The New York State Student Identification System (NYSSIS) is an electronic information system that assigns a unique statewide identifier to students in New York State public schools. NYSSIS enables school districts to retrieve identification numbers that have been previously assigned to students and to obtain new identifiers for students that do not have an existing identifier. The statewide identifier assigned by NYSSIS will be used by districts to report student-level data to the State Education Department. The statewide identifier can also be used by districts to obtain or provide information from other districts when a student transfers in or out of a district.
NYSSIS relies on a set of 23 data items that provide characteristics about a student. These data items are stored in a secure and confidential database and are used to identify a student uniquely. Each time a districts makes a request for a new unique identifier for a student, the district must submit these 23 data items (or as many of the data items that are available) to NYSSIS. NYSSIS checks the database to determine whether the data submitted by the district matches any records already in the database. If a match is found, the unique identifier already assigned to the student is returned to the district. If no match is found, a new identifier is created and returned to the district. In some cases, it is not possible to determine if the data submitted matches an existing record in the database. In these cases, a staff member from the district must log on to NYSSIS and make the determination.
NYSSIS identifiers will be provided to districts through the statewide student data warehouse. In addition, districts may also receive identifiers directly so that the district may use the statewide identifier in their local system. However, local implementation of the statewide identifier is not required.