Example Job Description

Student Information Systems Coordinator

A modern professional reference profile for reviewing, adapting, and strengthening this school district position.

Download this job description

How to use this resource: Select questions that measure competencies established through the district’s current job analysis. Ask candidates the same predetermined questions under comparable conditions and evaluate responses against the same job-related criteria.

The indicators below describe evidence a strong response may contain; they are not required scripts or the only acceptable answers.

How would you prepare the SIS for annual rollover and school opening?
Strong response indicators: Maps dependencies and owners, reviews calendars and configuration, tests representative records and integrations in an approved environment, obtains business sign-off, plans recovery and support coverage, and reconciles results before users rely on the new year.
Two departments use different meanings of “enrolled student.” How would you resolve the resulting report differences?
Strong response indicators: Clarifies the decision, population, dates, and applicable rules; traces source records and transformations; convenes designated data owners; documents approved definitions; and updates reports, training, and validation without forcing distinct legitimate measures into one label.
An SIS exchange creates duplicate or missing records downstream. How would you investigate?
Strong response indicators: Checks identifiers, mapping, effective dates, filters, transformation logic, schedules, and error logs; compares source and destination records; corrects the authorized source or interface; and verifies recovery with the responsible receiving-system owner.
A school requests broad access to student records to solve an urgent workflow problem. What would you do?
Strong response indicators: Identifies the legitimate task and required data, follows documented approval and least-privilege procedures, offers a workable authorized alternative, involves privacy and security owners when needed, and records the access decision and review date.
How would you manage a software release that changes a high-use attendance or grading workflow?
Strong response indicators: Reviews release impact with business owners, tests representative cases and downstream reporting, plans accessible user guidance and training, obtains approvals, defines rollback or contingency arrangements, and verifies outcomes after release.
A state-reporting exception persists after a school says it corrected the record. How would you follow it through?
Strong response indicators: Verifies the source correction and effective date, checks extraction and processing timing, traces the relevant mappings and validation, confirms resubmission where authorized, and closes the issue only after the downstream result is verified.
How would you use SQL, scripts, or reporting tools to reduce repeated data-quality problems?
Strong response indicators: Begins with approved definitions and access, builds repeatable checks and clear exception reports, tests against known cases, assigns source corrections to owners, protects credentials and records, and documents monitoring and support so automation remains reviewable.
How would you train school staff who use the SIS differently across sites?
Strong response indicators: Separates approved local variation from inconsistent practice, explains the downstream purpose of fields, uses role-based tasks and current procedures, provides accessible reference materials, checks performance, and uses recurring support issues to improve training.
How would you handle a prolonged SIS outage during a critical operating period?
Strong response indicators: Invokes the established continuity and escalation process, confirms impact and authority, communicates verified status and next updates, coordinates approved temporary workflows, protects records, and plans reconciliation when service returns.
What evidence would you use to judge the health of the student-information ecosystem?
Strong response indicators: Combines data completeness and accuracy checks, timeliness, integration failures, recurring exceptions, user support patterns, access-review completion, and readiness measures; documents definitions and limits and uses trends to prioritize improvements with accountable owners.

Position Description

The Student Information System Coordinator provides functional and operational leadership for the district’s student information ecosystem. The position coordinates system configuration, data quality, enrollment and attendance processes, state reporting, access, integrations, user support, training, and continuous improvement. Serving as a bridge among schools, program offices, technology teams, data stewards, and vendors, the Coordinator helps ensure that student information is accurate, timely, secure, interoperable, understandable, and used responsibly.

Reports To

Insert your school district’s specific reporting relationship here.

Required Education and Credentials

Required

Bachelor’s degree in information systems, education, public administration, data science, business, or a related field; additional relevant experience may substitute for education where permitted by district policy.

Preferred

Project-management, data-management, privacy, cybersecurity, or vendor SIS certification.

Required / Desired Experience

Required Experience

Four years of progressively responsible experience administering, supporting, analyzing, or coordinating an enterprise information system, including at least two years involving student information or similarly complex regulated records.
Experience coordinating data-quality processes, system changes, user support, documentation, and training across multiple stakeholder groups.

Desired Experience

Direct experience with a K–12 SIS and CALPADS submissions, certification, anomaly resolution, or related California student-data requirements.
Experience with SQL, APIs, education interoperability standards, data visualization, Python, R, PowerShell, or comparable automation tools.
Experience supporting data governance, privacy programs, cybersecurity controls, identity and access management, or vendor risk review.
Supervisory, lead-worker, or formal cross-functional coordination experience.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Coordinate the administration, configuration, annual rollover, calendars, grading periods, code tables, workflows, security roles, and operational readiness of the district student information system (SIS).
Establish and maintain calendars, checklists, validation routines, and ownership assignments for enrollment, demographic, attendance, scheduling, grades, transcripts, discipline, program participation, graduation, and other student records.
Coordinate required state and federal data submissions, including CALPADS-related processes where applicable; monitor certification status, anomalies, deadlines, and correction plans with responsible departments and schools.
Lead cross-functional resolution of data-quality and workflow problems, distinguishing configuration, training, policy, source-data, integration, and vendor issues.
Manage or coordinate testing for releases, configuration changes, integrations, annual processes, and new functionality; document expected results and obtain appropriate business approval.
Develop reports, dashboards, queries, extracts, and exception lists that help staff identify incomplete, inconsistent, late, or implausible records before they affect services or reporting.
Maintain user documentation, data-entry standards, process maps, calendars, frequently asked questions, training materials, and support knowledge articles.
Plan and deliver role-based training for school and district users; provide coaching that explains not only how to complete a task, but why the information matters and how errors affect downstream services.
Coordinate vendor cases, enhancement requests, release communications, service reviews, and escalation of defects or outages.
Support continuity planning, backup and recovery coordination, peak-period readiness, and coverage for time-sensitive SIS functions.

Data Governance and Stewardship

Facilitate decisions about authoritative sources, data ownership, stewardship, definitions, quality expectations, correction authority, retention, and approved use of student information.
Maintain or contribute to a district data dictionary, code-set documentation, lineage records, responsibility matrices, and a catalog of recurring reports and exchanges.
Convene or support a data-governance committee and translate approved decisions into SIS procedures, configuration, training, validation, and documentation.
Promote consistent definitions across departments so that terms such as enrollment, attendance, program eligibility, cohort, school of residence, and completion are interpreted correctly.
Establish measurable data-quality routines addressing completeness, validity, consistency, timeliness, uniqueness, and accuracy; report recurring issues and recommend systemic improvements.

Privacy, Security, and Responsible Use

Coordinate role-based access using least privilege, documented approval, periodic review, timely provisioning and deprovisioning, and separation of incompatible duties.
Protect education records and personally identifiable information in accordance with FERPA, district policy, records requirements, and approved data-sharing practices.
Review requests for exports, accounts, integrations, and elevated access for appropriate authorization, minimum necessary data, secure transmission, retention, and termination conditions.
Partner with privacy and security personnel on audit evidence, incident response, vendor risk, account anomalies, and user awareness.
Encourage responsible interpretation of student data, including attention to context, bias, small-group disclosure, accessibility, and the limits of predictive or automated tools.

Interoperability, Reporting, and Automation

Coordinate SIS exchanges with learning, assessment, special programs, transportation, food services, communications, identity, finance, and analytics platforms.
Support standards and interfaces such as Ed-Fi, OneRoster, CEDS-aligned definitions, APIs, and secure file exchanges when adopted by the district.
Define field mappings, transformation rules, schedules, error handling, reconciliation, monitoring, and support ownership for each integration.
Use SQL and reporting tools to investigate records and produce quality-control information; use Python, R, PowerShell, or comparable tools when appropriate to automate repeatable validation and reconciliation tasks.
Reduce dependence on undocumented spreadsheets and manual re-entry by recommending governed, supportable workflows and integrations.

Required Skills and Abilities

Knowledge and Skills

Student information system functions, school operations, enrollment, attendance, scheduling, grades, transcripts, programs, and state reporting cycles.
Data-governance concepts, data quality, metadata, records lifecycle, privacy, role-based access, and secure information exchange.
Business-process analysis, requirements gathering, testing, project coordination, change management, adult learning, and customer support.
Intermediate reporting and data-analysis methods, including spreadsheets and SQL; ability to learn scripting or statistical tools used by the district.
Ability to facilitate decisions across departments, explain technical issues in plain language, maintain composure during deadlines, and handle confidential information with sound judgment.

Minimum Qualifications (skills and abilities)

Working knowledge of reporting or query tools and demonstrated ability to analyze record-level and aggregate data.

Work Environment

Work is primarily performed in an office, school, or remote-work environment using computers and communication systems for extended periods. The employee must be able to communicate with varied audiences, review detailed records, travel between district locations as assigned, and occasionally move equipment or materials weighing up to 25 pounds. Work outside normal hours may be required during school openings, grading periods, reporting deadlines, releases, or incidents. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Other Requirements

Employment and Classification Notes

This description identifies the general nature and level of work. It is not an exhaustive list of every duty, responsibility, qualification, or working condition.
The district may assign related duties and may revise the description to reflect operational needs, technology, law, policy, bargaining agreements, and organizational structure.
Final FLSA status, salary placement, supervision, bargaining-unit status, required clearances, and essential-function determinations must be established by the employing agency.