Opening of School Information & Reminders

Opening of School Information and Reminders
Posted on 08/16/2022 at 09:15

We hope you had a restful summer break. Welcome back! 

IT trainers have created a detailed Opening of School Guide for Power Users job aid to support schools as they prepare to start school year 2022-23. The job aid covers essential items to check before and after the first day of school. Additional reminders and important information about the opening of school are listed below.

  • Transferring Active Students: The process to transfer active students before the start of the school year is open. The last day schools may transfer active students will be Friday, September 9, 2022. Please note that after the school year has started, and attendance has been recorded for a student, you must contact the leaving school to take the proper action.
  • InfoSnap New Student Online Enrollment: Please continue to monitor the submission workspace in InfoSnap, and work with parents to process the records in a timely manner. A number of applications remain in pending status in InfoSnap.
  • Prevent Creating Duplicate Student IDs: Before enrolling a new student, you must check to see if the student was previously enrolled in a San Diego Unified School. Many students already have a district ID, and a thorough search will eliminate the chance of creating duplicate enrollment and multiple student IDs for the same student. Refer to the Preventing Duplicate Student IDs job aid for more information.
  • Enrollment Form updates: It is crucial that student demographic data is current and up to date in PowerSchool. All school and district communications are reliant on accurate demographic data. As 2022-23 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.
  • Parent Portal Access Report: Schools can run the Portal Access for Parents and Students report to view active students and information on whether parent portal and student portal access is enabled. To run this report, under Reports on the left-side menu, select sqlReports, and then expand the group of Parent/Student Portal reports. For instructions on how to enable Parent Access or Parent Portal Implementation at your site, please refer to the Parent and Student Portal Administration handbook.
  • Secondary Schools: Check that the periods and times listed in your Bell Schedules align with your committed master schedule. Bell Schedules and Calendar entries will be locked after September 13, 2022. This cutoff date will be earlier for sites that begin earlier than August 29, 2022.
  • Student Schedules: As secondary schools begin printing student schedules, they may notice a string of code, called a splitter key, located at the top and bottom of a generated pre-built PowerSchool report. This is normal. The splitter key enables Digital Document Delivery to recognize the student on each generated report and match it to the appropriate parent/guardian email.
  • LCFF Alternate Income Form: All schools, except Nipaquay, are required to collect LCFF Forms for all students, preferably via the Parent Portal (information on use of paper scan forms is forthcoming). To assist schools with monitoring which parents have or have not submitted the form in the Parent Portal, schools can run the LCFF Form Information report. To run this report, under Reports on the left-side menu, select sqlReports, and then expand the group of Parent/Student Portal reports.
  • Food Services PINs: Food Service Keypad PINs and/or bar codes scanned will return for the 2022-2023 School Year. However, they will only need to be used at Middle and High School (and Nipaquay Elementary) sites that have multiple points of service per USDA requirements and for Ala Carte lines. The USDA requires the PINs to ensure that students wishing to have a second breakfast or lunch will be charged for it and enable better cash control at Ala Carte lines. The great news is that the California Department of Education has implemented Universal Meals beginning 2022/2023 statewide so that all students can receive a breakfast and/or lunch at no cost when requested. Therefore, in combination with this and Food Services participating in a provision called the Community Eligibility Program, elementary schools will not need to use PINs or scan bar codes for the site leader to claim the meals. On Tuesday, August 23, 2022, the PINs will be available to print onto secondary student schedules. PINs are also readable using a student’s ID if printed as a Barcode on an index card or ID card. New and transferred students will be assigned PINs within four days of being enrolled in PowerSchool. If you see issues with the Student PINs, check with the Food Services Site leader first, and if additional support is needed, please contact Food Services IT at 619-605-8827.
  • PowerSchool Permissions Adjustments: With principal approval, provide new administrators (e.g., a new principal or associate principal) with appropriate schoolwide permissions in PowerSchool, Illuminate (Site Admin), and FastBridge (FAST Specialist). In addition, remove the Illuminate and FastBridge permission roles for users who have left the site.