Table of Contents
Parents ..................................................................................................... 1
Creating a Parental Account.................................................................. 1
Logging on to ParentConnection ............................................................ 4
Tools for Parents ................................................................................ 5
Apply for access to a student ................................................................ 7
Viewing Student Grade Information ....................................................... 9
Viewing Student Attendance Information .............................................. 11
Report Cards ................................................................................... 12
Triggers .......................................................................................... 13
Discipline ........................................................................................ 15
Calendar ......................................................................................... 16
Manage Students.............................................................................. 18
My Settings ..................................................................................... 20
Administrators ........................................................................................ 21
Administrator login ........................................................................... 21
Tools for Administrators ..................................................................... 22
Current Users .................................................................................. 23
Create a Parent Account .................................................................... 28
Managing Students ........................................................................... 31
Denied Applications........................................................................... 36
Pending Approvals ............................................................................ 38
Server Settings ................................................................................ 42
Statistics......................................................................................... 51
Index ...................................................................................................... 53
1
Parents
Creating a Parental Account
Every campus has a different GradeSpeed URL. Log on to your campus' specific
GradeSpeed address and click the "Click here to sign up" link.
After selecting Click here to sign up, the following screen will appear:
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Fill in all required fields. Please note that before creating an account, all users must
agree to any terms of usage (displayed in the user agreement) that the school may
specify. Also please note the Password Requirements displayed below the blank
password field.
Click Sign Up. The following notif ication will appear:
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Check the email account that you used when signing up. You should have received
an email containing a verification code for your ParentConnection account.
Enter the Verification Code into the indicated field.
After the account has been created, the new user will be taken to the parent
interface.
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Logging on to ParentConnection
To log on to ParentConnection, enter your username and password into the blank
fields of the login screen, then click Log On.
To retrieve the password for an account that has already been created, click the
"Forgot your password" link. You will then be prompted to enter your email
address. If this email address matches the address listed in your account profile, the
password will then be sent to that address.
To create a new parent account, select "Click here to sign up."
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Tools for Parents
Once your account has been created, the following screen will appear:
If this is a brand new account, there will be no students associated with it yet. To
submit a request to add a student to your account, click the "Add a student to my
account" link. For a complete explanation of the process of adding a student, read
the "Apply for access to a student section" of this manual.
If this is an older account with students already associated with it, the login screen
will look like this:
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If your account has multiple students associated with it, you may select the desired
student from the Current Student drop-down menu.
All of the main features of ParentConnection can be accessed simply by clicking the
appropriate link in the toolbar on the left side of the page. Please note that not all of
these links may be visible for your campus.
Grades - click to view grade information for the Current Student.
Attendance - click to view attendance information for the Current Student.
Report Cards - click to view your student's report cards.
Triggers - click to set up grade and attendance notification.
Discipline - click to view your student's discipline records and history.
Calendar - click to view attendance events in a calendar display.
Manage Students - click to manage associated students or add new students.
My Settings - click to edit the parent account information (name, address, email,
password, etc.)
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Apply for access to a student
To request access to a student's records, fill out the form shown below:
As indicated on this screen, every field is required in order to submit this application.
Take care that all data is accurate. Access to your student's grades will be approved
or denied based on the information in this application. The school administration will
be unable to approve access to this student if any information is missing or incorrect.
Please also note that the school administration may under certain circumstances
deny access to the student's grades even if all information is accurate.
After filling all required fields, click Submit, located near the bottom of the screen.
Depending on how your child's school has configured their system, your request may
be processed automatically or it may be processed by a campus administrative user.
If requests are processed automatically, you will be notified immediately that your
request was either approved or denied.
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If your request was approved, you will be granted access to the student's records.
If requests are processed by campus administrators, the status of your request will
be set to Pending. You will receive an automated email informing you when an
administrator has either approved or denied your request.
If your request is approved by either method, the student's name will appear in the
top left corner of the main page and you will be granted access to the student's
records. If your request is denied by either method, you will receive an email
referencing why your application was denied. You must then fill out and submit the
application again, replacing all incorrect data with valid information.
At any time after submitting a request, parents can see the status of the application
by clicking Manage Students.
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Viewing Student Grade Information
To view grades for one of your active students, select the desired student from the
drop-down list labeled Current Student.
Click Grades. The following screen will appear:
This view displays the student's courses, the names of the student's teachers, the
period in which each course takes place, and the student's average grade for each
cycle in each course. To view details about an average grade, click the grade that is
highlighted in bright blue. The following expanded information will appear below the
average grades:
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This expanded view also displays any assignments that the student has received,
grade information for assignments, exams, and tests, six-week averages, and
relevant dates. Teachers can also enter notes for parents to read. If a teacher's
email address has been entered in that teacher's prof ile, parents can click the
teacher's name to send the teacher an email. Parents will be able to tell if a teacher
has this email accessibility because the teacher's name will be highlighted.
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Viewing Student Attendance Information
To view attendance data for one of your active students, first select the desired
student from the drop-down list labeled Current Student.
Click Attendance. The following screen will appear:
This screen displays dates and periods during which an attendance code was entered
for the student.
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Report Cards
ParentConnection allows you to download and view your student's report card
online.
To view the report card, click the hyperlinked text underneath the Format column
heading. The report card will open up in either Microsoft Word (Microsoft Works and
Google Writely can both be used to view DOC files if Word is not installed on your
computer) or Adobe Acrobat Reader. The format is determined by the school.
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Triggers
The Triggers tool allows you to receive notification if your students' grades dip
below a certain threshold, or if your students are marked absent or tardy.
First, choose a student from the Current Student drop-down list. If you only have
one student associated with your account, it will already be set.
Trigger Options
To set the system to monitor your student's grades, check the box marked Watch
Grades.
Use the radio buttons to indicate whether you want notification for a high grade
threshold (for example, you want notification when your student's grade rises above
a 95) or a low grade threshold (you want notification when your student's grade
drops below a 70).
Next, enter the grade threshold that will trigger the notification.
You can also check the box marked Watch Attendance to receive notification when
your student is marked absent or tardy.
Notifications
You can choose to either receive an email or a phone call when your trigger is
"tripped."
To receive an email when your trigger is "tripped," check the box marked Send Email.
To receive an automated phone call when your trigger is "tripped," check the box
marked Phone Call to. Please note that this option will not be available at all
schools - contact your school if you have questions about automated voice
notification.
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To receive a text message to your cell phone when your trigger is "tripped," check
the box marked Send Text Message to and enter the appropriate cell phone
number in the text fields to the right.
Once your student's trigger is set to your liking, click Update. The trigger will be
turned on.
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Discipline
This feature will soon be available at campuses using GradeSpeed.NET's Discipline
module!
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Calendar
To view calendar data for one of your active students, first select the desired student
from the drop-down list labeled Current Student.
Click the Calendar link on the left. The following screen will appear:
Any dates with attendance events will be highlighted, as shown above. To view the
attendance records for that day, click in the highlighted date field. Information
related to the attendance event will be displayed on the right:
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Administrators also have the ability to add school-wide events and important dates
to the calendar. Not all calendar events will be attendance-related.
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Manage Students
After creating their accounts, parents can add student associations to their account
or manage existing student associations. To do so, parents should select Manage
Students from the menu on the left. The following screen will appear:
Request to add a student
To add a student to the account, click the Add Students button to display the
application form. Parents can also access this form by clicking "Add a student to
my account" from the Main Page.
Remove a Student
To remove access to a student listed here, click Remove. A window will appear to
confirm this action.
Once a student has been removed, all parent-entered information is lost and a new
application must be filled out and submitted for approval.
After the application has been submitted, the parent must wait for the request to be
either approved or denied. The approval process may be automated, or it may be
done manually by the school administration. Until the access to the student's grades
has been approved, the parent will be unable to view any information about that
student.
Once the request to access a student's grades has been approved, the students'
status will be listed as Active. The parent will then be able to view grade and
attendance (if applicable) information for the student.
Denied Student - Re-submit Application
If the request to access a student's grades has been denied, the student's status will
be listed as Denied. To edit the application information, the parent must click the
hyperlinked Denied status indicator. The following window will appear:
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The parent can re-enter or edit the student information seen on the right side of the
window. Once any changes have been made, the parent should click Save.
The comments in the text box on the left side indicate the reason that the application
was rejected. The text field at the bottom left allows the parent to submit comments
along with the edited information. To re-submit the application, click Send.
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My Settings
Parents can select My Settings from the menu on the left to view and edit their
account information.
To reset the account password, click Reset Password. The following window will
appear:
Simply enter the old password and new password as indicated, then click Change
Password.
To edit contact information, simply make the changes in the appropriate fields. Once
all desired changes have been made and all the information is correct, click Save.
21
Administrators
Administrator login
To log in to ParentConnection as an administrator, navigate to your campus' main
GradeSpeed.NET login page. Select Administrator, and enter the appropriate
username and password.
* NOTE: keep in mind that the Parent choice that may be available on the main
GradeSpeed login page is only for parents to log in. GradeSpeed or
ParentConnection administrators should always log in with the Administrator
choice.
Enter the appropriate user name and password:
If the account has been granted access to ParentConnection by a system-level
administrator, a page similar to the following may appear:
Select ParentConnection. If the account has access to multiple campuses, choose
the appropriate campus from the drop-down list.
Click OK to log into ParentConnection as an administrative user.
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Tools for Administrators
Overview
Unlike parent accounts, which can be created by the parents themselves,
administrative accounts are managed through GradeSpeed.NET's User
Management module. ParentConnection's administrative tools can be accessed
using the same login identity used for GradeSpeed.NET 4.0.
The following items can be accessed from the main ParentConnection administrator
menu. Click the links for more detailed information about each function.
User Management
Current Users
Create Users
Student Management
Students
Applications
Active
Pending
Denied
Suspended
Settings
Calendar
Server Settings
Statistics
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Current Users
The Current Users screen will be displayed immediately after the user has logged
into ParentConnection as an administrator. This page can also be accessed by
clicking the "Current Users" link in the toolbar on the left side of the screen.
This screen displays all the parent accounts that are currently active.
Deleting a Parent Account
To remove a parent's account entirely, click Delete. The following window will
appear:
Click OK to delete the account, or Cancel to leave the account in place and return to
the Current Users screen.
Editing a Parent Account
To view or edit the information in the parent's account, click Edit. The parent's
account information will appear.
General
This screen displays the General information attached to the parent's account.
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All editable fields can be controlled by the administrator. The Username is the only
piece of information that cannot be changed, since it serves as the "identifier" for the
whole account.
If the parent has entered his or her email address into the appropriate field,
administrators can send that parent an email by clicking the Send E-Mail link near
the bottom of the screen.
Status
To change the status of the user's account, select the appropriate status from the
"Account Status" drop-down list shown below the account password field.
The account should be set to Active if the user is in good standing and if there is no
reason to suspect misuse of the account.
The account should be set to Pending if the account is being created or is newly
created, and the administrator wishes to fill in the information at this time, but
wishes to investigate further before activating the account.
The account should be set to Suspended if the user has been active, but should be
temporarily denied access to grades for some reason. For example, if unauthorized
use is suspected. Account suspension is generally temporary.
The account should be set to Denied if the administrator wishes to store the parent's
information but also wishes to ensure that this parent is never allowed access to
grades. For example, if there has been misuse of the account, the account can be
preserved but set to Denied in order to indicate to anyone who might view the
account that this account is not to have access to grades. Account denial is generally
permanent.
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Click Save to store any changes that have been made to the parent account. Click
Save & Close to immediately return to the main screen after storing the changes.
Click Close to return to the main screen and discard any changes that have been
made since the last Save.
Students
This screen displays information related to any students that are already associated
with the parent's account.
To change the Status of a student in the parent's account, select the appropriate
Status from the drop-down menu. (Note that although this drop-down list is
identical to the one on the parent account profile screen, it does not control the
same thing. The drop-down list here controls the status of a student within a
parent's account. The drop-down list on the parent account profile screen controls
the status of the parent account itself.)
To remove the student from the parent's account, click Remove. Since this action
cannot be reversed, users must confirm the removal by clicking OK.
Click Save to store any changes that have been made to the parent account. Click
Save & Close to immediately return to the main screen after storing the changes.
Click Close to return to the main screen and discard any changes that have been
made since the last Save.
Add Students
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This screen allows administrators to add students to a parent's account directly.
Administrators must first specify which campus the desired student attends. To
choose the campus, select the appropriate campus name from the "Campus" dropdown
list at the top. Then, locate the student or students in the list below and use
the "right" arrow button in the center of the screen to transfer them into the
Students to Add list. If a student is added to the list by mistake, click on his or her
name and click the "left" arrow button to remove him or her from the Students to
Add list.
In this way, the administrator is able to add students to a parent's account without
any delay or approval process. Any students added this way will appear in the
parent's account immediately, and the student's Status will be listed as "Active" in
the administrator view.
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Click Save to store any changes that have been made to the parent account. Click
Save & Close to immediately return to the main screen after storing the changes.
Click Close to return to the main screen and discard any changes that have been
made since the last Save.
Notes
The Notes tab allows the administrator to enter text that will be seen by either the
parent or only by other administrators.
Click Save to store any changes that have been made to the parent account. Click
Save & Close to immediately return to the main screen after storing the changes.
Click Close to return to the main screen and discard any changes that have been
made since the last Save.
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Create a Parent Account
The "Create User" screen allows administrators to create a parent account directly.
To maximize the benefit of ParentConnection's administrative efficiency, schools
should strongly encourage parents to create their own accounts online, rather than
forcing the administrators to create each account manually.
Administrators should only manually create parent accounts if:
a. the parent is for some reason unable to create one online
b. the parent is present at the school and requests that an account be created at
that time
The Create User screen is displayed below:
To create the user account, fill in all required fields. Required f ields are indicated with
a red asterisk. If possible, collect the parent's email address as well in order to
enable the administrators to use the Send E-mail link in the administrator view of
the parent's prof ile. The administrator must determine at this time if the parent's
account should be activated upon creation, allowing the parent to log in immediately,
or if the account should be set to Pending or Denied. Click here for an explanation
of the various user Status settings.
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Once all information has been filled in, click Create. The new account will
immediately open in Edit mode so that the administrator has the option of manually
associating students with the new account.
Once the account has been created and activated, the parent can log on to his or her
new account via the ParentConnection website, and the parent's name will appear
on the list of Current Users.
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Managing Students
The Students screen allows administrators to view student information and create
associations between students and parent accounts. The screen will display a list of
the names of all the students who attend a particular campus.
Administrators can specify the desired campus by selecting the campus's name from
the drop-down list at the top left.
Administrators can also specify how many students to display per page by choosing
10, 25, or 50 f rom the "Results" drop-down list at the bottom left.
If there are more students than can be displayed on one page, administrators can
navigate through the multiple pages using the arrows at the bottom of the screen.
Notice that in the label, the last names that can be found on that particular page is
displayed.
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To view a student's information, click Edit. The following screen will appear:
General
The default General tab on this screen displays the information contained in the
district database for this student. As shown above, this information cannot be edited
by the administrator in ParentConnection.
Parents
The Parents tab displays any parents who are associated with the student being
viewed.
To change the parent's status, choose the appropriate status from the "Status"
drop-down list. For a complete explanation of user status, click here.
To remove the parent's access to the student's grades, click Remove.
Add Parents
The Add Parents screen displays a list of every parent account for the district, and
allows the administrator to associate any of these accounts with the student
currently being viewed. To associate a parent account with the student account,
select the parent account from the list.
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Use the arrow buttons at the center of the screen to move the desired parent or
parents to the Parents to Add list. To remove a parent from the Parents to Add
list, click and highlight the appropriate parent's name and then click the "left" arrow
button.
This association will only give the selected parent(s) access to the student's grades if
the parent's status is set to "Active." Once the desired parents have been moved to
the Parents to Add list, click Save to make the association permanent. Click Save
& Close to save recent changes and return to the Student screen. Click Close to
discard all recent changes and return to the Student screen.
Upload Student Data
The Upload Student Data function allows administrators to import student
information, such as Social Security numbers, that may not be contained in
GradeSpeed. This information may be necessary if the district chooses to require
parents to supply this information as an identif ier before they are given access to
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students' grades. These custom identifiers are designated in Server Settings -->
School Settings using the Student Identifiers.
To access this feature, click the Upload Student Data link at the top right of the
Students screen. The following screen will appear:
The Upload Student Data feature requires that the file uploaded be a *.CSV file.
Click the "Browse" button and find the appropriate .CSV database file. Once the file
has been selected, click Send File to import the data. The following screen will
appear, displaying the first few lines of data in the file that has just been imported:
Select whether the first row contains the names of the columns or student data using
the appropriate radio button, then click Next.
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Match the data to the appropriate identifier using the drop-down lists.
After this step has been completed, click Next. The following screen will appear:
Click Finish to import the data and return to the Student screen.
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Denied Applications
If an administrator denies an application, the parent will be notified via email (if
possible) and through a message in the Manage Students portion of the parent
main page. The parent will then have the option to change the data and resubmit the
application to the administrator.
The Denied Applications link in the toolbar on the left side of the screen will bring
you to a page that displays the status of all denied applications for each campus.
Select the desired campus from the drop-down list. The following screen will appear:
Note that the number of denied applications per campus will be displayed next to
each campus selection in the drop-down list. To view the information associated with
a denied application, click Open next to the desired application. The following screen
will appear:
As shown above, any information entered by the parent that does not match the
information stored in the GradeSpeed database will be highlighted in red. The
message that the administrator entered at the time that the application was
originally denied will appear on the left:
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If the parent has made changes to the data after the original denial, they will be
displayed on the right side. If the parent added comments when making those
changes, they will be displayed on the left side with the administrator's comments.
If necessary, the administrator can respond to these comments using the Add
Message text block at the bottom of the screen.
If the parent's changes or comments are sufficient to demonstrate that the parent
has a legitimate right to see the student's grades, the administrator can click
Approve and the parent will immediately be able to view the student's grades. If the
administrator wishes to leave the application in Denied status, he or she can simply
click Close Window without making changes. To delete the application entirely, the
administrator should click Delete.
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Pending Approvals
When a parent submits an application for access to a student's grades, the request is
placed in a queue of all pending requests. The request for access will not be granted
until an administrator has approved it and made the parent/student association
Active. Until that association has been activated, however, the request can be
viewed in the Pending Approvals screen. To notify administrators that there are
pending approvals, the number of approvals will be displayed next to the Pending
Approvals item on the left-hand menu. To view these applications, click Pending
Approvals. The following screen will appear:
To view more in-depth information on the parent and student, click Details. The
following window will appear:
This window displays information f rom the parent's profile, and allows the
administrator to compare the student information from the existing district profile
and from the parent's application side-by-side. Too many discrepancies between the
existing data and the application could mean that someone is applying for access to
a student's grades that should not have it. The administrator must decide whether to
Approve or Deny the request based on the accuracy of the information presented.
Deny
If the administrator chooses to deny the request, no confirmation will be required -
the information that the parent entered will be permanently deleted. The parent will
be unable to access the grades of that student, an email will be sent to the parent's
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registered email address explaining the reasons the application was denied, and if
the parent attempts to access this student's grades, the student's status will appear
as Denied at the parent's Manage Students screen, as shown below:
If the administrator chooses to deny the request, the parent can still submit
applications for access to the same student's grades. However, those requests will
not appear in the Pending Approvals list since the parent/student association will
be considered permanently invalid. There are, however, a few ways for the
administrator to allow that particular parent to request access to that particular
student's grades again.
One way is to click Edit next to the parent's name in the Current Users list.
Select the Students tab.
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Change the Status of the desired student association to Pending. This status will
allow the administrator to investigate the situation and consider granting the
request, without yet giving the parent access to the grades. The administrator can
set the status to Active if he or she is already certain that the parent should be
granted access to the student's grades.
Another way is to click Edit next to the student's name in the Students list, select
the Parents tab, and change the Status of the parent association as described
above.
Finally, administrators can remove the parent/student association entirely - and the
Denied status along with it - by using the Remove button to delete the parent from
the student's account, or the student from the parent's account. The parent can then
resubmit the application for consideration.
Approve
If the administrator chooses to approve the request, the request will disappear from
the list of pending associations, and the parent will immediately be granted access to
the student's grades. Next time the parent logs into ParentConnection, he or she
can select the new student's name from their drop-down list and view that student's
grade information.
For a more complete explanation of the various Status settings, and to see how
administrators can control Status from any screen with the Status drop-down
menu, click here.
Can't Approve
If a parent applies to add a student to his/her account and enters an invalid or
incorrect student ID, the Approve button will read "Can't Approve." If you click the
button, a pop-up will appear stating that you "Can't approve this student because
the student ID is incorrect." The only options that are available in this situation are
to Deny, Suspend, or Delete the application. Suspending the application will cause
it to be moved to the "Suspended" folder (this can be accessed by clicking
"Suspended" on the left toolbar). Denying the application will cause an automatic
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email to be sent to the parent, and the application will be moved to the "Denied"
folder (this can be accessed by clicking "Denied" on the left toolbar).
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Server Settings
The Server Settings screen contains the controls for the system-wide settings and
options. Only a user with System Admin privileges in ParentConnection has access
to this screen. There are 6 links at the top of this page that will be used to navigate
through all available options. The screen will appear as below:
General Settings
The following settings can be found on the General Settings tab.
Registration Key - Enter the Campusware-supplied registration key or serial
number.
# of Users - This number must match the number of user licenses that the district
purchased.
Public Web Address - Enter the public web address that users will use to access
the ParentConnection login page.
Agreement Text - This text block should be completed by the district. It should
contain a statement emphasizing the proper use of the program and the data
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contained in the program, and should specify the terms of usage as well as the
consequences of violating these terms.
Default State - This drop-down list should be set to the state in which most of the
district's parents live.
Logo - To load the district's logo, either enter the online location of the logo in the
"URL" field, or browse to the appropriate file and upload it.
Login - the "Disable Parent Login" checkbox can be used to disable all parent
logins temporarily. This is commonly used during the summer, after the school year
ends. If a parent logs in during that period, there will be missing student data. This
may increase campus support. Disabling parent logins will prevent this from
happening.
User Settings
The following settings can be found on the User Settings tab.
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Password Settings - These settings determine the level of complexity that will be
required of any user passwords. The administrator should specify the minimum
number of characters, and use the check boxes to specify the types of characters
that will be required. Any boxes not checked will still be allowed.
Signup Settings - Use these check boxes to determine whether an email address
and phone number will be required of parents who sign up for an account.
Campusware recommends requiring a phone number from any user who signs up for
an account.
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Display Settings - These settings determine which options a parent can view when
logged into his or her account.
- Show Attendance Link - allows parents to view any attendance records for their
students stored in GradeSpeed.NET.
- Show Report Cards Link - allows parents to download their students' report
cards from ParentConnection. This feature requires that the district use
Campusware's Custom Report Card module.
- Show Triggers Link - allows parents to create triggers, which send the parent
email or phone notification anytime their students' grades cross a parent-set
threshold or an attendance event is recorded.
- Show Calendar - displays a link to the school calendar information on the parents'
screen.
- Show Manage Students Link - allows parents to request access to additional
students. This box can be unchecked if the parent accounts are generated by the
district.
- Show My Settings Link - allows the parent to adjust his or her user prof ile (email
address, username, password, etc.). This box can be unchecked if the parent
accounts are generated by the district.
Discipline Settings - These settings determine what discipline information will be
available to the parent online. These options can only be enabled if
GradeSpeed.NET's Discipline module is used at the district.
- Show Discipline Link - allows the parent to view Discipline information for his or
her student(s).
- Show referrer - allows the parent to see the person who submitted the discipline
report
- Show incident type - allows the parent to see the type of incident that occurred
- Show admin action - allows the parent to see the disciplinary action taken by the
administrator
- Show teacher action - allows the parent to see the disciplinary action taken by
the teacher
- Show admin comment - allows the parent to see comments recorded by the
administrator
- Show teacher comment - allows the parent to see comments recorded by the
teacher
- Show action start date - allows the parent to see the start date of any
disciplinary action
- Show action end date - allows the parent to see the end date of any disciplinary
action
Security Settings - These settings are used to manage the security settings of the
ParentConnection install.
Student Settings
The following settings can be found on the Student Settings tab.
User Guide - ParentConnection
46
The "Automatically Approve an Application if:" and "Automatically Deny an
Application if:" sections apply to campus' who wish to auto-approve parents' addstudent
applications. Meaning, if a parent submits a request to add a student to his
or her account, it will be automatically approved or denied based on the settings
specified here.
Administrators
47
Student Identifiers - The three custom Student Identifiers are pieces of
information that the district can require the parent to fill in on their application for
access to grades. This is to give the administrators more data to work with when
determining whether a request is legitimate or not. For example; a parent who
knows not only the child's student ID and home address, but also the child's Social
Security Number and birth date is much more likely to be a parent or guardian with a
legitimate right to view the child's grades. These identif iers can be anything
designated by the district.
Format - the administrator can enter a properly-formatted sample of the data for
parents to see as an example. For example, if the "Date of Birth" identifier is used,
the proper format in which a parent should submit their response should be:
MM/DD/YYYY.
Parents per Student - the administrator can limit the number of student
associations that a parent can have using this field.
Note Settings
Each district can enter custom notes that will appear at specific places in the parent
view. The text for these notes can be entered on the Note Settings tab.
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48
Enter the text that should appear at each or any of these locations. Click Save to
apply the notes immediately. Click Cancel to clear the fields and start over.
Email
Each district must configure the way emails (for example, the "denial email"
template that is used to send users a message when their request for access to a
student is denied) are sent from ParentConnection.
Administrators
49
E-mail Server - This field should contain the IP or host name of the school's email
(SMTP) server (e.g. "mail.yourdistrict.com" or "123.12.12.1").
E-mail Server Port - Specify the district's designated outbound email port.
E-mail Server Username - Enter the email server username here.
E-mail Server Password - Enter the email server password here.
E-mail Sender Address - Any email messages sent by ParentConnection will
appear to be sent from the address entered in this field. Generally, it is
recommended to use an email similar to
"noreply@yourdistrict.edu" as this will
prevent responses to the automated emails.
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50
"Use the corresponding administrator's email address when applicable"
checkbox - Check this box to have the return email address for certain automated
emails be the corresponding administrator's. For example - if an application is denied
by an administrator, the parent would receive an email with the administrator's email
address as the return, rather than the default address specified. This way, parents
will be able to reply and ask questions regarding their account status.
Customization Type - To customize the templates of any of the automated emails
that are sent from ParentConnection, select the type from the drop-down list
The administrative user can then modify the email text and Subject line. Note the
codes listed on screen, which can be used to automatically insert the appropriate
information into the email text or Subject. These are known as merge fields.
To allow the email to be sent in HTML format (rather than plain text), check the box
labeled Allow HTML. To enable the selected email type, check the Enabled box. If
any email type should be disabled, un-check this box when the appropriate type is
selected from the drop-down list.
To send a test email (to proof-read and ensure that formatting is correct), enter an
email address in the Test Email Recipient field. Click Test to send the selected
email to that address.
Advanced Settings
ParentConnection's Advanced Settings should only be accessed by district-level
personnel when these authorized personnel are specifically instructed to do so by the
Campusware technical staff. These fields are intended for troubleshooting and
custom configuration only - unnecessary, unprompted modifications can cause
significant access problems.
To save the changes, click Save. To discard any changes made on the Server
Settings page, click Cancel.
Administrators
51
Statistics
This screen displays district- or campus-wide statistics relating to ParentConnection
usage. It can be accessed by clicking the "Statistics" link in the toolbar on the left
side of the page.
• The row titled Total Parent Accounts displays the number of parent
accounts that have been created to date. This row counts both accounts that
were created by the users, and accounts that were created by the
administrators.
• The row titled Active Parent Accounts displays the number of parent
accounts that have at least one active student association. Any account that
is in the system, but is not associated with a student, or has been denied
access, will not be counted here.
• The row titled Manually Created Accounts displays the number of accounts
that were created by an administrator and not by a parent.
• The row titled Parents Who Signed Up displays the number of accounts that
were signed up for by parents, and not created by an administrator.
• The row titled Total Licenses displays the number of total ParentConnection
users that the district is licensed to use.
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• The row titled Remaining Licenses displays the number of new users that
can be added under the current license.
• The row titled Total Student Links displays the number of associations that
have been requested between parents and students. This number includes
any requests that are pending or suspended.
• The row titled Active Student Links displays the number of student
associations that are currently active. Any pending, suspended, or denied
student links will not be counted here.
Directly underneath the statistics is a link to export all the statistical data as a CSV
file. Click "CSV Export" to generate and download the file.
Account Maintenance
There are several features available to maintain and unclutter unused parent
accounts. Using the checkboxes at the bottom of the page, unused, old, and/or
inactive parent accounts can be purged. Click the "Run Maintenance" button to
purge accounts based on the specified criteria.
53
Index
A
Account Maintenance .................... 51
Active ........................................ 23
Active Parent Accounts.................. 51
Active Student Links ..................... 51
Add Message ............................... 36
Add Parents ................................ 31
Add Students............................... 23
Administrator login ....................... 21
Advanced Settings........................ 42
application ....................................7
Apply ...........................................7
Approve...................................... 38
Attendance ................................. 11
C
Calendar ..................................... 16
Can't Approve.............................. 38
Change Password. ........................ 20
Create a Parent Account ................ 28
Create User ................................. 28
Creating a Parental Account .............1
Current Users .........................23, 38
D
Deleting a Parent Account.............. 23
Denied ..................................23, 28
Denied Applications ...................... 36
Denied Student - Re-submit
Application ............................... 18
Deny.......................................... 38
Disable Parent Login ..................... 42
E
Editing a Parent Account................ 23
Email ......................................... 42
Email Server ............................... 42
Email Server Password .................. 42
Email Server Port ......................... 42
Email Server Username ................. 42
G
General Settings .......................... 42
grades..........................................9
L
Logging on to ParentConnection........4
M
Manage Students ......................... 18
Managing Students....................... 31
Manually Created Accounts ............ 51
merge fields................................ 42
My Settings ................................ 20
N
Note Settings .............................. 42
Notes tab ................................... 23
Notifications................................ 13
P
parent account profile ................... 23
Parents ...................................... 31
Parents Who Signed Up................. 51
Pending................................. 23, 28
Pending Approvals ....................... 38
Phone Call .................................. 13
R
Remaining Licenses...................... 51
Remove a Student ....................... 18
Report Cards............................... 12
Request to add a student .............. 18
Reset Password ........................... 20
S
Send E-mail link .......................... 28
Server Settings ........................... 42
Statistics.................................... 51
Status................................... 23, 28
Student Settings.......................... 42
Students ............................... 23, 31
Students to Add list ...................... 23
Suspended ................................. 23
T
Text Message.............................. 13
Tools for Administrators ................ 22
Tools for Parents............................ 5
Total Licenses ............................. 51
Total Parent Accounts................... 51
Total Student Links ...................... 51
Triggers ..................................... 13
U
Upload Student Data .................... 31
User Settings .............................. 42
V
Viewing Student Attendance
Information.............................. 11
Viewing Student Grade Information... 9
W
Watch Attendance........................ 13
Watch Grades ............................. 13
