Creating Incidents

Contents

The following data elements are required for discipline incidents. Discipline incidents are created at the school or district level, rather than at the student level.

Note: To create incidents, security groups must be granted access to Nebraska State Reporting. Refer to System Help in PowerSchool for more information on how to setup group level permissions.

Incident Description

Discipline incidents can be created at the school or district level. If an incident occurs on school grounds, PowerSchool recommends creating the incident while logged into that school. If the incident occurs within the district, but is not related to a particular school, PowerSchool recommends creating the incident at the district level.

Use the steps below to create a new incident and populate the Incident Description portion of the incident.

1. Log into the school or district associated with the incident.
2. Navigate to Start Page > Special Functions > Incident Management > Create New Incident.
3. Choose Nebraska State Reporting Incident Type for incidents that require state reporting.  
4. Enter the Incident Date and Time based on when the incident occurred.
5. Choose the Time Frame from the drop-down list. 
6. Enter the Title and Description as needed for local use.
7. Choose Location Code from the Location drop-down list. 
8. Either add additional information, see below, or click Submit Incident to save the changes.

Incident Builder - Participants

Use the steps below to populate the Participants portion of an incident. See the Appendix for code values.

Adding Student and Staff Participants

Use these steps to add a student or staff member who is in the PowerSchool system.

1. Click the Plus (+) button next to Participants. The Search for Student, Staff, or Other Participants dialog appears.
2. Enter criteria for the search and click Search. The Results section is populated with matching participants.
3. Highlight the appropriate participant in the search results.
4. Click Add.
5. Choose a role from the Select Role(s) pop-up menu. There must be at least one student Offender in order for the incident to be reported.
6. Click the Plus (+) button under Attributes. A Participant Attribute code pop-up menu appears.
7. Choose the appropriate Participant Attribute code from the menu. 
8. Click Add Participant Attributes.
9. Either add additional information, see below, or click Submit Incident to save the changes.

Adding Other Participants

Use these steps to add a participant who is not in the PowerSchool system.

1. Click the Plus (+) button next to Participants. The Search for Student, Staff, or Other Participants dialog appears.
2. Click Create Other.
3. Populate the First, Middle, Last names, position, age, and gender fields. This information should be defined, if known, for both Offenders and Victims, but is not needed for Witnesses. Reporters do not need to be defined.
4. Click Add.
5. Choose a role from the Select Role(s) pop-up menu. There must be at least one Offender per incident.
6. Click the Plus (+) button under Attributes. A Participant Attribute code pop-up menu appears.
7. Choose the appropriate Participant Attribute code from the menu.
8. Click Add Participant Attributes.
9. Either add additional information, see below, or click Submit Incident to save the changes.

Incident Builder - Incident Elements

Use the steps below to add behaviors, actions, objects, and attributes to the incident. See the Appendix for code values.

Adding a Behavior

Use the steps below to add behaviors to the incident. 

1. Click the Plus (+) button next to Incident Elements.
2. Choose Add Behavior from the pop-up menu.
3. Choose the appropriate Behavior Code from the pop-up menu and then choose the appropriate behavior subcode from the subsequent menu, if applicable.
4. Select the Primary Behavior checkbox for the most severe offense (even if there is only one behavior in the incident).
    Note: If the incident has multiple behaviors, the most egregious behavior should be checked as the Primary Behavior. 
5. Select the Allegation checkbox to indicate that the behavior has not been proven. An allegation is a claim or assertion of wrongdoing, typically made without proof. 
6. Click Add Behavior. The behavior appears under the Incident Elements heading.
7. Click and drag the behavior to the appropriate offender. The behavior appears under the name of the offender and also remains listed under Incident Elements. The primary behavior is reported for each incident. 
   
   Note: If an offender has more than one behavior, and you need to report a specific behavior, it is recommended that you define only that behavior rather than adding multiple behaviors to one incident.

Adding an Action

Use the steps below to add actions to the incident. 

1. Click the Plus (+) button next to Incident Elements.
2. Choose Add Action from the pop-up menu.
3. Choose the appropriate Action Code from the pop-up menu and then choose the appropriate behavior subcode from the subsequent menu, if applicable.
4. Populate the Action Date Range field (Begin Date & End Date). The action end date reported is the next in session day after the Action Date Range End Date.
5. Add additional information as applicable. 
6. Choose the Action Attribute(s), as applicable. 
7. Click Add Action. The action appears under the Incident Elements heading.
8. Click and drag the action to the appropriate behavior or offender. The action appears under the behavior or offender and is no longer listed under Incident Elements.

Adding an Object

Use the steps below to add objects (weapons) to the incident.

1. Click the Plus (+) button next to Incident Elements.
2. Choose Add Object from the pop-up menu.
3. Choose the weapon used by the offender from the pop-up menu. If no weapon was used by the offender, choose "N – No Weapon."
   Note: Define each weapon once. It is not necessary to create the weapon for the student and for the incident.
4. Click Add Object. The object appears under the Incident Elements heading.
5. Click and drag the object to the appropriate offender. The object appears under the name of the offender and remains listed under Incident Elements.

Adding an Attribute

Use the steps below to add attributes to the incident. 

1. Click the Plus (+) button next to Incident Elements.
2. Choose Add Attribute from the pop-up menu.
3. Select the applicable attribute check boxes. 
4. Click Add Attributes. Each attribute appears under the Incident Elements heading.

Click Submit Incident to save the changes after you have added all the required behaviors, actions, objects, and attributes.