Graduation Pathways Business Rules
SIRS Reporting Deadlines
- The deadline for reporting June graduates is the date the Level 2 container closes; for SY 2021-22, that was August 19, 2022.
- The deadline for August graduates was October 28, 2022.
Cohorts Reported
Cohort year is determined using the First Date of Entry into Grade 9 as reported in SIRS. The 2018 Total Cohort Graduation Rate data includes:
- 2018 Total Cohort, 4-Year June
- 2018 Total Cohort, 4-Year August
- 2017 Total Cohort, June and August
- 2016 Total Cohort, June and August
The 4-Year August and 5- and 6-Year cohorts are cumulative.
The 2018 total cohort consists of all students, based on last enrollment record as of June 30, 2022, with a First Date of Entry into Grade 9 during the 2018-19 school year (July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019), regardless of their current grade level.
Regardless of cohort, students are reported in the school and district where they were last enrolled as of the reporting date (4, years after date of first entry in grade 9). The last enrollment record is defined as the regular enrollment record with the most recent beginning date as of the reporting date. Cohort year is determined using the date reported in the First Date of Entry into Grade 9 field in the school year in which the last enrollment record occurred. For more information on cohorts, see Appendix V in the SIRS Manual.
Aggregations
Aggregations are done at five different levels:
- Schools - includes all public and charter schools.
- Districts - includes all schools within the district, homebound, and Out-of-District Placements (OODP).
- County - includes all districts and charter schools within the county.
- Need/Resources Capacity (N/RC) category – includes all public schools within an N/RC. Please note: charter schools are NOT included in each N/RC category. They are considered their own N/RC. More information on N/RCs can be found here.
- Statewide - includes all districts and charters in New York State.
If a school shows student data in more than one district:
- At the school-level, only the current school is reported, in the district corresponding to its current BEDS code;
- At the county, N/RC, and state levels, the school is reported in all districts, not just the current one.
Closed schools/districts:
- Are excluded from school and LEA level reporting;
- Are included in county, N/RC and statewide aggregate reporting;
- When a district closes and the school is absorbed into a new district, the new district will be responsible for the outcomes of all students (whether completers or non-completers) for as long as their cohort is reported, even if they dropped out prior to the original district closing.
Suppression
To ensure student confidentiality, the Department does not publish outcome data for groups with non-zero counts fewer than five (5) students or data that would allow readers to easily determine the performance of a group with enrollment from one to five students. o ensure student confidentiality, the Department does not publish outcome data for groups with non-zero counts fewer than five (5) students or data that would allow readers to easily determine the performance of a group with enrollment from one to five students.
- When the enrollment in Non-Additive subgroups (e.g., ELL status, SWD status) is not zero and fewer than five (5), the outcomes are suppressed for all subgroups in that category.
- When the enrollment in an ethnic subgroup (e.g., Hispanic, gender) is not zero and fewer than five (5) students, all outcomes for that subgroup and the subgroup with the next largest enrollment are suppressed.
- If the total enrollment count of the suppressed subgroups is still fewer than five (5), the subgroup(s) with the next highest enrollment count will be suppressed until the total of all suppressed enrollment counts is equal to or greater than five (5).
Graduates
Students whose last enrollment record had one of the following exit codes in SIRS:
- 799 – Graduated (earned a Regents or local diploma);
- 0065 – Fulfilled HS Grad Req for Extended Integrated HS Program;
- 0071 – Graduated and completed Extended Int HS Program Simultaneously;
- And one of the following credential codes in SIRS:
- Local Diploma (068, 069, 070, 612)
- Regents Diploma (779, 762, 813, 796)
- Regents Diploma with Advanced Designation (680, 697, 714, 731, 204, 221, 238, 255, 272, 289, 306, 323, 340, 357, 374, 391)
Students transferring to a High School Equivalency (HSE) are not considered graduates and are therefore not included in Pathways reporting.
More information on entry and exit enrollment codes as well as credential codes can be found in the SIRS Manual.
Pathways
All graduates must be reported with an appropriate graduate exit code, diploma code and pathway (COURSE_OF_STUDY) code. A student can only be reported with one Graduation Pathway, regardless of whether they satisfied the criteria for more than one.