Configurations

General Tab

• Family Information Tab
• Foster Survey
• Military Survey
• Residence Survey
• Parent View of Family Information Surveys

Income Survey Tab

Medical Tab

Authorizations Tab

Data Confirmation Tab

Documents Tab

Online Documents

Financials Tab

Translations

Parent Admin Account View

Overview

Navigate to School Info > Portal Management > Portal Options.

The Portal Options page is used to configure the Parent Data Confirmation (PDC) process that Parents of enrolled Students use to update important Student Data at the beginning of each School Year.  This is also referred to as 'Registration' or 'Summer Registration'. 

On the Portal Options page, highlight a school in the menu on the left. Select the Parent Data Changing tab from the options to the right.

The Parent Data Changing tab contains 7 sub tabs: General, Family Information, Income Survey, Medical, Authorizations, Data Confirmation, Documents. For Schools that have Financials, a Financials tab displays for configuring Campaign links to appear in the Parent Portal.

A date range for editing data via the Parent Data Confirmation (PDC) process can be set using the options available here. Instructions, descriptive comments, and process options can also be defined.

Configurations  ↑

Before using this page, the following steps must be completed:

• For a user to upload a file to Portal Documents, the file type must be listed on District Settings in Allowed File List.
  
  

General Tab  ↑

While Student Demographics and Contacts are part of the Parent Data Confirmation (PDC) process, there are no configurable options for these two areas.  They honor the Portal Group Security settings for the Parent Group and are displayed during the PDC process. Review the Portal Group Security settings to determine what Student Demographic and Contact fields can be viewed and changed by parents.

The Parent Data Change Windows Start Date and End Date fields must be populated with valid dates for the portal to permit Parent changes. These dates also trigger a notification to prompt Parents to begin the Data Confirmation process. A District can set multiple date ranges for the year so that the Data Confirmation window opens and closes on a set schedule. When the window is not open, Parents do not see the Data Confirmation screens at all.

NOTE:  If the option to limit the Data Confirmation Process to Ed Rights Holders is enabled in Contacts Options, only those Parents marked as Ed Rights Holders can complete the Data Confirmation process.

In the More Options section on the General tab, there are two email fields available. The Change Details Email Address field must contain a valid email address, but can contain multiple email addresses separated by commas. Each recipient receives an individual email. The email address populated in this field is notified when a Parent changes any Student information.

A sample Student Information change email to designated Staff - additional emails may be sent to Parents and Students depending on the settings on this page, but does not contain the changed details.

A sample Contact Information change email to designated Staff - additional emails may be sent to Parents and Students depending on the settings on this page, but does not contain the changed details.

The Change Medical Details Email Address receives emails when a Students Medical information is changed. This email is intended for the Health Technician but is not required. Multiple email addresses may be entered, separated by commas.

A sample Medical Information change email to designated Staff - additional emails may be sent to Parents and Students depending on the settings on this page, but does not contain the changed details.

The various comment boxes are used to add comments or instructions about the data change areas. Parents see these comments on the various tabs in the formatting chosen.  Choose the Language at the top of the page to add translations.

At the bottom of the General tab area, the following options display. 

If the Allow Parents to Print a New Emergency Card option is enabled, after the Parent clicks the Save button on the Final Data Confirmation tab in the Parent Portal, they have the option to Print an Emergency Card.  Schools can also Hide Emergency Cared Signature Line.

Emails are generated for all emails linked to the Student ID when any of the data is changed by the Parent. The options Do NOT Email Parents on Data Confirmation?  or Do NOT Email Students on Data Confirmation? can be selected to prevent emails from being sent to Parents or Students.

When the Do NOT Email Parents on Data Confirmation option is selected, it skips the majority of emails that are sent when data is changed by Parents during the Data Confirmation process. If this option is selected, the Parent who is completing the Data Confirmation still receives the Final Data confirmation email.

If the Allow parents to skip steps option is enabled, parents can finish the final confirmation without completing all sections. When this option is deselected, the Parent is forced to complete each step of the process before the Final Confirmation can occur.

The Customizable Content area on the General tab has an Emergency Card Custom Text Header option that allows the District to add a custom header that prints on the Emergency card for the Parent. An Emergency Card Custom Text box is also available. This custom text displays to the Parent on the Emergency card when it is printed.

There is a Page Break Before Emergency Card Custom Text option. If this option is enabled, the Emergency Card custom text prints on the second page.

A Final Data Confirmation box is available. The custom text displays to the Parent after the all the areas are confirmed.

After any changes have been made under the General tab, click the Save button at the bottom of the page. A message displays confirming that the options were saved.

Family Information Tab  ↑

The Family Information tab displays Foster Survey Options, Military Survey Options, and Residence Survey Options for the Parent to respond to regarding their Foster, Residence, and Military status. The Parent Portal Group needs to be given Read and Update rights to the Parent Response to Survey (PRS) security area to be able to view and respond to the Foster,  Military, and Residence Survey questions.

In the Portal Options Parent Data Changing area, the Family Information tab has an option to disable the Foster Survey, Military Survey, or the Residence Survey. If either of the options is selected, that Survey is not displayed to the Parent in the Data Confirmation process.

The Family Information tab displays default text for the Foster Survey questions, Military Survey questions, and the Residence Survey questions. Districts/Schools are able to define and translate the Residence and Military Survey Question text, Type text and Description text. Translations are by School to allow for customization of the text.

Foster Survey ↑

Military Survey ↑

Residence Survey ↑

Code definitions for the Residence Type available for selection are entered here.

Parent View of Family Information Surveys ↑

When a Parent accesses the Data Confirmation area of the portal, the Family Information displays as Step 1 to complete.

The information on the Residence Survey is stored in the Parent Response to Survey (PRS) table. This information is displayed on the Residence Survey Audit page in Aeries for the District to review and confirm or reject this information. 

Instructions for using the Residence Survey Audit page can be found here.

Income Survey Tab  ↑

The Income Survey tab allows Schools/Districts to collect limited financial data on their Students.

In order for parents to see the Income tab in Parent Data Confirmation, the Parents group in Portal Groups must have Insert permissions to FRE. The option to Disable Income Survey must be unchecked.

Districts that choose to use programs like the Community Eligibility Program (CEP), National School Lunch Program’s (NSLP) Provision 1, 2, or 3 or the School Breakfast Program (SBP) do not collect official financial meal applications in a year that is not designated as a baseline year. A baseline year is a year that is used to establish Free and Reduced eligibility counts for a multiple year districtwide certification. The Aeries Income Survey provides a mechanism to aid in collecting individual financial information. Since mandated state reporting systems usually require financial information on an annual basis, the Income Survey can collect some critical financial data points required to make School/District-wide financial calculations without affecting existing multi-year CEP, NSLP and SBP related certifications.

By default, the date field will present the Income Survey to all parents regardless if they have already answered the survey as of July 1 of the current academic year. If using the Skip Income Survey option, the date field will be honored based on the date that is entered or if left blank, July 1 of the current academic year will be used.

Note: If the date field is populated on this tab, it cannot be a future date. If a date is populated, it is only honored when the Skip option is also checked. Otherwise, it will always use July 1 of the current academic year.

Use eligibility guidelines for next year instead of this year ↑

If Parent Data Confirmation is being completed toward the end of the current school year, the Income Survey can use the USDA Income Eligibility Guidelines from the next school year instead of the current one. To enable this setting, check the box labeled Use eligibility guidelines for next year instead of this year.

Note: If the option to Use eligibility guidelines for next year instead of this year is turned on, be sure to turn if off after the New Year Rollover has been completed and Parents are accessing the new year database. For example, after rolling over from 2022-2023 to 2023-2024, Aeries considers the 2023-2024 income eligibility guidelines to be "current", and the 2024-2025 guidelines won't have been published. Therefore, this option is only appropriate toward the end of the school year.

Skip the Income Survey ↑ 

Districts that have established Free and Reduced eligible during the baseline year and are now in years 2 or 3, have an option available that will skip the Income Survey for parents who have already taken the survey in the past.

Example: The school collected meal applications during year one (2022-2023). In the 2023-2024 database, the Portal Option date to require the income survey will be set to 7/1/2022, one year prior, and the option to Skip the Income Survey should be checked on. Any parents who have completed the Income Survey any time from 7/1/2022 to present, will not have the Income Survey display during the data confirmation process. The Skip option will compare the FRE records within the data confirmation log to determine when to present the Income Survey to the parent.

The Income Survey that would normally display after Family Information will no longer be part of the data confirmation steps.

Wording of questions, along with any translations, can be configured on the Income Survey tab in Portal Options. Custom text can be entered with instructions or explanations that the Parent can read.

Once a selection is made for the "How many people are in your household?" question, a follow up question "What is your total monthly household income?" appears. 

The available options for the second question "What is your total monthly household income?" vary based on the response to the previous "How many people are in your household?" question. These income ranges are hard-coded based on the  USDA Income Eligibility Guidelines.

Note: The Income Survey updates the Free and Reduced Meals (FRE) table. For more information, please refer to this article: Free and Reduced (FRE) NSLP Import Information

After the Confirm and Continue button is selected on the Income Survey, a message displays indicating the data for the Income Survey cannot be changed. 

Once confirmed, the Income Survey tab displays a green check mark and cannot be changed.

Parents have the option to skip the survey by not checking any boxes, then clicking the Confirm and Continue button. This prompts the following message.

Clicking Decline To Respond skips the survey, and does not record any data to the FRE table; however, a Data Confirmation Log (ICL) record is created noting that the Income Survey step was completed.

Answers provided in the Income Survey are used to create a new Free and Reduced record as follows:

• Code (FRE.CD) - Set to either F (Free Lunch), R (Reduced), or N (Not Eligible). Note: The codes F, R, and N should not  have any other definition in your code table.
• Source (FRE.SRC) - Set to "PDC", indicating the information came from the income survey in the Parent Data Confirmation process.
• Parent Income Survey Response Level (FRE.PIR) - Set to a hard-coded value of 1, 2, or 3 depending on the income range the Parent selected
• Parent Response Date (FRE.PDT) - Set to the current date and time when the Income Survey was completed
• # in Household (FRE.NO) - Set to the Family Size value that the Parent selected
• Eligibility Start Date (FRE.ESD) - Set to the current date when the Parent Income Survey was completed
• If an active FRE record already exists for the Student for the current year, the existing FRE record is closed out with an Eligibility End Date of the day before the current date when the Income Survey is completed, and a new FRE record is created. An active FRE record is defined as one where the Eligibility Start Date (FRE.ESD) is on or after July 1 of the current school year (or null) and the Eligibility End Date (FRE.EED) is on or after today's date (or null).
• See Parent and Student Portals FAQ:  How can districts utilize the Income Survey available in Parent Data Confirmation?

Medical Tab  ↑

The Medical tab displays all codes that are currently populated in the Code Table for table MHS and field CD. To enable a code for Parents to view and select, click on the checkbox to the left of the code under the Enable? column.

Note: If no codes are selected, the Medical tab does not display for Parents.

Authorizations Tab  ↑

The Authorizations tab displays all codes that are currently populated in the Code Table for table AUT and field CD.

To enable a code to be viewed and selected by a Parent, click on the Allow and/or Deny check box.

The Allow or Deny text can be customized to Yes/No or any other text.

 If Require a Response is checked, the Parent is required to respond to the question before the Final Data Confirmation can be completed. The Require a Response option is only honored if both Allow and Deny are selected for the Authorization.

The Authorization Type code can also be changed to any existing Authorization Type code. Although this code does not get displayed to Parents, records saved have this Type code stored with the record.

For the Parents to be able to view the Authorization and Prohibition codes, a valid activation date needs to be populated in the Display AUT Values Effective On or After This Date field. This date can be changed throughout the school year. For example, setting a date of 7/1/2021 displays to the Parents a pre-filled form with any authorizations they entered on July 1 or after. If you want to provide Parents with a "blank" authorizations form (typical when doing summer re-registration) be sure this date is after any current authorization dates in the system.

If no codes are selected, the Authorization and Prohibitions tab does not display for Parents.

Parent selections for Authorizations are saved in the AUT table. However, if the Parent does not select a response where none is required, no record is created in the AUT table. In these cases Deny is usually the only option offered and if left blank it is assumed the Parent allows/agrees with the Authorization.

Data Confirmation Tab  ↑

The Data Confirmation tab contains some additional settings as described below.

Parent Data Confirmation Start Dates defines a Start date of when an additional banner message to Parents is displayed.

Note: Parents always see the banner while Data Confirmation window is open, and once they have completed the Data Confirmation process the banner is hidden. This setting allows the banner to reappear at other times during the window to remind them to do Data Donfirmation process again.

Parent Data Confirmation Lockout Dates defines dates on which the Parent id locked out of all areas of the Portal except for the Data Confirmation process. This Date must be later than the Parent Confirmation Start Dates. Once they complete the Data Confirmation process the restriction is lifted. This setting may be useful if you want to withhold scheduling or other information from Parents until they complete the process. The lockout option also has an additional setting to apply to these grade levels only where a grade range can be specified. This may be useful if Data Confirmation is optional for a particular grade level. 

Note: These options are only applicable during the Data Confirmation window set on the General tab. If the window has ended, Parents have normal options available in the Parent Portal.

Documents Tab  ↑

The Documents tab allows Districts to upload documents for Parents to view, download, print and confirm that it has been read and understood by the Parent.

This tab contains a date field. Documents confirmed prior to the date do need to be reconfirmed. If this date field is left blank the date used for documents is July 1^st of the current Academic Year. If the User attempts to enter a date that is after the Parent Data Confirmation start date, a warning message appears. Clicking OK sets the Document confirmation date to be the same as the Data Confirmation start date.

All other settings related to documents are now on the Portal Documents page.  Users need Read, Insert and Update to Portal Options.

To add a document to the Documents area, click Add Document. A File Upload area displays to select the file you wish to upload. After your file has been uploaded, the File Name is populated with the name of your document. Type a title in the Title field.

Note: if the file uploaded is a HEIC file (default iPhone picture format) it is automatically converted to .jpg format

• Portal - Display document in the Portal during PDC.
• Online Enrollment - display in Aeries Online Enrollment.
• Confirmation Type- Which Students Parents are confirming this document for. This allows different documents to be displayed for Students registering for this year versus next year, particularly in Online Enrollment.
  • Current and Pre-Enrolled - displays the document to all Students. 
  • Current Year Only - displays it to current Students
  • Pre-Enrolled only - displays it to pre-enrolled students. 
• Required - Require the Parents to confirm the document.
• Confirmation Text - displays text to the Parents alongside the confirmation checkbox. Examples of text include "I have read the required document" or "The Student and Parent agree to this document". This text and translations are set up in the Update Code Table form DCV.CT field. 
• Comments - Displayed to Parents for each document.

Once the document has been saved, it can then be assigned to specific schools or grade levels by clicking the Visibility button. For example, a document can be displayed only to 7th grade students at the middle schools. Select the Grades and Schools desired on the two tabs.

Documents may be updated or deleted as needed, however if a document has already been viewed or signed by a Parent online, the document should not be deleted. If it is deleted, all references in the Document Confirmation Log are also removed. Instead, the document's visibility to schools and grades should be removed. Newer versions of documents may be uploaded by clicking the Edit icon and uploading a new version.

WARNING: If a document is updated while PDC is open, this action will prompt the parents to complete the PDC again if they had previously completed PDC. 

Documents also support multiple languages. To upload a version of the same document in a different language, click the Edit button for that document, and select the language from the dropdown, and then upload the document. The document in another language can have a specific Title, Filename, and Comments in that language. All other settings are shared between languages.

Documents may be re-ordered by utilizing the drag icon.

Groups may be established to organize the documents. The Group names are defined in the Update Code Table form DCV.FG field. The Code is limited to 3 characters and may not include symbols. Translations may be set up in the code table as well. Once the Group code is created, a document can be dragged into that group. This visually separates them for the Parents. Examples of group names include "Required Documents" and "Optional Documents".

There is a language dropdown at the very top of the page. This is an alternate way to work with multiple languages. Selecting a different language restricts all changes made to be in that particular language.

Online Documents  ↑

For Districts that prefer to use a separate Document Management System and only show links in the Portal/Online Enrollment for the Parents to click on, this can be accomplished by placing the links in a document and saving the document as a .config file.  

Upload this as a New Document

When Parents click on the document they are taken to the URL in the .config file and the document name appears in the Document Download/Confirmation Log.

Financials Tab  ↑

For Schools that have Financials enabled, the Financials tab allows the District or School to add an additional step to the Parent Data Confirmation process for requesting donations. The donations can be collected using a LivingTree Campaign. 

To enable the donation process, select the Enable Aeries Financials Donation Step check box on the Financials tab.

Add a Donation Title and a brief narrative in the Donation Question field that is presented to the Parent during the Parent Data Confirmation process. 

If LivingTree is used, enter the URL provided by LivingTree in the Campaign URL field. 

Optionally, the Yes and No button text can be changed. If custom button text is not entered, Yes and No appear on the buttons. 

Once configured and enabled, the User sees the following when completing the Parent Data Confirmation process. 

Selecting the Yes button (in this example, the blue custom-text  "I would like to give" button) opens a new browser tab where the Parent can complete the donation process. Selecting No allows the Parent to move to the next step in the Parent Data Confirmation process. 

Note: The user must select either Yes or No to continue if the Financials option is enabled 

Translations  ↑

Translations can be entered for custom text areas of the Data Confirmation process. Once custom text translations are entered they display to the portal when a Parent logs in with one of the corresponding languages. The default language is English. If no translations have been set up for other languages the English text that has been entered is displayed to the portal as the default text. The current areas that translations can be added for the Parent Data Changing tabs include:

General Tab

• General Parent Data Change Comment
• Student Data Change Comment
• Contact Data Change Comment
• Medical History Data Change Comment
• Authorizations Data Change Comment
• Documents Comment
• Data Confirmation Comment
• Emergency Card Custom Text Header
• Emergency Card Custom Text
• Final Data Confirmation Custom Text

Family Information Tab

• Military Survey Question Text
• Military Yes/No Text
• Military Survey Responses Text
• Residence Survey Question Text
• Residence Type Text
• Residence Description Text

Income Survey Tab

• Family Size Question
• Income Bracket Question
• Decline to State Message
  
  

Authorizations and Prohibitions Tab

• Allow Text
• Deny Text
• Additional Notes to display to parent Text

Financials Tab

• Donation Step Title
• Donation Question
• Yes/No Text

In addition, any Medical History or Authorization codes that are setup and translated in the Code Table display to the Parent in the Data Confirmation process. Documents are translated via the Portal Documents page.

To set up translations for the Data Confirmation process custom text, select a School from the list on the left side of the Portal Options page. On the Parent Data Changing area select a tab to translate text for. Next use the language selector at the top of the Portal Options page to select a language to translate.

Note: Numeric field information applies to all languages and cannot be translated. 

Enter the translated text into the text boxes. After the text has been entered click on the Save button at the bottom of the page. The translated text appears when the corresponding language is selected by the Parent when logging into the portal.

Parent Admin Account View  ↑

PWA accounts with the ADM field = 1 have the ability to always see the Parent Data Confirmation page regardless of the Parent Data Change Windows in Portal Options. Also these accounts disable emailing of any other account linked to the Student upon data change. This allows for testing prior to opening the PDC window.

To set the PWA account as a Parent Admin, the ADM field can be populated with a “1” with a SQL query.