HCPSS MPIA Request #2018-029

Requested Information
To help me interpret the discrepancies in the data in the 2017 redistricting feasibility study, please provide the following:
1. For 2016-2017, Please provide (A) ACTUAL enrollment #s and demographic data (racial/ethnic breakdown, FARMS percentage), and (B) ATTENDANCE AREA #s and demographic data (racial/ethnic breakdown, FARMS percentage) for the following schools: Stevens Forest Elementary School, Talbott Springs Elementary School, Thunder Hill Elementary School, Oakland Mills Middle School and Oakland Mills High School.
2. For 2018-2019 under the feasibility study redistricting plan, please provide demographic data (racial/ethnic breakdown, FARMS percentage) for each of the polygons that feed into Stevens Forest Elementary School, Talbott Springs Elementary School, Thunder Hill Elementary School, Oakland Mills Middle School and Oakland Mills High School.
Status
Complete
Response Notes

Racial/ethnic breakdown is not used by School Planning at the polygon level for redistricting study purposes, therefore no responsive data at that level exists.

While 2016-2017 enrollment and attendance area numbers specifically for the schools in question could be broken down by racial/ethnic breakdown and FARMs collectively at the school level, we determined it would require several hours of programming by our Information Technology Office to query the report from our database, as it’s not currently used in the course of normal business – which we would consider creating a new record outside the scope of the MPIA.
 

HCPSS has made substantial efforts to ensure the accuracy of this information; however, school polygons and attendance areas are subject to change. Please be mindful when comparing data as many variances can occur between reports based on date pulled, categories included, etc. The user of this data accepts full liability for any use of the data. For any questions regarding the data or concerns about the planning process, please contact the Office of School Planning at 410-313-7184 or SchoolPlanning@hcpss.org.

Responsive Documents
Enrollment Reports
Enrollment Reports by school are provided annually as well as monthly during the school year. These numbers include pre-kindergarten and are snapshots of the school year taken at the given month/day indicated per report.
Changes in Race/Ethnicity Based on Proposed Scenario
Feasibility study, pages 53 and 54 (Figures 5.8 and 5.9). These numbers represent attendance area population, not children enrolled at the school, and do not include pre-kindergarten. Please note, in this document base is the percent as of the date pulled during the 2016-2017 school year, and proposed is what would be the percent at each school based on current attendance area population after proposed redistricting.
Feasibility Study FARMs Assessments
Used by the School Planning Office for the feasibility study and reported at the school level - updated August 7, 2017. These numbers represent attendance area population, not children enrolled at the school, and do not include pre-kindergarten. Please note, in this document before is the percent as of the date pulled during the 2016-2017 school year, and after is what would be the percent at each school based on current attendance area population after proposed redistricting.
FARMs From School Planning Polygon Projection
Data used by the School Planning Office at the polygon level for the feasibility study. In order to protect against potential disclosures of personally identifiable information about students when looking at polygon-level data where those who know the residents of a particular neighborhood may be able to deduce student-level information, HCPSS is following the National Center for Education Statistics’ federal guidelines for protecting student privacy in public reporting. Under both the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which restricts access to student records, and MPIA GP § 4-313, which prevents disclosure of school district records pertaining to individual students, FARMs and academic testing data has been suppressed per the key contained in the file. 

*Some request language is summarized to include the requester's specific document requests and legally protected information (such as personally identifiable information of a student) or personal, defamatory and malicious content removed at the discretion of the school system.

**Responses containing legally protected information available only to the person of interest are omitted from the above report.

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