Background: In November 2008, districts were notified that states were required to collect and report student race/ethnic data using the federal definitions. In order to be in compliance with federal requirements and maintain historical race/ethnic data, the department began collecting a second set of race/ethnicity data on MARSS. The change in the collection of race/ethnicity was described in the MARSS Manual and in correspondence from MDE.
To meet the federal definitions, districts were required to add a two-part question to their enrollment forms to collect data about students’ race and ethnicity.
These data are edited with MARSS error message 312. The requirement was phased in so that students who did not change schools were not required to have a response to the second question if the first question was Yes Hispanic/Latino. At this point, students in kindergarten through eighth grade have changed schools at least once, younger students have enrolled since FY 2009, and older students have graduated, so the exemption in the edit should no longer be necessary.