Calista, a Utah State Board of Education staff member and meeting host, reviewed lessons learned from the October 1 finalized submission and steps LEAs should take for the December collection.

Calista and other USBE staff reported that most LEAs met the October finalization deadline (the deadline was observed on Monday, Oct. 6 because Oct. 5 fell on a weekend); a small number (six LEAs) finalized later on Oct. 6. Long submission and processing times caused delays for many LEAs and contributed to some finalization errors.

USBE staff highlighted three common issues: finalizing the wrong submission (often because the UTrEx/YouTrax overview shows a queued status), finalizing while the overview had not yet updated, and finalizing with fatal errors that block student records. Staff recommended that LEAs:

- Check the UTrEx/YouTrax submission overview and wait until it shows the intended submission as "completed" before clicking finalize. If an "invalid batch" error appears, wait and retry rather than re-uploading immediately.
- Download and keep the grama file (finalized student-level extract) after finalization for audits and future reviews.
- Maintain daily scheduled collections to avoid last-minute issues and designate backup personnel to ensure timely responses during finalization windows.

IT completed ETL and moved data into production databases by Oct. 10; USBE’s finance office received data Oct. 14 and used it in subsequent reporting. Staff said they will begin courtesy data reviews for December earlier than before and asked LEAs to respond promptly to courtesy-review contacts. They also invited suggestions for encouraging earlier finalization and improving communication during the finalization window.

Staff warned that the October deadline for corrections is firm: because finance needs finalized data earlier in the cycle, USBE cannot accept changes after the October deadline for that reporting period; those corrections must be addressed in the December or year-end submissions.

USBE staff said they are exploring ways to shorten collection and processing times and that Cliff from IT is working on technical improvements.