BCeSIS

BCeSIS (the British Columbia Enterprise Student Information System) is the implementation of a common student information system by independent schools and school districts of British Columbia, Canada. eSIS is commercial software developed by The Administrative Assistants Ltd [http://www.aalsolutions.com/] of Ontario, Canada, that provides the foundation for the centrally hosted, web accessible student information system.

The BCeSIS System is currently hosted by Fujitsu Canada under contract to the British Columbia Ministry of Education. Currently all districts have signed a memorandum of understanding to voluntarily adopt BCeSIS on their own timeline. Support for schools and districts adopting the new system is provided by their own local staff resources in conjunction with Fujitsu Helpdesk http://www.isw-bc.ca and the Ministry of Education. A number of districts have utilized the services of Student Information System Specialists such as Draper Creek Consulting http://www.drapercreek.ca to ease their transition and minimize demands on their own support staff.

The Independent School implementation of BCeSIS is managed by the iGroup. More information can be found at [http://www.bcesisigroup.ca www.bcesisigroup.ca]

Some teachers dislike the electronic system for managing attendance and demographics while others find that having complete access to essential information on their students to be very beneficial. Using the simple Teacher Assistant interface, the teacher has access to the student full demographic and contact information as well as details regarding the students performance, programs and special education needs. BCeSIS gathers attendance in the classroom using an electronic attendance checklist and allows both the teacher and the office to share information regarding student absences. In the 2008/2009 school year the province will be implementing a new capability call Parent Assistant that will allow parents to monitor their child's attendance in real time.