2025.08.05 Back to School Information
Last updated: July 1, 2026
August has arrived, and school is just around the corner. Below are a few important updates and reminders related to preparing for the new school year.
Action Needed: Back-to-School for Leaders
Important tasks and information for FastBridge and Panorama Student Success are listed in the Iowa Back to School Checklist.
Do not follow the instructions at the top of FastBridge for the new year setup. Changing settings in FastBridge will result in delays and/or damaged data for the 2025-26 school year. If you have questions, please submit a support request in FastBridge. See below for more information about FastBridge.
ELI, HF 2618, Math Counts Act
ACTION REQUIRED: The default assessment selection process reopened on August 1 for math assessment selections, updates to literacy assessment selections, and for those who did not complete the collection in the spring. Building principals, please make sure this is completed by August 22. Additional communications will come from the CASA system for this collection. Please make sure to coordinate the selections and communicate them between the administration and all staff.
ACTION REQUESTED: Verify that the mathematics assessments you plan to use are on the 2025-26 mathematics approved list to ensure you have time to plan for any changes.
The new math legislation created an opportunity for aligning and updating math and literacy early warning practices. Please click here to view an overview of the updated processes. More detailed technical assistance documents are in the works.
State ID system
Valid student state IDs are required in order for students to populate in FastBridge rosters, ACHIEVE, and for data to connect in Panorama Student Success. The Iowa Department of Education’s State ID system is currently undergoing a significant upgrade. The new system, now called Uniq-ID, is in place, and data is being migrated from the old State ID system. Uniq-ID is expected to be available for users to request in the portal tentatively on August 11, 2025.
In addition, the Student Locator, the automatic state ID assignment feature, has been retired. A new process is being built.
When Uniq-ID is available, the Department will notify users and provide training opportunities and materials for both Uniq-ID and the automatic ID assignment process. No action is needed by users at this time.
FastBridge
FastBridge rosters are currently importing 2025-26 enrollments for districts sending 2025-26 SIS data
Before the system can start processing rosters, the following must be completed by your district:
Your district’s SIS and SIF agent has been rolled over to display and send 2025-26 data. Check with your SIS vendor to confirm if needed.
Your district has enrolled students, scheduled them into classes and they have valid *student state IDs (needed to build rosters) in your SIS. *Please see the section above on the State ID system for important changes to the student ID system and when it will be available.
The Iowa team has completed the assessment setup for the school year. If any off-level measures are needed for the 25-26 school year, please contact the Iowa Support Team using the “Submit a Request” link in FastBridge and include the name of the building, the measure, and the grade level needed.
The Iowa team has set the screening windows for 25-26. Please do not edit the window dates! If you have questions, please contact the Iowa Team.
FastBridge has made changes to their support/ticket system. You may notice a delay accessing bookmarked articles. Any articles you may have bookmarked will temporarily redirect to the new article location. We suggest updating your bookmarks. Please note that the email address for starting Iowa tickets has changed. Use: iowafastbridgehelp@renaissance.com
FastBridge has introduced minor style changes to the home page. The primary changes involve color, compiling the help options into a button and moving from the upper left to the upper right corner, and introducing a square menu for additional navigation options. District Managers and Specialists, you will find the view selector under your initials in the upper right. This is where you will change buildings and view the data by different teachers. While the look is slightly different, you should be able to find all the familiar resources and links.
Panorama Student Success
The new user interface and Healthy Indicator (HI) reports are tentatively scheduled to be released on August 20. For more information on the new interface and HI reports, click here.
Panorama will start displaying 2025-26 rosters around August 11, if rosters are ready in your SIS (see above).
New Staff
If you have new staff coming from other Iowa districts, they will need to create a new Okta account with their new email as the user login (this is a change from past processes). Make sure they do not try to update an existing Okta account. Instructions are linked here. Contact the EdPortal help desk if assistance is needed at ed.portal@iowa.gov or 515-725-2040.
EdPortal is processing 2025-26 roles and assignments. Your SIS must also be sending 2025-26 data (SIF agent rolled over) and FAST/MTSS user roles must be assigned.
Make sure your new staff and administrators are signed up for this MTSS email list.
New staff training materials and videos are available for both FastBridge and Panorama Student Success in the links below.
Please use the relevant ticket system for help with FastBridge, Panorama, and/or ACHIEVE.