2009 - 2010 School District Review Program (Annotation Phase)

School District Review Program
General Guidelines for All Participants

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

2009 - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.

GENERAL INFORMATION……………………………………... 3
A. Background……………………………………………………. 3
B. Purpose of the School District Review Program………………. 3
C. Mapping Coordinator Responsibilities……………………........ 3
D. Schedule………………………………………………………... 4
E. Contact and Shipping Information……………………………... 5
F. Web Sites……………………………………………………..... 5

II.

DESCRIPTION AND USE OF FILES PROVIDED……………... 6
A. County Coverage Files …………………………………………6
B. Inventory and Grade Range Files………………………..…….. 7
• Grade Ranges…………………………………………7
• Examples of Financial Responsibility……………….. 8
• Official School District Names……………………….8
C. Relationship Files..……………………………………………...9
D. Legal Entity Coextensive File……………………….……….…9
E. Spatial Files……………………………………………..…….. 10
• Map Files (PDFs)……………………………….......... 10
• MAF/TIGER Partnership Software (MTPS)……… ...10

III.

DESCRIPTION OF SCHOOL DISTRICT CHANGES……………11
A. Consolidations…………………………………………………. 11
B. Dissolutions…………….………………………………….…... 11
C. Boundary Changes (Legal/Administrative)………………......... 12
D. Boundary Corrections (Types 1 and 2)………………………… 12
E. New Federal LEA ID Numbers………………………………... 13

IV.

How To Document Changes - At A glance…………………………13

ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: Guidelines for the MAF/TIGER Partnership Software (MTPS)
Attachment B: Guidelines for Participants Using the MTPS Verification Module
Attachment C: Guidelines for Participants Using Paper Maps
Attachment D: Guidelines for Completing the Submission Log
Attachment E: Boundary Correction Information for Digital Participants
Attachment F: Supplementary Text File Data Dictionary/Record Layout for
School District Listings
Attachment G: Guidelines for Defining Pseudo School Districts
Attachment H: Directions for Reviewing School Districts in American FactFinder
Attachment I: School District Review Program Flowchart

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

2

I.

GENERAL INFORMATION
A. BACKGROUND
The School District Review Program (SDRP) is a National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES) sponsored program conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau
every two years. It is of vital importance for your state’s allocation under Title I
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as amended by the No Child
Left Behind Act of 2001, Public Law (P.L.) 107-110. The updated school
district boundary information submitted through this program, along with the
Census 2000 population and income data and current population estimates are
used in forming the Census Bureau’s estimates of the number of children aged 5
through 17 in low-income families for each school district. These estimates are
the basis of the Title I allocation for each school district in your state.
The materials you receive in SDRP 2009-2010 reflect the school district names,
Federal Local Education Agency (LEA) identification (ID) numbers and
boundaries updated during the 2007-2008 SDRP.
B. PURPOSE OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT REVIEW PROGRAM
The purpose of the 2009-2010 SDRP is for state officials to review the Census
Bureau's 2007-2008 school district information and to provide updates and
corrections to the school district names, Federal LEA ID numbers, boundaries,
and grade ranges. The review encompasses only Type 1 and Type 2 school
districts as defined by the NCES.
•
•

Type 1 is a local school district that is not a component of a supervisory
union.
Type 2 is a local school district component of a supervisory union sharing a
superintendent and administrative services with other local school districts.

This document and its attachments provide state education officials with all
information needed for responding to the 2009-2010 SDRP. You do not have to
read all the attachments. Read those that apply for your participation method.
C. MAPPING COORDINATOR RESPONSIBILITIES
The Mapping Coordinators are the primary liaisons between the Census Bureau
and the local school district officials. It is your responsibility to initiate and
maintain contact throughout the program with your local school district
officials. You must ensure that reviews and submissions are completed within
the time frame of the SDRP.
When you receive updates from your local school district officials, you must
review them for accuracy and completeness before submitting them to the

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

3

Census Bureau. This review includes all types of changes submitted; boundary
changes, consolidations, grade range updates, etc. It is the Mapping
Coordinator’s responsibility to resolve any problems found in these submissions
or discrepancies between school districts boundaries.
Once you feel certain that all of the information submitted is correct, in the
proper format, etc, submit this information to the Census Bureau.
Attachment I contains an Operational Flowchart to help you understand how
the process should flow.
D. SCHEDULE
We request that the school district information that you submit reflect the school
districts as they exist, or will exist, on January 1, 2010. Please contact us
immediately if you are concerned that you may not be able to meet deadlines as
outlined below.
Program Timetable
•

May 2009 - National Center for Education Statistics letter is sent to Title I
coordinators asking for designation of a school district mapping coordinator
for each state and the District of Columbia.

•

August 2009 - Mailout of program instructions and annotation materials to
designated state school district mapping coordinators begins.

•

September 2009 - Deadline for requesting paper copies of school district
maps.

•

October 2009 - Deadline for submitting school district changes during the
annotation phase. We strongly encourage our partners to submit changes as
soon as possible rather than waiting until this deadline. If your state is
submitting a large number of changes, please send them on a flow basis rather
than waiting to send the entire state. In order to participate in the 2009-2010
SDRP’s verification phase, the Census Bureau must receive all your
school district updates before October 31st, 2009.

•

February 2010 – Review of verification materials begins.

•

April 2010 – Deadline for submitting school district changes during the
verificaton phase.

•

November 2010 - Release of preliminary estimates based on the updated
school district geographic framework.

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

4

E. CONTACT AND SHIPPING INFORMATION
We encourage you to contact any of the following Census Bureaus geographic
staff with any questions about the SDRP:
•
•
•
•

Ms. Colleen Joyce (301) 763-5890
Ms. Pat Ream (301) 763-9042
Mr. Ian Millett (301) 763-9038
Ms. Lyndsey Abel (301) 763-1114

•
•

E-mail: geo.school.list@census.gov
Fax number: (301) 763-4710

Shipping Address
Mr. Ian Millett
Geography Division
U.S. Census Bureau
4600 Silver Hill Rd., Rm. 4H136F
Washington, DC 20233-7400
F. WEB SITES
2009-2010 School District Review Program Web Page
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/schdist/sch_dist.html
Initially, the site will contain only general information about the program, but
links to the Annotation Phase materials will be available soon after CDs/DVDs
have been shipped. You may want to use this website to distribute review
materials to local school district superintendents or others who may be able to
participate by reviewing their local areas online.
Your CD/DVD contains various Annotation Phase materials that you will need
to participate in the program (explained in section II below). If you are a nondigital participant, all of the text files and PDF map files that are provided on
the CD/DVD will be available on the Census Bureau's 2009-2010 School
District Review Program web site. If you are a digital (shapefiles) participant,
only the text files provided on the CD/DVD will be available on the Census
Bureau’s 2009-2010 School District Review Program web site (go to
www.census.gov and click on “Geography” then click on “Geographic
Programs”). Shapefiles will not be posted to the web site
After we have completed processing your submissions, you will be notified by
email when the verification materials for your state are ready for review so that
you can verify we have processed all of your state’s changes correctly.

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

5

If you are a digital (MTPS) participant, you will be using the MTPS Web
Viewer to review your school district boundaries for the 2009-2010 SDRP.
Attachment B contains guidelines and instructions for using the MTPS Program
Viewer/Editor.
If you are a non-digital participant, PDFs for the counties in which there were
school district changes reported will be posted to the website noted above.
Attachment C contains information regarding the Verification process.

Census Bureau's American FactFinder Web Site
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en
All current school district boundaries can be reviewed by visiting our American
FactFinder (AFF) web site (go to www.census.gov and click on the “American
FactFinder” link on the left). Instructions are found in Attachment H.

II.

DESCRIPTION AND USE OF FILES PROVIDED
The program materials CD/DVD contain a number of important files. Depending on
the particulars of your state’s school district geography and how your state
participates in this program, some files may not be included in the package sent.
The potential files include:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.

County Coverage File (All States)
Inventory and Grade Range File (All States)
Relationship File (Limited States)
Legal Entity Coextensive File (Limited States)
Spatial Files (Limited States)
1. PDF Map Files (Limited States)
2. Shapefiles (Limited states)
F. MAF/TIGER Partnership Software (MTPS) (Limited States)
A description of each file and how each one should be used to report
updates/corrections is below.
NOTE: It is recommended that Word Pad be used to open text files due to how
they are formatted. Otherwise, margins and page orientation will have to be
changed to accommodate the text.
A. COUNTY COVERAGE FILE (All States)
The County Coverage File is named "_County_Coverage_A.txt” (see
Attachment F for record layout). The file contains two sets of records: one set
sorted by school district (arranged to show the county or counties in which a

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

6

school district is located) and the other set sorted by county (arranged to show
the school districts that are located in each county.) Each set includes a separate
record for each unique school district/county combination.
This County Coverage file reflects the boundaries of the 2007-2008 school
districts as shown on the school district maps. Use this file to locate each school
district and to review the extent of the areas of each school district as they relate
to counties.
B. INVENTORY AND GRADE RANGE FILE (All States)
The Inventory and Grade Range File is named "_SD_Inventory_A.txt"
(see Attachment F for record layout). The file is a listing of all the 2007-2008
school districts that the Census Bureau has in its database and includes the
school district name, Federal LEA ID number, level, type, and grade range. We
request that you carefully review the information contained on this listing and
provide us with updates and corrections.
Note: Because the Census Bureau requires complete school district coverage in
its geographic database, this file may contain school districts that are not Type 1
or Type 2. These are flagged in the file as follows: Pseudo (A) (See
Attachment G for more information on Pseudo school districts.), Department
of Defense (B), Interstate (C), and BIA (D). This file also flags school districts
within a state or county that have the same name but different Federal LEA ID
numbers with an E. In these situations the LEA numbers are the means to
identify unique school districts that share the same name.
Also, we have discovered that some states contain elementary school districts
without secondary coverage. We request that these states pay special attention
to the grade ranges on the list and let us know what the secondary coverage
should be or let us know why there is no secondary coverage. Those states are:
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ

California
Connecticut
Illinois
Indiana
Maine
Michigan
Missouri
New Hampshire

ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ

New Jersey
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Oregon
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virginia
Washington

Grade Ranges
The grade ranges included in this file indicate the grade ranges for which
each school district is financially responsible. We use original obligation,

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

7

not the provision of educational services, to define financial responsibility.
We use this set of grades, based on financial responsibility, to assign the
data for each child to exactly one school district.
Examples of Financial Responsibility:
A school district is financially responsible for the education of all children
in a geographic area if it is the only district serving that area. It may meet
that responsibility by 1) operating schools that provide education to children
in all grades, or 2) by operating schools that provide education for children
in some grades and paying another school district to provide education for
the children in the remaining grades, or 3) not operating any schools, but
paying another school district to provide education to all the school district's
children.
If the children in a geographic area are served by an elementary school
district, and also served by a separate high school district that receives no
payment from the elementary district, then the two school districts share the
geographic area and financial responsibility is divided between them. The
grade ranges on the listing should show which district is financially
responsible for the children in each grade. The grade ranges listed for each
of the two school districts must not overlap, and every grade must be
assigned to one of the school districts.
Responsibility for a particular grade exists even if, from time to time, there
are no children in that grade living in the service area of the school district.
Thus, a school district that is responsible for providing 6th grade schooling
should appear on the listing with the "6th grade" in its grade range, even if
there are no actual 6th grade students living there.

Official School District Names
The official school district name should be its legal name including any
state-used descriptive wording, such as "Independent School District",
"Consolidated School District" or "Supervisory Union."

How do I submit changes to the Inventory and Grade Range File?
Submit grade range and name changes to the Census Bureau as follows: (Do
not include these changes in any shapefile.)
•

Include all changes in the Submission Log (see Attachment D ), or

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

8

•

Print a paper copy of the School District Inventory and Grade Range file and
then annotate changes on it.

C. RELATIONSHIP FILES (Limited States)
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont are states where school districts are
commonly coextensive with one or more incorporated places and/or county
subdivisions (towns, townships, boroughs, etc.). Please review the relationships
listed in the file named: _SD_by_SD_A.txt to ensure that your school
districts are maintaining the correct relationships with the aforementioned legal
governmental entities. Similar to the County Coverage files, this file contains
records for each school district/incorporated place and school district/county
subdivision combination.
The _SD_by_SD_A.txt file is sorted by Federal LEA ID number (for use
in reviewing the local governments that are associated with each school
district).
Currently, the Census Bureau maintains these coextensive relationships without
the need for states to submit boundary corrections for the listed school districts.
All changes to incorporated places and county subdivisions are obtained
through the Census Bureau's annual Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS).
Boundaries of these school districts are updated accordingly. Please review
these listings and notify us where we should no longer maintain a coextensive
relationship, or where we should create and maintain a new relationship.

D. LEGAL ENTITY COEXTENSIVE FILE (Limited States)
The Legal Entity Coextensive File, named
"_Coextensive_Coverage_A.txt," (see Attachment F for record layout)
is being provided to Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia
because some of the school districts are coextensive with legal entities such as
counties, county equivalents, or incorporated places.
The Census Bureau maintains these coextensive relationships without the need
for states to submit boundary corrections for the listed school districts. All
changes to counties, county equivalents and incorporated places are obtained
through the Census Bureau's annual BAS. Boundaries of these school districts
are updated accordingly. Please review these listings and notify us where we
should no longer maintain a coextensive relationship, or where we should
create and maintain a new relationship.

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

9

If your state did not receive a Relationship File or a Legal Entity Coextensive
file, we also would like to know if there are school districts in your state that are
legally coextensive with local governments.

How do I make corrections to the “Relationship” and/or “Legal Entity
Coextensive” Files?
•
•

Annotate changes on a printed copy of one of the files provided, or
Create a new file in the same format and include deletions and additions.

E. SPATIAL FILES (Limited States)
Participants have the option of submitting their updates by annotating paper
maps or using the MTPS. The following files are provided:
MAP FILES (PDFS) (Limited States)
The Census Bureau created a set of school district annotation maps,
provided as PDFs, for those states that do not submit their school districts
using digital GIS files.
See Attachment C for instructions on using PDF map files (Paper Map
Instructions).

MAF/TIGER PARTNERSHIP SOFTWARE (MTPS)
If your state is receiving shapefiles, you will also receive a customized
software application created by the Census Bureau called the MTPS.
The MTPS uses spatial and tabular data from the MAF/TIGER Database,
enabling participants to review and modify their school district boundaries
and return a file to the Census Bureau in a pre-approved, standard format.
To get an idea of how the MTPS works, you can view the computer based
training (CBT) on the 2009-2010 School District Review Program web site.
Instructions for using the MTPS are included in Attachment A.
Please do not hesitate to contact the Census Bureau if you encounter any
technical questions/issues. Also, you can send an email or call any of the
census geographic staff listed in the “Contacts” section on page 5.

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

10

III. DESCRIPTION OF SCHOOL DISTRICT CHANGES
A. CONSOLIDATIONS
Most new school districts are the result of school district consolidations.
Consolidations can be:
•

Simple: Simple consolidations are when two or more school districts merge
and the outer boundaries of the former school districts remain the same.

•

Complex: Complex consolidations are when two or more school districts
merge and the outer boundary of the new school district changes.

B. DISSOLUTIONS
There are two ways in which a school district can be dissolved:
•

Simple: Simple dissolutions are when one school district acquires the entire
area of one or more dissolving school districts.

•

Complex: Complex dissolutions are when two or more school districts
acquire the area of one or more dissolving school districts and/or there are
additional boundary changes.

How do I submit updates for SIMPLE consolidations and dissolutions?
Do not submit these changes on a map or shapefile.
We require the following information on the Submission Log only:
•
•
•
•
•

the name of the new or remaining school district,
its Federal LEA ID number (if known),
financially responsible grade ranges for the new or remaining school
districts,
the names and Federal LEA ID numbers of the old school districts that make
up the consolidation or dissolution, and
the names and/or FIPS codes of the counties in which the new or remaining
school district is located. See Attachment D for more information.

How do I submit updates for COMPLEX Consolidations and Dissolutions?
You must annotate or digitize and submit new boundaries spatially using
Census Bureau supplied paper maps or shapefiles.
If using the MTPS to submit complex consolidations and dissolutions, the
information is automatically entered into the Submission Log within the MTPS.

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

11

If you are using paper maps to modify boundaries, you must create an entry in
the Submission Log spreadsheet and enter the appropriate information for each
type of change you make. See Attachment D for a Submission Log example.

C. BOUNDARY CHANGES (LEGAL/ADMINISTRATIVE)
Legal/Administrative boundary changes occur when a school district annexes a
part of another school district, not when a school district dissolves completely
into (an)other school district(s).

D. BOUNDARY CORRECTIONS
The Census Bureau is offering SDRP participants the option to correct any
legitimate boundary differences (not minor drafting corrections) existing
between their boundaries and the Census Bureau’s boundaries.
It is very important to avoid adding a line or editing a line unless it is absolutely
necessary.
It is necessary to add a line only if:
1. You will use the line for a school district boundary. Do not add a line
unless it will be part of a boundary. The Census Bureau will canvas
the country and add features during the 2010 Census. Therefore, only
add a line that you will use for a school district boundary.
2. There is not a pre-existing feature within 30 feet of the line you want to
add (parallel to the desired line add). Use the pre-existing feature rather
than adding a new line if the pre-existing feature is within 30 feet.
Adding a line can cause the MTPS to fail. If this occurs, you may need to send
your file to the Census Bureau to be repaired before you can continue your
work. See Attachment E for help in determining if you need to add a line, how
to best add a line to reduce the possibility of MTPS failure and what to do when
errors messages are received.
How do I submit updates for Boundary Changes and Corrections?
You must submit new boundaries spatially using Census Bureau supplied
shapefiles or paper maps, and you must provide an entry in the Submission Log
for each boundary correction or change including the names and LEA ID
numbers of the school districts involved in the school district change.

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

12

If using the MTPS to submit boundary changes and corrections, the information
is automatically entered into the Submission Log within the MTPS.
If you are using paper maps to modify boundaries, you must create an entry in
the Submission Log spreadsheet and enter the appropriate information for each
type of change you make. See Attachment D for a Submission Log example.
E. New Federal LEA ID Numbers
The assignment of Federal LEA ID numbers for school districts that are new for
the 2009-2010 SDRP may not occur before your response to this program. The
Census Bureau will accept the submission of new school districts without
the official Federal LEA ID numbers.
This occurred during the 2007-2008 SDRP, and the Census Bureau assigned
“temp” codes (e.g., 99xxx). In this case, provide us with the valid Federal LEA
ID information on the Submission Log for any school districts assigned temp
codes. See an example in Attachment D.
IV. HOW TO DOCUMENT CHANGES – AT A GLANCE
A. Submit the following changes via a manual entry in the Submission Log:
•
•
•
•
•
•

Name
Grade Range
Level
LEA Code
Simple Consolidation
Simple Dissolution

B. If you make the following changes, you can use the MTPS or paper maps for
the following:
•
•
•
•

Boundary Change and/or Correction
New District
Complex Dissolution
Complex Consolidation
If you use the MTPS, a manual Submission Log entry is NOT necessary for
any changes mentioned in section B.
If you use paper maps supplied by the Census Bureau, a manual Submission
Log entry IS necessary for all school district related changes.

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

13

C. If you make relationship changes, you can annotate changes on a printed copy
of one of the following supplied Census Bureau files, or create a new file in the
same format and include changes, deletions, and additions.
•
•

Relationship
Legal Entity Coextensive

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

14