Starting with FY2018 Forecast reporting, there is a change in how the forecast assumptions (a.k.a. 'notes') are to be reported. Notes will no longer be entered or extracted through EMISFFE. Nor will notes be emailed as a PDF version to ODE. Instead, the notes must be uploaded and included at the time you 'CERTIFY & SUBMIT' the forecast via the data collector. The forecast assumptions must be in TXT or PDF format for uploading to the data collector.
There are a couple of options for submitting the Five Year Forecast Assumptions/Notes (QN) for EMIS reporting requirements:
- Forecast Assumptions may be emailed directly to ODE as a PDF document
Submitting the assumptions as a PDF document allows the document to retain it's formatting. The public will be able to view the actual PDF document submitted by the district.
- Forecast Assumptions may be converted to flat file format for processing and submission through the EMIS-R data collector
All formatting is lost when assumptions are submitted by converting to a flat file. The document will be displayed on ODE's Five Year Forecast site as plain text formatted at 80 characters.
Submitting Assumptions PDF document
It is still necessary to include an Assumption (QN) entry through EMIS-R which should read:
Please visit the Ohio Department of Education website at ftp://ftp.ode.state.oh.us/geodoc/5-yrForecast/
- To accomplish this, copy the two lines above
- Using EMISFFE and the Forecast Assumptions entry screen, paste these lines into the text box and save
- Use the EMISFFE Export option, selecting the appropriate fiscal year and reporting period P to create a flat file that may be uploaded to the EMIS-R data collector. By selecting reporting period P, both QN and QF records will be extracted into the flat file.
The PDF Assumptions document may then be emailed to ODE
- The full text of the assumptions must be formatted as a PDF file with the following naming convention:
District_Name-IRN- All parts of the district's name are separated with an underscore, followed by a dash and then the six digit IRN, containing NO spaces.
- Newton Falls Exempted Village's file would be named NEWTON_FALLS-045567
- Newton Local would be named NEWTON-048637
- Note that the school district type (city, local, exempted village, etc) should NOT be part of the file name.
- The properly named PDF file may be sent as an attachment to the School Finance Department of ODE
schoolfinance@education.ohio.gov
Submitting Assumptions as a Flat File
Assumptions may be converted into flat file format using the Forecast Assumptions entry screen of EMISFFE. Regardless of the utility used to compose the Assumptions, the text may be copied and pasted into EMISFFE. EMISFFE will convert the text into the proper format (behind the scene) for submission through EMIS-R. If desired, the assumptions may be entered directly into EMISFFE rather than using a word processing utility to compose them.
Select the Forecast Assumptions (QN) from the main menu of EMISFFE
From the List view, select 'New ForecastAssumptions' 
This will open the Create view
Assumption text that has been composed using an editor/word processing utility may be copied and pasted into the 'Text Data' box. Upon saving the record, it will be converted into the appropriate flat file format for submission to ODE. This conversion is done behind the scenes and will not be noticable/viewable through the Forecast Assumptions entry screen.
Only one assumption record is permitted for each district.
If the district has made changes to their document, they may either Delete the existing Forecast Assumptions entry and then go through the Create process again, or they may use the Edit option and paste over the existing text with the updated document text.
When the Extract option is used to extract the Five Year Forecast data into a flat file for uploading to EMIS-R, the Forecast Assumptions will look like so in the extraction file (the first three lines shown here are QF - Five Year Forecast, followed by the QN - Assumptions):