School Setup

Adding Attendance Codes

Attendance Codes > New/Edit Attendance Code

Code

Enter the attendance code abbreviation.

[Attendance_Code]Att_Code

N/A

Required Setup

SIMS Data Collection

Student Attendance Summary (SAS)

Presence Status

Select Present or Absent as the presence status.

Note: For the Attendance and Tracking Notification function, you must set up attendance codes to track unexcused absences. The presence status for unexcused absences is Absent.

[Attendance_Code] Presence_Status_CD

N/A

SIMS Data Collection

Student Attendance Summary (SAS)

Code Categories

Select one or more checkboxes to associate the attendance code with attendance code categories.

Note: Attendance codes associated with the Unexcused Attendance Code Category are included in the Unexcused Absence calculation.

[Code_Entity]CE_Code = Unexcused (Present, Excused, etc.)

N/A

SIMS Data Collection

Student Attendance Summary (SAS)

This attendance code earns ADA credit

Select the checkbox to include this attendance code in attendance calculations.

[Attendance_Code] Calculate_ADA_YN

N/A

Required Setup

This attendance code counts toward membership

Select the checkbox to include this attendance code in membership calculations.

[Attendance_Code] Calculate_ADM_YN

N/A

Required Setup

Defining Attendance Code Categories

Attendance Code Categories > New/Edit Attendance Code Category

Attendance code categories are associated with a specific school, but not a school year, and are copied from year to year.

Code

Enter the attendance code category abbreviation.

For the Attendance Tracking and Notification function, you must set up one attendance code category to track unexcused absences.

[Code_Entity]CE_Code

N/A

Required Setup

Name

Enter the name of the attendance code category.

Note: Verify that an attendance code category of Unexcused is set up for each school calculating unexcused absences.

[Code_Entity]External_Name

N/A

Required Setup

Setting Up Attendance Conversions

Attendance Conversions > Edit/New Attendance Conversion

Name

Enter the attendance conversion name.

For more information, see the PowerSchool Help.

[Attendance_Conversion]Name

N/A

SIMS Data Collection

Defining Attendance Tracking and Notification

Attendance Tracking and Notification > Attendance Mode Setup > New/Edit

Attendance Mode Value

Choose the attendance mode used as the default for your school:

• (MPTD) Meeting Period to Day
• (MTTD) Meeting Time to Day
• (DCTD) Daily Code to Day
• (DTTD) Daily Time to Day

[Gen]Value=MPTD, MTTD, DCTD, or DTTD

[Gen]Name=UEAT_Mode

[Gen]Cat=Unexcused

N/A

Refresh Attendance Tracking Data

Student Attendance Summary (SAS)

Attendance Tracking and Notification > Unexcused Tracking Setup > New/Edit

Tracking Category

The page displays Unexcused to indicate that the attendance code category selected will be used to track unexcused absences.

N/A

N/A

Refresh Attendance Tracking Data

Student Attendance Summary (SAS)

Attendance Category

Choose the attendance code category dedicated to tracking unexcused absences from the pop-up menu.

Attendance code categories can only be used once, so the pop-up menu displays all attendance code categories set up for your school, except for those already associated with an unexcused reporting category.

[Gen]Value

[Gen]Name=UEAT_Category

[Gen]Cat=Unexcused

N/A

Refresh Attendance Tracking Data

Student Attendance Summary (SAS)

Status

Select Absent to indicate that this unexcused tracking category is used to track absences.

Tardy may be used for local purposes, but only Absent is used for state reporting.

[Gen]Value2=Absent

[Gen]Name=UEAT_Category

[Gen]Cat=Unexcused

N/A

Refresh Attendance Tracking Data

Student Attendance Summary (SAS)

Adding Full-Time Equivalencies

Full-Time Equivalencies (FTE) > New/Edit FTE Code

Name

Enter the FTE name.

[FTE]Name

N/A

SIMS Data Collection

Student Attendance Summary (SAS)

Default Attendance Mode

Choose the default attendance mode for the FTE from the pop-up menu.

[FTE]Dflt_Att_Mode_Code

N/A

SIMS Data Collection

Student Attendance Summary (SAS)

Default Attendance Conversion

Choose the default attendance conversion for the FTE from the pop-up menu.

[FTE]Dflt_Conversion_Mode_Code

N/A

SIMS Data Collection

Student Attendance Summary (SAS)

Setting Attendance Preferences

Attendance Preferences

Attendance Recording Methods

Select the checkbox to enable the appropriate methods of attendance.

[Prefs]Value where

[Prefs]Name= ATT_RecordModeMeeting

[Prefs]Name= ATT_RecordModeDaily

N/A

Required Setup

Count these codes for period conversion

Choose Absences or Presents from the count these codes for period conversion pop-up menu.

Note: This option determines whether or not to count present or absent codes for period-to-day attendance conversions.

[Prefs]Value where

[Prefs]Name= ATT_CalcCntPresentsAbsences

N/A

Required Setup

Setting Up Bell Schedules and Calendars

Bell Schedules

Bell Schedules

Define bell schedules for the current school.

For more information, see PowerSchool Help.

[Bell_Schedule]

N/A

SIMS Data Collection

Student Attendance Summary (SAS)

Calendar Setup

Calendar Setup - Name of School Year

Assign days to membership types and schedules.

For more information, see PowerSchool Help.

[Calendar_Day]

N/A

SIMS Data Collection

SASID MSR

Student Attendance Summary (SAS)

Calculating Class Rank

Class Rank > Class Rank Methods > Class Rank Method

Create and manage class rank methods for calculating class rank for students based on GPA calculation methods. Review additional information about class rank.

Description

Enter a description for the class rank.

[ClassRankMethod]Name

N/A

Required Setup

GPA Calculation Method

Choose a GPA calculation method to determine the class rank. The GPA calculation method determines which grades are used to determine the class rank.

[ClassRankMethod]Value_x

N/A

Required Setup

GPA result is

Choose whether to assess the rank numerically, such as giving the student with the highest GPA the rank of 1, or to assess the rank alphabetically, such as giving the student with a GPA of A the rank of 1.

[ClassRankMethod]ValueLi3

N/A

Required Setup

Only include grades (that count in class rank)

Select the checkbox to exclude grades for courses or sections excluded from the class rank.

[ClassRankMethod]ValueLi

N/A

Required Setup

Exclude students (that are excluded from class rank)

Select the checkbox to exclude grades for students who are marked to be excluded from class rank.

[ClassRankMethod]ValueLi2

N/A

Required Setup

Include early graduates?

Select the checkbox to include students with an “early graduation exit code” assigned to their school enrollment record. The exit code is defined in the following field.

[ClassRankMethod]ValueR

N/A

Required Setup

Early graduation exit code

Enter the exit code used to identify students who graduated early.

[ClassRankMethod]Value2

N/A

Required Setup

Class Rank > Recalculation Frequency

Recalculate current class ranks

Choose a calculation frequency for calculating the class rank. Click Recalculate now to immediately calculate the class rank for all class rank methods.

N/A

N/A

Required Setup

Name

Enter the name of the grading period.

[StoredGrades]StoreCode

N/A

Required Setup

Defining School Departments

Departments > Add/Edit Department

Department

Enter the name of the department.

[Department]Description

N/A

Required Setup

Defining Course Sections

Sections > select course > select section > Edit Section

Course Number

Enter the course number.

[Sections]Course_Number

N/A

Required Setup

Term

Select the term for this section from the pop-up menu.

[Sections]TermID

N/A

Required Setup

Room

Enter the room number where this section meets.

[Sections]Room

5

Required Setup

Section Number

Enter the section number.

[Sections]Section_Number

12

WAR Record Builder

SIMS Student Course Schedule (SCS)

Maximum Enrollment

Enter the maximum number of students that may enroll in this course section.

[Sections]MaxEnrollment

3

Required Setup

District Where Taught

Enter the District ID where this section is taught (if taught at a different district).

[Sections]WhereTaughtDistrict

4

Required Setup

School Where Taught

Enter the School ID where this section is taught (if taught at a different school).

[Sections]WhereTaught

4

Required Setup

Team

Select the team for this section.

Teams are defined at the district level.

[Sections]Team

N/A

Required Setup

Entering State Section Information

Massachusetts State Information

Exclude from State Reporting

Check the box to exclude this section from state reporting.

[S_MA_SEC_X] State_ExludeFromReporting

1

EPIMS Work Assignment Record (New)

WAR Record Builder

Student Course Schedule (SCS)

Course Term

Choose the code that identifies the length of this course from the pop-up menu.

See Course Term for valid values.

[S_MA_SEC_X]CourseTerm

2

SIMS Student Course Schedule (SCS)

WAR Record Builder

Course Level

Choose the code that identifies the level of this course from the pop-up menu.

See Course Level for valid values.

[S_MA_SEC_X]CourseLevel

2

SIMS Student Course Schedule (SCS)

Mark is not required (55)

Select the checkbox to mark as not required.

Note: When checked the value of 55 will be extracted for those courses that are designated as ‘Mark is not Required’

[S_MA_SEC_X]MarkNotRequired

1

SIMS Student Course Schedule (SCS)

This is an Ungraded Section (66)

Select the checkbox to mark section as ungraded

[S_MA_SEC_X]Ungraded

SIMS Student Course Schedule (SCS)

Students receive a mark for this course but do not receive a percentage (i.e. Pass/Fail).

Select the checkbox to mark the course as a Pass/Fail only course.

[S_MA_SEC_X]NoPercent

1

SIMS Student Course Schedule

NCES / CIPS Code

Enter the NCES or CIPS code that corresponds to this course.

For a comprehensive list of all valid values, visit the Department of Education website to download the most up-to-date list of NCES codes: https://nces.ed.gov/forum/Master_List.asp

[S_MA_SEC_X]NCES_CIPCode

1

CRDC

EPIMS Work Assignment Record (New/Legacy)

SIMS Student Course Schedule (SCS)

WAR Record Builder

Medium of Instruction

Select the delivery medium from the dropdown list.

This field is also used for the Work Assignment Record Extract. If a section is set to value 0608 – Virtual/Online Distance Learning, the WAR Extract will replace Job Classification Codes 2305 (Lead Teacher) and 2306 (Co-Teacher) with values 2307 (Virtual Lead Teacher) and 2308 (Virtual Co-Teacher).

[S_MA_SEC_X]MediumOfInstruction

4

SIF

EPIMS Work Assignment Record (New)

School Identification Number

If this course was an on-line course, enter one of the following:

• CLBRVK12 for online grades K-12 course
• CLBRVCLG for an online college-level course

If this course is a college-level course, enter the following: CLBR####, where #### is the college institution code

Previously selected college-level course codes display in the School Identification Number field. You must add the “CLBR” preface to each college-level course.

[S_MA_SEC_X]OverrideSchoolCode

8

SIMS Student Course Schedule (SCS)

Entering Work Assignment Records

Sections > Work Assignment Records

Sections > select course > select section > Edit Section

The fields on this page are documented in the Staff Setup section below.

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Defining Years & Terms

Years & Terms > New/Edit Terms

Name of Term

Enter the name of the term.

[Terms]Name

N/A

Required Setup

First Day of Term

Enter the date the term begins.

[Terms]FirstDay

10

Required Setup

Last Day of Term

Enter the date the term ends.

[Terms]LastDay

10

Required Setup

Select the relevant from the drop-down list.

Valid values:

• 1/2
• 1/3
• 1/4
• 1/5
• 1/6
• 1/7
• 1/8
• 1/9
• 1/10
• 1/11
• 1/12
• Full year