She Doesn't Even Go Here
If program students (who are not traditional students at our school) enroll in summer classes, will they show up in the faculty portal for our teachers to take attendance?
Yes, program students will appear for attendance in the faculty portal as long as the class is correctly configured as belonging to a summer school year and summer grading period.
Who typically participates in a summer intensive vs. who typically participates in a summer program?
Summer intensive: Students and teachers
Summer program: Can include participants who attend the school during the academic school year as well as outside persons
How do Summer School Years display in the system?
Summer School Years appear as either negative numbers or as "Sum 'XX"
Can we use the Billing Portal to continue collecting payments into the summer from our graduating seniors and former students (and their families)?
Yes. Graduating seniors will become Alumni once the Close School Year procedure is run and they and their families will lose access to the Student and Parent portal. However, you can give the parents the Billing Portal security role prior to closing the school year so their user accounts/usernames continue to exist.
If you did not add the security role prior to closing the school year, you will need to re-create accounts individually.
Can we create a summer report card?
Yes! Our school configurable academic documents can be used as a summer report card.
We recommend using a new layout specifically for summer report cards.
Can Program Parents SSO from Veracross to Magnus?
Yes, you can ask SEs to add the Program_Parent security role to a specific portal (if Program Parents do not already have access to a portal because of other roles) and that will allow them to SSO from VC to MH (assuming the SSO button is configured within said portal).
We need 8th graders going into 9th grade to be considered freshmen when they take their summer classes. What do we need to do?
If students have already been enrolled into summer programs/classes, manually batch update the Grade Level field on those class enrollment records.
Bonus: It will probably also make sense for your school to close the school year before summer begins, but more on that later.
Do summer programs/classes need to added to a summer school year, or can they belong to the academic school year?
When should we close the summer school year?
The self-service Close Summer School Year procedure can be run any time after the end date of the last summer grading period.
Can we display historical summer report cards in the portals?
Yes, though they will not appear by default within the Historical Report Cards section of the portal. To achieve this, users need to submit a case to VC and SE will create a custom portal link.
Can we add our Program Parents to our Parent Portal?
Official arbitration answer:
- Supported to enable SSO from VC to MH;
- Avoid if possible, arbitrate each time for any other context.
It is important to set the Course Type to "Academic" for summer intensives (rather than "Summer" or "Other Programs"). Using the "Academic" Course Type will ensure that classes associated with that course will be treated like academic year classes and will be useful when filtering enrollments by course type on academic documents.
Can our students and teachers keep using the same portals they use in the academic year throughout the summer?
Yes. To do this, you need to run the Toggle Academic/Summer School Year procedure from the action menu.
What happens when we close the summer school year?
Outcomes include:
- All current (Active Summer Year) classes are marked as Complete
- A year record for the next summer year is created (if it doesn't exist already)
- Grading Period History records are created
- The Active Summer Year parameter is incremented to the upcoming summer school year
- Present attendance records are purged from the system
- The Copy Summer Classes for Summer {Year} procedure will advance (so run this procedure prior to closing the summer school if desired)
Can summer grades display on our traditional/academic year report card?
No, summer grades cannot display on a fall or spring report card. Summer intensives are structured as part of the summer school year and cannot be manipulated to appear as if they are part of the academic school year.
Can we use our Billing Portal to invoice Program Parents?
For VCA schools, while technically the tools are there to do this, it is officially not supported.
For SBA schools, it is not possible at all.
Can we create a summer intensive class that belongs to the Summer School Year and the ALL grading period?
No! It is of critical importance that you select the Summer School Year and Summer Grading Period Group values. Attempting to submit an invalid pairing will yield an error message.
What are some of the basics our SEs need to know when helping a school get setup for summer programs/intensives initially?
Answers include:
- SEs need to know to add Summer School Years;
- They need to know what the Summer GPG and GPs should be called (description and abbreviation) and dates;
- They need to know if any GPAs will need to include summer grades (and if so, if summer kicks off or wraps up the school year);
- If needed, SE can add new summer block group;
- If needed, SE can add a new summer rotation.
If we use Canvas, can we close the school year in the middle of our summer school?
If you are using Canvas for your summer programs/intensives, do not close the school year during the summer. When the school year is closed, person records for seniors are converted to Alumni and will no longer be included in the Canvas integration.
Can we include summer grades on our Final Grade Summaries and/or Transcripts?
Yes, FGSs and Transcripts can be configured (per layout) to include summer grades. You can enter "summer" in the Search box to filter down the relevant parameters.
Important to note:
- Summer grades appear in their own, separate grades tables. (They cannot be integrated into an academic year grades table.)
- If a school insists on only displaying Final grades, summer data won't appear fully unless incorrectly configured.
If a Program Student decides to apply to our school and their parents have user accounts, will they be recognized ahead of submitting an inquiry if we use the Account Lookup feature?
No, the Program Parent security role will not be flagged in the Account Lookup scripts. Program Parents may end up creating duplicate records via the inquiry process that will need to be merged once entered.
Name three of the four things we document as not offered in terms of supported Summer Program features.
Limitations of Summer Programs:
- No standard Portals experience (post-registration)
- No LMS solution
- No Report Card or other report documents
- No Transcript Items
What's the technical definition of a summer school year, according to the architecture of how Veracross was designed?
The summer school year exists outside of the academic school year, hence why it appears in the system as a negative school year.
If we don't use Canvas, is it fine for us to close the school year in the middle of our summer programs/intensives?
Yes, as long as you don't use Canvas for your summer classes, it is fine to close the school year in the middle of the summer program/intensive.
What is the technically correct way to configure a transcript item for a summer intensive class?
School Year field: Summer school year
Grading Period field: Summer grading period
Grade Level field: Appropriate grade level, according to the school's view of summer ending or beginning a school year