2011-2012 School District Boundary Review Program (SDRP)

General Guidelines for All Participants

School District Review Program: General Guidelines for All Participants

2011-2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.

GENERAL INFORMATION……………………………………..... 3
A. Background……………………………………………………... 3
B. Purpose of the School District Review Program………………... 3
C. Mapping Coordinator Responsibilities…………………….......... 4
• School District Review Program Flowchart…………...5
D. Schedule………………………………………………………....6
E. Contact and Shipping Information……………………………... .7
F. Web Sites…………………………………………………….......7

II.

DESCRIPTION AND USE OF FILES PROVIDED…………….... 8
A. Inventory and Grade Range Files………………………..……....8
• Grade Ranges……………………………………….…9
• Examples of Financial Responsibility………….……...9
B. Official School District Names…………………………………10
C. County Coverage Files …………………………………………10
D. Relationship Files.………………………………….…………...11
E. Legal Entity Coextensive File……………………….………….11
F. Spatial Files……………………………………………..……....12
• Map Files (PDFs)………………………………..........12
• MAF/TIGER Partnership Software (MTPS)……….…12

ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES:
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: How to add a Line in the MTPS
Attachment F: Data Dictionary/Record Layout for School District Listings
Attachment G: Guidelines for Special Situations: Parcels, Shorelines, and Pseudos
Attachment H: Review Your School Districts Online

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I.

GENERAL INFORMATION
A. BACKGROUND
The School District Review Program (SDRP) is a U.S. Department of Education
(DoED) 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 2010 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 SDRP consists of two phases – the Annotation Phase and the Verification
Phase. In the Annotation Phase, the Census Bureau provides mapping
coordinators with materials containing the most current school district
boundaries and information for their state. The annotation materials you receive
for SDRP 2011-2012 reflect the school district names, Federal Local Education
Agency (LEA) identification (ID) numbers and boundaries updated during the
2009-2010 SDRP. The states review this data and report any changes in the
school district boundaries or attributes to the Census Bureau.
The Verification Phase is when the results of any changes submitted during the
Annotation Phase for the 2011-2012 SDRP are reviewed by the mapping
coordinators, after the Census Bureau has incorporated those changes into the
Master Address Files (MAF)/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding
and Referencing (TIGER) System (MAF/TIGER) database (the Census
Bureau’s geographic database).
B. PURPOSE OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT REVIEW PROGRAM
The purpose of the 2011-2012 SDRP is for state officials to review the Census
Bureau's 2009-2010 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.

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This document and its attachments provide state education officials with all
information needed for responding to the 2011-2012 SDRP.
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
Census Bureau. This review includes all types of changes submitted: boundary
changes, consolidations, dissolutions, grade range updates, etc.
When you receive a boundary change from a school district, it is your
responsibility to contact all the other school districts that would be affected by
the boundary change to ensure this change is valid and all affected parties agree
to said change. It is also the mapping coordinator’s responsibility to resolve any
problems found in these submissions or discrepancies between school district
boundaries.
Once you feel certain that all of the information submitted is correct and in the
proper format, etc., submit this information by county to the Census Bureau.
You have then completed the Annotation Phase of the program.
After the Census Bureau processes your changes, we will create new materials
for you to review. This the Verification Phase. The mapping coordinator is
responsible for reviewing these materials and notifying the Census Bureau if
there are any additional changes or corrections, or if the information is correct.
The program flowchart shown below is to help you understand how the process
should flow.

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School District Review Program Flowchart
1
Annotation
Materials
mailed to
State MC

2
State MC contacts
SD officials for any
changes

5
Thanks for your
Participation

3
SD notifies State
MC if there are/are
not changes

Changes/
Updates for
State?

MC = Mapping Coordinator
SD = School District Officials

4
State MC notifies
Census Bureau

No

Yes
6
School District
makes/submits
changes to
State MC

No

This cycle
(boxes 6, 7 &
8) goes on until
questions are
resolved, being
able to move
onto Box 9

Resolved
Verbally?

No

7
State MC checks
for accuracy &
completeness

Complete and
Accurate?

No

Yes

Yes
9
State MC
submits
changes to
Census
Bureau

Resolve
Verbally with
MC?

12
Updates Made

13
Verification
Materials
posted

This cycle (boxes 9,
10, 11, 8, 6, 7, then
back to 9 OR boxes 9,
10, 11, 8, then back to
9) continues until
questions are resolved,
being able to move
onto Box 12

10
Census Bureau
School District
Team reviews
submissions

Yes

Yes

14
State MC verifies
all changes made
and made
correctly

If changes can be
resolved verbally, loop
through boxes 12, 13,
14, & 15. If not, then
the process goes back
to Box 6 and starts all
over

Submissions
complete and meet
standards?

8
State MC contacts
School District
Official for
resolution

11
Census Bureau
School District
Team contacts
State MC

No

15
State MC notifies
School District
Team of status

Changes to
Verification
Materials?

No

16
Thanks for your
Participation

Yes

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D. SCHEDULE
We request that the school district information you submit reflect the school
districts as they exist, or will exist, on January 1, 2012. Please contact us
immediately if you are concerned that you may not be able to meet deadlines as
outlined below.
Program Timetable
•

June 2011 - 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 2011 - Mailout of program instructions and annotation materials to
designated state school district mapping coordinators begins.

•

December 2011 - 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 by
county, rather than waiting to send the entire state. In order to participate
in the 2011-2012 SDRP’s Verification Phase, the Census Bureau must
receive all your school district updates before December 30, 2011.

•

January 2012 – Review of verification materials begins.

•

February 2012 – Deadline for submitting school district changes during the
Verification Phase.

•

November 2012 - Release of preliminary estimates based on the updated
school district geographic framework.

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

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

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

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Shipping Address
Mr. Ian Millett
Geography Division
U.S. Census Bureau
4600 Silver Hill Rd., Rm. 4H136F
Washington, DC 20233-7400
F. WEB SITES
2011-2012 School District Review Program (SDRP) Web Page
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/schdist/sch_dist.html
Links to the Annotation Phase materials will be available on the 2011-2012
SDRP website soon after you receive your CDs/DVDs. 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, Excel files and PDF map files that are
provided on the CDs/DVDs will also be available on and able to be downloaded
from the 2011-2012 SDRP web site. If you are a digital (shapefiles) participant,
the text files, Excel files, shapefiles, and MTPS software provided on the
CDs/DVDs will also be available on and able to be downloaded from the web
site (go to www.census.gov and click on “Geography”, then on “Geographic
Programs”, then on 2011-2012 School District Review Program). You will
need to contact the Census Bureau for a password in order to download the
MTPS software.
After we have completed processing your submissions, you will be notified by
e-mail when the verification materials for your state are ready for review so that
you can verify we have processed all your state’s changes correctly. Both
digital and non-digital participants will be using the MTPS Web Viewer to
review and verify school district boundaries for the 2011-2012 SDRP. Digital
participants will also be able to download and review their shapefiles using the
MTPS or other GIS software. The Census Bureau will provide instructions for
verifying your boundaries at the same time we notify you that your Verification
Phase materials are available.
Reviewing Current School District Boundaries
All current school district boundaries can be reviewed on the Census Bureau
web site (www.census.gov) either by clicking on the “American FactFinder”
link on the left side of the page or by clicking on “Maps”\“What’s

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New”\”School District Reference Maps” found in the middle of the page.
Instructions for using American FactFinder and the School District Reference
Maps are found in Attachment H.
II.

DESCRIPTION AND USE OF FILES PROVIDED
The data CD/DVD contains 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
Readme.txt on the data CD/DVD contains a complete list of materials your state
will receive. You will see that for convenience purposes, we have provided both a
text file and an Excel file for each listing on your CD/DVD. The potential files
include:
Listings
 Inventory and Grade Range File (All States)
 County Coverage File (All States)
 Relationship Files (Limited States)
 Legal Entity Coextensive File (Limited States)
Spatial Files
 PDF Map Files (Limited States)
 Shapefiles (Limited states)
 MAF/TIGER Partnership Software (MTPS) (Limited States)
A description of each file and how each one should be used to report
updates/corrections are below.
A. INVENTORY AND GRADE RANGE FILE (All States)
The Inventory and Grade Range files are named "_SD_Inventory_A.txt"
and "_SD_Inventory_A.xls" (see Attachment F for record layout). This
file is a listing of all the 2009-2010 school districts that the Census Bureau has
in its database and includes the school district name, Federal LEA ID number
(SDLEA), level, type, and grade range. We request that you carefully review the
information contained on this listing and provide us with updates and
corrections.
Please 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 Bureau of Indian Affairs [BIA]
(D). This file also flags school districts within a state or county that have the
same name but different Federal LEA ID (SDLEA) numbers with an E. In these

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situations the SDLEA 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:









Arizona
California
Connecticut
Illinois
Michigan
Missouri
New Hampshire
New Jersey









New York
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Oregon
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virginia

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,
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.

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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

•

Update either the School District Inventory and Grade Range text or Excel
file, not both, with all grade range changes, additions (new school districts)
and deletions (deleted school districts) making clear what you are changing
by either highlighting, changing text color, text bolding, adding, crossing
out, etc. the changes.

•

Send the Submission Log or updated file by e-mail to
geo.school.list@census.gov.
IMPORTANT: Please contact the Census Bureau if you have a significant
number of name and/or grade range changes.

B. COUNTY COVERAGE FILE (All States)
The County Coverage files are named "_County_Coverage_A.txt” and
"_County_Coverage_A.xls” (see Attachment F for record layout). The
text file contains two sets of records: one set sorted by school district (arranged
to show the county or counties in which a school district is located) and the
other set sorted by county (arranged to show the school districts that are located
in each county). The Excel file contains only one data set, sorted by county.
Each set includes a separate record for each unique school district/county
combination.
The County Coverage file reflects the boundaries of the 2009-2010 school
districts as shown on the school district maps and shapefiles. 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.

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C. SD/GEO RELATIONSHIP FILE (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_GEO_Relationship_A.txt or
_SD_GEO_Relationship_A.xls to ensure that your school districts are
maintaining the correct relationships with the aforementioned legal
governmental entities (See Attachment F for record layout). Similar to the
County Coverage files, this file contains records for each school
district/incorporated place and school district/county subdivision combination.
Both the _SD_GEO_Relationship_A.txt and the
_SD_GEO_Relationship_A.xls files are sorted by Federal LEA ID
number (SDLEA) for use in reviewing the geographic relationship between the
local governments (towns, townships, boroughs, etc.) and each school district.
Currently, the Census Bureau maintains these 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 relationship, or where we should
create and maintain a new relationship.
D. LEGAL ENTITY COEXTENSIVE FILE (Limited States)
The Legal Entity Coextensive files named
"_Coextensive_Coverage_A.txt," and
"_Coextensive_Coverage_A.xls," (see Attachment F for record layout)
are being provided to Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia
because some of their 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.

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Please Note: If your state did not receive an SD/GEO Relationship File or a
Coextensive Coverage 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 “County Coverage”, “Relationship”
and/or “Legal Entity Coextensive” Files?
•

Update either the text file or the Excel file, not both, with all changes,
additions, and deletions making clear what you are changing by either
highlighting, changing text color, text bolding, adding, crossing out, etc. the
changes.

•

Send the updated file(s) by e-mail to geo.school.list@census.gov.

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. It is possible that this option will not be available for
the next update cycle in 2013-2014.
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,
(the Census Bureau’s geographic database) enabling participants to review
and modify their school district boundaries and return a file to the Census
Bureau in a pre-approved, standard digital format.
Included in the MTPS application is a “Computer Based Training (CBT)”
module. This tutorial provides an automated overview of the software’s
basic functionality along with some additional tools, such as how to select
and edit features. Detailed instructions for using the MTPS are included in
Attachment A.

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Please do not hesitate to contact the Census Bureau if you encounter any
technical questions/issues. You can send an email to
geo.school.list@cenus.gov or call any of the census geographic staff listed
in the “Contacts” section on page 6 of this document.

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Disclosures to Respondents
The Geography Division manages programs to continuously update features, boundaries,
addresses, and geographic entities in the Master Address File / Topologically Integrated
Geographic Encoding and Referencing System (MAF/TIGER) database (MTDB) that is
used to support programs and to conduct the census and surveys. The SDRP program is a
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
sponsored program, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau every two years. The updated
school district boundary information obtained through this program allows the Census
Bureau to create estimates of the number of children in low-income families residing
within each school district which NCES uses as the basis of the Title I allocation for each
school district.
Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 60 hours
per respondent, including time for reviewing instructions, assembling materials,
organizing and reviewing the information, and reporting any needed changes. We
anticipate that an estimated 34 participants will respond. For larger states or states with
many changes, however, the respondent burden may be 120 hours or longer to complete.
Please send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this
collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to:
Paperwork Project
0607-0795
U.S. Census Bureau
4600 Silver Hill Road
Room 3K138
Washington, D.C. 20233
You may e-mail comments to Paperwork@census.gov. Use “Paperwork Project 06070795” as the subject.
Responses to this survey are voluntary. The authority for conducting these activities is
covered under the legal authority of Title 13 U.S.C. Sections 141 and 193.
No agency may conduct and no person may be required to respond to a collection of
information unless it displays a valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval
number. The OMB approval number for this information collection is 0607-0795.

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