South Dakota

Processes of data collection, entry, reporting, and security are formally verified for compliance during site visits, through continuous desk monitoring, and via subrecipients' quarterly reports. Furthermore, monthly web-based Management Information System (MIS) trainings reinforce overall Data Quality, as well as the review of [and adherence to] the National Reporting System's Technical Assistance Guide.

• During onsite monitors, the required student-file documentation (including the intake form, instructional goals, assessments, and release-of-information signature) is verified; the student-file data are then compared to the respective MIS records for validation. Additionally, the MIS possesses functionality to generate detailed statewide and localized reports for analyzing names, dates, FY hours, instruments, levels, forms, scale scores, Measurable Skill Gains, Periods of Participation, and Barriers to Employment.
• For desk monitoring, the state's MIS generates multiple assessment-related reports which afford both the agency and the providers the ability to monitor students based upon instructional hours between assessment, last-assessment dates, and post-test levels. South Dakota's MIS also allows the agency and local providers the ability to granularly examine participation levels and performance measures by program of study, subject area, and class/instructor.

• Quarterly reports from each provider are reviewed by reconciling aggregate information [across the current and previous year], comparing current data sets with local program-year goals, and examining certain individual student-records within the MIS. The state agency also uses customized queries, student diagnostics, dashboards, and fiscal-year searches to verify the accuracy of local reports.

Notably, at the beginning of PY2022-23, the agency transitioned from the previous model of 90-minute quarterly MIS/NRS trainings to 60-minute monthly trainings. (Consider when someone previously missed a quarterly training, they would resultantly go six months without a plenary interaction with the trainer and agency!) This monthly model quickly proved a pivotal investment benefiting both the local WIOA Title II providers and the agency.

Moreover, South Dakota has long offered each local AEFLA program a provider-specific review with the MIS vendor, especially for fiscal-year closeout. Given the success of these efforts, the increasing demands upon the field, and the importance of high-quality data, the State doubled the offerings in PY2022-23. And with each AEFLA provider now having at least two one-hour targeted sessions each year, the local programs began identifying the scope of their respective, optional sessions (e.g., Closeouts, Class structures, specific Data Analyses, Group-Hours Entry).