DISCIPLINE DATA VERIFICATION PROCESS

On or about June 30 of each year, signed initial verification forms are due from charter schools and LEAs to TOPS (Technical Outreach for Public Schools), DPI’s consultant at NC State’s Center for Urban Affairs and Community Services. LEAs are responsible for collecting school verifications forms (pdf, 30kb) , summarizing and checking the discipline data, and submitting them along with the LEA verification form (pdf, 30kb) . Charter schools are only required to submit the LEA form. Use the following addresses for sending the verification forms, depending on your use of the US Postal Service or package delivery services.

Send US Mail to:
Amy Powell-Moman
NC State University
Urban Affairs
Campus Box 7401
Raleigh, NC 27695-7401

Send packages to:
Amy Powell-Moman
NC State University
Urban Affairs
1101 Gorman Street
Raleigh, NC 27606

The forms document the number of reportable acts, dangerous acts, short-term suspensions, long-term suspensions, and expulsions from each school and each LEA. Receipt of the verification form indicates to TOPS that the discipline records for a particular LEA are complete and are ready for compilation in the state data collection (“master data set”). If the discipline records are in the USDDC, TOPS will pull the data upon receipt of the verification form(s). If discipline records are kept in D-Trak or another approved third party system, the data should be sent to TOPS along with the verification forms. (Data that is emailed must be encrypted.) Old spreadsheet formats for discipline data are no longer accepted.

Local data should not be revised after TOPS compiles data into the state’s master data set. The one exception would be if a discrepancy is discovered during the verification process (see below).

TOPS analyzes the data in the master data set, generates the numbers of reportable acts, dangerous acts, suspensions, and expulsions, and compares them with those reported on the verification forms. If there are no differences between the verification forms and the TOPS analysis, the LEA contact person will be notified by email and asked to send an email acknowledgement back to TOPS. This email exchange will serve as acknowledgement by both parties of the accuracy of the initial verification forms. No final verification form will be needed in these cases.

If there are differences between the TOPS data analysis and the numbers on the verification forms, TOPS will work with the LEA contact person to resolve discrepancies and will make the agreed upon changes in the master data set at TOPS. It is the responsibility of LEA officials to make the same changes in their own data. A final verification form will be generated based on the agreed upon changes and sent via email to the LEA for the Superintendent’s signature.