APPENDIX B – 2013 AND 2015 SUPERINDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT LETTER

July 2013

Dear Superintendent:

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has initiated a data collection effort 

to collect school boundary data for all public schools in the United States and the District 

of Columbia. This project is an expansion of NCES’s very successful on-going 

collection of School District boundary data for all districts in the country. To ensure the 

success of the school boundary project, we need your help. In the next 2-3 weeks, 

instructions for participating in this project will be sent to you. Please designate a Key

Holder to be responsible for providing boundary information for schools within your 

district. We will accept paper maps or electronic shape files. Data collection begins 

September 1, 2013.

By providing NCES with your school boundary information, NCES will be able to 

provide a public accessible mapping system that contains school boundaries for all public 

schools in this country. It will be possible to overlay other databases from the Census 

bureau and NCES to the catchment areas of the individual schools in your district. This 

information can then be used at the district, State, and national levels to inform policy

decisions regarding funding and disaster relief programs. 

The cooperation of your District is important to the success of this national survey of 

school attendance boundaries. NCES will not sell this data and will provide public 

access to the consolidated geo-database. This file will be updated every two years to 

account for school boundary changes. If you have questions about the School Attendance 

Boundary Survey (SABS), please contact Tai Phan at Tai.Phan@ed.gov.

Sincerely,

Jack Buckley

Commissioner

National Center for Education Statistics

Institute of Education Sciences
APPENDIX C – 2013 AND 2015 KEYHOLDER PACKET

August 2013

Dear Superintendent:

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is conducting a biennial survey of 

public school attendance boundaries in the fifty states and the District of Columbia. 

Please designate a Key Holder to be responsible for data entry and forward the enclosed 

survey information to that person as soon as possible.

Data collection for the FY 2013 School Attendance Boundary Survey (SABS) begins 

September 1, 2013, and the URL for the survey is 

http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sdds/index.aspx. The Key Holder should register

beginning on September 1, 2013 using the enclosed user ID and password. Data 

collection ends on August 31, 2014.

The goal of obtaining these public school attendance boundaries is to incorporate school 

boundary data in the NCES’s consolidated geo-database in order to better serve the 

school districts and members of the general public. For more information about the 

survey, see the SABS home page at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sdds/index.aspx .

By providing NCES with your school boundary information, NCES will be able to 

provide a public accessible mapping system that contains school boundaries for all public 

schools in this country. It will be possible to overlay other databases from the Census 

Bureau and NCES to the catchment areas of the individual schools in your district. This 

information can then be used at the district, State, and national levels to inform policy

decisions regarding funding and disaster relief programs.

Thank you for your cooperation and support of this very important voluntary survey.

Sincerely,

Tai Phan, Program Director

Enclosure
August 2013

Dear SABS Key Holder:

As Key Holder for the FY 2013 School Attendance Boundaries Survey (SABS), you 

play an important role in this national data collection effort sponsored by the National 

Center for Education Statistics (NCES). You are responsible for your district’s data 

submission. Only designated staff with assigned SABS user IDs and passwords can 

access the survey system, located at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sdds/index.aspx . 

Data collection begins September 1, 2013 and ends on August 31, 2014. Registration can 

begin on September 1 and should be completed as soon as possible. 

This packet contains the key holder certificate, which contains your SABS user ID 

number, personal password, UNIT-ID, school district name, as well as critical dates and 

SABS Help Desk Information. Please keep this document in a safe place and do not 

share this password with anyone.

You will register using the Key Holder Certificate, FY 2013 SABS. The Web registration 

form asks for specific contact information, which will then be used by the Census

Bureau, the data collection agent for NCES, in all further contacts with your district 

during this data collection. Once your data have been entered, the Census Bureau will 

review your submission and may contact you with questions about the data.

Technical assistance for your data submission will be available from the Census Bureau 

at govs.sabs@census.gov or by calling (877) 749-4925. If you have questions or 

comments about the survey program, you may contact me at Tai.Phan@ed.gov or (202) 

502-7431.

Thank you for your cooperation and support of this survey.

Sincerely,

Tai Phan

Program Director

Enclosures 
Key Holder Certificate

FY2013 School Attendance Boundaries 

Survey (SABS)

Please keep this certificate in a safe place and

do not share the password 

School District Number: «unitid»

«district name»

SABS USERID: «userid»

SABS Password: «password»

(Note: Passwords are case sensitive)

SABS HELP DESK: govs.sabs@census.gov

 1-877-749-4925

On-line Registration and Data Collection Period

September 1, 2013 through August 31, 2014

(http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sdds/index.aspx)
APPENDIX D – 2013 AND 2015 NON-RESPONSE CALL SCRIPT

MEMORANDUM

To: Phyllis G. Smith

Jeffersonville Telephone Center

National Processing Center

From: Laura Hardesty

Education and Library Statistics Branch

Governments Division

Subject: School Attendance Boundary Survey (SABS) – Non-response 

Calls

This memorandum describes the non-response telephone procedures that will be used for 

the 2013 School Attendance Boundary Survey (SABS). The purpose of the telephone 

calls is to encourage non-respondent school districts to respond to the survey.

FILES PROVIDED

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) will provide an Access database 

containing the contact information for each non-respondent district. 

MATERIALS

Each caller will be given:

1. A section of the database printout for calling

2. Call sheets to record the information from the call. The call sheets will include

name, mailing addresses, email address, and a comment area to record phone call 

outcomes.

THE CALL

1. Call the district and ask to speak to the designated key holder.

2. If you aren’t able to speak to the key holder, 

a. Ask for the respondent’s email address so that we can send the survey user

ID and password. 

b. If you can’t get the email address, ask to leave a voice mail.

Good morning (afternoon, etc.). My name is_____. I am calling for the 

School Attendance Boundary Survey, sponsored by the National Center 

for Education Statistics, in the U.S. Department of Education. We are 

collecting data on school boundaries because the survey deadline is 

August 31, 2014. I am calling to offer assistance to help you register for 

the survey. 

Please call me at 1-877-749-4925 at your earliest convenience. Thank 

you.
3. If you are able to speak with the respondent, follow the script below for the calls. 

(Items in blue are not part of the script.)

Good morning (afternoon, etc.). My name is_____. I am calling for the 

School Attendance Boundary Survey, sponsored by the National Center 

for Education Statistics, in the U.S. Department of Education. We are 

collecting data on school boundaries that your district was earlier offered 

to submit. I am calling to offer assistance to help you register and 

complete your online survey. 

Your participation is very important to the success of the survey.

I would like to email this information to you. May I have your email 

address?

(If yes, copy email address onto call sheet and repeat the e-mail address 

back for verification.)

May I also have a mailing address for your district? 

(If yes, write this on your call sheet). 

Thank you for your time. Have a good ____(morning, etc.).

Record on the call sheet the name of the person and any other information 

they gave you.

4. Make up to 3 calls to the district to try to speak to a person who can give you the 

information. If you have no success, record that on the call sheet.

END OF PROJECT

Ship the call sheets by FedEx to Governments Division at the Census Bureau, to the 

address below, or e-mail them to Laura Hardesty (laura.c.hardesty@census.gov).

US Bureau of the Census 

Attn: Laura Hardesty

Governments Division, 6K152B

4600 Silver Hill Road 

Washington DC 20233 
APPENDIX E – 2013 AND 2015 REMINDER LETTER

GENTLE REMINDER

November 2013

Dear Superintendent:

Data collection for the 2012 School Attendance Boundary Survey (SABS) began on 

September 1, 2013. According to our records, your district has not completed the survey. 

The survey ends on August 31, 2014. Please complete the survey, as soon as possible on 

the SABS Web site at https:// http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sdds/index.aspx. The 

survey consists of one question and a request to receive your district’s school boundary

files in electronic or paper format.

If you need your User ID and password, please have your key holder contact the SABS 

Help Desk at 1-877-749-4925 or e-mail at govs.sabs@census.gov.

Once complete, SABS will provide a mechanism for school districts, researchers, and the 

public to view school boundaries and overlay them with information from other sources 

such as the Census Bureau. Thus, it will be possible to add demographic and poverty

measures to the school catchment areas.

We appreciate your participation in this survey and look forward to receiving your data 

submission in the near future. Thank you for your cooperation and support for this 

national School Attendance Boundary Survey. If you have questions about the survey

content, please contact me at Tai.Phan@ed.gov or 202-502-7431.

Sincerely,

Tai Phan

Survey Director