Month In Review

March 2025

Academics

Any media files attached to an assessment question are now included when adding the question to a question bank. Additionally, files attached to a banked question are now included when adding that banked question to an assessment.
Coaches and Athletic Group Managers can now set Time to TBA when adding games. Calendars and team pages will display the start time as TBA. Data managers can import games with a blank Time. Then TBA can be selected manually on games as needed.
Student Attendance has been updated to a modern SKY appearance and interface. While it can still be found from Academics, Attendance, and then Student Attendance from the Related Links, selecting it will open a calendar-like UI defaulting to the current day.
After opening an assignment from within the gradebook, teachers can now navigate between students in the evaluation page using Previous student and Next student.
On the Grading or Skills tab of a course record, the Grade plan group dropdown now offers only Grade plan groups associated with the course’s school level.
With this release, Learning Profile Managers and Learning Profile Staff can now upload file attachments to learning profiles. Learning profile documents may contain sensitive information, so the files, as well as the upload option, are not accessible when impersonating. Additionally, the files are only accessible to users with the Learning Profile Manager or Learning Profile Staff roles.
Learning Profile Managers and Learning Profile Staff can select graphs in the Learning Center to open flyouts with additional details, such as student grade levels, parent emails, links to student profiles, and links to edit a student’s learning profile. These flyouts are not accessible while impersonating.
In the narrative view of the new faculty report card grade entry experience, teachers can now calculate standard grades.

Core

We’ve updated a number of User profile settings pages to a modern SKY appearance: Religion types, Races, Emergency Contact intro, and Relationship types.
Platform managers can still create clones of Alumni and Class agent roles. However, as of this release, you can no longer clone other “constituent” roles, including All school and Grandparent roles.
When adding a new relationship from the Core Contact card or 360 Profile, the Relationship Types are now sorted in alphabetical order.
Users with the rights to impersonate others can now do so from a school directory.
Races are displayed alphabetically but can be reordered by dragging the values or selecting Top, which will automatically push the value to the beginning of the list.
List managers can now select to show Student’s school enrollment as a Column in User lists. Find it in the Enrollment category of your list options. You can also Filter by enrollment year.
The user interface previously called Custom labels & text is now Custom text. The Custom labels tab, which previously appeared in this area, was removed because its functionality was rarely used and it inconsistently affected labels in Academics, Extracurricular, and portal pages.

February 2025

Academics

We've updated the student enrollment modal so that when transferring a student, the Drop Date will show the previous date selected from the transfer date.
Teachers can now access their assignment creation default settings from their gradebooks.
In the new faculty report card grade entry experience, the Grade plan grades sort order is now based on the associated Grade plan to better align with a school’s grading cycle. In addition, faculty can now enter bulk comments for their students across multiple class sections.
Platform managers can now enable the question generator for teachers to utilize when building questions for their online assessments. Teachers enter a topic, number of questions to generate, question type, and details to determine question difficulty. The question generator then uses generative artificial intelligence (Generative AI) to create questions that teachers can add to their question banks and assessments.
Admins can now view Display settings inside a new modal view from Attendance.
We've made deleting infractions from the Infractions list easier. Simply open the context menu for the infraction and select the Delete option to remove it.
When setting the Assigned and Due dates for assignments, teachers can select the calendar icon and hover over a date the class meets to display the class meeting times.

Billing management

This month, the Auto-pay list was added, enabling Billing clerks to see all auto-pay enrollments, whether active or terminated, for the filtered school year.
On the Add payments form, under Payments to add, an optional toggle called Send Payment received notification determines if the Payment received notification sends when adding payments.
Enrollment deposits can now be set up to post to either a single set of GL accounts, or to multiple accounts based on specific student criteria.
Miscellaneous fees, when set to post each month, are now able to post fees to a specific deferred revenue account initially.
The Status column is a new, optional column available when viewing the Process history on the Transactions list, enabling Billing clerks to identify transactions that may have been deleted or reversed.
Batch ID is a new field available on the Process history list and on the details page for each process. The Batch ID only populates with a record if the associated batch included transactions added outside of Blackbaud Billing management using SKY API. Use the Batch ID as an additional dimension to identify a group of records when auditing.
Payers will now be greeted with a refreshed, modern user experience when visiting the payer portal. Our design changes reflect a philosophy consistent across many of Blackbaud’s products, guaranteeing a cohesive user experience from one product to the next and ensuring seamless usability.

January 2025

Academics

This month, we’ve added Learning Center to the top navigation menu in Academics. In the Learning Center, Learning Profile Managers and Learning Profile Staff can access all learning profile-related tasks that were previously split between Grading setup and Grades management, including Learning profile settings, Approve learning profiles, and more. The Learning Center also includes analytics that provide insight into learning profile use by school level, the age of learning profiles, and top accommodations.
The student gradebook now displays all assignment types enabled in the class gradebook. Published assignments with a due date and time in the past are also visible, even if they are not yet graded.
In January, we launched the new report card grade entry experience for faculty.
The Reports menu is now visible in the new report card grade entry page even if there are no open grade plans.
When grade review is enabled, the review options are now visible outside of the review dates in the new report card grade entry experience.
We’ve updated Attendance Categories, which is now called Attendance Reasons.
We’ve also updated Record method, giving it a more modern UI, making it easier to read, and providing more information in one location.
When calculating grades in the new faculty report card grade entry experience, the Formula is now automatically selected when only one admin-defined formula is available for selection.
When using the bulk editor to enter skill grades or comments in the new faculty report card grade entry experience, entering a skill grade or comment now automatically selects the skill checkbox. If the skill checkbox is cleared, any grade or comment entered for the skill is not retained upon saving.

Core

The user name format your school has configured will now appear in the User summary column of the Student list. If a maiden name exists, this information will also appear in the user’s summary.
When a list manager views a user list, they can now choose to show a column that shows each user’s Preferred last name. Alternatively, you can now select Preferred last nameelse Last name to show their preferred last name if known and their last name if they don’t have a preferred one.
The Addresses tile on the Contact card respects the Profile publish access setting for relationship data. If a school has configured profile publish access settings to Show address data but Hide relationship data for a combination of roles (such as “parent to parent”), the “Address shared with” information will no longer appear on the Addresses tile for applicable users.
When a list manager views the basic and advanced lists in List admin, they can now filter the list to show items created by a *Deleted user.
Names will now display in the Relationships tile on each user’s Contact card, based on the configured format for the corresponding System location. This includes all places you view a Contact card - user profiles in Core, Enrollment management, 360 profiles (such as Academics and Billing management), and My profile.

Enrollment management

Admissions managers can now include an Internal Notes option when setting up a committee. From Committee review, edit or create a new committee, then under Tile options, you'll see a list of options which can be enabled to be visible to reviewers. Options can include things like Files and Forms, Connections, Candidate Information, and more. Once enabled, reviewers will see an Internal Notes section as well as the selected options from the Committee Review Center.
Admissions managers can now see a candidate's entering grade from the Schedule tile when on the Enrollment management homepage. In addition, when Guided by other or Interviewed by other are used for a visit or interview, it will now appear in the Admissions staff column in the Schedule tile as well.
In January, we began the process of rolling out Blackbaud Checkout, a new payment processing experience that simplifies and securely captures payment details in compliance with Payment Card Industry. All forms that are set up to use Blackbaud Merchant Services will automatically update to use Blackbaud Checkout to facilitate the end user's payment experience. With Blackbaud Checkout, payers will enter their payment details and billing information in a payment modal after selecting their payment method, including credit card or bank account information and billing address. The payment modal experience will be the same for both credit card and direct debit payments.
For Candidate enrolled notifications, Admissions managers can now see the Entering grade and School level for the list of candidates who have been enrolled. Previously, only the Candidate's Name was visible.

December 2024

Core

The user name format your school has configured will now appear in the user list (user summary column) and header of the user profile in Core.
Previously, when a user viewed the Core contact card of a user who is U.S. Nonresident, this information appeared in the General information tile. Now, it appears is the Citizenship/resident tile. If you need to edit this information, do so from the new location, under Residency.
With this update, we’ve cleaned up some old settings which previously appeared in Core, Security, Profile access. Settings for Email for questions about profile no longer appear.
Platform managers can customize the values that appear as options for custom fields. They do this from Core, Settings, General settings, Table values.
When a platform manager sends an invite to a user’s email address to invite them to their Blackbaud ID account, but the user hasn’t logged in yet, then the user’s status is Awaiting response.
If a student withdraws from enrollment during the current school year and the departure date has passed, their parents will now see the resource board content for parents of past students.

API and Integrations

School API

Changed

New optional fields added to POST User create and Patch User update

We’ve updated POST User create and PATCH User update to accept three new optional string fields in their request bodies for setting the personal_bio, public_bio, and summary_note for a user.

Event_time object added to GET Athletics schedules

We’ve updated GET Athletics schedules to include a new object in its response, event_time, which returns the event time structured in a 24-hour time format.

New optional fields added to POST User create and Patch User update

We’ve updated POST User create and PATCH User update to accept three new optional string fields in their request bodies for setting the personal_bio, public_bio, and summary_note for a user.

Event_time object added to GET Athletics schedules

We’ve updated GET Athletics schedules to include a new object in its response, event_time, which returns the event time structured in a 24-hour time format.

Enrollment API

New

Update candidate information

We’ve added a new endpoint for updating candidate information for a specified entering year:

PATCH Candidate (Edit) requires one URL query parameter, candidate_id, and one parameter in the request body, enteringyear_id, to match a candidate record and update it with the information specified in the request body.

GET Candidate status change list (Get) returns a list of candidate status changes for a year, defaulting to the current admissions year. Set the optional school_year, status_type or start_date properties to filter the results in the response.

Changed

New objects added to Inquiry list response body

We’ve updated GET Inquiry list (Get) to include the current school, referral, and financial aid as objects in the response body.

November 2024

Academics

Teachers can now recover their own assignments deleted by mistake. Recovering an assignment restores the assignment, grades, file submissions, and text submissions for any class associated with the assignment.
When transferring a student to another section of the same course, users can now select Transfer gradebook grades to copy the student’s gradebook grades to the new section along with the student’s enrollment. Gradebook grades are only transferred for assignments that are shared between the original and new class sections. Additionally, the grades are not removed from the original class section when copied to the new section.
We’ve updated the color scheme for assignments in the In Progress status to allow students to better differentiate these assignments from those in the To Do status.
We’ve updated the icons that students and parents see in the new Assignment Center and the Assignment submission page to be more noticeable. The new icons are larger and more vibrant.
When editing long form text fields, the text box now expands to allow users to see more of their content without needing to scroll. The expanding text box is available for Messages, Academic Official Notes and more.
The Submit assignment and Print buttons now float at the bottom of the assignment submission page.
When users select See grade details on a student’s Progress tab, they now see Grades recently updated for any assignment type with updates since the user last viewed the page. Grades recently updated appears after the teacher commits any changes to the student’s grades, comments, or grade indicators for the assignment type.
In the student and parent view of the Assignment Center, the Missing assignments button is now red.
When students manually change an assignment status from Completed to To do or In Progress, the student’s selection is now retained.
When exporting the RSS feed for Assignments from the Calendar, the feed now exports the Due date for assignments instead of the Assigned date.
We've updated Conduct Infractions so when an update/edit is made to an infraction within the same threshold, it will no longer retrigger when saved.

Core

Data regarding which platform managers impersonated another user, who they impersonated, and when, is stored for two years. After two years, the impersonation data history is purged. This data is removed when it is no longer relevant, in accordance with our data retention and security policies.
When user’s Blackbaud ID (BBID) is disabled for two years (such as due to inactivity), then their account is disconnected. Additionally, the email address that’s used as their username will appear redacted.
List managers can now select additional data columns for the basic list.

They include:

student’s email address,
each parent’s email address,
list as parent,
parental access,
no contact,
resides with,
relationship comment,
relationship type.

New Filters include:

list as parent,
parental access,
no contact,
resides with,
relationship comment,
relationship type.

API and Integrations

School API

New

Update student attendance

We’ve added an endpoint for updating student attendance records for the section specified in the request:

Endpoint: /school/v1/attendance/sections/{section_id}/attendance

The POST Attendance by section update endpoint uses the required section_id path parameter to update attendance for a section. The request body requires a meeting_start_time and supports an optional student_attendances array. When the student_attendances array is excluded, all students are marked as present. Populate the student_attendances array with objects containing a required student_id and execute_type_id, and an optional comment field, to record absences.

Changed

We made an update to this section on November 19 to remove a reference to a feature that will not be released.

Retrieve course scheduling and department information

We’ve added support for several new properties returned in the response body of GET Academic courses:

schedule_settings contains an array of course scheduling information objects; each course object contains fields describing the scheduling constraints of the course, such as the min_sections, max_sections, target_sections, min_students, max_students, and target_students.
departments contains an array of departments for the course; each department object contains information about the department, including the id, name, description, and its is_academic flag.

Retrieve enrollment type from enrollment lists

GET Academics student enrollment list now includes an enrollment_type property in its response body.

Retrieve online presence information about users

GET Users extended by role(s) and GET Users extended by user now return an online_presence array in their respective response bodies. Each object in the online_presence array contains information about the users online presence on potentially other social platforms, such as the link to the platform, a description, and more.

Enrollment Management API

Changed

Households data now available from Inquiry list (Get) (PREVIEW)

Inquiry list (Get) (PREVIEW) now supports returning a households object in the response body.

October 2024

Academics

The product with the most updates for October 2024 was Academics by a landslide. This is going to be a long one, so get comfortable. One of the biggest updates for Academics in October was with Learning profiles. The new Learning Profile Edit task was added to the Learning Profile Manager and Learning Profile Staff roles.

With the task enabled, Learning Profile Managers and Staff can edit a student’s existing learning profile by going to Academics, People finder, selecting a student and then the Performance tab. Under Learning profiles, select the context menu next to a learning profile, then Edit.

We’ve also added auditing for learning profiles, which users can view by selecting the context menu next to a student’s learning profile, then See change history. Additionally, Learning Profile Managers can now edit existing learning fields on learning profile forms, as well as add new fields.

Also in October:

Dorm Supervisors and Coaches can no longer select See grade details on a student’s Progress tab when they do not have access to the student’s grades.
Students can no longer manually update the status of an assignment with the In-system submission method selected.
For students and parents accessing the list view of the Assignment Center, the Missing or overdue section is now collapsed by default and users can select the section to expand it. Additionally, the Assignment Center filters are now hidden by default in both list view and calendar view. Users can access them by selecting Show filters.
When an assessment is shared across multiple class sections, teachers can now compare the results across those sections in the Detailed breakdown.
We’ve updated the submission methods available for teachers to select when creating assignments. These changes alleviate confusion that may arise for an assignment that shows as Overdue when, in fact, there is no submission required for the assignment.
When working with Class Attendance inside of the Attendance Hub, we've added a new Attendance of Record filter.
When selecting Show previous grades, the selected grade plans are now sorted by the grade plan start date, then by the sort order of the Grade Plan Grades or Skill.
The assignment annotation tool has been updated so annotations display in the location where they are placed within assignment files.
In the student Assignment Center, assignment details now indicate whether an assignment requires an Online submission or an On paper submission. If no submission is required, no submission method is displayed.
We also made significant improvements to the mobile view of the student Assignment calendar, including defaulting to Day view, updating the UI to better fit the mobile screen, and more.
When an LTI tool is configured to use Preferred name, if available, the Full name endpoint now uses Preferred name as the Given name endpoint does.
For Learning Tool Interoperability (LTI) tools set up to display in an iFrame, we've increased the height for the iFrame display. Previously, the default height was too short, requiring users to scroll to view all content.
Comments in the student gradebook now display with their formatting intact.
When teachers access the Student gradebook from within a class gradebook, they can now navigate between students by selecting Previous or Next.
In the new Assignment Center experience, students and parents can now select Reports to access and run their available reports. Reports are not available in mobile view.
The new Assignment Center experience now has a Print option for students and parents. In mobile view, users can print by selecting the ellipsis icon, then Print.
The Attendance Status column from the Class Attendance page now shows the date and time that attendance was taken. Not Taken continues to appear otherwise.
We’ve added two new default gradebook settings for Gradebook Managers to configure: Display assignment type percentage and Display assignment percentage grade.

Billing management

In October, payers responsible for multiple students will now be able to filter the Statements page in the payer portal by each student. Once filtered, the Statement summary and Activity sections update with the details for the specified student, providing a quick view of their remaining amount due.

Also happening in October:

Billing clerks can now reattempt to process failed Auto-Pay transactions on behalf of payers via the Review failed payments list.
Auto-Pay payments that fail to process no longer immediately send an automatic notification to payers at the time of failure, providing Billing clerks time to either handle or retry the failed payment.
The Current bill page now shows payers the last 60 days’ worth of transactions by default.
Billing management now automatically saves the state of Add charges to group sessions, protecting Billing clerks against data loss scenarios. Each incomplete session is automatically saved whenever a new row is added.
Billing clerks can now include alumni and past students in the Add payments to group process.
We’ve removed the Status column and added the information from that column into the Payment amount field inside the Current bill page. In the same field, payers will also see why the payment failed.
The failed payment email and SMS notification now features a Failed payment reason merge field; embed the merge field into your notification to help payers understand what went wrong with their payment.

Core

For Core, there’s a ton to get to in October. First off, list managers can now run a basic list to view a list of Students with parents (flattened). This update enables schools to report on significantly more students and parents. To learn how many users your school has, review the count in Core, Users, User list.

The new basic list shows the information for a single student and up to 4 parents for that student. You can also use it to check parent relationships and how many times parents appear in the new basic list.

Find the new basic list in Core, Reporting, Manage lists, Manage basic and advances lists, Add, and select Create basic list. Then, from the Student information category, select Students (role based) with parents (flattened).

More updates this month:

A new security task, called Impersonation history, is now enabled by default for users with the platform manager role.
We’ve added three new placeholder options to use when a manager customizes the user name format for the school.
When a platform manager edits a user’s employment with the school and saves the changes, the user profile tiles which show information for log in information, roles, and personas now automatically refreshes to reflect the changes to the user.
If a platform manager uses a smart phone or other mobile device to view the details of a security role, the user interface now adjusts for a more responsive experience.
When a platform manager views the list of users they’ve recently impersonated, such as to select to impersonate someone again, the list shows the names of the 20 most recent unique users.
If you have access to manage logins and you view a user’s Core profile, you’ll notice the login info and options on the Access tab now appear in a more user-friendly format. The order and labels are improved; the functionality remains the same.

Enrollment management

The EMS team was pretty busy in October, adding a number of big improvements to the product. For example, Admissions managers can choose whether titles are always included by default for Name Formatting within Name Tags for events as well as other options like Pronouns, Entering year, Entering grade, Preferred name, and more. These options can be found by selecting Sign Ups from the Event and then selecting Nametags.

To support this change, we've also switched the formatting options to a multiselect instead of a drop down so schools can now select the options they want.

Also in October:

The links for recommendations and transcript requests now expire after 90 days instead of 60.
When using Recommendation, Online Recommendation and Online Transcript Request checklist steps, admissions managers now have the option to select Resend Request when the status is set to Requested. Resent Request also allows the admin to pick whether to resend the request to the same recipient/email, same recipient/different email or different recipient/email.
Admissions managers now have access to helplets that appear when creating an online transcript request checklist step.
We've enhanced the Internal Notes field on a Candidate profile. When adding a new one, you can now associate a Note type to help you better categories your notes. By default, this field has one option called Internal Note but this can be customized further to add new options as needed.

API and Integrations

School API

New

Retrieve content management announcement categories

We’ve added a new endpoint for retrieving announcement categories:

Endpoint:/school/v1/contentmanagement/announcements/categories

GET Content management announcement categories retrieves an array of announcement category objects, with each object containing various fields for identifying key aspects of the announcement category.

Retrieve content management news categories

We’ve added a new endpoint for retrieving news categories:

Endpoint: /school/v1/contentmanagement/news

GET Content management news categories retrieves an array of news categories objects, with each object containing various fields for identifying key aspects of the news category.

Changed

page_size parameter added to GET Users extended by role(s)

We’ve added an optional page_size URL query parameter to GET Users extended by role(s). Leverage the page_size parameter to control the exact number of results returned in each request. The default and max page_size value is 1000.

Additionally, when provided, the next_link property includes the page_size.

Room object now returned in GET Dorm rosters (BETA)

GET Dorm rosters (BETA) now returns a section.roster.room object in its response. The section.roster.room object contains fields that contain data about the room, such as the room number, name, code, capacity, and its id.

Retrieve content news categories

We’ve added a new endpoint for retrieving information about news categories:

Endpoint: /school/v1/contentmanagement/news/categories

GET Content management news categories returns an array of admin news category objects, with each object containing details about the news category.

Retrieve announcements

We’ve added a new endpoint for retrieving announcements for the user calling the endpoint:

Endpoint: /school/v1/content/announcements

GET Content announcements returns an array of content announcement objects, containing properties such as headline, author, description, and a categories array; the categories array contains objects with properties such as content_type, name, primary, publish_date, and expire_date. By default, the endpoint returns all announcements for the user, but the optional category property can be passed as a URL query parameter to limit results in the response to those matching the category.

Retrieve announcement categories

We’ve added a new endpoint for retrieving announcement categories for the user calling the endpoint:

Endpoint: /school/v1/content/announcements/categories

GET Content announcements returns an array of content announcement categories, each containing an id and description property.

Enrollment management API

Changes

Candidate list (Get) now supports pagination

GET candidate list (Get) now supports pagination. Include the optional size or page parameters in the request body to impact the results returned in the request. By default, the default size is set to 3000.

September 2024

Academics

You want updates? We have updates. Starting with the Student Assignment Center, we made the Hide filters setting sitck, renamed the filter Major assignments to Only display Major assignments, allowed students to select the status of a task to open the task editing modal, updated long task names to be truncated with an ellipsis, and more.

Student Gradebook also got some love so that students and parents can now navigate between classes by selecting Previous or Next after selecting See grade details. When viewing assignments by Assignment type, Assignments are sorted by due date, removed the ability to see the html entity for non-breaking spaces, and included Exclude from cumulative grade to displays under any assignments that the teacher has not configured in the cumulative grade calculation.

More updates!

Gradebook managers can now edit gradebook settings within individual gradebooks, even if teachers are restricted from editing the settings. While teachers will continue to see restricted settings as grayed out, Gradebook managers can edit the settings as needed.
The student view of the Assignment details page now displays a blue status bar when the assignment status is To do or In progress.
When a teacher marks an assignment Collected, the status now updates to Completed in the student’s view of the class Assignments tab.
For teachers, the Assignment Center calendar view now follows the default display setting selected in Assignment settings.

Financial Aid Management

In September, we finally released new integration functionality between Financial Aid Management (BBFAM) and Blackbaud Enrollment Management (EMS). This integration makes it possible for schools with Enrollment Management to efficiently send student awards from BBFAM budgets to EMS where the award information is recorded as financial aid on student or candidate records.

Before sending award information to EMS, the BBFAM budget must be mapped to Enrollment Management to establish the EMS financial aid type that will be assigned to award information received from the budget. Additionally, students in BBFAM must be matched to their student or candidate record in EMS.

More September updates:

Administrators can now add new budgets and manage existing budgets in an updated modal that divides the settings into three distinct sections: General, for basic setup options; Eligibility criteria, where you can set parameters for which students to include in a budget; and Mapping, to link a budget to Enrollment Management or Blackbaud Tuition Management, if applicable.
The columns a user selects to display in Manage Families are now “sticky” and remain selected even after the user navigates away from the page.
We’ve added an email notification that is sent to families when their application moves into Verified status.
When submitting documents for their financial aid application, families can preview sample documents to confirm that they are uploading the correct document.

API and Integrations

Enrollment management API

New

Retrieve test score results

We’ve added an endpoint for returning test scores for candidates:

Endpoint: /enrollmentmanagement/v1/tests

GET Test list (GET) provides a list of all test scores for enrollment candidates. The test score results in the response can be filtered by defining any of several optional parameters in the endpoint URL, including test_type, start_date, end_date, and last_modified.

Retrieve candidate history

We’ve added an endpoint for retrieving a list of candidate status changes for a single candidate:

Endpoint: /enrollmentmanagement/v1/candidatestatuses/{candidate_id}

GET Candidate status change list – single candidate (Get) provides a list of changes to the candidate’s history corresponding to the candidate_id defined as a URL parameter. By default, the response results are specific to the current admissions year, but by defining a school_year as an optional URL parameter, the response results can be refined.

School API

New

Add custom fields to a course

We’ve added an endpoint for creating custom course fields:

Endpoint: /school/v1/academics/courses/{course_id}/customfields/list

POST Academics course custom fields list create uses the data from the custom_field object provided in the request body to add a custom field to the course corresponding to the course_id property defined as a URL parameter.

Update custom fields for an academic section

We’ve added an endpoint for updating the custom field data for an academic section:

Endpoint: /school/v1/academics/sections/{section_id}/customfields/list

PATCH Academics section custom fields list update uses the data from the custom_field object provided in the request body to update a custom field for the section corresponding to the section_id property defined as a URL query parameter.

Update custom fields for a course

We’ve added an endpoint for updating the custom field data for a course

Endpoint: /school/v1/academics/courses/{course_id}/customfields/list

PATCH Academics courses custom fields list update uses the data from the custom_field object provided in the request body to update a custom field for the course corresponding to the course_id property defined as a URL query parameter.

Changed

Various field names deprecated

We’ve deprecated three fields previously featured in the response returned by the GET Users employment by role(s) (BETA) endpoint. This change is made in accordance with our deprecation notice issued on August 1, 2024. The Deprecated Field Names are no longer featured in the response data returned by the endpoint and are meant to be replaced by the New Field Names referenced above.

August 2024

Academics

In August, we added the Attendance Hub, intended to be the go-to spot for Attendance managers and clerks to handle all day-to-day tasks related to class attendance while replacing the old location entirely. In addition to taking attendance for an individual or group, users can find all previous menu options here as Related Links or Reports. Needs attention panel displays tasks that attendance managers need to focus on such as unrecorded attendance or early dismissal. What’s going on showcases an attendance breakdown based on the reason code given. Finally, the Late attendance tile displays how many reminder emails were sent on a given day, per week, as well as the previous week.

Other additions in August:

Gradebook grades list has improved performance.
With the Google Drive integration enabled, teachers can now add files from Google Drive as attachments on assignments. Files are converted to PDFs once uploaded.
The Special Days page from Academics, Scheduling, and Daily schedule calendar has been updated to use the SKYUX list design seen elsewhere within Blackbaud Education management.
In the Assignment Center, students can now filter on major assignments by selecting Major under Additional filters on the left.
In the new Faculty end of term grade entry experience, the Show previous grades option is now “sticky”. When a teacher selects Show previous grades, they can navigate away from the page and when they return to the grade entry page for that grade plan, the option is still marked.

Enrollment management

In August, the EMS team made significant improvements to the product, starting with the home page. The EMS homepage now utilizes the SKYUX design, giving it a more modern style appearance. The Schedule tile now includes Visit and Interview requests and Event registrations, a Date picker and an option to select the current day.

Candidate progress gives you a snapshot of how many candidates you have in each status, and clicking any of those bars takes you to a filtered list to show you who those candidates are.

Finally, we've added three new buttons to the homepage for Create candidate, Add inquiry and Reapply users. Each tile can be collapsed or rearranged as needed.

Other additions to EMS in August:

The Online Transcript Request type for a Checklist step allows applicants to request transcripts from a previous school directly from their checklist. When enabled, the applicant enters an email address for their previous school, which then sends an email with a link to upload a file. Admins can review the file after it has been uploaded and once approved, it will then be attached to a school record for that applicant in your system.
From the Candidate Record, there is a new Internal Notes area where you can add your freeform details. Add a Title, Date, and Details, which display in chronological order and who created it at a glance.
When filling out an online form with an Address field on it, the system will now look up and display potential matches as you type the address in. The tool automatically fills in Address line 1, City, State and Zip code when a user selects an address from the list of suggestions.

API and Integrations

School API

Changed

School year info now returned by various endpoints

A new object, student_info.school_level, is now returned in the responses from the following endpoints:

Use the data from the student_info.school_level to determine the id, description, and abbreviation for each students’ current school year.

School level now included in GET Users extended responses

student_info.school_level is now included in the responses from the GET Users extended by user and GET Users extended by role(s) endpoints, providing you with the id, description, abbreviation, for the school level associated with the student.

New fields added to GET Employment by role

We’ve added three new fields to the response for GET Employment by role. These changes are in conjunction with our depreciation plans announced on August 1, and therefore reflect adding three fields meant to replace three related fields.

Changes to the old fields referenced above include appending DEPRECATED to the field descriptions in our endpoint documentation. The old fields are also hidden in the sample response.

New

Get community group rosters by year

We’ve added a new endpoint for returning an array of objects containing community group roster information for the specified year:

Endpoint: /school/v1/communitygroups/rosters

GET Community group rosters returns an array of objects containing a section object and a related roster array. The roster array contains objects with user information about the members and leaders comprising the roster. Several optional URL parameters enable filtering the community groups returned in the response by school year, level, id, and the date the sections were last modified.

Get academic rosters

We’ve added a new endpoint for returning an array of objects containing academics roster information for the specified year:

Endpoint: /school/v1/academics/rosters

GET Academics rosters returns an array of objects containing a section object and a related roster array. The roster array contains objects with user information about the members and leaders comprising the roster. Several optional URL parameters enable filtering the community groups returned in the response by school year, level, id, and the date the sections were last modified.

Get test information

We’ve added a new endpoint for returning an array of test scores varied by student:

Endpoint: /school/v1/testscores/all

GET Tests returns an array of objects containing a section object and a related roster array. The roster array contains objects with user information about the members and leaders comprising the roster. Several optional URL parameters enable filtering the community groups returned in the response by school year, level, id, and the date the sections were last modified.

Add custom fields to academic sections

We’ve added a new endpoint for adding custom fields to academic sections:

Endpoint: /school/v1/academics/sections/{section_id}/customfields/list

POST Academics section custom fields list create uses the required custom_field object referenced in the request body to add custom fields to sections that correspond to the section_id parameter referenced in the URL.

Enrollment Management API

New

Create inquiries

Endpoint: /enrollmentmanagement/v1/inquiries

POST Inquiry (Create) uses the required candidate, entering objects alongside the and optional households objects referenced in the request body to create a new inquiry.

Create tests

We’ve added a new endpoint for creating tests:

Endpoint: /enrollmentmanagement/v1/tests/{candidate_id}

POST Test (Create) uses the data provided in the provided in the request body to create a test for the candidate matching the candidate_id included in the URL parameter.

July 2024

Academics

It was another very busy month for the Academics teams, featuring a ton of updates in July. For many, the biggest piece to our July releases was with the new Assignment Center experience being made available for all schools. The overall experience introduced a bunch of changes, enhancements, and quality of life additions, so for the full rundown, check out the documentation or video overview.

Also happening this month:

When a student creates an Associated task for an assignment, that task is now displayed as its own entry in the Assignment Center.
Teachers can now associate rubrics with assignments evaluated with the Mastery and total score method.
In graded assessments, unanswered questions now display a message stating that the student did not submit an answer.
In the new faculty grade entry experience, the auto-save feature no longer displays a "loading" indicator as teachers compose grade comments. The "loading" indicator interrupted the text entry process, and it has been replaced by a Last saved timestamp.
When gradebook calculations are set by marking period, teachers can now copy their calculation settings from the first marking period to subsequent marking periods. Settings can also be copied to additional class sections.

API and Integrations

ChecklistSteps array added to GET Student checklist type (Get)

We’ve updated the GET Student Checklist type (Get) endpoint to include a ChecklistSteps array. Use the data from the ChecklistSteps array to learn more about the steps associated with a checklist.

School API

We’ve added a new endpoint for updating information about employees:

Endpoint: PATCH /school/v1/users/{user_id}/employment

PATCH Users employment update uses the user_id parameter to identify which employee’s information to update with the data provided in the request body.

Return a list of non-academic departments

We've added a new optional request parameter to return non-academic departments from the GET Academics departments endpoint:

Include the Boolean property include_nonacademic in the request parameter and set its value to true to return non-academic departments in the response.

The new endpoint provides you with the ability to define a start and end date for the employee, whether their account is disabled or not, the school levels, grade levels, sports, and department they are associated with, and more.

New response properties added to GET Academics departments endpoint

We've added four new properties returned in the response for the GET Academics departments endpoint:

is_academic, Boolean, returns True if the department is academic.
description, string, the description of the department.
school_levels, array, an array of school level objects for the department.
school_level, object, an object nested within the school_levels array containing school level information, exemplified as:

{

"id": 1,

"description": "Upper School",

"abbreviation": "US"

}

Permission requirements eased for some non-sensitive GET Types table values data

The permission requirements for retrieving non-sensitive tables via the GET Types table values endpoint have been eased. For example, users no longer need to be a Platform Manager to request the Relationship table from the endpoint.

OneRoster API

Marking period now identified when not included in request body for PUT LineItem

PUT LineItem now identifies the correct Marking Period when its left undefined in the request body by using the value of the assignDate property.

June 2024

Academics

We made a number of adjustments to Class Attendance in June. When teachers view the calendar, they'll now see a red danger icon with text that says Cancelled.

For non-teacher roles, the danger icon appears if the class is canceled, if section records attendance and no attendance is recorded. If there is attendance recorded, a success indicator, in the form of a green checkmark icon, appears with an Attendance link that opens the record class attendance modal when selected. Ultimately, these icons should make it easier to scan the calendar for class updates rather than needing to select each one individually.

Also happening this month:

Administrators can set up notifications that automatically remind faculty to take attendance if they haven't taken it after a set period of time.
When students upload files for assignments, non-ascii characters are now removed from filenames.
When a teacher selects Filter in the list views of the Assignment Center and Assignments tab on class pages, the Publish status filter now defaults to Null.
Deceased individuals are now excluded from emails sent through group rosters when selecting Send communication to, choosing group members, then selecting Send via e-mail.
When evaluating assignments, teachers can now access the assignment editing modal by selecting More, then Edit assignment.
In the new Assignment details page, students can now upload files by dragging and dropping them into the Drag a file here tile.

Core

The Calendar was given another pass in June, getting a few enhancements and upgrades. First, we upgraded calendars throughout Blackbaud Education Management to improve performance and security. On top of that, some of the icons changed a bit including Word Wrap. Print also changed a bit, now triggering your internet browser’s print function.

Also happening this month:

While the privacy access settings for users remain the same as they were before the update, it is now easier for platform managers to review and compare the access settings for names for each relationship type. The change improves clarity but doesn’t change functionality.
When an organization administrator attempts to create a new user who is an environmental admin for Blackbaud Education Management, via the Education area (instead of Core), but the user’s Blackbaud ID already exists for Core, then the user accounts are now linked.
When you attempt to delete a user’s address but that address is shared with other users, a warning appears. Select whether to remove the address from only that user or from all users who share the address.
Preferred last name has been added as a new field to the Contact Card in the General information area - as available in the 360 profile in Academics and Billing Management, and in the Contact Cards of Enrollment Management, Core, and any school Directory.
When a list manager views the Household & address list, the names of students, parents, other household members, and household contacts are now shown with their preferred first name, if known, and otherwise their first name is shown instead.
Users’ lists and lists access are now included when the users are merged.

API and Integrations

Photo support added to GET Athletics team roster endpoint

players.value[i].photos is a new object returned by the GET Athletics team roster endpoint. The photos object contains two string properties, large_filename_url and thumb_filename_url. The value of each property is a direct HTTP link to either the full image or the thumbnail of the image, respectively.

Additionally, the following Boolean properties are now returned as part of players.value[i]:

publish_name
publish_height
publish_weight
publish_photo

Determine if a user is a department chair using GET Users employment by role(s) (BETA)

roles.departments[i].is_chair is a new Boolean property returned by the GET Users employment by role(s) (BETA). Use the property to determine whether the user is a chair of the respective department.

Visits, interviews, and events arrays added to GET Admissions candidates endpoint

value[i].events, value[i].interviews, and value[i].visits are three new arrays returned by the GET Admissions candidates endpoint. Each array contains corresponding event, interview, and visit objects, respectively.

Use value[i].events to determine information about the admissions event, such as name, start_time, and type, and whether the candidate is_registered, attended, left a comment, and more.
Use value[i].interviews to determine information about the interview for each admissions candidate, including start_time and end_time, the interviewer, whether the candidate did_not_show, and more.
Use value[i].vists to determine information about candidate visits, such as the start_time and end_time, the user who was the guide, accompanying adults, and more.

For a complete list of fields, reference the Response: 200 OK section of the GET Admissions candidates endpoint documentation.

May 2024

Billing Management

In May, the Billing team adjusted the Transaction summary. Transactions listed on the flyout summary after selecting Total charges or Applied payments on the Open items report now feature Transaction IDs that are hyperlinks. When selected, a new tab opens with additional information about the transaction.

To open a transaction from the Open items report, hover over Reporting in the navigation and select Open items. On the page, select any amount under Total charges or Applied payments. On the flyout that opens, select a Transaction ID to learn more about the transaction or modify it.

Also happening this month:

The Distribution list now features sortable columns to organize results and a set of default filters to expedite the list’s loading time.
The Open items report now features a search field that enables Billing clerks to filter records based on matched results amongst all open items.
We’ve added a new billing year filter when calculating balances on the Open items report. With the filter applied, the calculated balances will only include transactions applied "as of" the selected date and within the selected billing year.
The Distribution list now features a search field; enter a search term based on the column data in the Distribution list and the results in the list will filter through all fields, except for journal reference, to only include matches.
When posting to Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT, the journal reference for the summary line now includes the Summary Deposit # for each deposit, if available.

April 2024

Academics

In April, we've added a Weekly option for schools so an attendance clerk can set up a recurring attendance event that occurs over a set period of time. When adding attendance, there will be a Weekly option, with fields available to set a start and end date, selectable days, and how many weeks the change is happening.

For example, this option would be beneficial for a student who may have an activity that occurs every other Tuesday from 10am to 11am for the next two months.

Also happening this month:

On class pages, the calendar view on Assignments now loads for students, parents, and faculty.
In gradebooks, performance summaries now display Grade stats for assignments using letter grade scales.
Teachers can now create and manage their own question banks for use with assessments. They can organize questions into banks and sub-banks by course, topic, or another category of their choosing.
In the New Assignment Center, students can now select Missing assignments to review a list of their missing assignments with due dates and class information. Missing assignments only displays for students with assignments missing for the current term.
In the new assignment experience, students now have additional options when entering text, including resizing the Text box and the ability to copy and paste from Microsoft Word while retaining formatting.

Core

As part of our commitment to the privacy and security of user data, Blackbaud Education Management now "listens" for "global opt out" user settings. Users enable this setting via their internet browser, rather than via your school's education solution.

When a user enables this setting in their internet browser, the browser tells online websites that they don't want their information sold (nor shared) with third parties, nor used for targeted advertising. As required by United States privacy law, Core tracks when we've "heard" this setting.

If your school engages in the sale (or sharing) of user date to third parties or if you use their data in targeted advertising, then it is your responsibility to use this information to help ensure you respect the user's preferences and that you comply with privacy laws for the United States of America.

Also happening this month:

Platform managers will see updated information about Blackbaud ID and the migration, including for single sign on (SSO) when they view the Blackbaud ID tile on their home dashboards in Core.
When a user attempts to login on your school’s page, but they enter an invalid email address, they won’t be redirected to the Blackbaud ID (BBID) login page. They must first enter a valid email address to proceed.
When a user views their login history, data in the action column now differentiates between logins and “BBID still active” (session renewals).
Schools can copy existing posts to create new ones on the same resource board. Select the copy button, enter a title, and save the new post. Scroll to the bottom of the resource board to find the new post. Then edit the copy to update the information.
When a user views their login settings, they’ll notice the user interface has been rearranged to show information in a more intuitive order. Users find this by selecting their name (top right corner), then Settings, and then Login Settings. The data shown and actions available remain unchanged, so the general workflow for users also remains very similar. The new order makes the information and options easier to find.
Previously, schools could only re-position profile photos which were uploaded in bulk via Core’s System tools. Now, they can also adjust profile photos updated via an individual’s 360 user profile.
Schools who don’t use School Website can access these alumni settings by selecting Core, Content, then Alumni.
When an admin views a user’s Access tab on the Core user profile, they can view the Authentication status link.
When a user attempts to log into your school’s site, their email address is validated to check for proper formatting before they're directed to the Blackbaud ID login screen.

March 2024

Billing Management

Blackbaud Billing management now directly integrates with the general ledger maintained in Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT, providing Billing clerks with a frictionless means to synchronize transaction data between the two platforms.

These changes are also joined by a general Post to GL workflow refresh, which extends to those schools not leveraging Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT. Schools must enable a new system setting before being able to post directly to Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT.

To enable the setting, in Blackbaud Billing management, hover over Billing in the navigation and select Settings. With transaction rules selected, under Financial Edge settings, select Edit. On the pop-up, toggle Post directly to Financial Edge NXT and select Save. This option will not appear if a connection with an instance with Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT cannot be determined.

For more information on these updates, check out the March 19 release notes from our What’s Recent post.

Also in March:

Billing clerks now have direct access to notification settings via the Communication navigation menu item in Blackbaud Billing management. This shortcut joins the existing location found in Core.
Payment plans now feature an optional setting titled Exclude from upcoming payment reminder notification that disables the Upcoming payment due notification associated with that payment plan. This setting accommodates scenarios where a payment may be automatically debited from a different payment source, such as faculty payroll, negating the need for a reminder.
The Open items report is a new report that enables Billing clerks to see open balances by a selected date. For each open balance, the total charges, applied payments, applied credits, and percent paid, are all calculated and displayed. A summary of all balance metrics is summed up at the bottom of the report.

Endpoint	URL (Before)	URL (After)
POST Content management announcements	https://api.sky.blackbaud.com/school/v1/contentmanagement/announcements	https://api.sky.blackbaud.com/school/v1/contentmanagement/announcements/lists
POST Content management news	https://api.sky.blackbaud.com/school/v1/contentmanagement/news	https://api.sky.blackbaud.com/school/v1/contentmanagement/news/lists