Point-in-time copy. Changes from Snapshot to Live enabled by default. Changes from Live to Snapshot not propagated. Figure 1: Snapshot Overview

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1 WHAT IS A SNAPSHOT? As part of serving students with learning challenges, districts regularly submit key pieces of special education data to federal, state, and local regulatory agencies. Often, these data have to be collected as of a particular date. For example, the state of New Jersey mandates that districts collect data required for the Annual Data Report (ADR) as of October 15. More often than not data require clean up before submission. Data entry errors, new data elements, and other changes can cause inaccuracies that need correction. These corrections are usually made in the time between the collection date (i.e., the date when the data is reported) and the submission date (i.e., the date when the data is due to the state or other agency). While data corrections occur, at the same time, data will continue to change as students receive further services; however, such changes that occur after the collection date should not be included in the report to be submitted. MAXIMUS has addressed the districts need for reviewing and revising the report data while at the same time, allowing users to continue documenting services, by creating a dedicated TIENET workspace called a snapshot database that is separate from their live TIENET database. The snapshot database is an exact replica of the district s live database and captures the view of student documents and data at a single point in time, namely the report data. The copy enables users to review and make changes to student data independent of changes happening on the live database. Point-in-time copy District s Live Database Changes from Snapshot to Live enabled by default District s Snapshot Database Changes from Live to Snapshot not propagated X Figure 1: Snapshot Overview While changes to the live database are not propagated to the snapshot database, changes to the snapshot by default, are immediately copied to the live database. This ensures corrections are applied to both snapshot and live databases without requiring double data entry while at the same time allowing users to make changes to live data without impacting the submission Page 1 of 5

2 process. Sometimes, copying corrections to live database may not be the most optimal choice and in those situations, users have the option to disable the automatic update that prevents the live data getting updated with the snapshot view. WHEN AND HOW DISTRICTS ARE NOTIFIED ABOUT AVAILABILITY? For a regulatory report that mandates that data be collected as of a certain date (i.e., collection date), MAXIMUS makes the snapshot available the next business day after the collection date. The snapshot is created by typically using the backup of the live database that was made the night of the collection date. For example, if a district is preparing for the December 1 Child Count Report for the year 2009, the snapshot database will be created by copying the backup of the live database made on the night of December 1 (or early morning of December 2) and access to it will be given on December 2, About four weeks before the collection date, MAXIMUS communicates a TIENET announcement to all those districts who will use TIENET to meet reporting requirements about the likely date of availability of snapshot. The announcement is repeated two weeks after and again the day before the collection date. Upon creation of the snapshot, MAXIMUS notifies districts about the availability along with the login information and the length of availability for them to use it. MAXIMUS usually leaves the access to a snapshot for about three months from the collection date. After that period, the snapshot is taken off-line and is placed in long-term storage. Districts may access old snapshot databases by calling TIENET technical support and asking for access. It should be noted that if there are regulatory changes to reporting requirements, MAXIMUS reviews those changes, revises the reporting definitions, and makes them available on the live database prior to creating snapshots. MAXIMUS follows their time-tested change management process to complete those changes and to communicate them to districts. For certain regulatory reports, MAXIMUS has also created what are known as diagnostic reports that enable districts to easily and quickly spot omissions and commissions to the data to be submitted. When there are regulatory changes to reporting requirements, MAXIMUS reviews the impact on these diagnostic reports, revises the definitions, and makes them available as part of the regulatory reports. These reports are generally released about two weeks before the collection date. Page 2 of 5

3 HOW DO DISTRICTS USE A SNAPSHOT? To login to a snapshot, a district user enters the name of the snapshot database that has been communicated via the TIENET Announcement and his/her usual TIENET user name and password. Once logged in, the user can use the snapshot much like they use their live database. As we said before, the primary use of a snapshot is to review and revise existing data prior to submitting the data to a regulatory agency. If a diagnostic report is available for the data submission, MAXIMUS recommends districts to review data using that diagnostic report. Diagnostic reports can be used on the live database before the collection date (i.e., before the snapshot database is created) to get a head start on data correction. Otherwise, districts can review directly using the regulatory report. Upon review, if corrections to data are required, districts can update them directly on the appropriate profile page. If a change is made to a profile, an option to control the automatic update to live (production) database is displayed on the top of the page. Figure 2: Updating Student Profile in Snapshot In Figure 2, the profile for the student named SAMPLE has been changed and the user has chosen the default option to reflect it on the live database. Upon choosing the option, the user will be able to confirm the changes before applying them to the live database (Figure 3). Figure 3: Confirming Student Profile Updates to Live Database Page 3 of 5

4 It is important to note that the ability to apply changes to the live database is limited only to changes made directly on profiles. Changes made on documents such as an IEP and through the execution of imports or data utilities will not be propagated to the live database. Sometimes, it is required that a correction is made at the source where the error was introduced. For example, if the data review reveals that a specific IEP document that is not yet finalized is the source for the error, it may make most sense to update the document. Since updating documents on a snapshot has no effect on the live database, MAXIMUS recommends that such a change is carried out directly on the live database as well as on the snapshot. Similarly, if there is a systematic change that needs to be applied on a set of students, a data utility may be used to apply that change. However, such a systematic change on the snapshot will not impact live data. The only way to make this change reflected on the live database is to re-execute the same data utility on the live. It should be noted that not all updates made to profiles on a snapshot are automatically reflected on the live database. Though TIENET allows users to create new data (e.g., create a new student profile), the system will not permit automatic propagation of such additions to the live database. If there is a need for adding new data into the snapshot, MAXIMUS recommends that such additions are done actually on the live database and then copied to snapshot using a utility available on the snapshot as identified in Figure 4: Copying Newly Added Student from Live to Snapshot. Figure 4: Copying Newly Added Student from Live to Snapshot HAVE A QUESTION? NEED MORE OUT OF TIENET? The purpose of this whitepaper is to provide a quick overview of what TIENET snapshot is all about and how it can be utilized by districts to better serve their reporting needs. To learn more about snapshots and how they can be personalized for the district s needs, MAXIMUS recommends districts to contact their MAXIMUS Project Manager to schedule a focused training session. As always, districts can contact TIENET Support (by using the toll-free telephone number Option 1) for any technical support issues that arise out using snapshot. Page 4 of 5

5 MAXIMUS always looks for ways to empower our users with new TIENET facilities and features so that districts can stay focused on delivering special education and related services and spend less effort on documenting those. We believe that new ideas often emerge out of repeated use of processes, tools, and systems in a particular manner. Who else uses our system more regularly than our users? In fact, it has been our experience that our users are our best wellwishers and advocates! MAXIMUS encourages our users to share their thoughts and ideas that they may come across while using the system with their MAXIMUS Project Manager. Such ideas are compiled, reviewed, and explored for possible future implementation by our technical staff. Where needed, our technical staff will actively collaborate with our end users to enable those functions. Page 5 of 5