Opening of School Information and Items to Check

Opening of School Information and Items to Check
Posted on 08/22/2019

Please see the below regarding opening of school information, and items to check in PowerSchool.

  • New! IT Back-to-School Resource Connection: The IT Back-to-School Resource Connection webpage contains just-in-time information pertinent to opening of school. Find helpful material from PowerSchool and participating departments such as Neighborhood Schools and Enrollment Options, Research and Evaluation, and Pupil Accounting.
  • Opening of School Guide for Power Users: To assist schools with PowerSchool opening of school tasks, IT has created a job aid of important items to check before and after the first day of school.
  • InfoSnap New Student Online Enrollment: For schools with boundaries, continue to monitor the submission workspace in InfoSnap, and work with parents to process the records in a timely manner. A significant number of applications remain in pending status in InfoSnap.
  • Deleting Sections Procedure: Changes have been made in PowerSchool to allow schools to delete a class section if there are no students scheduled into the class. Please follow the steps below to delete a section from the master schedule:
    1. Withdraw all students from the section. Please make sure students are withdrawn with an Exit Date which matches the Entry Date for the class.
    2. If all students have been withdrawn from the class, your school Power User will be able to delete the section from PowerSchool.
    3. In cases where a Power User is not able to delete the section from PowerSchool, contact the Help Desk to request assistance with removing the section from your master schedule. Please ensure the following information is provided in the request: School, Course Number, Section Number, Teacher. Please also confirm with the Help Desk that students have been withdrawn from the class.
  • Final Grade Setup: Refer to the communication and job aid sent on Thursday, August 8, 2019.
  • Current Grade Display and Quick Lookup Preferences: Check Current Grade Display and Quick Lookup Preferences, under School Setup. These settings control what is shown in the Parent Portal as well as on the Quick Lookup page.
  • Parent/Student Portal Access: Changes have been made to the PowerSchool Parent/Student Portal in order to prevent parents and students from seeing 2019-20 scheduling information. When your school is ready, you can re-enable the Parent/Student Portal at your school by following the instructions below. For further information about the Parent/Student Portal, please refer to the Parent and Student Portal Administration handbook. The IT Department will enable the PowerSchool Parent/Student Portal on Friday, August 23, 2019 at 12:00 PM, for schools who have not already done so.
    • Select School Setup, from the left-hand side of the page
    • Select Parent/Student Access
    • Turn off the checkbox for Disable Access To Public Portal
    • Schools can optionally remove the Custom Access Disabled Title and Custom Access Disabled Message, if they wish
    • Click the Submit button
  • Portal Access Report: For schools using the PowerSchool Parent Portal, run the Portal Access for Parents and Students report. This report lists active students at your school and indicates whether parent portal and student portal access is enabled. To run this report, select System Reports, select the sqlReports tab, and then expand the group of Enrollment reports.
  • Enrollment Form updates: It is extremely important that student demographic data is current and up to date in PowerSchool. As 2019-20 enrollment forms are received and entered in PowerSchool, be mindful of completeness, and ensure questions are updated where parents can "Opt Out", give consent, or require a "Yes" or "No" response.
  • Food Services PINs: Food Service PINs will be available Tuesday, August 20, 2019. It is highly recommended to hold off printing materials that show PINs, such as student schedules, until the PINs become available. New PINs will be assigned to students as quickly as possible after being enrolled in PowerSchool. If you notice a large number of blank PINs, please contact Food Services IT at (858) 627-7339.

Note: If a student attended a different summer school than their regular site then their PIN could have changed from the prior year. In the event that you have minor questions like this, please check with your site leader to confirm the student"s PIN. If you see any issues with student PINs please contact Food Services IT at (858) 627-7339.