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Counselor Suite Idaho

Counselor Suite Idaho provides high school counselors with a clear snapshot of their grade 12 students’ college readiness preparation.

Category
For Educators
Topics
For Educators

The Power of Seeing Student Progress

Counselor Suite Idaho provides easy-to-read tables and data visualizations documenting your grade 12 students’ progress toward continuing education ‘checkpoints.’ This platform is not available to students; only Idaho high school counselors, teachers, or administrators will be able to create an account.

New student cohorts are published annually—in mid-October—and data is updated daily.

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The Four Metrics

Counselor Suite Idaho displays the college readiness of Idaho high school seniors using four unique metrics.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

The FAFSA is arguably the most important form for college and career school. Students hoping to secure virtually *any* financial aid will need to submit a FAFSA each year. Counselor Suite Idaho indicates a student’s FAFSA completion status and/or common errors in their submission. Idaho schools can also track their FAFSA completion goals.

Direct Admissions

The Direct Admissions initiative proactively admits all Idaho public high school seniors to a minimum of six in-state colleges and universities each year. Counselor Suite Idaho indicates if students qualify for an additional two universities, for a total of eight.

Apply Idaho Applications

Apply Idaho is a free, common college application for in-state institutions. Students can apply to one, or more (or all ten!) participating colleges at the same time. In Counselor Suite Idaho, Idaho teachers or administrators will be able to see which grade-12 students have ‘started,’ ‘not started,’ or ‘completed’ their Apply Idaho application. Idaho schools can also track their Idaho College Month application completion goals.

Scholarship Idaho Applications

Scholarship Idaho is a single, common application for 8 state-managed scholarships and grants. Eligibility is determined in real-time and backed by school-reported data. Counselor Suite Idaho indicates which state-managed scholarship(s)/grants each student has applied for and their offer status.

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How to Gain Access to Counselor Suite Idaho

Idaho high school counselors, career and college advisors, TRiO advisors, GEAR UP coordinators, and/or administrative or teaching faculty** who are responsible for the career readiness of Idaho grade-12 students should:

Email the Office of the Idaho State Board of Education staff, directly at info@nextsteps.idaho.gov. They will provide step-by-step instructions on how to work with your district’s IT team to set you up with a Counselor Suite Idaho account.

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Support

Counselor Suite Idaho is managed by the Office of the Idaho State Board of Education (OSBE). It is hosted via the secure ISEE admin portal of the State Department of Education (SDE).

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The U.S. Department of Education provides Idaho FAFSA data as part of its FAFSA Completion Initiative.

The FAFSA Completion Initiative describes a partnership between the U.S. Department of Education and state agencies. This partnership allows agencies to provide secondary schools/districts⁠—and certain designated entities⁠—with limited, yet important, information on student progress toward completing the FAFSA form. This limited information is referred to as ‘FAFSA Filing Status Information.’

To participate, the state agency must sign a Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, and enter into a data sharing agreement with the secondary school, school district, or a specific designated entity. The agency can then share only the specified FAFSA Filing Status Information with the secondary school, school district, or designated entity.

This initiative builds and expands on the success of the U.S. Department of Education’s FAFSA Completion Pilot Project.

The timely completion of a FAFSA form is an essential step for many families in obtaining financial aid to pursue a postsecondary education. The FAFSA Completion Initiative enables state agencies and their school and district partners to identify those students who have not filed a FAFSA form and better target counseling, filing help, and other resources to those students.

No.  Participation is voluntary for state agencies, schools, districts, and designated entities. However, the Secretary of Education encourages participation in order to promote student access to financial aid that can help increase college enrollment and completion.

The Office of the Idaho State Board of Education has elected to participate since 2013

The Office of the Idaho State Board of Education (OSBE) discloses the following information: (1) the student’s last name; (2) the student’s first name and middle initial; (3) the student’s date of birth; (4) the student’s zip code (not full address); (5) if filed, the date the FAFSA form was submitted to the Department; (6) the date the Department processed the FAFSA form, if applicable; (7) a flag indicating the need for the FAFSA applicant to provide additional information, if applicable; and (8) a FAFSA completion status flag, as determined by OSBE (i.e., FAFSA not submitted, FAFSA complete, or FAFSA incomplete).

No. The only information that may be shared under the FAFSA Completion Initiative is the limited FAFSA Filing Status Information as described above. OSBE does not share students’ SSNs, student and parent financial information, or any other information from the FAFSA form.

A designated entity that can receive FAFSA Completion Information is a public or nonprofit entity that the Department has designated as eligible to receive FAFSA Filing Status Information. In order to be designated as eligible to receive FAFSA Filing Status Information, an entity must have an “established relationship” with the student, as defined in the SAIG. An established relationship exists for a designated entity when the student is enrolled in or has registered with or is receiving services from the designated entity in pursuit of postsecondary education.

No. OSBE may only provide FAFSA Filing Status Information to participating Idaho schools, districts, and designated entities, and only when certain conditions are met. OSBE may not provide FAFSA Filing Status Information to any other entity. In all instances, before sharing any FAFSA Filing Status Information, OSBE must have a written data sharing agreement with an Idaho secondary school, school district, or designated entity.

OSBE may not begin sharing FAFSA Filing Status Information until a written data sharing agreement has been obtained. This written agreement must include procedures for OSBE oversight; appropriate privacy and data security provisions; and assurances from the Idaho secondary school, school district, or designated entity that it will appropriately safeguard the information, that it will not redisclose the information, and that it will comply with applicable privacy laws, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

In general, the SAIG agreement defines “authorized personnel” to include employees, volunteers, and authorized agents, such as contractors or other parties to whom the LEA, secondary school, or designated entity has outsourced any of its services or functions and who are under the “direct control” of the participating secondary school, school district, or designated entity with respect to the use and maintenance of the information. Any disclosure of FAFSA Filing Status Information to “authorized personnel” must comply with all applicable privacy laws, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

FAFSA Filing Status Information received by a participating Idaho secondary school, school district, or designated entity may not be redisclosed or otherwise shared with any other entity or individual other than the FAFSA applicant and, if the FAFSA applicant is under the age of 18, with his or her parents.

However, the FAFSA Filing Status Information may be shared with another party with the FAFSA applicant’s consent or the consent of the FAFSA applicant’s parents if the FAFSA applicant is under the age of 18, or if such sharing is required by law and such use is consistent with all applicable privacy laws, including the privacy provisions of section 483(a)(3)(E) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, 20 U.S.C. 1090(a)(3)(E) and FERPA, 20 U.S.C. 1232g.

Users of the Next Steps Idaho Counselor Suite will be shown which version of the Direct Admissions letter each student received—the letter of 8 (a.k.a. All8) or the letter of 6 (a.k.a. Gr-6).*

Direct Admissions is the proactive admission of all Idaho high school graduates to a minimum of six in-state colleges. Based on the Board-approved benchmark (determined annually) some students are proactively admitted to two additional in-state universities, Boise State University and the University of Idaho. Copies of both versions of the letter are available on the Direct Admissions page.

Under the Apply Idaho Terms of Use, Idaho high school students consent to share: (1) the student’s last name; (2) the student’s first name and middle initial; (3) the student’s date of birth; (4) the student’s application status (pending, complete); and (5) to which Idaho college(s) they submitted an application.

Under the Scholarship Idaho Terms of Use, Idaho high school students consent to share: (1) the student’s last name; (2) the student’s first name and middle initial; (3) the student’s date of birth; (4) the student’s application status for each state-managed scholarship (pending, complete); (5) the submission date; (6) the offer status; and (6) the award date, if applicable.