SchoolTool Updates

With the addition of SchoolTool’s new gradebook platform comes updated grade submission screens! Without leaving the new gradebook area, seamlessly navigate to grading screens and experience the improved performance and enhanced user interface of the new grading tools. Currently, the following screens have been updated, with more to follow very soon:

• Submit Progress Report Grades
• Submit Marking Period Grades
• Submit Final Exam Grades

The Submit User Defined Assessments (UDA) screen has been updated and is now available as part of the new grading platform. This screen allows teachers to submit UDA data for students on their rosters. UDAs can be used for a variety of purposes including to track student progress and the NYS Science Investigates.

SchoolTool has created a set of new User Defined Assessments (UDAs) in response to New York State’s implementation of brand new elementary and intermediate science investigations. These UDAs will be automatically populated for districts upon upgrade to SchoolTool 20.4.

Districts now have the ability to track additional data for discipline referrals, including student triggers, staff involvement, physical intervention, observed physical responses, various contact fields, medical follow-up, and whether the student has a BIP or ICMP. This data is available in Custom Export too, so it’s easy to report on data for any of these new fields.

Districts can now pull data that shows when any contact with parent portal rights views a student's report card from the My Home > Grades tab.

SchoolTool now supports user/group management and authentication via ClassLink as an Identity Provider. Depending on district configuration, users can log in using a "Sign in with ClassLink" button on the SchoolTool login screen or via the district's ClassLink portal.

Please note that districts wishing to configure ClassLink as an Identity Provider must be using the new SchoolTool login experience.

The basic search selections in Census > Search are now retained for each user after navigating away or logging out of SchoolTool. The next time that user returns to the Census > Search screen, the most recently user options will be selected by default.
Note: Only the options for Search Person Types and Search Fields are retained after logout; Search Filters (Grade and Gender) are not retained.

Districts now have the ability to control whether or not users can click on email addresses and icons in the person record. This access is now controlled by two new permissions: one for the top portion (the Personal Information Section) of a person record, and another for the bottom tabs (the Contacts tab for person records, Schedule tab for students, and My Home > Grades tab for students).

Users who have the new permission enabled will continue to see the clickable email addresses/icons on the person record and can use the integrated SchoolTool email functionality. In the top portion of the person record, this includes the person's individual email address, (all person types), as well as Counselor and/or Homeroom Teacher emails (on student records only). In the bottom tabs, this includes email addresses on the Contacts tab for all students and residents within the Census module, email icons on the Schedule tab (students only), and icons on the views within the My Home > Grades tab (students only).

Users who have rights to view emails but do not have the permission to click on them will see text-only versions of those email addresses instead, allowing them to copy email addresses into their preferred email application.

Districts now have the ability to control whether or not SchoolTool will redirect to the mobile site on mobile devices based on which user group(s) the user belongs to. Users who have the new permission enabled will always be directed to the full website after logging into SchoolTool on a mobile device. Users who do not have the permission will be redirected to the mobile site instead.

New fields have been added to Discipline referrals to allow districts  to add additional details about restorative actions. The visibility of these  fields can be managed for each Building School Level in Maintenance > Discipline > Dispositions.

In addition, the Maintenance > Discipline > Building School Level Options screen has been reorganized to allow users to more easily locate options on that screen. 

Additional changes for Discipline referrals will be coming in a future release.

The new Grade Book is officially here! Districts can enable  the new grade book functionality, which includes Grade Book Setup and Grade Book Editor, via a brand new feature flag setting in Maintenance > District > District Options. 

Depending on the district's feature flag setting, teachers may have the ability to toggle between the new and legacy grade book functionality, or they may simply be directed to the district's preferred grade book experience.

The new grade book includes an improved grade book setup wizard, color coding for assignment scores and categories, repeating assignments, enhancements to Google Classroom integration (including support for Quiz assignment types), and a brand new Student view for assignment scores.

Important: The new Grade Book is only available on sites that have been upgraded to the new login experience.

Additional grading tools, such as grade submission screens, will be added in upcoming releases.

SchoolTool now supports user/group management and authentication via okta. Depending on district configuration, users can log in using a "Sign in with okta" button on the SchoolTool login screen or via the district's okta portal.

Please note that districts wishing to configure okta as an Identity Provider must be using the new SchoolTool login experience.

A new Advanced Analytics platform is being released (currently in beta mode with a Mindex-controlled feature flag). Mindex is working with Regional Information Centers and direct districts to coordinate activation of this platform for a select group of districts who will participate in a pilot program over the coming months, with a full release expected later year.

Please note that the Advanced Analytics platform will only be available for districts who have upgraded to the new login experience and are hosted in the Mindex cloud.

Learn more about our Advanced Analytics tools here!

Version 20.2 provides an overhaul of existing authentication logic to introduce significant improvements to security and provide a consistent login experience between the full website and mobile site (updates to the mobile app login screen are coming in a future release). The new login screen improves support for SSO and makes SchoolTool's MFA solution and "Forgot Password" functionality available to users on the mobile website.

The updates to authentication also adds support for OneRoster Scopes (this provides additional security for API vendors using OneRoster and completes the final piece of SchoolTool's OneRoster certification status).

Also included are changes to system banner functionality to allow districts to continue showing customized content on the login screen.

Please note that additional configuration is required to use the updated authentication logic after upgrading to Version 20.2; contact your SchoolTool liaison for additional information.

A new Translations area is available in Maintenance to allow districts to enter translation text for a number of district-defined values. Translated text entered here will then be displayed on report cards based on the Printed Report Card Language prompt for each report. Only English and Spanish translations are supported at this time, but more languages will be added in the future. In the meantime, districts can contact their SchoolTool liaison to request additional languages.

In addition, all remaining canned report card formats have been updated to use the new Printed Report Card Language setting.

"Update Students" functionality now includes the ability to receive updates to student contacts' mailing addresses. When changes are made to a contact's mailing address (whether adding, changing, or removing the address), this data will be included in the Update Students grid in Census > Receive Student Data and will be shown on the Contact Changes report for the corresponding row.

A number of changes were added to ensure accurate NYS Data Warehouse reporting. Changes include the following:

• Updated short codes for 26 IB Assessments to correspond with NYS expected codes
• Updated Logic for Student Partner Project Fact and Student Lite Exports to ensure all appropriate P-Tech/Smart Scholar students are included
• The Career Pathway field is now required for P-Tech/Smart Scholar program services to ensure accurate data warehouse reporting
• Eligibility Field No Longer Required for Free/Reduced Lunch Program Services)
• Updated items in Faculty PMF Assignments List
• Added the "Unknown" grade level for use with 8300 enrollment codes.

Enhanced online help for Grade Book Setup (Teacher help) and in the Maintenance > User/Group > Groups & Security Tree area to make it easier for users to find information.

Districts can now see changes more easily (and, in many cases, can automatically accept updates) from connected districts.

• Core functionality changes include the ability to receive and review changes to student contacts, including contact names, phone numbers, addresses, and more. We also include student phone numbers in the list of fields available to be synced.
  
  
• Workflow improvements include a new "Current Value" column (so you can see what the field value is in your local database before deciding to accept or reject an incoming change) and displaying student ID in addition to student name (so users can quickly identify the student for whom they're receiving changes).

Building on our multilingual functionality, we added an option to allow districts to generate report cards in English or Spanish for both traditional (secondary) and descriptor (elementary) report cards. Districts can choose to always print a report in one language or the other, or let SchoolTool determine which language to use based on the first language of either the student or the primary contact.

Our API Security area has an improved workflow, making it much easier for a user to manage API permissions for each vendor. We also made a bunch of changes (behind the scenes) to support OneRoster API certification, in preparation for additional updates coming in early 2023!

A product release wouldn’t be complete without our bread-and-butter: NYS Requirements.

• We added one new export (Student Partner Project Fact) and several program service fields used to populate that export.
  
  
• We also updated the Student Lite export, which included adding some fields to the Demographics tab for a student to collect some new data and introducing additional fields to our Custom Export tool so districts can use that data in their custom exports.
  
  
• Finally, we made some changes to the Student GPA Credit export to align with state reporting requirements (specifically, we only report data for certain students now in accordance with NYS guidelines).

The Submit Attendance screen, available in Attendance > Attendance as well as in a teacher's My Home, has been updated to provide an improved user experience and show additional information.

Changes include the following:

• The screen's header area was condensed and spacing in the attendance grid was reduced to allow users to see more of the attendance grid without having to scroll.
• Student photos are now displayed inside circles. For students who don't have a photo, the circle will show the student's first and last initials instead.
• Additional fields such as student nickname and home district assignment can now be displayed on this screen.

Districts now have the ability to automatically receive changes to basic student information when data is updated at the home district. This functionality can be enabled per district connection and can be configured so that users in the receiving district will get one email per day when changes have been detected.

Changes include updates to the District Connection configuration area, new fields in for email notifications, and a new Update Students grid in Census > Receive Student Data.

Canned student schedule reports (Standard Student Schedule, Grid Student Schedule, and Grid Student Schedule Landscape) have been updated to include a field for "Effective as of" date. This field will display on all student schedules that are based on these three canned report formats.

In addition, users can now print pending schedules when running student schedules in batch from Counseling > Reports > Scheduling Reports > Student Schedule. A new "Print" option has been added to the pre-screen; by default this option is set to print current schedules.

Districts can now configure student schedule reports to display home district information. This can be configured via a prompt when defining reports, and will only display this information for students who have a currently active home district assignment.

The SSEC Report in Discipline > Reports has been updated to reflect a change to School Safety and the Educational Climate (SSEC) reporting requirements. Specifically, the logic used to calculate the total value for "Number of Unduplicated Student Offenders for Serious Incidents" in row nn (at the end of Part 1) has been modified such that offenses associated with Material Incidents of Discrimination, Harassment, and Bullying (Category 5) are no longer included in this count.

As of Version 20.0, all online help links will now access content from a central location in the Cloud (specifically, help.schooltool.com), rather than referencing local help files that are installed on servers with each SchoolTool instance. This will allow for more frequent, real-time updates to help content while ensuring that the help content provided to users always corresponds with the actual version of SchoolTool that they are using, even when updates are applied via maintenance releases or hot fixes.

Note: While all districts will automatically be directed to the Cloud when accessing online help, the files distributed during installation and upgrade processes will continue to exist on SchoolTool servers for the duration of the Version 20.0 release. When the next SchoolTool release (Version 20.1) becomes available, those files will be removed, thus reducing the size of the installed application and decreasing the time required for future upgrades and installs.

Three (3) new fields have been added to the Add Medication screen on a student's record. The ICD-10 code, Administration Route, and Prescribing Provider fields are all optional fields that may be entered as needed (common uses for these fields might include Medicaid billing and tracking purposes).

New fields have also been added to Custom Export to allow users to retrieve data related to these new medication fields.

Districts now have the ability to make a User Defined Screen mandatory in the Forms area of the mobile app. When a UDS is marked as required, users logging into the mobile app will need to submit the completed form before they can access the rest of the functionality in the app.

Users now have the ability to view the SchoolTool mobile app in Spanish. Note that translation applies primarily to labels in the app; some content, such as user-entered notes and grading comments, may not be translated.

The Submit Midterm Exam Grades, Submit Final Exam Grades, and Override Calculated Final Averages screens, typically used for traditional/secondary grading, have been updated to provide improvements for performance and user experience enhancements. Behind the scenes changes include overall performance improvements and fewer post-backs, resulting in shorter load times and less time spent waiting for the page to refresh between operations. While overall functionality remains largely the same, some functionality and user interface enhancements have been added to improve user experience.

Districts now have the ability to make User Defined Screens required when transferring students via district connections and/or when submitting data via Online Pre-Registration. The process is similar for either scenario: the receiving district must first configure district connections and/or Online Pre-Registration to mark a UDS as required. Once that configuration is complete, users submitting data to this district will be required to complete UDS records for each incoming student.

Note: Data that has been submitted prior to a district marking a UDS as required will not be impacted.

Discipline Types and the SSEC Report have been updated to reflect changes in reporting requirements. These updates include:

• Changes to Discipline Types in Maintenance to help users identify which items are currently required for SSEC reporting
• Code changes for certain SSEC codes
• Report changes to display all reportable codes, along with a means of identifying data that exists in non-reportable columns.

SchoolTool now has a new look and feel! The Version 19.2 release introduces new global UI styles that are visible throughout SchoolTool. These changes impact all users and are intended to provide a more modernized user interface that provides greater consistency across the SchoolTool application and improves accessibility for all users.

SchoolTool now displays generic messages when a user unsuccessfully attempts to log in to SchoolTool with incorrect credentials.

In addition, users will see updated validation messages when submitting an email address on the Forgot Password screen on the SchoolTool website and on the mobile app.

Microsoft is in the process of deprecating support for Basic Authentication in Exchange Online, including SMTP email configuration. Additional information provided by Microsoft is available here. To support this change, the Email Settings area in Maintenance > Application > Network Settings now has an OAuth 2.0 option available for districts wishing to use modern authentication.

Updated logic for the Student Digital Resources data warehouse export so that survey records are properly associated with enrollments based on the following rules:

• Survey records will be associated with an enrollment if survey date (as reported to NYS) is prior to the enrollment end date (this will also include survey dates that are prior to the start of any enrollment but are not covered by another enrollment record).

• Survey records will not be associated with an enrollment if the survey date is past the end date of the enrollment.

• If more than one survey is associated with a single enrollment, the most recent survey for that enrollment is the one that will be reported.

• Only survey dates that are within the reporting school year will be considered.

The SchoolTool mobile app now allows users to see a student's in-progress Grade Book Average for an individual course on the Grades and Assignments views. This functionality respects existing user permissions.

The Submit Progress Report Grades screen, typically used for traditional/secondary progress report grading, has been updated to provide improvements for performance and user experience enhancements.

Behind the scenes changes include overall performance improvements and fewer post-backs, resulting in shorter load times and less time spent waiting for the page to refresh between operations. The session timeout has also been removed so that users will not experience data loss due to session timeouts while on this screen.

While overall functionality remains largely the same, some functionality and user interface enhancements have been added to improve user experience.

The Roster tab has been reworked to provide a more intuitive screen. In addition, teachers with appropriate permissions now have the ability to see students' nicknames and home district assignments on the Roster tab.

Additional changes have been made throughout SchoolTool to support students identified as non-binary gender. This includes updates to Dashboards, changes to the Relationships table in Maintenance > Census to include relationship reverse text for non-binary students, new logic for recipient ordering on mailing labels, report cards, and progress reports, updates to Scheduling logic and reports, and more.