District/School Administration  Information Services  Data Collection  SIMS 
State Assigned Student Identifier (SASID)

What is SASID?

A State Assigned Student Identifiers (SASID) is a unique identifier given to each student receiving a publicly funded education in Massachusetts. The SASID number remains with the student throughout his or her educational life in grades pre-K through 12, even as the student transfers from one district or school to another. If the student leaves the state and returns, the student will receive his/her original SASID. Districts can apply for a SASID using the Single Student Registration (SSR) or the Multiple Student Registration (MSR). Once the SASID is assigned, districts can retrieve the unique identifier using the Publish Manager application.

Note: Districts who are paying tuition for students attending collaboratives, private facilities or private schools must apply for the SASID and provide those facilities with the SASID.

To receive a SASID for each student, districts must submit the following 8 student characteristics in the correct format to the Department: LASID, First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Date of Birth, Gender, City/Town of Birth and Town of Residence in a comma separated value (csv) text file for MSR or directly on the web using SSR. MSR and SSR will be available for district use all year.

As a district submits the student information to the Department, the information is compared to every other student in the Commonwealth. The results are either the generation of a 10 digit SASID or the number "411." In the SSR, the SASID or 411 will be displayed on the screen. In the MSR, the SASID is added to the end of the student's record and the district file is posted on a secure district web site on Publish Manager for downloading. "411" or "case" means that more than one student had similar characteristics, that two districts are claiming the same student or that the district submitted the same student twice using similar characteristics. If a case was generated, then the district should contact Data Collection at (781) 338-3282. As cases are resolved the SASID numbers for those students are then posted to the original file located on Publish Manager.

Single Student Registration (SSR)

The Single Student Registration System (SSR) is an application that was developed by the Department in order to give instant access of the SASID database to the district. This application can be accessed from www4.doemass.org and is primarily used for small numbers of students. In order to access this application, the user must be set up as an SSR user in Directory Administration. This application allows the district user to lookup a student's SASID, verify a present SASID and assign SASID numbers to students within a district. The process generally takes a couple of minutes.

Multiple Student Registration (MSR)

The Multiple Student Registration System (MSR) is an application that was developed by the Department to give districts the ability to assign SASID numbers to a large group of students in one session. The number of students per file submitted to the Department for SASID assignment via this method must be 5 or more and the file must include a header. This application can be accessed from www4.doemass.org. In order to access this application the user must be set up as an MSR user in Directory Administration. Once the data is error free, the district is able to transmit the data using the MSR directly to the Department's database where SASID numbers will then be appended to the end of the student's record and posted to Publish Manager.

Transfer Cards

The Department provides transfer cards that include a place to indicate the student's state id (SASID). These transfer cards should be used when a student transfers between Massachusetts' school districts.

The Transfer Cards and Pupil Census Cards are now available for you to download. Contact Christine Teixeira at 781-338-3607 or cteixeira@doe.mass.edu for more information.

|   Transfer Card

|   Pupil Census Card

Application Process

The Receiving district who is the district providing the education applies for the SASID
OR
The Sending district if the student attends a collaborative, private facility or private school where the tuition is paid by the Sending district. This is the only instance in which a sending district applies for a SASID.
Note: Districts who are paying tuition for students attending collaboratives, private facilities or private schools must apply for the SASID and provide those facilities with the SASID.

Handbook for Using the SASID Applications

|   Assigning State Assigned Student Identifiers (SASIDs)