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Posted February 16, 2023
Export/Import PEN
This article is only relevant for Canadian schools for BC Ministry Reporting purposes.

The PEN is a student number supplied by the British Columbia Ministry of Education, uniquely identifying each student across all schools. PCR Educator provides means to manage PENs efficiently through export and import functions.

Every year, as students matriculate to your school, you will need to acquire a PEN from the BC Ministry.  To do this, generate the export file with your students and provide it to the BC Ministry.  The BC Ministry will determine the students new (or existing) PENs, and send you the file back.  Next, you import the received file from the BC Ministry to update the PENs on your student records. 

Access this export by navigating to Admin > Students and using the Special multi-action.  You need Registrar Full or Registrar Read roles to access this page.

To create the export, enter the option header file information for your school, then click Export.

Access this import by navigating to Home > Import > BC PEN.  You need the Import role and the Registrar Full role to access this page.
 
To import PENs for students from the BC Ministry provided file, click Choose File and then click Import PEN.  Matched students that do not already have PENs will be updated with the PEN in the import file.  Note: The file name must match your school’s CEEB code, and the file extension must be either ".ids" or ".pen".
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