View & Compose Academics Official Notes

Anyone with the faculty or staff role can compose official notes for individual students or for an entire course roster. Faculty and staff can view and compose official notes from the global navigation or from a course roster page. Additionally, managers can view and compose official notes from a student's Academic Profile.

Students and parents can view all of their official notes from Official Notes in the global navigation.

  1. Choose Official Notes from the global navigation at the top of the screen.

  2. Select + Compose official note.

  3. Enter the following information:

    1. Student(s):Search for and select the student(s) and/or course roster(s) for whom the official note will be written.

    2. Type:Choose the appropriate official note type from the dropdown list.

    3. Date: By default, this will be today's date. You can use the calendar picker tool to pick a different date, which will display alongside the note on the grade report or transcript if you choose those options below.

    4. Select the users who should be able to view the official note. If a checkbox is grayed out, those users are required to have viewing permission for this note type.

    5. Note:Compose the message (use the available placeholders to personalize the official note).

      Note: The text box will use your internet browser's built-in spell check function.

    6. Print on grade report and Print on transcript: Select these options if you would like to include the note on grade reports or transcripts for the student(s).

  4. Select Send, Save As Draft, or Send for Approval (depending on the Official Note type parameters).

    Tip: Once an official note is saved as a draft, it can be found in Official Notes in the navigation bar using the draft status filter.

  1. In Faculty view, go to the Roster page after selecting a Class.

  2. Select the triple-dot icon (...) under a student's name, then View profile.

  3. Go to the Official Notes tab.

  4. Select Compose official note.

  5. Enter the following information:

    1. Student(s): Search for and select the student(s) and/or course roster(s) for whom the official note will be written.

    2. Type: Choose the appropriate official note type from the dropdown list.

    3. Date: By default, this will be today's date. You can use the calendar picker tool to pick a different date, which will display alongside the note on the grade report or transcript if you choose those options below.

    4. Select the users who should be able to view the official note. If a checkbox is grayed out, those users are required to have viewing permission for this note type.

    5. Note:Compose the message (use the available placeholders to personalize the official note).

    6. Print on grade report and Print on transcript: Select these options if you would like to include the note on grade reports or transcripts for the student(s).

  6. Select Send, Save As Draft, or Send for Approval (depending on the Official Note type parameters).

    Tip: Once an official note is saved as a draft, it can be found in the student's official notes using the draft status filter.

  1. Make sure you are in Academics.

  2. On the Academics Dashboard, search for the student using Find me now. Select the student's name.

  3. Go to Official notes.

  4. Select + Add.

  5. Enter the following information:

    1. Student(s):Search for and select the student(s) and/or course roster(s) for whom the official note will be written.

    2. Type:Choose the appropriate official note type from the dropdown list.

    3. Date: By default, this will be today's date. You can use the calendar picker tool to pick a different date, which will display alongside the note on the grade report or transcript if you choose those options below.

    4. Select the users who should be able to view the official note. If a checkbox is grayed out, those users are required to have viewing permission for this note type.

    5. Note:Compose the message (use the available placeholders to personalize the official note).

    6. Print on grade report and Print on transcript: Select these options if you would like to include the note on grade reports or transcripts for the student(s).

  6. Select Send, Save As Draft, or Send for Approval (depending on the Official Note type parameters).

Note: Official notes that require approval must be reviewed by an administrator before they will be posted.

The rich text editor allows you to type and format longer pieces of text in a variety of contexts within Blackbaud Education Management.

Some of the formatting tools are initially hidden. You can find them by selecting the triple-dot (...) icon near the top right of the text input box.

Depending on the context, some or all of the following tools may be available for the text editor. Hover your cursor over any icon to see a label explaining what it does.

  • Source Code: View and edit the text using HTML. Select Cancel or Save to return to the normal text view.

  • Find and replace: Search for word or phrase to replace in the message you are writing. Use the gear icon in this tool to fine-tune your search with the options Match case, Find whole words only, or Find in selection (this limits the search to text you have highlighted).

  • Paste as text: This option removes any formatting when you paste text from another document.

    Note: The two Paste buttons do not work in browsers that don’t support direct access to the copy-and-paste clipboard. Use Ctrl+V or Command+V on your keyboard instead.

  • Table: Drag your cursor over a grid to select the dimensions of your table, ranging from 1x1 to 10x10. Once you have inserted a table into the text box, table editing icons will appear.

  • Special character: Opens a menu where you can select mathematical operators, currency symbols, and other characters to insert into the text.

  • Insert/edit link: Highlight text before selecting this icon to create a hyperlink. Paste the URL of the desired link into the URL box, including the prefix https://

  • Anchor: Inserts an anchor into the HTML code wherever the editor’s cursor is positioned. For more information about anchors, see this TinyMCE help topic or this W3Schools tutorial.

Note: The text editor does not have a spell check button. Instead, it relies on your internet browser's built-in spell check tool. Check your browser's settings to make sure spell check is turned on.

By default, Official Notes are associated with the registration period in which they were written. After an Official Note has been written regarding Academics, a Grading Manager can choose which registration period the note applies to.

  1. In the top menu, select Official Notes.

  2. Select a note to edit it.

  3. If the note is an Academic note, use the menu labeled School year - session - school level to choose between registration periods. By default, the current registration is selected.

  4. Select Save.

Depending on your school's policies, you can grant Official Note access to various constituents and employees according to Comment Type and Access Group. For example, you might specify that an Academic Warning is visible to a student's Coach.

Note: Official Note types can only be edited by users with certain roles, such as Comments Manager or Platform Manager. If you are unable to access features on this page, see an administrator at your school to request access.

To set access rules in Academics:

  1. Go to the Communication menu and select Official notes.

  2. Open the Official notes types tab.

  3. Review the existing rules under Manage Comment Types. Select Edit to change a comment type's Access Group settings. Select Save & Exit to save your changes.

  4. To create a new comment type, select Add.

Note: For more information about Official Notes settings, see Official Note (Comment) Types .

To learn more about Official Note Types, see Official Note Types.

To learn more about Monitoring Teams, see Monitoring Teams.

To learn more about Official Note notifications, see Official Note Notifications.