Back to School - For Administrators

You likely completed some of your school's annual procedures as part of ending the previous academic year.

To return to school for the upcoming year, you'll need to complete the remaining items from your "to-do" list. Review the Annual Procedures help as well as any items when you school may have documented in your school's Policies and procedures guide.

Most of these items should be completed by a platform manager. Some may be completed by other roles, such as admissions managers, attendance managers, content editors, community group leaders, integration managers, and more.

  1. Go to Core.

  2. Select Settings.

  3. Select School information.

  4. Select Years & terms.

  5. If you haven't created the year yet, select Add school year (under Year setup) and enter details about the year.

    Otherwise, locate the year and Edit as necessary.

  6. You'll also use Year setup to add academic terms.

    Note: Term dates can overlap in parallel termsets, but term dates within the same term set cannot overlap.

  7. As well as to add athletic seasons ( terms).

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

  8. After terms are configured, you can create courses, activities, advisories, and dorms.

    Consider using "rollovers" to streamline this process. Remember to roll over Gradebooks before Gradingsince you'll need gradebook marking periods set up for the upcoming school year.

    Warning: If you plan to import this data, then do not use data rollovers. Performing both import and rollover will duplicate data.

  9. When you're ready, edit the year and indicate that it Is current year and Is published for users to view.

  10. If users shouldn't access the previous year, Edit its Year setup and clear the Is published selection.

  11. Review which years should appear on admissions inquiry forms as "Entering Year" options. Edit its Year setup if necessary.

  1. Edit existing users to account for changes in responsibilities.

    This may also include updates to:

    • security roles and tasks,

    • editor access for content and groups,

    • integrations and APIs.

  2. For new hires, add new users.

    Be sure to update their employment, security roles and tasks, and access to content, groups, integrations, APIs, and more.

  3. Withdraw employees who are no longer part of your staff.

    • Consider whether past employees should retain their login access (and if so, what email address should be used for their Blackbaud ID).

      Also consider whether they should retain access to groups, such as for communication with alums.

  1. Current students may be promoted , graduate, or repeat a grade level.

  2. Reclassify incoming students as students.

  3. Admissions managers can:

    • Enroll accepted candidates in the school.

    • Assign the Incoming Student or Student role.

    • Mark candidates who aren't enrolling as inactive and change them to Past Candidate.

    • Process and manage student checklists.

  1. Current students may be promoted , graduate, or repeat a grade level.

  2. Reclassify incoming students as students.

  3. Admissions managers can:

    • Enroll accepted candidates in the school.

    • Assign the Incoming Student or Student role.

    • Mark candidates who aren't enrolling as inactive and change them to Past Candidate.

    • Process and manage student checklists.

Review your school's content strategy with key stakeholders and update their access as necessary.

Review the public and private content shown throughout your school website and the community to ensure it is up to date.

Use school forms to ensure you have updated information from:

  • employees,

  • students,

  • alums,

  • and other members of your community.

 

Since logins are minimal during the summer, be sure to:

  • Check your school's certificates and keys for Blackbaud ID Single Sign-On (SSO). Update them to ensure they don't expire during the school year.

  • Additionally, ensure your school has an organization admin whose email address isn't part of your school’s claimed domain.

  • Review integrations and APIs.

    This may include:

    • Updating authentication and access for users.

    • Regenerate expired tokens (keys and secrets).

    • Providing updated tokens to corresponding apps or developers.

    • Updating settings specific to integrations and third party partners. For example, you might need to configure the emergency contacts for new students.

 

Review your school's settings for attendance.

Ensure employees and students are aware of their responsibilities, such as those documented in your school's Policies and procedures guide.

This may include:

  • categories,

  • recording method,

  • rules for conduct,

  • scheduling,

  • and more.

With stakeholders, your school's Policies and procedures guide for preventing and responding to potential crisis situations.

Additional resources