CCGI Flash #4

California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI)

To:           Local Educational Agency (LEA) Representatives

From:      California Department of Education (CDE) –
                California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) Team

Date:       September 29, 2025

Subject:  CCGI Flash #4

Note: The target audience for this California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI) Flash #4 is local educational agencies (LEAs), including charter schools, serving students in grades 9–12.

California College Guidance Initiative Reminders and Updates

The purpose of this letter is to remind LEAs of upcoming requirements related to the scaling of CCGI to all LEAs serving students in grades 9–12, and to announce the posting of the CCGI Student Information System (SIS) Vendor and Product Capabilities Matrix that tracks SIS vendor progress in fully supporting LEAs to upload data to CCGI. Many LEAs are already in partnership with CCGI, and the California Department of Education (CDE) congratulates those LEAs whose students are currently using and benefiting from their transcript-informed Partner Accounts on CaliforniaColleges.edu.

Reminders of Upcoming Statutory Requirements

All LEAs serving students in grades 9–12 are statutorily required under California Education Code Section 60900(f) to:

• Enter a data sharing partnership with CCGI by January 1, 2026;
• Provide an initial data file to CCGI by June 30, 2026; and
• Complete the onboarding work to ensure students have access to transcript-informed Partner Accounts on CaliforniaColleges.edu that are regularly updated by district files.

Note: Regardless whether an LEA uses a SIS or whether an LEA's SIS is compliant with the data standard, all LEAs are required to enter a data sharing memorandum of understanding (MOU) and provide compliant data to CCGI by June 2026.

Transcript-informed Partner Accounts provide students and educators with the ability to track progress toward meeting California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) Eligibility requirements and provide integrations to California's public higher education institution applications that are designed to streamline the process for students. If your LEA is not yet in partnership (i.e., does not have a data sharing MOU) with CCGI, contact CCGI via the CaliforniaColleges.edu Contact Us web page at: https://californiacolleges.edu/#/contact-us.

Publication of the CCGI SIS Vendor and Product Capabilities Matrix

On August 25, 2025, the California School Information Services (CSIS) added to its website a CCGI Vendor Compatibility web page, which features the CCGI SIS Vendor and Product Capabilities Matrix. This matrix, as described in California Education Code Section 49083.5, outlines the ability of SIS products to support LEAs to provide the required data elements to populate student transcript-informed accounts on CaliforniaColleges.edu for their 9th–12th grade students, and an automated means of data transmission to CCGI. LEAs are encouraged to review the status of their SIS vendor in providing the functionality needed to support CCGI data transmission.

Transcript-informed Partner Accounts provide students and educators with the ability to track progress toward meeting CSU and UC Eligibility requirements and provide integrations to California's public higher education institution applications.

This resource can be found on the CSIS CCGI Vendor Compatibility web page at: https://csis.fcmat.org/sis-vendors/ccgi-vendor-compatibility.

CCGI SIS Vendor and Product Capabilities Matrix Information

The CCGI SIS Vendor and Product Capabilities Matrix includes the following information:

1. Vendor Name
2. Product Name
3. Confirmation that the Vendor/Product serves LEAs educating pupils in grades
   9–12
4. Compliance with the Required Data Elements (necessary for LEAs to share with CCGI for the purpose of providing transcript-informed Partner Accounts on CaliforniaColleges.edu)
   1. Anticipated compliance date, if not yet achieved
5. Compliance with the Additional Data Elements (necessary for LEAs to share with CCGI for the purpose of optimizing the CSU and UC Eligibility Tools inside transcript-informed Partner Accounts on CaliforniaColleges.edu)
   1. Anticipated compliance date, if not yet achieved
6. Automated File Submission Available (to provide LEAs with a simple manner to submit regular data to CCGI)
   1. Anticipated compliance date, if not yet achieved
7. Waiver from the Application Programming Interface (API) or automated extract requirement, for small vendors only
8. Verification that no fees are charged to LEAs for this service
9. Certification that the Vendor/Product is CCGI-compatible

The Matrix will be versioned regularly as SIS Vendors make progress on demonstrating their CCGI compatibility.

Requirements for SIS Vendors

SIS vendors who contract with LEAs enrolling California public 9th–12th grade students are determined to be CCGI-compatible if they:

1. Provide data element fields as specified by CCGI, including required fields and optional fields, that inform CSU and UC Eligibility calculations.
   1. Vendor capability is demonstrated by mapping their product’s fields to the specified elements in a process facilitated by CCGI.
   2. Vendors are expected to add any field needed to be able to provide both required and optional elements.
2. Develop an automated means of transmitting data to CCGI, such as an API or Automated Extract.
   1. Small vendors may apply for a waiver from the API or automated extract requirement.

SIS providers will only be indicated as “Compliant” on the CCGI SIS Vendor and Product Capabilities Matrix when they provide the data element fields and an automated method of data transmission, as described above, without passing any cost associated with these enhancements to their products onto the LEAs.

SIS providers have been informed by the California Department of Education (CDE) and CSIS that completing the requirements outlined above is necessary for California public LEAs who utilize their systems. Furthermore, the SIS providers have been advised that completion of the requirements on or before January 1, 2026 will help facilitate the requirement that LEAs provide this data to CCGI no later than June 30, 2026.

Resources

To Learn More and Contact CCGI

• To learn more about the California College Guidance Initiative, visit: https://cacollegeguidance.org/learnmore/
  
• To begin moving your LEA toward partnership, please contact: communityengagement@californiacolleges.edu

Other Basic Resources

• CALPADS CCGI Flash Communication Series
  https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sp/cl/communications.asp#ccgi  
• California High School Transcript and Student Record Portability Standard https://cacollegeguidance.org/Standard-Spec-V1
• California Colleges
  https://www.californiacolleges.edu
• Senate Bill 153: Education omnibus budget trailer bill https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB153