Maine Department of Education - Informational Letter 71: MEDMS Safe and Drug Free Schools Module and the Office of Substance School Incidents of Prohibited Behavior Reporting System

INFORMATONAL LETTER NO.: 71
POLICY CODE: JF/KLL

TO: Superintendents of Schools, Assistant Superintendents, School Principals, and Special Education Directors

FROM: Susan A. Gendron, Commissioner

DATE: February 13, 2007

RE: MEDMS Safe and Drug Free Schools Module and the Office of Substance School Incidents of Prohibited Behavior Reporting System

Currently, at the end of each school year, all school administrative units enter school incidents of prohibited behavior (IPB) data into the Safe and Drug Free Schools (SDFS) electronic reporting system operated by the Office of Substance Abuse (OSA).

For the past two years, a similar Safe/Drug-Free Incidents Module has been part of the Maine Education Data Management Reporting System (MEDMS) operated by the Department. However, since there has been no official requirement for school units to enter incident data into MEDMS, it has been used very little.

It is time to begin a transition period to a single reporting system that will collect school incidents of prohibited behavior data. The transition period will end once data are reported solely to the MEDMS Safe/Drug-Free Incidents Module.

The MEDMS module, unlike the OSA reporting system, is more of an “incident driven” system and will allow the Department to respond more efficiently to the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Annual Performance Report and other reporting requirements.

Because OSA and the Department of Education are required to collect data and report to the federal government on various federal grants, and in order to comply with the NCLB’s Unsafe School Choice Option, it will be necessary for school administrative units to submit data to both systems during the transition period.

To begin the transition, I am asking that all school administrative units immediately start reporting, on a regular and on-going basis, their 2006-07 incident data to the MEDMS Safe/Drug-Free Incidents Module.

During the transition period, school administrative units will still need to report their 2006-07 incident data to the OSA system at the end of the school year, just as they have done in past years.

Further information about the MEDMS Safe/Drug-Free Incidents Module:

The MEDMS module collects data on the same thirty-nine reportable incident types as the OSA system. A complete list of incident type descriptions is available on the MEDMS web site at: http://www.maine.gov/education/medms/studentinfolist.htm

The Safe/Drug-Free Incidents module is available to authorized users in the Application drop down menu of the MEDMS system. A step-by-step user manual is available at:
https://www.medms.maine.gov/MEDMS/usermanual/unit10.htm

Assistance with the MEDMS Safe/Drug-Free Incidents Module is available from the MEDMS Help Desk via email medms.helpdesk@maine.gov or by telephone at 624-6896.
Questions about the current OSA Incidence of Prohibited Behavior Reporting System may be directed to either Linda Phillips or Peter Brough at:

Linda Phillips
SDFSCA Program Coordinator
Maine Department of Health and Human Services
Office of Substance Abuse
Telephone: 287-8904
e-mail: linda.phillips@maine.gov

Peter Brough
LEA Program Specialist
Maine Department of Health and Human Services
Office of Substance Abuse
Telephone: 287-6475
e-mail: peter.p.brough@maine.gov

Thank you for your efforts and patience during this time of transition from one reporting system to another.