Years and sessions

As part of the annual process, Platform Managers must create the new school year and any associated sessions or athletic seasons.

Note: You must create sessions before creating Courses, Activities, Advisories, and Dorms. Term dates can overlap in parallel term sets, but term dates within the same term set cannot overlap. For example, you can have parallel Semester and Trimester term sets. The term dates for Semester 1 and Trimester 1 can overlap, but the term dates for Semester 1 and Semester 2 cannot overlap.

To get started:

  1. Go to Core.

  2. Select Settings.

  3. Select School information.

  4. Select Years & sessions.

  1. Under the Year setup heading, select Add school year and then enter:

    • School year label: This is the display label for the school year. The format needs to be: xxxx - xxxx (for example, 2020 - 2021).

    • Descriptive school year label (optional)

    • Begin school year: The starting date of the new school year. This should be 1 day after the end of the previous school year.

    • End school year: The date of the end of the school year.

    • Alumni types

    • Is current year: Select if you would like this school year to be displayed as the default school year.

    • Is published: Select if you would like to publish the school year to users.

  2. The following options may appear, depending on whether your school has enabled School website and/or Enrollment management:

    • Is current year: Select to use this as the current admissions year.

    • Allow on inquiry form as reporting year: Selecting this option allows the school year to be selectable when creating inquiry forms (School Years = Entering Years on Inquiry Form) and will allow the school year to be selectable for admission reports and lists.

    For information about the Admissions year, which may differ from the academic year, see Admissions options.

  3. Select Save and close.

  1. Under Year setup, select a school year. Details about the year will appear on the right.

  2. Select Edit and enter your changes.

  3. Select Save and close.

  1. Under Year setup, select a school year.

  2. Select the school level (if applicable) and year type (such as Academics, Activities, or Advisory). A list of terms will appear on the right.

  3. Select + Add a session.

  4. Enter the following information:

    • Sessionname: For example, "Fall"

    • Description: For example, "Semester"

    • Sort order: The order in which the terms will display in menus throughout the site. Smaller numbers appear higher on menus.

    • Start date: The first day of the term, in the format MM/DD/YYYY

    • End date: The last day of the term, in the format MM/DD/YYYY

      Note: Athletics seasons can overlap. However, the start and end dates should not be the same.

    • Days to default beyond end date: This is a way to extend the term beyond the official end date so that the pages are still accessible after the term ends. Enter the number of days you want to extend access to the page.

    • Previous year equivalent to roll over from (optional): This is used in the rollover to map current offerings to the upcoming school year. Make sure that you chose the correct equivalent term. 

      Note: If your school is using multiple sets of sessions in the same academic year (for example, both Semesters and Trimesters), you must use the Sort Order to group the sessions by set. For example, a proper display order for an academic year with two semesters and three trimesters would be Semester 1, Semester 2, Trimester 1, Trimester 2, Trimester 3. And the term dates cannot overlap within a set.

  5. Select Save.

  6. Repeat for all sessions.

  7. Note: We do not recommend creating summer sessions without consulting Blackbaud Customer Support.

Note: Athletics seasons can overlap. However, the start and end dates should not be the same.

  1. Under Year setup, select a school year.

  2. Select a school level (if applicable) and then select Athletics. A list of seasons will appear on the right.

  3. Select + Add a session.

  4. Enter the following information:

    • Season name: For example, "Spring"

    • Description: For example, "Tennis"

    • Sort order: The order in which the seasons will display in dropdown menus throughout the site. Smaller numbers will appear higher in lists.

    • Start date: The first day of the season, in the format MM/DD/YYYY

    • End date: The last day of the season.

    • Base season: Select the appropriate base season. For example, the Fall Tennis season should have Fall as a base season.

    • Days to default beyond end date: This is a way to extend the season beyond the official end date so that the pages are still accessible after the term ends. Enter the number of days you want to extend access to the page.

    • Previous year equivalent to roll over from (optional): This is used in the rollover to map current athletic offerings to the upcoming school year. Make sure that you chose the correct equivalent season. 

  5. Select Save.

  6. Repeat for all seasons.