SchoolTool Updates

Version 22.4-R2

• Online Registration - Receive Student Data (Continued)

  As part of a continued effort to improve the Online Registration experience, enhancements have been made to the Addresses section of the existing Receive Student Data screen.

• NYS Updates for Program Service Codes and Assessments

  Changes have been made throughout SchoolTool to correspond with NYSED reporting requirements. This includes the addition of new NYS Program Service Codes and assessments for the 2025-2026 school year, as well as additional assessment subtest identifier (short code) updates.

• Honor Alternate Enrollments in Additional Areas (Continued)

  Updates have been made to the Period Attendance Report found in Attendance > Attendance Reports to honor students with alternate enrollments.

Version 22.4-R1

• Default to the New Grade Book

  As of August 26, 2025 all SchoolTool users will transition to the new grade book. The legacy grade book and related feature flags will be fully retired, enabling a more consistent and enhanced experience for all users.

• Updates for NYS Data Warehouse

  Changes have been made throughout SchoolTool to correspond with NYSED reporting requirements. This includes the addition of a new Student Lite field, updated assessment schedules, and updated state course codes for the 2025-2026 school year.

• Display State Course Level in the Course Catalog

  To improve clarity within the Course Catalog, Course Level indicators (Secondary and Prior to Secondary) have been added to the State Course drop-down.

• Online Registration - Receive Student Data Enhancements

  As part of a continued effort to improve the Online Registration experience, several enhancements have been made to the existing Receive Student Data screen.

• Import Third-Party Assignments and Scores Updates

  Importing of third-party assignments and scores using the SchoolTool API and specific Batch Import updates, are now available for all SchoolTool sites.

• Honor Alternate Enrollments in Additional Areas

  Updates have been made to the Aggregate Report found in Attendance > Attendance Reports to honor students with alternate enrollments.

• Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades Screen Mass Apply Calculated Grades Visibility

  The Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades screen received several usability updates to provide greater clarity of the available grading actions when utilizing Mass Apply Calculated Grades.

Version 22.3-R3

• Import Third-Party Assignments and Scores

  The Grade Book Editor has been updated to allow imports of third-party assignments using the SchoolTool API.

  • Note: These enhancements are scheduled for deployment to all SchoolTool sites in the August 2025 release. In the interim, it can be enabled on training sites only. Please submit a ticket to SchoolTool support for assistance.

• New Calculation Option for Submitted Standard Grades

  A new calculation option has been added to the Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades screen to allow top-level (parent) standard grades to be calculated based on the grades of any nested (child) standards.

• Show Attendance on the Grade Book Editor Students Tab Updates

  The Course Attendance pop-up in the Grade Book Editor has been updated to include an absence reason type filter.

• Granular Permissions for Local User Maintenance Area and Automated Email Validation Updates

  New permissions have been added to provide increased control over the Local User Maintenance area. Additionally, the Mindex Site Validation Service group has been granted additional permissions related to this change to allow automated testing of email functionality.

Version 22.3-R2

• Show Attendance on Grade Book Editor Students Tab

  Students' course attendance summaries are available by clicking the attendance tally icon in the Students tab of the Grade Book Editor.

• Auto-Tie Standards to Assignments

  The Grade Book Editor has been updated to allow standards to be automatically associated with an assignment when adding a new assignment.

• Google Classroom Enhancements for Assignment Imports and Score Updates

  The Grade Book Editor and Grade Book Setup views have been updated to support expanded functionality for Google Classroom assignment imports and score updates.

• Grade Book Report Update

  Categories can now be excluded when running the Grade Book Report using the Reports button.
  

• District Level Reporting for SSEC Offenses

  To support NYS reporting requirements, SSEC offenses can be reported as district level instead of being tied to a specific building school level.

• Discipline Updates to Support NYS Physical Intervention Reporting Requirements

  In Maintenance > Discipline, the Offense Location area has been renamed to Incident Location and a new field has been added that allows you to designate locations as a Shared/Neutral space. In addition, the Maintenance > Export > NYS Data Warehouse > Student Restraint Event export has been updated to follow NYS requirements more closely.

• New Permissions for Physical Interventions

  New permissions have been added to give you the ability to control which users can view, or add/edit physical interventions

• Major Life Events Exemption Reporting for Assessments

  To support NYS reporting requirements for June 2025 and beyond, the Assessment Fact Data Warehouse export has been updated to report the numeric score and standard achieved code for any assessments with an associated Major Life Event assessment note. 

• County of Residence Field Update

  The Student Lite data warehouse export will report a code of 75 in Field 56 for P-Tech students whose address is associated with a County of "OTHER/OUT OF STATE".

• Enrollment Exit Reason Code Update

  In the Enrollment Exit Reason list, code 071 has been updated to 0071 - Graduated and completed Extended Integrated HS Program Simultaneously.

• Credential Type Updates

  The names of the following Credential Types have been updated in the list available when exiting a P-Tech student with code 0065 or 0071.

  • 119 - Career Development & Occupational Studies Commencement Credential
  • 136 - Skills and Achievement Commencement

• New Mindex Site Validation Service

  A new Mindex Site Validation Service has been added to all SchoolTool sites to allow automated verification during release deployment health checks.

• MTSS Edge Summary Report Viewer Updates

  Updated the MTSS Edge URL field to support changes to URLs as part of MTSS migrations.

  • Note: Districts who configured the viewer in Maintenance > Application > Configuration Settings prior to the 22.3-R2 release may need to update the value entered in the URL field.

Version 22.3-R1

100% Migrated to the Cloud! Thank you for all your efforts in helping us to achieve this milestone. Please note, now that all SchoolTool districts are hosted by Mindex we have deprecated the SFTP site for Installation Files.

• Dashboards Sub-Module Default to Advanced Analytics

  The Home > Dashboards sub-module has been renamed to Home > Dashboards/Advanced Analytics and when clicked will take you directly to Advanced Analytics. Additionally all logos are now the Advanced Analytics logo.

• Usability Enhancements to Grading Application Screens

  As part of a continued effort to improve the overall experience within the grading application, several usability enhancements have been made. These changes include name sorting consistency, Actions visibility, and removal of the Save button on screens that autosave. These changes impact the following screens:

  • Submit Final Exams
  • Submit Mid-Term Exams
  • Override Final Averages
  • Submit User Defined Assessments (Actions, Name Sort)
  • Submit Work-Based Learning Hours (Name Sort)
  • Submit SLO Scores
  • Submit Employability Profiles (Actions, Name Sort)
  • Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades (Actions)

• Submit Standard Marking Period Grades by Standard

  The Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades screen has been updated to allow standard marking period grades to be submitted by standard in addition to the existing by student option.

  
  

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• Auto-calculate Grade Book Averages

  Grade book averages now automatically refresh after updating scores, deleting assignments, changing category or subject filters, and/or adjusting the viewable date range.

• Hybrid Report Format Updates

  Unavailable prompts have been removed from the Hybrid Report Card format screen. Additionally, some prompt names have been updated for clarity.

• Update to Standard Selection Process when Adding Assignments

  When attaching standards to assignments in the grade book, the default grade will autofill based on the grade level of the majority of students in the course.

• New Feature Pop-up

  When accessing the grade book editor, a pop-up appears with information about new available features.

• Permissions Respected in the Suspension List and Detention List

  In the Suspension List and the Detention List, the View and Edit permissions for Referrals and Classroom Incidents are now respected. A new column is available in both lists to show the type of incident the disposition was associated with.

  
  

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• Update to Enrollment End Process for P-Tech Graduates

  Changes have been made to allow for more accurate reporting of graduated P-Tech students in School Entry Exit and Student Lite Data Warehouse exports after ending the enrollment with certain codes. This includes the ability to explicitly select a Credential Code for enrollments ended with a code of 0065 or 071. In addition, exit reason 0065 will now be treated as a "graduated" code.

Version 22.2-R3

Upgrade Path: Districts not hosted in the Mindex Cloud can upgrade to SchoolTool Version 22.2-R3 (Build 16) from any prior build of SchoolTool Version 22.2 (R2/Build 09, R1/Build 03).

• Traditional Grades for Hybrid Courses on the Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades Screen

  The Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades screen now allows traditional grades to be submitted for hybrid courses in addition to the existing standards-based grading capabilities. Key updates include the introduction of the Grading Tile, two new student flyout actions, and new grading visuals within the student flyout.

• Grade Book Editor Update to Saved Preferences

  Preferences for the Grade Book Editor screens have been moved to the database instead of being stored in browser memory. This allows you to maintain your grade book preferences when switching devices.

• Grade Book Editor Quick Entry Availability and Enhancements

  The grade book editor quick entry functionality that launched in Version 22.2-R2 is now available on all sites. Enhancements applied to the quick entry functionality based on user feedback include making the drawer slimmer, showing a confirmation after clicking Cancel if scores are entered, and adding hover text to the quick entry button.

• Grade Book Editor Usability Enhancements

  Several usability enhancements have been made to the grade book editor including filtering assignments based on a specified date range, copying assignments to other grade books after they have already been created, and creating repeating weekly assignments.

• Grading Application New Comment Entry Process for Marking Periods and Progress Reports

  The comment entry process on the Submit Progress Report Grades screen and the Submit Marking Period Grades screen has been updated to allow free text comments and comment codes to be saved by pressing the Enter key.

• Submit Progress Report Grades Screen Usability Update

  Several usability enhancements have been made to the Submit Progress Reports screen including ensuring consistency in name sorting, keeping the Actions menu visible at all times, and removing Save icons found throughout the auto-saving screen.

  These enhancements are part of an ongoing commitment to making the grading application more intuitive and consistent across the platform.

• Student Restraint Event Extract Update

  Comments associated with restraint events will have any double quotes and backslashes removed in the NYS Data Warehouse extract.

• New Custom Export Type and Additional Fields

  One new export type has been added to Custom Export along with new fields. The new type is User. With the addition of this new type, the Users CSV can be created according to the OneRoster specification found here: https://www.imsglobal.org/oneroster-v11-final-csv-tables.

  Additionally, new fields have been added to the Student and Rosters export types so that users can create the Results CSV and can filter rosters based on active courses only.

   

• Disable Local Logins

  A new permission has been added to disable local login fields (username/password) and forgot password functionality for specific user groups. This permission will also hide the reset password fields on the Home > My Home > Account tab.

• MTSS Summary Report Viewer

  A new icon is available in the Alerts section of the student record and teacher rosters for viewing the ClearTrack MTSS Summary Report. Additional configuration in Maintenance is needed prior to seeing this icon.

  Note: This feature is dependent on an upcoming ClearTrack update. It is recommended not to complete the configuration for this feature until the ClearTrack update is made available; this is planned for early April.

• New Prompt for Canned Traditional Progress Report Formats

  A new prompt in the Report Format for canned traditional progress reports allows users to choose whether the address should be included on generated progress reports.

  
  

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• New Permissions for Advanced Analytics

  Three new permissions for Advanced Analytics are available to provide districts with greater control over the data each user can access.

  A new permission for student data allows users to view all students regardless of whether or not the students are associated with an in-district building school level, thus allowing a user to include data for students with out of district enrollments.

  Note: This permission will be respected in Advanced Analytics upon upgrade.

  The two faculty permissions control users' access to faculty data (specifically, whether a user can view faculty in any building school level the user has access to or any faculty in the district regardless of building school level rights).

  Note: These permissions will be respected in Advanced Analytics later in the future.

Version 22.2-R2

Upgrade Path: Districts not hosted in the Mindex cloud can upgrade to SchoolTool Version 22.2-R2 (Build 09) from the most recent build of SchoolTool, Version 22.2-R1 (Build 03), or from Version 22.1-R4 (Build 19).

• Grading Application Enhancements

  Enhancements have been applied to various Grading Application screens to improve visibility and usability. A general enhancement is showing the icon associated with a filter on various grading application screens.

  • On the Submit Marking Period Grades screen, the student name sort now respects the name display order (First Last, Last, First), the Save icon has been removed from individual lines, and the Actions menu is visible by default.
  • On the Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades screen the mass calculations pop-up will include the number of most recent scores being used in calculations (if configured), and names with special characters will follow the same sort rules that are applied to names in the Grade Book Editor.

• Grade Book Editor Enhancements

  Enhancements have been made to the grade book editor including importing standards associated with assignments when importing a grade book from a prior year or a different class, increased visibility of the Actions menu, parent access and notes workflow updates, showing the subject average, and additional assignment actions available in Standards View.

• Expanded Roll-up Functionality On The Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades Screen

  The standard score roll-up functionality on the Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades screen has been expanded to include all nested (indented) standards regardless of assignment association. Rolled-up scores can still be used in the calculations for submitting grades.

• Grade Book Editor Speed Entry Drawer

  This feature opens a new drawer which provides the ability to quickly enter scores for a single numeric assignment.

  Note: As of the 22.2-R2 release, this feature can only be enabled by SchoolTool support. This can be enabled on live or training sites. Submit a ticket to SchoolTool support for assistance.

• Submit Employability Profile Grades and Submit Standard Progress Report Grades Visibility

  The feature flags for the Submit Employability Profile Grades screen and the Submit Standard Progress Report Grades screen are now available for all districts to use on all sites.

• Mobile Notifications for Assignments in the New Grade Book

  When assignments are scored in the new grade book editor, a notification will be sent ten (10) minutes after the score was entered.

• New Prompt for Hybrid Report Cards

  A new prompt called "Show Key Values" is available for the Hybrid report card which allows districts to choose whether the key should contain grade notes only, alpha scales only, or both.

  

  Upon upgrade, this field defaults to Both to maintain existing functionality.

• Additional Years Added

  Four additional school years (2041-2042, 2042-2043, 2043-2044, 2044-2045) were added. In these years, BEDS day is automatically set as the first Wednesday in October.

• New Career Pathway Code Added for P-Tech Program Services

  The code for Manufacturing is available in the Career Pathway Program drop-down when creating or editing an "Other" program service for P-Tech, Smart Scholar, or Smart Transfer programs (state code of 4026, 4027, 4037, or 4047), and will be reported in Field 25 of the Partner Project Fact Data Warehouse extract.

• Additional Language Support for Descriptor (Elementary) Report Cards

  Descriptor (Elementary) report cards can now be printed in the following languages: Arabic, French, Karen, Nepali, Somali, Swahili, and Thai. English and Spanish continue to be supported. Districts can use Maintenance > Translations to enter translations for non-hard-coded items in these languages.

• Parent Portal Updates

  On the student record, support for viewing transcripts has been added to the My Home > Grades tab. Additionally, the word "print" has been replaced by the word "view" for report cards and progress reports.

• Special Cycle Day Scheme Workflow Change

  When creating or editing a special cycle day scheme, a pop-up appears that shows the special cycle days in addition to the scheme details. This updated workflow prevents users from saving special cycle day schemes that do not have any associated days.

  Note: When editing an existing special cycle day scheme that has no special cycle days, special cycle days with a rank of 0, or special cycle days that have the same rank, you will not be allowed to save until those items have been corrected.

• API Service

  Updated the APIServiceSetupCustomAction.exe tool for the API Service to support Integrated Authentication. For more information refer to the API Service section.

Version 22.2-R1

Upgrade Path: Districts not hosted in the Mindex cloud can upgrade to SchoolTool Version 22.2-R1 (Build 03) from the most recent build of SchoolTool, Version 22.1-R4 (Build 19).

• Grade Book Enhancements

  Enhancements have been made to teacher grade books based on user feedback. The variety of updates include screen optimization, a new report icon, and showing the symbol in addition to the text in all scoring drop-downs.

• Submit Employability Profile Grades Screen Updates

  Several updates have been made to the Submit Employability Profile Grades screen including allowing you to save default grades for Employability Profiles, mass apply calculated grades, and mass enter standard grades to multiple standards. You can also now easily identify where to submit grades in the grade entry column and view more standards at once on the submit screen.

• New Custom Export Types and Fields

  Three new export types have been added to Custom Export along with new fields. The three new types are Academic Sessions, Orgs, and Rosters (Enrollments). Additionally, new fields have been added to the Student export type to allow users to return GUID values for specific data elements within SchoolTool.

  With the addition of these new types and fields, users can create the Line Items CSV, Academic Sessions CSV, Orgs CSV, and Enrollments CSV according to the OneRoster specification found here: https://www.imsglobal.org/oneroster-v11-final-csv-tables.

• Update to SchoolTool Transportation API

  The SchoolTool Transportation API call has been updated to include a new "Time" field when updating daily AM/PM time schedules. This allows districts to update the Time field that was recently added to the student record.

• Displaying Inactive Faculty

  Faculty drop-downs that include inactive faculty have been updated so that inactive faculty are always at the end of the list and have the word "Inactive" in front of their names.

Version 22.1-R4

Upgrade Path: Districts not hosted in the Mindex cloud can upgrade to SchoolTool Version 22.1-R4 (Build 19) from the most recent build of SchoolTool, Version 22.1-R3 (Build 11), or from Version 21.4-R1 (Build 12).

• New Fields Available in Custom Export

  New fields have been added to Custom Export that will return GUID values for specific data elements within SchoolTool. This in turn allows districts to create CSV files for use with SchoolTool integrations. With the addition of these new fields, users can create the Classes CSV and Courses CSV tables according to the OneRoster specification found here: https://www.imsglobal.org/oneroster-v11-final-csv-tables

  Additional fields will be added to reference other GUIDs and allow users to create additional OneRoster CSV tables in an upcoming release.

• Managing Transportation Times

  Districts can now decide whether to track AM and PM transportation times in SchoolTool. Times can be modified on student transportation schedules from the student record. Districts will be able to update transportation times via API in an upcoming release (expected January 2025).

• Updates to the Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades Screen

  A variety of enhancements have been made to the Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades screen based on user feedback. These updates include new visual indicators, mass grading options, and the ability to save default grades.

• Employability Profile Standards in the Grade Book Editor

  Employability Profile users can now access standard functionality in the Grade Book Editor. This includes the ability to attach standards to assignments, score standards individually, and copy assignments with standards to other grade books within the Grade Book Editor.

• Submit Employability Profile Grades Screen

  The Submit Employability Profile Grades screen has been updated and is now available in the new Grade Book! The newly updated screen allows you to easily submit Employability Profile grades while taking advantage of smoother navigation, autosave, and improved standards functionality.

  Note:

  • As of the 22.1-R4 release, this feature is only available for training sites. It is not available for live sites. Reach out to SchoolTool support for information about enabling this on your training site.
  • As of the 22.2-R2 release, this feature is available for all sites.

• Submit Standard Progress Report Grades

  The refactored Submit Standard Progress Report Grades screen is now available in SchoolTool. These updates include a new subject flyout selector and tile, the ability to mass apply comments, and mass copy subject grades from the grade book. This screen is used with any existing customized descriptor progress reports.

  Note:

  • As of the 22.1-R4 release, this feature is only available for training sites. It is not available for live sites. Reach out to SchoolTool support for information about enabling this on your training site.
  • As of the 22.2-R2 release, this feature is available for all sites.

Version 22.1-R2

• Alternate Enrollment Updates - Student Records

  • The Enrollment section under the Student tab has been reorganized to merge both alternate and official enrollments into a single unified view. 

  • Alternate enrollments now have the same fields as official enrollments, streamlining data management. When assigning a schedule at a different building, an alternate enrollment will be created with default values for the new fields. 

  • To initiate a Projected Enrollment, users can click the Start Projected button, previously labeled as the “Sunshine” button. 

• Alternate Enrollment Updates - Counseling > Batch Enrollment Edit

  • The Batch Enrollment Edit sub-module now supports alternate enrollments, allowing users to select specific records for editing. 

  • Unlike alternate enrollments, official enrollments remain restricted to editing only the most recent record. 

• Alternate Enrollment Updates - Census > Batch Enrollment

  Batch additions and deletions of alternate enrollments are now possible in the Census > Batch Enrollment module, offering greater flexibility in data management. 

• New Alternate Enrollments Batch Selector Term:

  This new feature simplifies the process of locating students with alternate enrollments by adding a specialized batch selector term for targeted searches. 

• Enhanced Custom Export Compatibility

  A new compatibility option enables custom exports with the “Force Legacy Cardinality Estimation” SQL hint, ensuring smooth functionality for more complex queries. 

• Assume Account and Assume Identity Features in Grading Application

  Full assume account functionality is now accessible in the grading application. Users will also find new identification icons at the top-right of grading screens to improve visibility and usability for assume account and assume identity functions. 

• Hybrid Report Card

  Introducing the Hybrid Report Card—a new report format that combines traditional marking period grades with standard grades for a more comprehensive view of student performance. 

Version 21.4-R1

• OAuth 2.0 Support for Gmail

  SchoolTool now supports OAuth 2.0 for Gmail. This is available for districts that connect directly to smtp.gmail.com without a relay to support Google's deprecation of "Less Secure Apps" on September 30. Note that districts using Gmail with a relay will have different steps to perform.

• NYS Updates

  Changes have been made throughout SchoolTool to correspond with NYS Data Warehouse reporting requirements. This includes new and updated state assessment names, assessment schedules for 2025, state course code changes, one new Career Path Code, one new language code, and the addition of a new Instructor Type code field in the Master Schedule Editor.

• Hybrid Course

  A new option in the Course Catalog allows courses to be both traditional and descriptor.

• RTI Updates

  The RTI Description is now visible on the RTI Detail Report. In addition, RTI Types have been added to the RTI Alert icon hover menu.

• Custom Export Filtering

  The list of custom exports can now be filtered using any of the available columns.

• Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades Screen Updates

  The Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades Screen has been updated to enhance the grade submission experience. These updates include a new student flyout selector, additional functionality in the student tile, the ability to mass apply comments, and new grid options.

• Grading Updates

  A variety of enhancements have been made to the grade book editor based on feedback. These include renaming the Print button to Reports and additional options for working with standards on assignments.

Version 21.3-R4

• Submit Descriptor/Standard Report Card Grades

  The Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades screen has been updated and is now available in the new grading experience! The newly updated screen allows teachers to simply submit and/or calculate marking period grades based on standard scores. A new assignment grid shows how a student performed on standards across multiple assignments. Whether or not assignments are in use, teachers can enter marking period grades and comments, compare previous grades and comments, and complete mass actions for groups of standards in just a few clicks!
  

  Refer to the Submit Descriptor/Standard Marking Period Grades - Mass Actions and Calculations document for more information on mass action functionality.

  For detailed information, be sure to check out our complete release notes.

   

• Grade Book Editor Enhancements for Standards-Based Grading

  A new standard view is available in the Grade Book Editor! When viewing by standard, the assignments listed will show the score given to that standard.

  In the assignment view when scoring standards in the standards drawer, the student list is now locked in place and will not scroll.

  For detailed information, be sure to check out our complete release notes.

• New Custom Export Field for Selection Type

  A new field was added to Custom Export to return information on the Selection Type associated with a student's course selections. The ability to choose either Summer School or Regular School Year selections was added in SchoolTool version 21.3-R2 (Build 08).

  For detailed information, be sure to check out our complete release notes.

• Update to the Master Schedule/ Course Selection Batch Term

  A drop-down for Selection Type was added to the Master Schedule / Course Selection Batch term. This will be visible when searching for students with or without selected courses.

  For detailed information, be sure to check out our complete release notes.

• Identity Provider Selection in Network Map and Visibility on Accounts Tab

  When assigning users in Maintenance > User/Group > Network Map, a new drop-down is available under the User ID to select an Identity Provider. This information can be viewed on the Accounts tab in a person record where a new column called Identity Provider will display the selected Identity Provider.

  For detailed information, be sure to check out our complete release notes.

Version 21.3 - R3

• NYS ADV Assessments

  A new Assessment Type has been added to SchoolTool along with one new assessment and its associated schedule.

• Updates to Student Restraint/Physical Intervention Tracking

  Student restraint/physical intervention information can now be tracked on Classroom Incidents as well as Discipline Referrals and additional fields have been added to allow districts to accurately record the data that must be reported to NYS.

• NYS Data Warehouse Extract for Student Restraints/Physical Interventions

  A new Data Warehouse extract, Student Restraint Event, has been added to support NYS reporting requirements related to Student Restraints/Physical Interventions. 

Version 21.3 - R2

• Navigate to Attendance from the New Grade Book

  Teachers can now easily navigate back and forth between the new Grade Book and legacy Attendance screen. 

• Course Selections for Summer School

  Course selections can now be specified as being for the regular school year or for the summer school. This will allow districts to perform a Student Schedule Builder (SSB) run for the summer school selections only or for regular school year selections only. This can also be used for informational purposes. 

• Allow Alternate Enrollments to be used in Scheduling Tools

  The Student Schedule Builder (SSB) can now be set up to schedule alternately enrolled students. 

Version 21.3 - R1

• Standards-Based Grading

  The standards-based grading functionality is being released for training purposes only. If you would like to experiment with this functionality on your district's training site, submit a ticket to the SchoolTool Help Desk.

  Here's what you can expect from our grade book when implementing standards-based grading: 

  • Teachers can assign grading scales and weights to any standards linked with an assignment.

  • Once standards have been associated, teachers can enter a score for each individual standard.  

  • Teachers also can mass apply a calculated score for the overall assignment based on the standard scores and weights.

  • Districts can create a custom short name to associate with any standard. The short name is then used to create simple identifiers for standards. 

• Conversion to New Authentication Solution

  In April 2023, we introduced an enhanced authentication solution and login experience with the Version 20.2 release. This updated authentication not only provides significant security enhancements but also ensures a consistent experience across the full site and mobile site.

  Our new grading tools require the updated authentication solution we introduced. These grading tools cannot be enabled until your district has completed that process.

  Please note that you can still upgrade to Version 21.3 regardless of whether you have converted to the new authentication solution, as the process for converting to the new login experience remains the same.

• Note for Districts using Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2

  The new Updater Service is not compatible with Windows Server 2012/2012 R2. Districts using this version of Windows Server will need to download updates from an SFTP site. If you need assistance with this process, please contact SchoolTool Service Delivery at least 48 hours prior to the planned upgrade date. 

Version 21.2 

• Submit Work-Based Learning Hours

  A brand-new screen to submit Work-Based Learning Hours was added to teacher grade books. Teachers can enter hours for all students in a particular class section rather than adding hours on each student record individually.

• Grade Book Enhancements

  Based on customer feedback, enhancements have been made to the new grade book including:

  • A Grid Options area to customize the look of columns and rows

  • Bolder scores and student averages

  • The sort will respect the student name display; if displaying First Name Last Name, the sort will sort by first name

  • A new option to condense the rows to show more students on the page

  • A new option to always show the attribute editor

  • Student averages will now show in a separate column which is sortable and color-coded, if configured

  • Assignment actions have been moved to a drop-down which allows more information about the assignment to be shown when the assignment name is clicked

  • Paging arrows have been realigned for ease of use

• Customizable Activities Section

  A new customizable activities area is available on an additional canned Transcript format, allowing districts to track additional information like seals and certifications.

• Updates Related to Student Gender, Sex, Pronouns, and Names

  SchoolTool is continuing to add and update features to support districts in managing students’ gender and sex, preferred pronouns, and affirmed/legal names.

  Report cards, forms, and the display name in the Mobile App will respect the affirmed name or legal name as configured for each contact.
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Custom Export Updates

  New fields were added to Custom Export allowing information to be gathered about the people that have viewed the student report card, their relationship to the student, and their account status.

• Crisis Code Start Date

  A field to track the start date of a crisis code was added to support districts in reporting this data to the NYS Data Warehouse.

  Updates have been made to available NYS Course Catalog codes and Assessment names and schedules in accordance with updates from NYS.

• Canned Report Card Updates

  New functionality has been added to the 8 MP report card to mirror functionality that exists on other report cards.

Version 21.1 

• New Grading Screens

  With the addition of SchoolTool’s new gradebook platform comes updated grade submission screens! Without leaving the new grade book 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 Midterm Exam Grades
  • Override Calculated Final Averages
  • Submit SLO Scores

• Gradebook Enhancements

  With the latest gradebook updates, use arrow keys to navigate through students and assignments!

• Features Related to Student Gender, Sex, Pronouns, and Names

  SchoolTool has added new features to support districts in managing students’ gender and sex, preferred pronouns, and affirmed/legal names. Additionally, districts can now track the assigned sex at birth of students for use in providing appropriate medical care.

• Required User Defined Screens as Forms

  User Defined Screens (UDS) can now be made required as Forms for users accessing the full and mobile sites. This will provide a consistent experience in the full site, mobile site, and mobile app.

• Customizable Activities Section

  A new customizable activities area is available on one of the canned Transcript formats, allowing districts to track additional information like seals and certifications.

• OneRoster Demographics API

  A new Demographics call has been added to the API Service (OneRoster) to allow districts to pull students’ demographics data using the IMS Global 1.2 format.

Version 20.4

• New Grading Screens

  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

• New Submit User Defined Assessments Screen

  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.

• NYS Science Investigations

  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.

• New Discipline Options

  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.

• New Custom Export Fields for Report Card Viewer Data

  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.

   

• User/Group Management and Authentication via ClassLink

  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.

Version 20.3

• Census > Search Selections Now Retained Per User

  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.

• User/Group Permission Control of Clickable Emails on Person Record

  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.

• User/Group Permission Control of Mobile Site Redirect

  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.

• Discipline Updates

  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.

• New Grade Book

  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.

• Support for okta Authentication

  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.

• Advanced Analytics (beta)

  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

• Enhanced Authentication/Login Experience

  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.

• Continued Improvements for Multilingual Report Cards

  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.

• Tracking of Mailing Addresses in "Update Students"

  "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.

• Changes for NYS Data Warehouse

  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.

• Online Help Navigation Improvements

  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.

Version 20.1

• "Update Students" Enhancements

  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).

• Multilingual Options for Report Cards

  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.

• API Security Improvements & Future-Proofing

  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!

• New York State Exports: Additions & Updates

  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).

Version 20.0

• Attendance, Teachers: Updated Attendance Screen

  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.

• Census, Maintenance: Receive Student Data Changes via District Connections

  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.

• Counseling, Scheduling: Changes to Printing of Pending Schedules

  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.

• Counseling, Scheduling: Show Home District on Schedule Reports

  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.

• Discipline: Updated Logic for SSEC Reporting

  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.

• Online Help: Move Online Help to the Cloud

  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.

• Medical: New Medication Fields

  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.
  

• Mobile App: Mandatory Forms in Mobile App

  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.

• Mobile App: Support for Spanish in Mobile 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.

• Teachers: Updated Teacher Grading Screens (Midterms, Final Exams, Override Calculated Final Averages)

  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.

Version 19.2

• Census, Maintenance: Allow User Defined Screens to be Required in Transfer Student & Online Pre-Registration

  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, Maintenance: SSEC Report Updates

  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.

• General: Global UI Updates and Icon Changes

  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.

• Login: Updated Validation Messages on Login and Forgot Password Screens

  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.

• Maintenance: OAuth 2.0 Support for Email

  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.

• Maintenance: Updated Logic for Enrollment-Specific Student Digital Resources Reporting

  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.

• Mobile App: Show Grade Book Average in Mobile App

  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.

• Teachers: Updated Submit Screen for Progress Report Grades

  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.

• Teachers: Updates to Teacher Roster Screen (Show Home District and Nickname)

  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.

• Throughout: Additional Changes to Support Non-Binary Gender

  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.