Genesis/Parent Portal

1) What is the website address for the Grade Portal?

A The Grade Portal URL is https://parents.westfieldnjk12.org . Please remember to type "https".

2) Q Who can access the Grade Portal?

A The Grade Portal is available for parents of Westfield Public Schools students.

3) Q Who do I contact if I have a problem logging in or using the Grade Portal?

A All technical questions concerning the Grade Portal should be directed to genesis@westfieldnjk12.org.

If you are having a problem logging in, please forward the e-mail that you received with your login name and password. A member of the District's Technology Department will respond as quickly as possible.

If you have a question about the information (grades, attendance, etc.) in the Grade Portal, please contact your child's teacher or school.

4) Q What should I do if I did not receive a login for my child?

A Parents who did not receive an e-mail with the login information for the Grade Portal should contact their child's school and request a login.

5) Q I received separate logins for each of my children. How do I get 1 login for all of my children?

A Each family should have only 1 login for all of their children in the school district. Contact the Tech Support Department at genesis@westfieldnjk12.org and please provide the following: each login that you have and your children's names and schools that they attend.

6) Q I have a correction to my child's name.

A Please contact your child's school and ask them to update your child's information. After it is corrected, you will see the change in the portal.

7) Q I have a new e-mail address.

A Please contact genesis@westfieldnjk12.org with your previous e-mail address and your new e-mail address.

8) Q Why does my child have so many Unexcused Absences?

A The NJ Department of Education only recognizes religious holidays and Take Your Child To Work Day as excused absences. Therefore, sick days must be reported to the NJ DOE as unexcused even though the Westfield School District recognizes them as excused absences.

9) Q I have a question about grades or assignments.

A Please contact your child's teacher concerning grades or assignments.

10) Q Will Interim Reports and Reports Cards be available through the Grade Portal?

A Interim Reports (for Intermediate School students only) will be available via the portal under the "Grading" tab.

Report Cards will be available via the portal under the "Grading" tab.

Report Cards and Interim Reports are in PDF format.

Any parent without an e-mail address will receive a hard copy of their child's Interim Reports and Report Cards.

11) Q I don't see the "Scheduling" tab for my elementary student but I see it for my secondary student.

A Scheduling is a feature that is not used at the elementary level so it is turned off for elementary students.

12) Q How do I log out of the portal?

A In the upper right hand corner of the scree is an icon of an open door with a red arrow. Clicking on this icon will log you out of the portal.

13) Q I have logged in but now I want to change my password. Can parents change the password?

A Parents can change the password by logging in and clicking on the picture of the circular "gear" beside the log out icon in the top right corner of the portal. This will bring you to the Settings page and you can change your password on this screen.

14) Q I have multiple students in my family. How do I look up information about each one?

A In the top, middle of the portal is a drop down box that says "Select Student". Select the child from the drop down list and click on the tab (Attendance, Grades, etc.) to see that child's information.

15) Q Is there a manual for the Grade Portal?

A Yes. Here is a pdf manual for parents who use the Grade Portal. Please note that this is a GENERIC manual from Genesis that lists all of the features of the Grade Portal. The Westfield School District is not using all of these features so you may not see some of the data tabs or options that are discussed in the manual.

Attachment:

Parent Portal Manual

• parent_access_manual_-_for_parents

16) Q I have multiple children in the district. How can I share access without one child viewing the other child’s data?

A Allowing students to have unsupervised access to the portal is a parental choice. Parents who choose to allow this access should consider their child’s ability to handle this responsibility without abusing it. Parents may wish to restrict student viewing of the portal information to times when a parent can sit and discuss the information pertaining only to that child.

17) Q What if my teacher is not posting information or I do not understand the codes being used?

A The portal is designed to provide information about a student; it is not intended to replace communication between parents, students and teachers. Parents or students with questions should contact the teacher.

18) Q How often are grades posted by the teachers? Do we need to check the site everyday?

A Teachers have been provided with guidelines concerning the number of assignments that should be posted each marking period. These assignments will be posted based on the schedule that the teacher has established for the class. Checking the site every day is a parental choice but is not necessary.

19) Q Will the teacher provide the weighting of a given grade? How do we obtain weighting information?

A Specific questions about weighting should be directed to the teacher.

20) Q Previously, if a student received a grade of 89.5 +/- .4, it was up to the discretion of the teacher if they would round up (student trying very hard, etc..). Is this option available to teachers or is the (numerical value of the) grade strictly followed?

A The system calculates grades based on the values entered into Genesis. Teachers have the ability when posting grades for report cards to override the calculations like the example provided in this question.

21) Q Will teachers know when a student/parent has logged onto Genesis? How are they alerted to students/parents accessing the site?

A Teachers do not have direct access to the login information for the portal. Administrators are able to run a report that shows when someone last logged into the portal and they can provide this information to teachers as necessary.

22) Q I cannot view my child's report card.

A To view your child's report card, you will need to have Adobe Reader installed in your web browser. Please go to www.adobe.com and go to "Downloads" and select Adobe Reader. Follow the instructions to install Reader in your browser. After Reader is installed, exit your web browser and then re-open your browser and login to the portal.