InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview

Transcription

1 InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview About this Document This document provides a preview of the new features and enhancements that will be available in the upcoming winter 2014 release of InformationNOW. The winter 2014 update will also include changes to address known issues which are not listed here. A complete list of these changes will be included in the final Release Notes, which will be available the week of the update. Release Schedule The release and deployment dates for self-hosted and hosted customers will be announced in a future communication. Table of Contents InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 1 About this Document...1 Release Schedule...1 Table of Contents...1 Student Registration Data...2 Custom Data...2 Available Fields For Registered Students...2 Home Portal...3 Report Card...3 View Fees...5 Attendance Reason Limits...7 Homeroom Roster Maintenance...8 Grade Label...9 Permanent Record Label...10 District Household Label...10 Event Log...11 Room and Announcement Security...12 STIAssessment Integration changes...13 Activities Now Auto-Created When Linking...13 Unlinking An Activity From STIAssessment...15 Infosnap Integration...15 STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 1

2 State Specific Changes - Alabama...15 Other Items of Interest...16 Security Changes...16 Student Registration Data The following changes have been made regarding registration: Custom Data If a student is registered in a future academic session via Students Registration, any custom fields that have been marked to Retain Data During Rollover will be copied to the future academic session. If a student is enrolled in a future academic session via Students Enrollment, any custom fields that have been marked to Retain Data During Rollover will be copied to the future academic session. If a student is enrolled in a current academic session via Students Enrollment, any custom fields that have been marked to Retain Data During Rollover will be copied to the future academic session. If a student is registered in a future academic session vial Students Registration, and is already registered in another future academic session, any custom fields that have been marked to Retain Data During Rollover will be copied to the future academic session. If a student is enrolled in a future academic session via Students Enrollment, and is already enrolled in another future academic session, any custom fields that have been marked to Retain Data During Rollover will be copied to the future academic session. If a student is registered or enrolled in one or more future academic sessions, and the student custom field data is changed in the previous academic session, the custom field data in all future academic session will also be updated. If the student is a transfer student (enrolled in the current or past academic year but not at the same school), the custom data will still be copied to the future academic session. If a student is enrolled in multiple academic sessions of the previous academic year, the custom field data from the academic session for the reporting school enrollment record will be copied. Available Fields For Registered Students The following fields are now available on the individual student s Main tab for those students who are marked as registered: Expected Graduation Date Original Enrollment Date Lunch Code Grade Level STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 2

3 Home Portal Report Card Users may now determine the type of report card that is viewed by guardians/students via the Home Portal. The Go Green option has been added to the Portrait Style report card and the Two-Column report card. Home Portal users may also view student fee records. Report Card Type To view this change, go to School/District District Home Portal tab. A new Report Card Type drop-list is available. Select the type of report card that guardians/students will view from the Home Portal. Users may also indicate if YTD (Year-to-Date) information is to be included on the report. This setting is also available on the school level under School/District School Home Portal tab. If Use Different Settings is selected, the school may select a different report card type. Users may also indicate if YTD (year-to-date) information is to be included on the report. STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 3

4 Go Green Added The Go Green checkbox has been added to the portrait style report card and the Two Column report card. STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 4

5 View Fees Fees may now be viewed by guardians/students from the Home Portal. To allow access, perform the following steps: Go to School/District District Home Portal tab. Check the Enabled box under the Fees section and click OK to save changes. STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 5

6 This setting is also available on the school level under School/District School Home Portal tab. If Use Different Settings is selected, the school may select whether or not to allow access to fees regardless of the setting under the district Home Portal settings tab. If enabled, a new Fees option will display in the Home Portal. When selected, the user will see a listing of all fees that have a balance due greater than zero (0). STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 6

7 Only fees with balances of greater than zero will be shown in the list. If the student does not have a fee balance greater than zero, a message will display indicating there are no unpaid fees. Fees will be sorted by priority (descending), then by date (oldest first), and then fee. Fees will be shown based on the selected School/District Setup Settings tab Fees setting: o o If Payments are applied to the oldest charges in the school is selected, all unpaid fees for all academic sessions in the school of context will be shown in the student s fee list. If Payments are applied to the oldest charges in the academic session is selected, only fees for the academic session of context will be shown in the student s fee list. Attendance Reason Limits Attendance limits may now be set by reason code. These limits may be set district wide or by school. Only daily attendance records are considered (i.e., Half Day or All Day). Period of the day absences are not considered. Note: All daily absences are included in the count including those with a type of Other (ex. College visit). To view this change go to Attendance Setup Settings tab. A new Reason Limits section has been added. All available reason codes will display. Enter a numeric limit (1-999) next to each reason code that is to be limited. Leave the field blank if there is no limit on the reason code. Click OK. STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 7

8 Once limits are established, when a user enters a daily absence record that pushes the student over the limit, an error message will display and the user will be unable to save the absence record. Homeroom Roster Maintenance Users may now add or delete students from a specific homeroom from the Homeroom Roster screen. To view this change, go to Scheduling Homerooms. Click to View a homeroom. Click to View Roster under the Tasks menu on the left. Add, View and Delete buttons have been added to this screen to allow users to make changes to the homeroom roster. STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 8

9 To add a student to the homeroom, click Add. Search for and select the student. Select the date on which the student is to be enrolled in the homeroom and enter a reason. To view students, place a check next to their Student Numbers and click View. To remove a student from the homeroom, place a check next to the Student Number and click Delete. Grade Label Two changes have been made to Grade Labels: A new label size has been added for 1 ¼ x 3 ¼ inch. The Include Alpha Only check box has been replaced with a drop-list where users may select to print Alpha, Numeric or Both. To view this change, go to Reports School Grade Labels. Sample of the 1¼ x 3¼ label with two graded items selected. STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 9

10 Permanent Record Label A new option has been added to Permanent Record Labels that allows users to specify the starting label when printing. For example, if printing on a sheet of labels where the first five labels have been used, the user may enter the number 6 in the Number to Skip field. When printing, the report will skip the first five labels, assuming those have already been used, and start the printing on the sixth label on the page. District Household Label A new District-Wide Household Mailing Label has been added. To view this change, go to Reports District District Household/Family Mailing Label. Label Type: Select Household or Family Student Filter: Select the filter of students to be included on the report. STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 10

11 Household Filter: Select the filter of households to be included on the report. Number to Skip: If printing on a partially used sheet of labels, enter the number of the label at which to start printing. For example, if the first five labels on the sheet have been used, enter a 6 in this field to indicate that printing should begin with the sixth label on the sheet. Number of Copies: Enter the number of copies to print of each label. Name Format: Select Preferred Name, First Last or Title First Last. Household Name Format: Select Addressee, Formal Salutation, Head of Household or Informal Salutation. Order By: Select to order the labels by Name, Number or Postal Code. Output Type: Select to print on Avery 5160 (Name and Address), Avery 5160 (Name and Number), Avery 5161 (Name and Address), Avery 5161 (Name and Number) or Com 10 Envelope. Format: Select PDF, CSV, Excel, HTML, TIFF or XML. Note: A new permission has been added for this report under System Preferences Permission Maintenance Reports tab District Reports list. Event Log Four additional items have been added to the Event Log which tracks changes that were made along with which user made the changes. To view this change, go to Mgmt Console Event Log. Click the Student tab. The following new modules have been added to the Module drop-list: Custom: Displays any additions, changes or deletions to entries on the person s Custom tab. Address: Displays any additions, changes or deletions to entries on the person s Address tab. Contact: Displays any additions, changes or deletions to entries on the person s Contact tab. Access: Displays any additions, changes or deletions to entries on the person s Access tab. Federal Programs (AL Public only): Displays any additions, changes or deletions to entries on the Federal tab. STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 11

12 Room and Announcement Security Two new permissions have been added which allow users to be given permission to create school announcements or school rooms without having to grant the user permission to the entire School file. To view this change, go to System Preferences Permission Maintenance. Select a group of users who are to be granted one of these two new permissions. On the Tasks tab, two new permissions have been added under the School section. Maintain School Announcements: A user with this permission will be able to go to School/District School view a school and click the Announce tab. Users will be able to Add, View or Delete announcements. Users with this permission will not be able to access other tabs in the school record, such as the Main tab or Setup tab, only the Announce tab. Maintain School Rooms: A user with this permission will be able to go to School/District School view a school and click the Rooms tab. Users will be able to Add, View or Delete rooms. Users with this permission will not be able to access other tabs in the school record such, as the Main tab or Setup tab, only the Rooms tab. Note: Users do not need to be granted Maintain School rights in order to grant access to Maintain School Announcements or Maintain School Rooms. STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 12

13 STIAssessment Integration changes The integration of activities within the teacher grade book and STIAssessment has been improved. Activities Now Auto-Created When Linking To view this change, go to Classroom Grade Book. Click to View a class. Click to Add an activity, If the district is integrated with STIAssessment, the Add Activity screen will display with an Import From STIAssessment link enabled under the Manage menu on the left. When the user clicks to Import From STIAssessment, a list of assessments from STIAssessment is displayed: Bullet the assessment to be associated with this activity and click OK or just click the name of the activity that appears as a blue link. STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 13

14 The Grade Book activity screen will display: The following fields are automatically populated based on the imported assessment: o o o Date Activity Name Total The Assessment checkbox is automatically checked. A message indicating Imported from STIAssessment will display to the right. Click Create to save the activity. Note: If a user edits an existing activity, the Import from STIAssessment option will also be available. If the user selects the activity and clicks to import, a warning message will display indicating: Click OK to import or click Cancel to close the screen without importing from STIAssessment. STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 14

15 Unlinking An Activity From STIAssessment Users may unlink a Grade Book activity from an STIAssessment item, which will allow the user to modify grades, etc. in the teacher Grade Book. On the Activity screen, uncheck the Assessment checkbox. Click OK to save the changes. When the box is unchecked and the record is saved, neither the scores nor the activity will be removed. Student grade records may now be edited in the Grade Book. Infosnap Integration Improvements have been made to the integration with Infosnap: Improved the person-matching process via the API. Contact details can only be updated via the import methods if that contact is the custodian of the student being imported. If the Health module of InformationNOW (i.e., the Health menu and not the student s Medical screen) is being used, any Person that is associated with the student as a physician or dentist will NOT be used as an associated contact. For the matching of physicians and dentists in the Health import method, only automatically associate Persons as physicians and dentists if they are already associated with another student as a physician or dentist. Much more medical information is now integrated. State Specific Changes - Alabama DC Extended Eligibility: Amended the current extended eligibility business rule to grant extended eligibility status to custodial parent matches of DC SNAP and DC TANF students only. The extended eligibility status should not be granted to custodial parent matches of DC Foster students. Federal Tab reset: The data for the fields Verified for current school year and Served By on the Federal tab will be reset at rollover. STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 15

16 Other Items of Interest Support for Google Chrome has been added. This change is for InformationNOW and all modules including InformationNOW Health, InformationNOW Billing and INFocus. Updated Online Help. Security Changes The following new permissions have been added to InformationNOW: Reports District Household Label: Allows the user access to the District Household Label Report. Tasks - Maintain School Announcements: Allows the user to add school level announcements (without Maintain School permission). Tasks - Maintain School Rooms: Allows the user to add school rooms (without Maintain School permission). STI_ InformationNOW Winter 2014 Release Preview 16