Department of Education

700 GOVERNORS DRIVE
PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA 57501-2291
(605) 773-3134 / FAX (605) 773-6139

For immediate release – Wednesday, April 10, 2002
For more information: Nicole Kranzler, 773-3426


Parents, students, teachers to benefit from new student information system

(Pierre)— South Dakota is launching a new service for K-12 schools that will let parents check their children’s grades and attendance and let the general public see how their public schools are performing by using the Internet.

The system, "DDN Campus," will be installed in the first five school districts this spring, with more schools gradually added every few months. Plans call for completion statewide within two years via the state’s Digital Dakota Network (DDN).

School systems will use DDN Campus, among other things, to create student schedules, maintain staff records, record attendance and more easily transmit required data between schools.

"This system, accessed through the Internet, delivers better data for school officials, teachers, parents, and the public to make informed decisions about their students," Ray Christensen, secretary of the South Dakota Department of Education & Cultural Affairs (DECA), said.

Five South Dakota school districts will begin piloting the system this month. The pilot sites are Burke, Chamberlain, Chester Area, Spearfish, and Watertown school districts. Beginning July 1, another 20 school districts will come online with DDN Campus, with 20 more being added each quarter through July 2004.

South Dakota’s technology infrastructure, with all schools wired and linked together using high-speed connections, makes the rollout of a product like DDN Campus possible. "This type of statewide system is possible because of Governor Janklow’s vision for a high quality telecommunications network connecting all our schools," Christensen said.

In the project’s first phase, schools in South Dakota will use the Campus program to transmit state-required student enrollment and attendance data. All public school districts also will be offered use of the DDN Campus student management software free of charge. The software provides management tools for schools to record grades, attendance, disciplinary actions, course schedules, and other information components.

If all schools come on board, the one-time costs (initial hardware, training, conversion, implementation, initial support, and application maintenance) will be $3.2 million. The ongoing costs after the implementation phase, assuming all school districts are using DDN Campus, will be less than $600,000 annually. Since this is not a state-mandated product, DECA anticipates there might be schools that choose not to take advantage of this opportunity. Consequently, the actual cost could be less than the budget figures for full implementation. The project is funded in part through a donation from Citibank to the state of South Dakota.

Due to the system’s web-based platform, data security is a priority. Christensen said special equipment, including backup servers and high-security firewalls, will be employed to fully protect data files. Specific log-ins and security codes are needed to gain access to most parts of the system. In addition, each school will maintain secure files unique to its own school system, which no other person or school will be able to access.