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To: WISEdata public districts and independent charter school primary, secondary, and generic contacts
Date: 10/14/25
Subject: December 9, 2025, Student Snapshot for Accountability and Aid Reporting

Dear WISEdata Contacts, 

The December Student Snapshot for data submitted through WISEdata is rapidly approaching. This year’s snapshot is on December 9. We recognize you are busy with competing priorities, but we hope the information below helps you plan your data quality efforts. 

What makes the Snapshot so important? Snapshot data are used for:
 

  • Populating WISEdata Portal and WISEdash for Districts, allowing you to identify and fix data quality issues, perform data analyses, and use the data for informed decision-making.
  • Federal reporting, including IDEA Child Count, Career and Technical Education, Civil Rights Data Collection, and ESSA.
  • Public reporting in the WISEdash Public Portal.
  • Other funding determinations, such as Perkins, IDEA flowthrough, and preschool allocations.
  • Score calculations in the 2025-26 Accountability Report Cards.
  • Joint Federal Notifications.

Data included in this snapshot:
 
  • 2024-25 Year End Completion data (used to calculate Graduation Rates, Chronic Absenteeism, and Discipline)
  • 2024-25 Roster and Career Education data
  • 2024-25 Timely Special Ed Evaluation
  • 2025-26 Third Friday of September (TFS) Enrollment
  • 2025-26 October 1 Child Count of students with disabilities
  • 2025-26 Graduation Requirements (Grad Plan)
  • 2024-25/2025-26 Demographics, including economically disadvantaged status
  • 2025-26 District Library Plan (Entered in WISEadmin Portal)
  • 2025-26 Digital Opportunity Data (Optional)

For more information on the data included in the snapshot, please visit the Snapshot Preparation Guidance webpage. We recommend that LEAs proactively address issues well before the deadline. A basic aspect of data quality includes making sure data is flowing from your SIS, including specialty vendors (i.e., special education or discipline vendors) to DPI, and that you have addressed all validation errors and warnings to the best of your ability.

Once the snapshot is taken, the data are considered certified and final. Given the impact and long-term use of these data, please do your best to ensure your district’s data are accurate at the time of the December 9 snapshot.


What’s next?

Plan to work closely with your data team/reporting staff over the next couple months to ensure data are accurate. Include staff members who work with enrollment and demographic data, special education directors, principals, etc.
  • Use the WISEdata Portal and WISEdash for Districts to catch and correct data quality issues prior to snapshot. The WISEdata Portal Tutorials and WISEdash for Districts: Info, Help and FAQ pages have a wealth of information to assist you.
  • Review WISEdata validation messages and take advantage of the Tags feature and Snapshot-focused tool to mark statuses and delegate items to review.
  • Fix any inaccurate data in your student information system (SIS) and resubmit.
  • NOTE: If you need to send prior year 2024-25 data, work with your SIS vendor to ensure that updates flow to WISEdata. You may need to push the data manually.
  • Review your data using the WISEdash Snapshot dashboards and the Data Quality Indicators at the top of each snapshot dashboard, especially for:
  • Attendance/Absenteeism,
  • Graduation (including future graduation cohorts), and
  • Dropout data.

Partner Support may reach out to assist with any outstanding data concerns noted by DPI, but, in general, we will continue to communicate by displaying data quality alerts in the WISEdata Portal.
  • View district-specific alerts by clicking the ‘Alerts’ tab from the top banner in the app.
    • Alerts will be released on or before November 5 to let you know of any critical data issues that you should review and acknowledge or correct.
  • It is very important that you have a WISEdata Primary and/or Secondary contact set for the 25-26 school year because ONLY primary and secondary contacts will be able to acknowledge these alerts.
    • Additionally, because communications (like this one) are often sent to the contacts in WISEdata, ensuring these contacts are set correctly means information flows to the right people.

Encourage your district administrators to use the WISEadmin application created specifically for them to access important WISE-related information in one place, as well as to submit the latest District Library Plan, if not yet submitted. Completing this work is a requirement of Wisconsin Administrative Code PI8.01(2)(h). Review more information about library plans, including support materials. If you have additional questions, please contact the School Library Education Consultant, Monica Treptow (monica.treptow@dpi.wi.gov or 608-575-6065).


Need help?  

Visit our Snapshot Preparation Guidance page for helpful resources, including the Data Quality Auditing webpages for assistance with topics like economically disadvantaged status, English Learner data, enrollment data, graduation data, and TFS data.


WISE User Group: Partner Support holds weekly WISE User Group calls every Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. through December 16. Hear application updates, view demos, and ask questions. Visit the WISE Events Calendar for more information!
WISE Community: If you haven’t joined yet, become a community member. The WISE Community contains vital communications, updates, and resources for WISEdata, WISEstaff, WISEdash, and other areas, and provides a peer-to-peer connection platform to ask (or answer) questions and collaborate with fellow school/district staff.

Please reach out to us.

We are here to support you in submitting the most accurate data possible. If you need assistance, submit a WISE help ticket.


Thank you for your continued attention to data quality and for all that you do!

DPI Partner Support



 

Keywords: WISEdata; snapshot; data; WISEdata Portal; data snapshot; 2025-26; 2024-25; student data; accountability; report cards