School Directory

State's description: basic entity details including entity name and category code

Listed in the state's table index as rcd_location (active, 2016)

51,292 rows loaded, covering 3,201 schools and agencies, 2005–06 to 2023–24.

1. The state publishes an Excel data dictionary. This demo reads it: 66 table definitions, 525 column definitions, and 181 code definitions — the same ones behind the Decoded view above.
2. From those definitions it writes a Django database model for each table, so nobody has to type the columns in by hand. This table's model came out like this:

class RcdLocation(SRCBaseModel):
    agency_code = models.CharField(max_length=6)
    agency_level = models.CharField(
        max_length=22,
        null=True,
        blank=True,
        choices=[("SCH", "School"), ("LEA", "Local Education Agency"), ("SEA", "State"), ("NAT", "National")],
    )
    calendar_type = models.CharField(max_length=1, null=True, blank=True)
    category_code = models.CharField(
        max_length=31,
        choices=[
            ("E", "Elementary"),
            ("M", "Middle School"),
            ("H", "High School"),
            ("A", "Elementary, Middle, High School"),
            ("T", "Middle, High School"),
            ("I", "Elementary, Middle school"),
        ],
    )
    city = models.CharField(max_length=30, null=True, blank=True)
    county = models.CharField(max_length=100, null=True, blank=True)
    designation_type = models.CharField(
        max_length=17,
        null=True,
        blank=True,
        choices=[
            ("C", "Charter School"),
            ("F", "Federal School"),
            ("L", "Laboratory School"),
            ("P", "Public School"),
            ("R", "Regional School"),
            ("O", "Other"),
        ],
    )
    esea = models.CharField(max_length=10, null=True, blank=True)
    grade_span = models.CharField(max_length=5, null=True, blank=True)
    lea_code = models.CharField(
        max_length=43, null=True, blank=True, choices=[("CH", "Charter and Non-District Affiliated Schools")]
    )
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100, null=True, blank=True)
    phone = models.CharField(max_length=20, null=True, blank=True)
    purple_star = models.CharField(max_length=1, null=True, blank=True)
    residing_district = models.CharField(max_length=6, null=True, blank=True)
    school_type = models.CharField(max_length=1, null=True, blank=True)
    state = models.CharField(max_length=2, null=True, blank=True)
    stem = models.CharField(max_length=1, null=True, blank=True)
    street_addr = models.CharField(max_length=40, null=True, blank=True)
    street_addr2 = models.CharField(max_length=40, null=True, blank=True)
    super_name = models.CharField(max_length=150, null=True, blank=True)
    title_i = models.CharField(max_length=1, null=True, blank=True)
    url = models.CharField(max_length=256, null=True, blank=True)
    year = models.CharField(max_length=4)
    zip = models.CharField(max_length=5, null=True, blank=True)

    class Meta:
        db_table = "rcd_location"
        managed = True
        unique_together = ("year", "agency_code", "category_code")

3. 51,292 rows were then loaded from the state's raw data files into RcdLocation.
4. It also takes a fingerprint (SHA-256) of the dictionary's general-rules sheet. If the state quietly rewrites its rules document, the next rebuild flags the change instead of absorbing it silently.