Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is a Demographic Study?

A. It is an in depth analysis of the School District enrollment and attendance data to determine the historic trends and attendance patterns in order to forecast or project the enrollment into the future. It also takes into account birth data, census data, and new development data when analyzing the historic and projected data.

Q. How many years into the future should I look when doing enrollment projections?

A. Many Districts need to look a minimum of three years for budget purposes. One and two year projections are helpful for determining staffing needs and also indicate if there are facility overcrowding issues that need to be addressed. Looking out five or six years is useful to determine if a new school or an addition to a school is needed. It usually takes at least 3 to 5 years to complete a project once it is determined to be needed. The further you look into the future, the less accurate the projections will be as there is a higher likelihood of the trends changing or the assumptions being off. Our reports typically project 6 years into the future and average a 1% or less error rate in the one year projections.

Q. What GIS system does SchoolWorks use?

A. MapInfo Professional. We have found this is the most user friendly software available.

Q. Who in the District will use GIS?

A. Typically an assistant planner will benefit most from the power of the GIS tool. However, it is a simple system to use and can be used by school site secretaries, business officials and even superintendents.

Q. What Student Information Systems can SchoolWorks work with?

A. We work with any system that can output the student data into a text, Excel or database file. Some of the systems we currently work with include SASI, Aeries and PowerSchool.