The conversion to the Kansas Education Data System, known as KEDS, is expected to take some significant steps forward during the 2025-26 school year.  

Members of the Kansas State Department of Education information technology team are working with districts’ and other school systems’ student information system (SIS) vendors to move away from the current student data system, the Kansas Individual Data on Students (KIDS). However, while this modernization of the Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) continues to take place, KIDS will remain the “reporting source of truth” for data during the 2025-26 academic year. 

Jennifer Shaffer, an assistant director on KSDE’s IT team, said during the current school year, district and school system-level staff will continue submitting their student data through KIDS; however, they can submit their student data to KEDS once they get connected or reconnected with new credentials for submitting data for the 2025-26 school year. 

“That’s so we can be running the comparisons (of both data sets),” she said. “It’s double duty on them because they also have to deal with their KIDS file validations as well as learning the data validation portal for KEDS to see any data errors out there on that. It is extra work on them and we recognize that.” Shaffer said extra work is also being done by the vendors of the student information systems because they are simultaneously making updates for the current KIDS system and for the KEDS. 

The current KIDS system is KSDE’s main longitudinal data system that collects student-level data from schools’ student information systems for the state’s school funding formula calculations, administration of the annual state assessments, accreditation, accountability, authenticated reports and various state and federal reporting requirements. This data includes demographics, transportation, enrollment and attendance, program participation and course outcomes. 

“The key thing to know about this (KEDS) is that doesn’t change what student data we collect,” Kyle Lord, an assistant director of KSDE IT, told the Kansas State Board of Education in May. “It is the mechanism for how we receive it. Districts will be doing their error-checking and correcting within their own (student) information system.” 

Shaffer and her staff are working to get as many districts and school systems connected or reconnected to KEDS, ideally by the end of the 2025 calendar year so they can submit data for the 2025-26 school year. She said districts and systems who connected to KEDS during the 2024-25 school year (about 30% of the 286 school districts and systems) will have to reconnect to KEDS with new credentials.  

Shaffer said the goal is to convert fully to the KEDS in 2026. This will be achieved through a collaborative effort with the vendors of the student information systems who are continuing their programming work for the KEDS conversion, pushing out updates to their district and school system customers and communicating what those updates are with KSDE IT staff. 

“I do think that collaboration provides a lot of value,” said Chris Fletcher, KSDE information systems manager, adding many of the vendors have experience with data systems similar to KEDS in other states and are able to bring that knowledge to the process. “That vendor partnership is incredibly valuable.”  

Julie Cook, a KSDE information systems manager, said the partnership fostered between KSDE and the SIS vendors is expected to translate to a strengthened relationship among KSDE, the vendors and districts, leading to increasing the quality of the student data collected. 

“You’ll get a better product,” she said of the data that will eventually be part of KEDS. “In the end we’re going to get better data…because we’re utilizing the process of the SIS.”     

The following are other actions KSDE IT staff, vendors and districts/systems will be taking during the 2025-26 school year to move closer to the full KEDS conversion: 

• Help districts build data reporting teams 
• Train district staff on new data validation portal program and KEDS data structures 
• Vendors will train their customer districts and systems on new student information system procedures 
• Compare and evaluate KIDS versus KEDS data and work on issues that arise 
• Report errors, issues, irregularities 

For more information, go to https://kedx.ksde.gov/keds or email keds@ksde.gov.