Your October 1 MFP Data Collection Checklist: 5 Tips for Louisiana Schools
With the October 1 MFP (Minimum Foundation Program) data collection approaching, ensuring your student data is accurate and compliant is critical for securing your school's annual funding.
Below are five tips to help you prepare for a smooth data submission and maintain data integrity year-round. The tips below complement this MFP self-audit checklist that we provided to participants in our September learning session about the MFP collection.
1. Establish Clear Data Ownership
Accurate data is a team effort. To avoid confusion, assign clear ownership for each data system and process within your school or district. When every team member understands their role in data entry and maintenance, consistency and accuracy improve dramatically.
For more information about data roles and SIS leadership, please check out this resource on SIS leadership from our August learning session.
2. Centralize and Document Your Processes
Keep all student-related data within your primary Student Information System. To ensure consistency for new staff and to simplify training, document clear data entry standards and procedures that all team members can follow.
By adopting these proactive data management best practices, you can simplify the compliance process, reduce administrative burden, and ensure your school receives the funding it needs to support its students.
3. Know Your Key Dates & Populations
The October 1 snapshot captures student enrollment from the first day of school through October 1st. It's crucial to ensure all relevant student data is entered into your Student Information System (SIS) and EdLink by October 22nd in order to be included in the October 23rd snapshot.
A list of the specific special populations groups that are counted in the MFP collections can be found here.
4. Audit Your EdLink Data Early and Often
Don't wait until the deadline to check your data. The EdLink platform is your primary tool for validation, and its data must align perfectly with your school's SIS.
Clear Errors: Prioritize clearing any EdLink errors, especially those beginning with 'K' and 'U', as they directly impact your official enrollment numbers.
Complete Fields: Verify that all demographic fields in your SIS and all fields related to enrollment are fully populated.
5. Run a Side-by-Side Data Validation
To ensure total accuracy, pull your MFP enrollment reports and special population counts from EdLink. Then, run the corresponding reports from your SIS. Calculate summary counts in the SIS data and compare to EdLink reports to identify any discrepancies. Once validated, send these rosters to relevant department heads (e.g., special education or EL coordinators) for final verification.
Have questions? We’d love to hear from you - email info@ed-ops.com to connect with our Louisiana Data team!
Want to keep learning? Join us for our next compliance webinar on Wednesday, November 5 at 10am CT. Please RSVP here if you’d like to participate and we’ll send you an invitation in the weeks ahead.
Wishing you and your school community all the best as we head into Fall compliance season!