Statewide Student Identifier (SSID) Project Update

This is the initiative whereby unique 9-digit identifiers are assigned to all students in the state to facilitate longitudinal tracking of student progress and performance trends without jeopardizing student privacy rights.

The goal of the SSID project is to provide a well-documented software development and support solution that prevents the identification of actual student name, social security numbers, and other personal data, store matching data and associated student identifier codes throughout the course of each child's education, and facilitate assignment of individual or mass assignment of ID's through batch processing.

Beginning in May 2002 information from your database will be provided to Pricewaterhouse Cooper to assign SSID's to all existing students. NEOnet will be responsible for coordinating and transferring data. Six mandatory fields are required for assigning SSID, student first name, student last name, date of birth, gender, native language, and ethnicity. Birthplace city and middle name will be mandatory in FY 2003.

NEOnet is assisting the school districts in data cleanup. The school districts should begin the process of eliminating duplicate records, focusing on cleansing and verifying data in fields, and enrollment forms should be adjusted to include the mandatory fields for assigning the SSID number.