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Ohio Education Computer Network
What is the Ohio Education Computer Network?
Founded in 1979, the Ohio Education Computer Network (OECN) is a collaboration between the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, Information Technology Centers (ITCs), the Management Council, OARnet, and other providers who are dedicated to making a difference for Ohio schools.
Originally formed by the state legislature to create a more uniform state financial accounting system, the OECN enhanced its purpose as technology advanced and school district needs evolved.
Growth in school district use of technology in administrative and instructional areas continues at an exponential rate. The OECN remains a leader in providing the technology to meet the needs of Ohio’s learners, teachers, and leaders.
History of the OECN
The Ohio Education Computer Network (OECN) was established by an act of the Ohio Legislature in 1979 (in ORC 3301.075) as a means of assisting Ohio school districts, who at that time were facing newly enacted accounting rules that all but mandated use of computer processing to comply. The OECN originally consisted of 27 regional data processing facilities called “A-Sites,” each of which was created, owned, and managed by independent groups of cooperating school districts.
In 1989 the state enacted additional school district data reporting requirements through the Education Management Information System (EMIS), and the OECN A-Sites were renamed as “Data Acquisition Sites” (DA-Sites). The OECN DA-Sites became critical resources to support schools with the collection, processing, and transmission of EMIS data to the Ohio Department of Education (now called Department of Education and Workforce).
Although originally created to support school district accounting requirements, the OECN expanded to meet the growing technology needs of schools by implementing services such as new fiscal software, student data management, library automation, electronic networking, internet access, video distance learning, classroom management systems, electronic learning resources, and many others. The owner-members of some data centers voluntarily merged to create greater financial and operational efficiencies. Today the OECN consists of sixteen centers which are now known as “Information Technology Centers” or ITCs for short. Connected by a 200Gb fiber network, the ITCs remain owned and managed by member school districts to supply affordable, efficient, high-quality, NIST-compliant technology services to schools and other governmental entities in Ohio.
