In this article we will look at how future guardians can update their student details in the Parent Portal, making collecting information easier. Did you know you can also use data collection sheets? See how here.
Important notice
To use the Parent Portal to collect information for new students, you'll need to have completed step 3 of the new school year setup process - you can see how to do this here.
Step 1 - Send out welcome emails to future guardians
To send out your login emails to your future guardians you must have at least one guardian's email address. You can check and update guardian emails from Students > Parents & Guardians > Bulk Update > Guardian Contact Details.
Then you'll be able to send login details to guardians following these instructions: Sending and resending login details to Guardians
Step 2 - Guardians update the student details
This will allow parents of applicants to be able to log into the Parent Portal or Arbor App and see and update information about their child. Missing information and consents are highlighted to them as notices, which they can click to amend.
They can also add or amend information anywhere where they see an arrow icon on the right-hand side.
Step 3 - Approve the requested changes
If you have your Parent Portal Settings set to do not auto-accept record changes you will need to manually approve these. We recommend having this set to don't auto-accept changes as the school may need to see supporting documentation for certain changes such as name changes.
To check your setting go to Students > Parents and Guardians > Parent Portal Settings. You will be able to see a full list of all your settings.
When guardians make any changes, if your school does not automatically accept student record changes, you'll get a notification on your homepage.
Quickly confirm any changes by clicking the notification or going to School > Data > Data Quality Dashboard > Student Record Changes > Pending.
You can click into the requested change or update and approve/reject the change, you can also add any supporting notes.
Troubleshooting
Is the logging in process the same for the primary guardians of future students?
As long as you have completed step 3 in the New Year Setup, your future primary guardians can log in using the same process as everyone else. Once they have been sent the welcome email they can follow the steps to create an account. They will still need to pass the data protection steps for their student by putting in the date of birth. Don't forget we recommend using a computer/ laptop the first time they do this!
If I only have the details of one guardian - can they add the other contacts?
As long as you have the details for one guardian they can log in and add the other guardian's details, the only thing they can't do is say who is a primary guardian. They need to contact the school for you to update this.
There is no limit on the number of contacts that a guardian can add, they can add as many as that student needs.
What we if have auto-accept changes on?
If you auto-accept changes on then you won't need to approve these, and changes that the guardians make will show on the student's profile.
What if we don't want future guardians to be able to log in?
If you don't want future guardians to be able to log in then just don't send them their welcome email. This won't notify them that they can log into the Parent Portal.
Comments
Hi Desma, Can i just ask can you send a welcome email to future parents without them being enrolled to our school. Means nothing now as we have already requested information through google forms. but this might be interesting for next year or in year admissions if we can send a welcome email to parents when we get our application list from the LA and rather completing all the forms the parents they can just log into the portal. I just wouldn't want it to effect our enrollment figures for Census and Arbor Billing.
Thanks
Damon
Hi Damon, students need to have an active or future enrolment for their guardians to be able to log in and update information using the Parent Portal/Arbor App.
To do this, you will have needed to complete step 3 of your New School Year Setup process to add applicants to reg form and year group, then add a future enrolment for September.
Don't worry if you're not sure if all the students will be joining you, as you can easily remove their enrolment if needed in future.
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