The Positive Behaviors feature allows teachers and administrators to use positive reinforcement strategies to reward good student behavior. In the Positive Behaviors screen, administrators set up the badges or badge types. Focus by default uses the terms "badge" and "badges" for the items that are awarded to students for good behavior, but the district can customize the terms used.
Teachers can also set up badges in the Configure Positive Behaviors screen, but the badge must be associated with a badge type created by an administrator.
At least one school or district-wide badge/badge type must be set up in the Positive Behaviors screen in order to enable the Positive Behaviors and Configure Positive Behaviors screens for teachers, as well as enable awarding badges in the mobile app or from the seating chart.
See Positive Behaviors System Preferences and Profile Permissions for more information on the system preference and profile permissions to enable for this feature.
By default, Focus uses the terms "badge" and "badges" in the Positive Behaviors system to refer to the items that are awarded to students for good behavior. These terms can be customized by the district. The custom terms will be reflected throughout Focus instead of "badge" and "badges."
1. In the Discipline menu, click Positive Behaviors.
2. At the top of the screen in the Name field, enter the term the district will use instead of "Badge."
Once you click or tab out of the Name field, the Plural field will auto-populate with the plural of the name you entered. Edit the Plural field if needed.
3. Click Save.
If a school wants to restrict which profiles can spend badges for a student, the school can select the specific profiles using the Spend Profiles pull-down. If no profiles are selected, then any administrator at that school with the Edit profile permission to Positive Behavior Awards and any teacher at that school with the View profile permission for Reward Positive Behavior can spend badges for a student.
1. At the top of the screen, select the user profiles who can spend badges for students in the Spend Profiles pull-down.
2. Click Save.
Administrators can set up badges that are awarded to students, or can set up badge types that act as categories. If teachers are allowed to set up badges, the teacher-created badges are associated with the administrator-created badge types.
Administrators cannot see the badges set up by teachers on this screen; administrators can go to Users > Reward Positive Behavior (teacher program) to view the badges set up by the teacher and award badges on the teacher's behalf.
1. In the blank row at the top of the table, enter the Badge Title/Type.
2. To select an icon for the badge, click Select.
Badges can be saved without selecting an icon, if desired. The star icon will be used for badges saved without an icon.
3. To use a recommended icon, click the icon on the left side of the screen.
4. To upload an icon from your computer, click Choose a file and select the file, or drag the file from your computer into the blank area.
Any icons administrators at your school have previously uploaded will be available on the right side of the screen.
5. To take a photo with your webcam, click Take Photo and follow the prompts to take a photo.
The selected icon is displayed in the Icon column.
6. The District-Wide column displays for users with the "Edit District-wide badges" profile permission. If the badge will be used at all district schools, select District-Wide. If it will only be used at the school you are currently logged in to, do not select the check box.
Users who do not have the "Edit District-wide badges" profile permission will not see the "District-Wide" column, and badges that are marked as District-Wide will not display on this screen.
7. Select Include on Portal to display this badge on the Student Portal and Parent Portal when the student earns the badge.
The student's earned badges will display at the bottom of the Grades tab on the student block in the Student Portal and Parent Portal.
8. Select Push Notification to send a push notification to the student and their linked primary custodial contacts when the student is awarded this badge. The student and primary custodial contacts must have the mobile app downloaded and push notifications enabled to receive the notification.
9. To restrict when the badge can be awarded to students, enter a Start Year and/or End Year.
Enter the syear for the start year or end year, e.g. 2023.
10. To restrict the minimum and/or maximum number of badges that can be awarded for the badge/badge type per student, enter the desired value(s). If no values are entered, then there are no minimums or maximums for this badge/badge type.
11. Enter a value for User Increments to require the user to click Save after awarding the specified number of badges to a student before they are able to add more to the student, up to the Max Award amount.
For example, the Max Award for a specific badge/badge type is set to 10. The User Increments field is set to 5. A user can only add 5 of those specific badges to the student before they are required to click the Save button. The user can then add 5 more to the student until the maximum of 10 is reached.
12. Press Enter to add the row. Continue adding badges as needed.
13. Click Save.
When a badge/badge type title or icon is edited, any badges that have already been awarded will be updated with the new title or icon.
The Start Year and End Year can be used to restrict when a badge can be awarded to students. It is recommended to set the End Year on a badge rather than delete a badge if it has been awarded to students. Badges awarded to students prior to setting a Start Year or End Year are still counted in the student's earned badges.
1. To edit the title of an existing badge/badge type, click the Badge Title/Type field and make the change.
2. To edit the icon for an existing badge/badge type, click Select and choose a new system icon, upload a file, or take a photo with your webcam.
3. Select or deselect the District-Wide check box as needed (for users with the "Edit District-wide badges" profile permission).
If the District-Wide check box is deselected and teachers from other schools have already created and awarded badges associated with this badge type, the awarded badges and badge history will be unaffected and the teacher's associated badge can still be awarded, but the badge type will be blank on the teacher's Configure Positive Behaviors screen. The teacher can select a different badge type for the badge.
4. Select or deselect the Include on Portal check box as needed.
5. Select or deselect the Push Notification check box as needed.
6. Enter a Start Year and/or End Year to restrict when a badge can be awarded to students.
7. Enter a Min Award and/or Max Award to restrict the minimum and/or maximum number of badges that can be awarded for the badge/badge type per student.
8. Enter a value for User Increments to require the user to click Save after awarding the specified number of badges to a student before they are able to add more to the student, up to the Max Award amount.
For example, the Max Award for a specific badge/badge type is set to 10. The User Increments field is set to 5. A user can only add 5 of those specific badges to the student before they are required to click the Save button. The user can then add 5 more to the student until the maximum of 10 is reached.
9. Click Save.
It is recommended to set the End Year on a badge rather than delete it if it has been awarded to students. See Editing a Badge/Badge Type.
When a badge/badge type is deleted, it can no longer be awarded to students. Teacher-created badges linked to a deleted badge type are also deleted. Deleted badges that have been earned by students still display in the student's earned totals and History detail in Positive Behavior Awards.
1. Click the red minus sign next to the badge/badge title to delete.
2. In the confirmation message, click OK.
The row is grayed out to indicate it will be deleted.
3. Click Save to complete deletion.
