their associated LEAs must be processed in the ACL table in order to permit L1s to access the Level 1 Container (L1C) in order to submit hosted LEAs' student data to L2. Although ACL processing can take place within the same day, we ask that L1s allow 48 hours for L2 to process L1HC before loading data to the L1C for newly-hosted LEAs. Thus L1s should be able to begin loading the L1C by Wednesday morning at the latest.

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Current L1HC Relationships File

Defining the term "current":

  • The Level 2 (L2) statewide data warehouse new/"current" school year (SY) data collection usually begins sometime in early September.
  • Data movement for the current SY continues right through the "calendar end" of the school year (June 30th) and through the subsequent summer months, as data are verified and certified.
  • The L2 data warehouse usually closes toward the end of August, after year-end accountability and other outcomes are finalized.
    • Relationships between a Host and an LEA apply to all statewide/L2 data movement for the duration of a given school year's data collection.
    • An LEA can be hosted by only one Level 1 (L1) Center per school year.
    • An LEA does not have to begin moving data at any specific time during the school year, but once data movement has begun for an LEA, all subsequent data for that LEA must continue to move through the already-established L1 Host Center.

DOWNLOADABLE LISTING of all Level 1 relationships with currently-hosted LEAs:

Listings are sorted by Level 1 Center BEDS Code, then alpha by LEA. Listings are updated weekly Wednesday mornings, by 7:00 am.

Keep in mind:

  • L1HC submissions can come in on a daily basis, and (per above) L1HC files are processed weekly, on Mondays. The above extract files are processed weekly and available early on Tuesdays.
  • L1s can and do submit changes throughout the SY (adding new LEAs, removing LEAs, "swapping" LEAs with another Host -- if and only if the "prior LEA" has not yet submitted data for the current SY for that LEA) so be sure you are working from the latest host-child file for the most accurate information on relationships.

NYSSIS users may still look up any LEA's L1 host center by using the "Host Search" menu feature in the NYSSIS application.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q.01: Questions and answers will be posted here as they arise.

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Further L1HC Support

Most questions about L1HC file processing should be answered by reading the L1HC file specifications documentation. This is a concise list of requirements for data values expected in L1HC submission files and business rules behind them. In addition, some of the most common questions about error notifications may be answered in the L1HC FAQ.

If the file specifications documentation or FAQ do not answer your question, please go to Datasupport and click on the "Systems" area link, then find the "L1HC" section. If there is no article there that addresses the question, use the HELP link to submit an inquiry. In the Help form, please reference the date/time of any error notification email (if you received one), and/or any other applicable details. There is an Attachments area through which you may attach screenshots or other documentation (click inside Attachments to browse/select, or drag from a separate File explorer window and drop into Attachments).

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Last Updated: December 2, 2022