NSC SDRP 2019 Verification Guide

Request for Non-Substantive Change to the
School District Review Program (SDRP)
OMB Control No. 0607-0987
U.S. Department of Commerce
U.S. Census Bureau
Purpose
The U.S. Census Bureau, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for
Education Statistics, conducts the School District Review Program (SDRP) annually. The SDRP
gives state officials the opportunity to update and review the Census Bureau’s school district
information. States can provide updates and corrections to the Census Bureau’s database of
Federal School District Local Education Agency (SDLEA) ID numbers, school district names,
school district boundaries, levels, and grade ranges.
Maintaining accurate school district boundaries through annual SDRP updates is vital to estimate
the number of children aged 5 through 17 in families in poverty in each school district. The U.S.
Department of Education allocates Title I funding annually based primarily on the estimates
produced by the Census Bureau.
This non-substantive change request is to update and add the SDRP verification phase materials
from the currently approved Office of Management and Budget (OMB) collection, as described
below.
Background
The current SDRP OMB collection was approved on July 16, 2018 with an expiration date of
July 31, 2021. The Census Bureau has changes to the School District Review Program (SDRP)
Verification Guide. The verification guide is part of the 2019 SDRP verification phase process,
where respondents review their school district boundaries as they now exist in the Census
Bureau’s Master Address File/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing
System (MAF/TIGER).
This non-substantive change is a request to submit a revised copy of the School District Review
Program (SDRP) Verification Guide. In this revised document, pronouns have been replaced for
consistency throughout SDRP Guides. There are also screenshot image updates in processing
procedures and additional minor verbiage updates.
The finalized informational guide does not change the content or objective of the SDRP. The
changes were necessary to reflect the most current SDRP information.

Burden
The burden of the 2019 SDRP is unchanged by this update.
Attachments
SDRP Materials
Changes as part of
this NSC.
Verbiage - pronouns
replaced for
consistency throughout
SDRP Guides.
Screenshot image
updates in processing
procedures. Additional
minor verbiage
updates.

Description
Informational Guides
School District Review Program (SDRP) Verification Guide.

School District Review Program (SDRP)
Verification Guide
Revised December 2018

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U.S. Census Bureau

School District Review Program (SDRP) Verification Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Verification Phase Overview ................................................................................................. iii
Verification Phase Processing Procedures .............................................................................. 1
1.1

Verifying School District Listings ......................................................................................................... 1

1.2

Verifying SDRP Updates in GUPS......................................................................................................... 1

1.2.1

Starting a New Verification Project ...................................................................................................................1

1.2.2

How to Use the Review Change Polygons Tool .................................................................................................7

1.2.3

How to Conduct Verification Review ................................................................................................................7

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Start a New Verification Project ........................................................................................ 2
Table 2: Verifying Annotation Phase Changes ................................................................................ 8

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Review Change Polygon Tool ........................................................................................... 7

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Verification Phase Overview
During September 2018, the U.S. Census Bureau (Census Bureau) delivered the annotation
phase materials for the School District Review Program (SDRP) to mapping coordinators in the
fifty states and the District of Columbia. During the fall of 2018, the mapping coordinators
collaborated with school district officials for a review of the boundaries to submit any school
district updates to the Census Bureau through the SDRP. Upon receipt of school district
boundary updates, the mapping coordinators were responsible for reviewing, adjudicating,
annotating, and submitting digital files and/or submission logs to the Census Bureau for
insertion into the Census Bureau’s Master Address File/Topologically Integrated Geographic
Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) System.
Based on submissions from the mapping coordinator, the Census Bureau reviewed and updated
school district boundaries and attributes according to the established SDRP criteria and
guidelines. In some cases, the Census Bureau made minor changes to ensure that the school
district boundaries meet the criteria outlined in the SDRP guidelines.
The verification phase of the 2019 SDRP is the opportunity for mapping coordinators and school
district officials to review their school district boundaries as they now exist in MAF/TIGER. New
updates to school districts are not accepted during the verification phase. Verification phase
materials are provided to all mapping coordinators who submitted annotation updates by the
December 31, 2018 deadline. Any submissions received after the December 31, 2018 deadline
may not be included in the verification phase materials.
This document provides information for reviewing school district attributes and boundaries.
Verification phase procedures for the school district listings tables are in Section 1.1, while
school district boundary verification procedures are located in Section 1.2.


If the delineation of the school districts is found to be correct, the Census Bureau
requests that mapping coordinators communicate this by e-mail to
geo.school@census.gov.



If school district updates (both spatial and attribute) need to be made during the
verification phase, please contact the SDRP team at geo.school@census.gov or
(301) 763-1099 before making any changes. This is to allow for an evaluation of the
proposed updates and to determine the best method for the mapping coordinator to
submit those updates.



No response by the deadline stated in the verification phase email notification is
considered acceptance that the Census Bureau made updates correctly.

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Verification Phase Processing Procedures
1.1

Verifying School District Listings

The Census Bureau requests that mapping coordinators review relevant listings including the
following: Inventory and Grade Range (all states), County Coverage (all states), Coextensive
Coverage (limited states), and Relationship (limited states). Verification of the data contained
in these listings ensures that all school districts in a state are correct and spatial relationship(s)
with other geographic entities are correctly recorded and maintained. These files are available
in both a text and Excel format. The mapping coordinators need only to review each applicable
listing in one format.
Note: Due to the formatting of the text documents, please use Microsoft WordPad or any text program
like WordPad to open them. Otherwise, the margins and page orientation will have to be
changed to accommodate the text.


The Inventory and Grade Range (_SD_Inventory_V.txt and _SD_Inventory_V.xls) file is
a listing of all Census Bureau school districts in MAF/TIGER and includes the school district
name, Federal School District Local Education Agency (SDLEA) ID number, level, type, and grade
range.



The County Coverage (_County_Coverage_V.txt and _County_Coverage_V.xls) file is a
listing containing county-to-school district relationships. There is a separate record for each
unique school district/county combination.



The Coextensive Coverage (_Coextensive_Coverage_V.txt and
_Coextensive_Coverage_V.xls) file is a listing of school districts that are coextensive with
legal entities such as counties, county equivalents, or incorporated places. Please Note: Only
those states that received this listing in their annotation phase materials will receive one in their
verification phase materials.



The Relationship (_SD_GEO_Relationship_V.txt and _SD_GEO_Relationship_V.xls) file
is a listing of school districts that are commonly coextensive with one or more incorporated
place and/or county subdivision (town, township, borough, etc.). Please Note: Only those states
that received this listing in their annotation phase materials will receive one in their verification
phase materials.

1.2

Verifying SDRP Updates in GUPS

The table in this section provides step-by-step instructions on how to verify the SDRP
annotation phase changes.

1.2.1

Starting a New Verification Project

To open the GUPS application and begin verifying SDRP updates, follow the steps
in Table 1 below. Before beginning, note that:
1. To practice using GUPS without committing the changes made, simply exit the software without
saving and choose to discard changes when prompted.
2. When changes have been saved, the project can be reopened in GUPS to the last saved state.
3. The computer must be connected to the internet and able to access the Census Bureau’s File
Transfer Protocol (FTP) site.
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School District Review Program (SDRP) Verification Guide

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Note: In all the Action/Result tables, the action is usually a command or action the participant needs to
perform and the Result(s) of the action will be shown in italics. For example: if the participant clicks
the GUPS icon on their desktop, the software should begin to run automatically.
Table 1: Start a New Verification Project

Step
Step 1

Action and Result
Select the Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) Desktop 2.18.15 from the All
Programs Start Menu list.

The QGIS splash screen appears. Note: QGIS is the open-source platform on which GUPS is
built.

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Step

Action and Result

Step 2

Click the Next or Previous buttons to review the QGIS System tips. To disable QGIS Tips on
start-up, click the I’ve had enough tips, don’t show this on start up any more! button.

Step 3

To begin a GUPS project, close the QGIS Tips! Box by clicking the OK button. The box closes
and the Map Management dialog box opens, as shown below.

Step 4

In the Map Management dialog box, use the drop-down menu next to the Program field to
select program, ‘Boundary and Annexation Survey’, then Sub Program ‘School District
Review Verification by County’.

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Step

Action and Result

Step 5

In the State field, use the drop-down menu to select a state. The scroll bar to the right
allows moving up and down the list of states.

Step 6

In the Working County field, use the drop-down menu to select the county to verify. The
scroll bar to the right allows moving up and down the list of counties.

Step 7

After selecting the working county, GUPS asks to specify the location from which to load the
county’s shapefile. The Select Data Folder, Directory or Location box opens.

GUPS will only ask to specify a data download location once per project. When a project has
been closed and reopened, the shapefiles automatically load, even if no changes were made
during the first session.

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Step

Action and Result

Step 8

In the Select Data Folder, Directory or Location box drop-down menu, select Census Web
from the dropdown menu.

Step 9

When Census Web is chosen, the shapefile for the county begins to load and progress is
displayed by a blue striped bar (color may vary), with the percentage of the upload
completed displayed to the right.

If a selected working county has no verification phase partnership shapefiles, GUPS will
notify that the chosen county has no data to verify.

Step 10

U.S. Census Bureau

After the files load, GUPS returns to the Map Management box. A list of counties in the
state appears at the bottom of the Map Management box. Associated counties (counties
that share school districts with the chosen working county) are highlighted in yellow and are
checked.

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Step

Action and Result

Only select associated counties needed to complete a project. Loading additional associated
counties may slow the performance of GUPS. GUPS allows a maximum of 10 associated
counties.

Step 11

In this example, all neighboring counties, Adams, Henderson, McDonough, and Schuyler
Counties are selected. Click the Open button at the bottom of the Map Management dialog
box.

Step 12

GUPS will automatically download the associated counties from Census Web. The progress
is displayed by the blue striped bar (color may vary), with the progress percentage noted to
the right.

Step 13

GUPS unzips and copies the files to the GUPS home directory, then loads them into the
application. The map management screen will show the project loading followed by a
progress bar with the message “Starting GUPS.” The data layers for Hancock County appear
in the Table of Contents and the maps for the selected adjacent (or other selected) counties
appear next to the working county in Map View.

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Step

1.2.2

Action and Result

How to Use the Review Change Polygons Tool

The Review Change Polygons tool is used to verify annotation phase changes. Access the tool
via the SDRP toolbar. This tool can toggle between annotation change polygons or verification
change polygons, selected via their respective radio buttons (Figure 1).
The tool filters change polygons by school district geography. For example, to review
elementary school district change polygons, use the Geography filter to select elementary
school district. A record for each change polygon will display in the info list with attributes that
include Info, Area in Acres, Justification (will be blank), Relate, and Change Type. Selecting a
record will zoom to that change polygon in the map view. Exit the tool by clicking the Close
button.

Figure 1. Review Change Polygon Tool

1.2.3

How to Conduct Verification Review

Verification is the process of reviewing the changes that the Census Bureau incorporated
through the annotation phase into MTDB for accuracy and completeness. To begin the review,
follow the steps in Table 2.

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Table 2: Verifying Annotation Phase Changes

Step

Action and Result

Step 1

Begin by selecting the Review Change Polygon button in the SDRP toolbar.

Step 2

Step 3

The Review Change Polygon tool opens and docks below the layers panel.

Select the Annotation radio button and choose Elementary School District. The Review
Change Polygon info list populates with records for all Elementary School District change
polygons. Select the first record “a0670 La Harpe Carthage Consolidated.”

The Verification radio button is used to review changes created during the verification
phase, if applicable.

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Step

Action and Result

Step 4

The Annotation School District Changes layer will automatically turn on and the map view
will zoom to the extent of the selected change polygon. The change polygon indicates that
Carthage Elementary and La Harpe Elementary are part of a complex consolidation.

Select the second record from the review change polygons info list. The map view will
automatically zoom to the extent of the chosen change polygon.

Using the Annotation School District Changes layer in the Layer Panel as reference, the
chosen change polygon is a boundary correction (the light green symbology of the change
polygon matches the symbology for boundary correction in the Annotation School District
Changes layer). Since boundary corrections must follow complex consolidations, this
indicates that the complex consolidated school district was done correctly.
Step 5

Once all changes have been confirmed as correct, send an email to the Census Bureau at
geo.school@census.gov indicating that all changes have been accepted.
If school district updates need to be made during the verification phase, contact the SDRP
team at geo.school@census.gov or (301) 763-1099 before making any changes. This is to
allow for an evaluation of the proposed updates and how best to submit those updates.

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