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Overview

The Person Identification Database (PID) system is used by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to manage and store identifying information on individuals who are reported to TEA through the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS). The PID system includes records for students and teachers. The purpose of the PID system is to ensure that each time data are collected for the same individual, certain pieces of basic identifying information match. The PID system used at TEA verifies that social security number (or alternative ID), last name, first name, and date of birth match on every record submitted for an individual. The PID system allows linking of data across data collections with greater confidence. It also provides a unique identifying number for each individual that can be used to maintain the confidentiality of personally identifiable data. Other Texas state agencies and education agencies in other states that collect data on individuals use similar systems to manage identifying information.

TEA currently uses a web application called EDIT+ to edit PEIMS data before submission to TEA. The EDIT+ software has features that allow districts to perform: (1) PID edits against the dynamic PID database; and (2) PID search/query on a particular student against a copy of the PID database. In addition, authorized users can display the history of a PID record to view changes that have occurred. This gives districts the capability to resolve issues where two districts are claiming the same student. All of these features give districts more lead time to correct errors before submitting their PEIMS data to TEA. Corrections to the PID database occur only after the Education Service Center (ESC) has accepted the data.