After running the PowerSchool End of Year process, PowerSchool recommends reviewing various areas of the application to verify that the district and each school within the district is properly set up for the upcoming school year. This article describes several areas of the application that may need to be revisited after running the End of Year process but before starting the upcoming school year.
Verify that each school has the correct starting and ending dates for the school year on Start Page > School Setup > Years and Terms.
Verify that each student has the correct entry and exit date for the school year. The End of Year process assigns each student a start and end date based on your year term.
Navigate to Start Page > School Setup > Periods and verify the number of periods for the upcoming school year at each school. Update the period names and abbreviations if necessary.
Navigate to Start Page > School Setup > Days and verify the number of cycle days for the upcoming school year at each school. Update the cycle day names and abbreviations if necessary.
When creating a new year term, PowerSchool copies the attendance codes from the previous school year, eliminating the need to recreate attendance codes from scratch. If needed, attendance codes can be verified at each school on Start Page > School Setup > Attendance Codes.
When creating a new year term, PowerSchool copies the attendance code categories from the previous school year, eliminating the need to recreate attendance code categories from scratch. If needed, attendance code categories can be updated at each school on Start Page > School Setup > Attendance Code Categories. Please note that in order for tardies to properly display on the Quick Lookup, each tardy attendance code must be associated with the Tardy attendance code category.
When creating a new year term, PowerSchool copies the attendance conversions from the previous school year, eliminating the need to recreate attendance conversions from scratch. If needed, attendance conversions can be updated at each school on Start Page > School Setup > Attendance Conversions.
When creating a new year term, PowerSchool copies the FTEs from the previous school year, eliminating the need to recreate FTEs from scratch. If needed, FTEs can be updated at each school on Start Page > School Setup > Full Time Equivalencies. Ensure that each FTE is assigned a default attendance mode and a default attendance conversion. Note: The default attendance mode selected for the FTE will be the attendance method PowerSchool uses to calculate the DAV (Daily Attendance Value) that the ALSDE uses to capture student attendance.
When creating a new year term, PowerSchool copies the attendance preferences from the previous school year, eliminating the need to redefine attendance preferences. Any changes to the attendance preferences at each school can be made at Start Page > School Setup > Attendance Preferences.
When creating a new year term, PowerSchool copies the bell schedules from the previous school year, eliminating the need to recreate bell schedules from scratch. Bell schedules for each school can be modified on Start Page > School Setup > Bell Schedules. Verify that each bell schedule is assigned an attendance conversion method. Determine which periods will occur in each bell schedule. Determine which periods count towards ADA calculations. If using the meeting/daily attendance bridge, indicate which period is the bridge period in each bell schedule.
Configure the school calendar at each school on Start Page > School Setup > Calendar Setup. Ensure that each in-session day is assigned a cycle day from the Day pop up menu, a bell schedule from the Schedule popup menu, and appropriate membership value. These rules apply for almost all calendar configurations.
If your school uses reporting segments, ensure that they are updated at each school with the correct dates on Start Page > School Setup > Reporting Segments.
Ensure that your final grade store codes/reporting terms are properly set up at each school on Start Page > School Setup > Final Grade/Reporting Term Setup. Final grade reporting terms are specific to the term in which they are created. For instance, a Q1 final grade reporting term setup for the Year term applies only to year-long classes. This is different than the Q1 final grade reporting term setup for the Semester 1 term which only applies to Semester 1 classes.
Update various grade display settings at each school on Start Page > School Setup > Quick Lookup Preferences. Here you can determine which final grades to display on the Quick Lookup, and whether to display current or historical grades. The Current Grade determines which store code is the current grade throughout the current school. The Parent/Student Access Term determines the data displayed in the public portal. Enter an appropriate term abbreviation. Your term abbreviations may or may not coincide with your final grade store codes.
Update various settings at each school on Start Page > School Setup > GPA Student Screens. Select a GPA calculation method from the pop-up menu to determine the GPA displayed at the bottom of the Quick Lookup student screen. Update any data access tags (DATs) used for the Cumulative Info student screen. Some DATs on this page may have a year or term-specific parameters which may need to be updated every year or every term.
If your district uses GPA calculations with year-specific parameters or query options, ensure that your GPA calculations are updated with new parameters that pertain to the current school year.
If your school's honor roll methods use year-specific GPA calculations, ensure that the honor roll methods at each school are updated to use GPA calculations that are set up for the current school year.