Review a Pending Letters Batch from the District
Review a Pending Letters Batch from the School
On the Generate/Send Letters page, a letter batch (a group of letters to students) can be created and/or sent. When a batch is created, a specified Letter Set and Option Set is evaluated. The process counts the selected Absence Codes from the Letter Set for the students in the attendance date and schools specified in the Option Set. Students whose attendance data matches or exceeds the specified limits will receive a letter. A letter can be sent to a student by printing and mailing, by email, by both methods, or a specific letter to a student can be specified as "do not send" within the batch.
Create a Letters Batch
If Attendance Letters have not been sent, the Generate/Send Letters page will be displayed as below:
Once a batch of letters has been generated and/or sent, they will be listed below Attendance Letters. To generate a batch, start by pressing the Add button. The options for generating a batch will display. Choose an Option Set from the list of Option Sets already created.
Select the applicable dates during which attendance should be counted. The dates default to the beginning of the school year through the current date.
The Start Date is typically the first day of school and should not be changed unless the school allows students to start fresh at the quarter or semester. The End Date would be the date you are printing letters.
The Default Delivery Type sets whether the entire batch of letters will be sent digitally (Aeries Communication or email), via print and mail, via both methods, or will not be sent.
NOTE: If Digital is selected, and an Aeries Communications account or email is not found for any intended recipients a fail-over printed copy will be generated. The intended recipients would include one copy for the student's record which includes the traditional home address, parent email (STU.PEM or CON.EM), and one copy for each contact record with an email address and Mail Tag set (CON.MT=A). The process includes sending letters to Parent Portal Email addresses (PWA.EM) if they have not already received a copy sent to the email stored in the previously mentioned places.
Below are the Delivery Type codes for the CBD.MD field:
Clicking on the Default Delivery Type ? will display the following information.
In the Custom Text field, type in the message that will be included within the Letter, if the [CustomText] field was included on the Attendance Letter Editor page where the letter was created. The contents of this field will replace the [CustomText] item in each letter. The Comment field can be used to add more internal details for the batch; the Comment is not included in the letter itself.
Once the options are filled in, press the Generate Letters button. Alternatively, a batch of letters can be cancelled.
Note: Clicking on the Generate Letters button does not actually send the letters. It creates a batch of letters that can be viewed and evaluated at the district and school level. The Delivery Type can be changed during this time.
The process will let you know that the letters are being generated. Depending on the complexity of the letter options, the process may take some time. You do not need to remain on this page, feel free to continue your work while you wait.
Additionally, an email will be sent when the process is complete.
After the batch has been generated, it will be displayed in a list of Pending Letters under Attendance Letters on the left.
Review a Pending Letters Batch from the District ↑
Letters can be reviewed at the district or school level. The Delivery Type of the letter can be changed at this point. The options are Digital (Aeries Communications or email), Digital and Print (printing and mailing, both methods) or Do Not Send.
Click on the name of a Pending Letter to see its details on the right.
Each letter that will be sent in the batch is listed. To search for a particular student's letter, type in all or part of their first name, last name, or student ID into the Search field under the Review Letters header. Partial input is supported.
For each letter, identifying information for the student is provided (a Student Photo, Student name, Birthdate and Grade).
Under the Absences column, the number of absence codes counted as qualifying the student to receive a letter is displayed. The number of the Letter that will be sent is provided under Letter Part. Under Documents, a link to a PDF of an English only Office Copy for the letter is provided. Click on the link to see a copy of the letter provided for internal office use.
Under Delivery Type, click on the drop-down to choose whether an individual letter should be sent digitally (Aeries Communications or email), by printing and mailing, both methods, or to not be sent.
If the Delivery Type is changed from the default (the Default Delivery Type is set when the batch is created), the Last Updated By and Last Updated Fields will be modified accordingly.
Review a Pending Letters Batch from the School ↑
Letter batches can be reviewed at the school level with the appropriate permissions. Users would need Read and Update permissions to the CBD table. For more security information refer to the District Attendance Letters - Overview article.
Note: At the school level, users will only be able to review and change the Delivery Type of the letters. They cannot Generate or Send the letters.
The Review Letters page is available at the school level on the navigation under School Info > Configurations > Attendance Letters.
Send a Letter Batch ↑
After a batch has been successfully generated, it appears under Pending Letters with a checkmark
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If no letters were generated, check the options on the Attendance Letter Editor and on Attendance Letter Options to make sure at least one student's attendance record qualifies to be sent, according to the options selected.
The Pending Letter batch can be left in the pending "queue," it can be deleted, or it can be sent. To delete a batch of pending letters, press Delete Batch at the bottom of the page.
A popup will require confirmation before deleting the batch of pending letters:
Press OK to delete the batch or Cancel the deletion.
To send a batch of letters, click the Send Letters button at the bottom of the page.
A popup confirmation will be displayed:
Click OK and the batch will be sent in the method specified by Delivery Type, if Digital, or prepared for printing and mailing. The process will let you know that the letter batch is being sent with the following informational banners:
You do not need to remain on this page, feel free to continue your work while you wait.
Additionally, a summary email will be sent when the process is complete.
The body of the email will summarize the results of the Send Letters process for each student in the batch. If the Delivery Type for one or more letters was set to Print, or failed to send digitally, two PDFs will be attached to the email: letters which should be printed and mailed and the Office Copy of the letters.
Additionally, letters can be printed from the Sent Letters details on the Generate/Send Letters page. Two links are provided in the Sent Letters details:
The Letters to Print/Mail should be printed and mailed to parents. If any letters were set with a Delivery Type of Digital, they will be emailed to the parent/guardian email address (STU.PEM) and/or to any contact's email address (CON.EM) if the contact also has a Mail Tag set (CON.MT = A). The email will contain the Notification Message set in the Letter Editor.
Note for Aeries Communications Customers: The email will be sent through your Aeries Communications vendor to the Parent.
The attached PDF will contain the letter and a record of the student's attendance which qualified the student to receive the letter.
Sent Letters will be displayed in the Sent Letters list.
Click on a Sent Letter in the list to review its contents and settings.
