School Calendar Domain - Best Practices

Sessions, Grading Periods, Calendars, and Calendar Dates

The Ed-Fi data model allows fine-grained modeling of instructional schedules, but it's useful to know where to look.

• The Session entity models concepts like terms and semesters (e.g., Fall Semester, First Quarter) along with a span of time.
• The GradingPeriod entity models a span of time for which grades are reported (e.g., First Six Weeks, First Trimester). The grading period is often, but not necessarily, a division of a session.
• The Calendar entity represents a set of specific dates. In the context of the School Calendar domain, these usually represent instructional days.
• The CalendarDate entity models a specific date, and allows additional information to describe the type of date (e.g., Instructional day, Holiday, Weather day).

This raises a modeling question. Why not use the Session or GradingPeriod entities to hold the collection of CalendarDate entities? In the Ed-Fi data model, we've kept the two separate to allow flexibility while avoiding duplicate data. This allows schools to have multiple sessions (e.g., for different grade levels) and grading periods (e.g., for different programs) while maintaining a single calendar for the school as a whole.

In order to provide a consistent granular specification of every student’s calendar, during enrollment the StudentSchoolAssociation.Calendar reference MUST be populated, whether the School has single or multiple calendars.

Multiple Calendars

Schools in K–12 often have multiple calendars. While schools may have an overall calendar that applies to everyone, others sometimes have slightly different calendars for various grade levels. For example, perhaps the Pre-K in a school starts a week later than the rest of the school. Further, it is also possible for a student to have an individualized calendar, perhaps due to an IEP or to support participation in a district CTE program.

The following are best practice guidelines for these scenarios:

• If a school has grade level calendars, then there SHOULD be multiple Calendars and the GradeLevels on Calendar (Calendar.GradeLevel collection) for each SHOULD be populated and all calendar dates for that calendar populated. In this case there SHOULD NOT be an overall School calendar listing all GradeLevels, and such calendars should not attempt to show differences or "exceptions" from such an overall model.
• When using individual (or small group) calendars, it is RECOMMENDED that the StudentSchoolAssociation.Calendar reference for a student be populated with the unique, individualized calendar, and not a school or grade level calendar. Such calendars SHOULD have a Calendar.CalendarType set to an appropriate descriptor value (e.g., "Student Specific" or "IEP") to ensure clarity on the scope and avoid confusion with a school or grade-level calendar.