Setup for the Beginning of the Year – eduCLIMBER

This lesson will assist you with setting up your district's data for the beginning of the year.

Where to Start

System Configuration button

Go to System Configuration.

Deactivate Users

A screenshot of a user management page. The interface allows administrators to view and manage user accounts. To deactivate a user account, navigate to Users and Security, Users click on the three-dot menu next to the desired user, and select Mark Inactive.

First, deactivate staff members who left the district:

Select Users & Security.
Choose Users.
Select the 3 dot menu on the far-right for the user.
Select Mark Inactive.

Add Unrostered Users

The screenshot shows a User & Security interface. Follow these steps to add users, navigate to Users & Security, click on Users, add Users to add new user.

Select Users & Security.
Select Users.
Select Add User.

New Users who are not assigned classes in a roster file or are not included in a user import will need to be manually added. Example users are Administrators, Psychologists, Counselors, Specialists, Special Education Teachers, or Coaches.

Set and Check Feeder Schools

Required Permission: Allow Access to Feeder Schools/Grades

Feeder schools are used to allow users with the enabled permission to view incoming students prior to the students having an actual enrollment record within the future school. This feature is useful for sites that will be testing and evaluating students academic levels prior to the start of the new academic year, for creating class lists, or other work that requires knowledge of incoming student's data.

A screenshot of a system configuration menu. To add a feeder school, navigate to District & Schools and then click on Manage Schools. This page allows administrators to manage school information, potentially including adding feeder schools.

Select District & Schools.
Choose Manage Schools.

A screenshot of a school management interface. The page lists existing schools with options to create new schools and manage feeder schools. To add a feeder school, click on the Feeder Schools column for a specific school, then use the pop-up window to select the feeder school and grade level.

Select the box in the Feeder School column for the school row that needs a feeder school(s) added or verified.

Update Terms

Organizations that upload Attendance typically have Terms included in their file; however, some Student Information Systems do not provide that data. Terms can be manually created within eduCLIMBER to prevent uploads from failing.

The Attendance Configuration page, with Attendance selected and labeled as step 2, and Terms labeled as step 3.

Select Attendance.
Select Terms.

The Terms page, with the Start Date and End Date columns labeled as step 4, Manage Term Names labeled as step 5, and New labeled as step 6.

Double select a cell to edit the Start Date or End Date for an existing term.
Select Manage Term Names to add and delete Term Name options.
Select New to create a new term entry.

The Manage Term Names popup window, with the Term Name field and Add button labeled as step 7, and the Delete trashcan icon labeled as step 8.

In the Manage Term Names menu, a new term name can be created by entering the Term Name and selecting Add.
- Example Term Names might be Yearlong, Quarter 1-4, Semester 1-2, Trimester 1-3, Summer, etc.
Select the trashcan icon to delete a term name.

The Create Attendance Term popup window, with School Year labeled as step 9, School labeled as step 10, Term labeled as step 11, Start Date labeled as step 12, End Date labeled as step 13, and the Save and Create New Term and Save and Complete buttons labeled as step 14.

In the Create Attendance Term menu to create a new term entry, enter the appropriate School Year.
Select one or more Schools.
Select the desired Term name.
Enter the term Start Date.
Enter the term End Date.
Select Save and Create New Term to continue making new terms, or select Save and Complete to close the Create Attendance Term window.

Update Periods

If new school sites have been created, or the setup for a school site's periods has changed, the Periods settings will need to be updated.

The Attendance Configuration page, with Attendance selected and labeled as step 2, and Periods labeled as step 3.

Select Attendance.
Select Periods.

The Periods page, with the Periods Possible column labeled as step 4, and the New button labeled as step 5.

Double select a cell to edit the Periods Possible for the relevant School and School Year.
Select New to create a new periods entry.

The Create Period popup window, with School Year labeled as step 6, School labeled as step 7, Periods Possible labeled as step 8, and the Save button labeled as step 9.

In the Create Period menu to create a new period entry, enter the appropriate School Year.
Select one or more Schools.
Enter the Periods Possible.
Select Save.

Set School Days Off

A screenshot of a system configuration menu. Navigate to District & Schools, select School Days Off, add to enter all dates that students do not report to school.

Select District & Schools.
Choose School Days Off.

Use the dropdown to choose the school year.
Select Add to enter all dates that students do not report to school. This information will automatically adjust all intervention schedules created for the new school year.

Roster Visualization

We have rolled over to the new year. Why am I not seeing my students in eduCLIMBER yet?

What SIS do you use? (see SIS specific notes below)
- The SIS setup and script might cause the rosters to not come into eduCLIMBER prior to school starting.
Are your extracts scheduled to run nightly? And are they active?
- Roster files may be scheduled to only run once a week. In this case, data will not be visualized until the upload. For example, if school starts on Monday, and the rosters are only scheduled to run on Friday, students could be in school for several days before seeing a roster file.
Are the students active in the SIS?
- Students have to be active in the SIS to visualize in eduCLIMBER. For example, Skyward will not send students if they are not active and school has to have started
Do all the students have courses assigned to them in the SIS?
- If NO courses, then students will not be pulled into the extract for eduCLIMBER. Once the students have courses and the school year is active, data will be visualized. If it is desired to see data visualized before the school year starts, see the notes below.
When does school start?
- Infinite Campus (old script), PowerSchool and Skyward all will send after school starts, see the SIS Variances below for guidance on how to visualize the rosters in eduCLIMBER earlier.

Variances

PowerSchool:
- Look at the Scheduled System Templates and make sure the extract is active in PowerSchool.
- If courses are assigned to students and the year is active, send a file by selecting the “run now” button (it looks like a play button) in Scheduled System Templates.
Infinite Campus
- Most Infinite Campus clients need to take no action. The SQL script is written to automatically rollover to the new school year. If you find that your data is not coming into eduCLIMBER, please place a support ticket at ecsupport@illuminateed.net.
Skyward
- Rosters start once students are active.
- If rosters are desired before the students are active, edit the historical extract to look at the future and then go into the scheduled task → select the roster → select “run now.”
DnA
- The academic year for DnA extracts changes on August 1st each year. This means that the new year data will begin being sent on August 1st. This is also not an automated process, and roster data will be stale until the rollover during the August 1st process is complete.
- In order for students to be visualized in eduCLIMBER, they must be considered active, with at least one rostered course. If there are no courses, then students will not be pulled into the extract for eduCLIMBER.
- If your district needs the data for the new academic year into eduCLIMBER prior to 8/1, it can be brought over through a manual extract by placing a support ticket into ecsupport@illuminateed.net.

Next Steps

Now that you’ve learned how to set up your data for the beginning of the year, take a look at End-of-Year Clean-Up.