SSN Uses in Local Data Reporting 8/28/2012 Page | 1 As a student registers for school, the registrar enters information from the birth certificate and from a copy of the Social Security Card into Infinite Campus. They do not key in a GTID number, even if the school has paperwork with the GTID printed on it. If a parent signs a waiver stating he will not provide the student’s SSN, a generic SSN is assigned from our pool of state-assigned SSN. Previously, that number began with 800 or 801. In the last couple of years, the federal government began issuing “real” SSN’s beginning with 800 or 801, so this is being changed to 999. State Data Collection Most GaDOE data reporting now uses the GTID. However, in order to get a GTID, we must supply the SSN. This is an attempt to ensure that student information at the state level is linked to the correct student as they transfer from one public school district to another.
The Pre-ID data collection still requires SSN because this data is then sent to 3rd party testing vendors like Pearson and Riverside Publishing, who may or may not be able to accept a GTID. GTID Process We regularly run an extract that selects students without GTID to submit GTID claims with the state GaDOE. SSN is one of the primary matches in GTID. If SSN matches but other data elements such as first name, middle name, last name, or date of birth do not also match, we get a Near Match in GTID. In those cases, we have to select each Near Match one by one to determine if it is the correct student. As you can imagine, at the beginning of the school year, this is a tedious process. Once the student is claimed in GTID, the GTID number is available for us to either Import or key into Infinite Campus. Unless we only have a handful of GTID to claim, we import data from a batch file. This is where the state gets the SSN for any other data collection processes. At FTE time, we occasionally go back and forth with other school districts to resolve disputes over SSN’s.
If an SSN is keyed in wrong, the student cannot be claimed for funding by either district until it is resolved. Usually this is done by the FTE Coordinators faxing copies of SS cards back and forth to prove it belongs to their student. School Nutrition Also at the beginning of the year, the state sends us a file of students who receive SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program) or TANF (temporary assistance to needy families). These students and all students in their household are automatically eligible for free lunch. This file can only be keyed by SSN since the state welfare program does not store GTID.
HOPE Scholarship Local Education Agencies (LEA) submit student transcript data to the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC) beginning when the student is in 9th grade. Student transcripts submitted without SSN are not eligible to receive HOPE Scholarship. If the student’s GSFC transcript account is established with a different SSN, the high school must contact our GSFC representative, who then asks their technology department to erase all the student’s transcript data, and then we have to submit the transcript again. This process is very time consuming. The error in SSN is often found only after the college un-schedules the student from classes because no HOPE money is available for the SSN provided to the college.
ACT/PLAN, SAT/PSAT Students take these national tests by their own arrangement in most cases. Although registration for these tests is now electronic, there still is very little validation done to ensure that the SSN keyed in really belongs to the student taking the test. Scores are sent to high schools only if the student has requested that they be sent. Although data files could be purchased through these testing services, past experience with these has been that there are more errors in the SSN either in their system or in the local system than there are matches. Since there is no guarantee that the score associated with a specific SSN is correct, local high schools must key the scores in manually to Infinite Campus. This issue will need to be addressed by the GaDOE since these scores are supposed to be a part of CCRPI.
Social Security Information Waiver Form (.pdf)
