The new alternate course requests feature allows up to three alternates to be designated for each course request, including non-elective courses. This feature is enabled using the system preference "Use new Alternate Student Course Requests (Permanent once enabled)" in Setup > System Preferences > Default School Preferences/School Preferences > Scheduling tab. Enabling this preference is permanent; this preference cannot be disabled once it is enabled.
See Alternate Course Requests for an overview video of this new feature.
If you import requests from outside of Focus, and you are sending the elective priority number, you cannot enable the alternate student course requests feature in Focus until you have changed the import format to meet the new alternates setup.
The system preference "Use new Alternate Student Course Requests (Permanent once enabled)" in Setup > System Preferences > Default School Preferences/School Preferences > Scheduling tab also enables the Alternate Course 1, Alternate Course 2, and Alternate Course 3 fields in Courses & Sections and the Master Schedule Report. These fields allow global alternates to be designated for the course. When attempting to schedule the student via the Scheduler or Auto-Schedule, the system will first consider the individual student's alternate requests as set in Student Requests. If the student's alternate requests cannot be fulfilled, the system will look to the alternate requests set on the course.
As of version 12.0.71, the legacy requests functionality is removed, and the alternate course requests functionality is enabled for all customers.
The Quick List is organized by graduation subject (if graduation subjects are set up by the district), and allows you to quickly add requests for each requirement and select multiple choices. If progression plans are set up, then the student's assigned progression plan drives the courses available for selection.
1. In the Scheduling menu, click Student Requests.
2. In the Search Screen, enter search criteria to locate the student and click Search.
See Searching for Students for detailed instructions on the various ways to search for students.
3. In the search results, click the student's name.
Any requests already entered by the student, teacher, or administrator are listed at the top of the screen. In the Add a Request: Quick List section of the screen, any requirements that already have requests entered will have a green check in the Course(s) column.
If grade levels have been set on courses, only courses available to the student's grade level are available for selection. To add requests regardless of the grade levels set on the course, select the Courses for All Grade Levels check box at the top-right corner of the screen.
4. To add a request for a subject area, select the course from the pull-down. One or multiple courses can be selected.
To quickly locate a course in the list, begin typing the course name or number in the Filter field at the top of the pull-down. Matching courses will display in the list for selection.
5. Once the course selections have been made, click Save.
The course requests are added to the table at the top of the screen. You can now designate alternate course requests, select Inclusion, designate with or without a specific teacher, and more. See Adding Requests at the Top of the Screen for more information on using these options.
6. Click Save at the top of the screen to save the requests.
If a course is requested that a student is currently taking or has already taken, or has already been requested, a warning message will display stating that there is a conflict with the chosen course. You can continue to add the request if the student has to repeat the course or if it is a course the student can take for multiple periods/credits (e.g. OJT or study hall), or you can cancel the request.
If you have requested a course in any of the core subject groups (Math, Science, Social Studies, or English) on the behalf of a student, the student cannot request a course in the same subject group. If the student tries to request a course in the same subject group via the Student Portal, he/she will receive an error message.
Course requests can be entered directly in the table at the top of the screen. You can also designate alternate requests, set the Inclusion option, designate with or without a specific teacher or period, and other options.
1. In the Scheduling menu, click Student Requests.
2. In the Search Screen, enter search criteria to locate the student and click Search.
See Searching for Students for detailed instructions on the various ways to search for students.
3. In the search results, click the student's name.
Any requests already entered by the student, teacher, or administrator are listed at the top of the screen. In the Add a Request: Quick List section of the screen, any requirements that already have requests entered will have a green check in the Course(s) column.
4. In the blank row at the top of the table, select the Course.
To quickly locate a course in the list, begin typing the course name or number in the Filter field at the top of the pull-down. Matching courses will display in the list for selection.
The Course # will auto-populate based on the selected course.
If a course is requested that a student is currently taking or has already taken, or has already been requested, a warning message will display stating that there is a conflict with the chosen course. You can continue to add the request if the student has to repeat the course or if it is a course the student can take for multiple periods/credits (e.g. OJT or study hall), or you can cancel the request.
If you have requested a course in any of the core subject groups (Math, Science, Social Studies, or English) on the behalf of a student, the student cannot request a course in the same subject group. If the student tries to request a course in the same subject group via the Student Portal, he/she will receive an error message.
5. Enter the rest of the fields as needed:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Credits | This is a read-only field. The credits for the course will auto-populate after adding the request if defined in the Course Catalog. Florida: If there is a value in the Total Credit column in the Course Catalog for that school year, that value will display. If there is no value in the Total Credit column, then the value in the Credits per Course column will display (which pulls from the Course Code Directory for that school year). If there is no value in either the Total Credit column or the Credits per Course column, and there are no records for that school year in the Course Code Directory, then it will look to the Course Code Directory of the previous school year for a value. If there is no value found anywhere listed, then the request will display as 0 credits. Texas: If there is a value in the Total Credit column in the Course Catalog for that school year, that value will display. If there is no value in the Total Credit column, then the value in the C022 for that school year will display. If there is no value in either the Total Credit column or the C022 for that course, and there are no records in the C022 for that school year, then it will look to the C022 of the previous year for a value. If there are no values found anywhere listed above, then that request will display as 0 credits. Other states: It will only refer to the column Total Credit in the Course Catalog. If there is a value for that course in that school year, it will display that value next to the student request record. If there is no value, then the request will display as 0 credits. |
| Schedule First | Select the check box if the Scheduler should attempt to schedule this request first before all other requests not marked as “Schedule First." |
| Don’t Schedule | Select the check box if the Scheduler should not schedule this course request. |
| Term | If a student will not be enrolled for the full length of the course, select the Term. For example, this may be used if the student only needs one semester of a full year course. |
| Inclusion | Select the Inclusion check box if the student needs to be scheduled into an inclusion section as well as the primary section. When the student is scheduled, the system will look for sections that were set up with an inclusion section in Courses & Sections, and will only schedule the student into the section with an inclusion section attached. If there are no inclusion sections attached to the primary section, the student will not be scheduled into the course. |
| Alternate Course 1, Alternate Course 2, Alternate Course 3 | For each course request, up to three alternate course requests can be designated. If the primary course request cannot be scheduled, the system will try to schedule the Alternate Course 1. If the Alternate Course 1 cannot be scheduled, the system will try to schedule the Alternate Course 2, and so on. Note: When this feature is enabled, any previously entered course requests that were using the Elective Priority column will be migrated to use this new format. For example, if there was a course request with an Elective Priority of 1, another with an Elective Priority of 2, and another with an Elective Priority of 3, the course request with the Elective Priority of 1 will become the primary course request, with the Elective Priority 2 course displaying in the Alternate Course 1 field and the Elective Priority 3 course displaying in the Alternate Course 2 column. |
| With Teacher, Without Teacher | If the student should be scheduled with or without a certain teacher, make the appropriate selections. Selections can only be made if sections have been created. |
| With Period, Without Period | If the student prefers to take the course during or not during a specific period of the day, make the appropriate selections. Selections can only be made if sections have been created. Note: Invalid period options will display with an asterisk. For example, if a request was entered for a student with Period 3 selected in the With Period column, and later on the period 3 section was moved to a different period making period 3 no longer a valid option, *Period 3 will display in the With Period column for that request. |
| Approved by Teacher | This is a read-only field. When using the “Teachers approve course requests” functionality, enabled by the system preference, this check box will be selected to indicate that the teacher approved the course request. If the “Teachers approve course requests” functionality is not enabled in System Preferences, this column will not display. |
| Last Modified | This is a read-only field that displays who last modified the course request, and the date and time. |
| ACR | This is a read-only field that indicates if the course request was added by the Automatic Course Requests function. |
Teacher and period restrictions can only be set on a request after sections for these courses have been built. It is advised to place as few restrictions as possible on requests.
6. Press Enter to add the row.
The request is added to the list.
7. Continue adding course requests. Click Save when finished.
Above the requests table, the number of requests and alternates are displayed. The total number of credits and units requested are also displayed. The units are calculated based on the course length set on the course: Full Year is 1 unit; Semester is .5 units, etc. The credits for each course pull from the Course Catalog:
Florida: If there is a value in the Total Credit column in the Course Catalog for that school year, that value will display. If there is no value in the Total Credit column, then the value in the Credits per Course column will display (which pulls from the Course Code Directory for that school year). If there is no value in either the Total Credit column or the Credits per Course column, and there are no records for that school year in the Course Code Directory, then it will look to the Course Code Directory of the previous school year for a value. If there is no value found anywhere listed, then the request will display as 0 credits.
Texas: If there is a value in the Total Credit column in the Course Catalog for that school year, that value will display. If there is no value in the Total Credit column, then the value in the C022 for that school year will display. If there is no value in either the Total Credit column or the C022 for that course, and there are no records in the C022 for that school year, then it will look to the C022 of the previous year for a value. If there are no values found anywhere listed above, then that request will display as 0 credits.
Other states: It will only refer to the column Total Credit in the Course Catalog. If there is a value for that course in that school year, it will display that value next to the student request record. If there is no value, then the request will display as 0 credits.
A barcode scanner can be used to add course requests. In the blank row at the top of the screen, click the Course pull-down and then scan each course number one by one. The row is automatically submitted and saved after scanning each course number.
At the top of the screen, edit any of the course request fields as needed and click Save.
1. Click the red minus sign to the left of the request.
2. In the confirmation message, click OK.
The row will be grayed out.
3. Click Save to complete deletion.
1. Select the check box next to each request to delete, or select the check box in the column header to select all the requests in the table.
2. Click Delete Selected Requests at the top of the screen.
3. In the confirmation message, click OK.
The selected rows will be grayed out.
4. Click Save to complete deletion.
The Auto-Schedule feature is used to schedule a student based on the course requests and available seats in sections.
1. Once all course requests have been entered for the student, click Auto-Schedule this Student at the top of the screen.
Focus will attempt to schedule the student based on the course requests and available seats in sections, and the resulting schedule will display. All scheduled courses display in the schedule section of the screen, and any unscheduled courses display at the bottom of the screen in the Unscheduled Requests section.
2. To manually add a section to the student's schedule for an unscheduled request, overriding the restrictions that prevented the student from being automatically scheduled, click on the request link under Search for a section to add.
3. In the pop-up window, click a section to add to the student's schedule.
The selected section is added to the student's schedule.
After the student has a schedule and you want to auto-schedule the student again, you need to delete the existing schedule first.
If students are allowed to enter their own course requests, students will do so from the Class Requests screen in the Student Portal. This procedure documents the student point of view when entering course requests.
Focus will review a student's grade history and schedule to determine prerequisite requirements.
1. If a student is entering a course request for the next year and is currently scheduled into the prerequisite course this year, Focus will assume the student will pass the course and meet the requirement. The student will not need a grade history record present.
2. For a grade record to meet the prerequisite, the student must have earned credit (i.e., the Credits Earned field cannot be 0), and the grade record must be flagged for Course History.
If the district leverages extra characters on course numbers, the system will match the course numbers exactly. For example, if the prerequisite is entered with an 8-digit course number, Focus will match the full 8-digit course number when comparing schedule and grade records. However, if the district enters a prerequisite with a 7-digit course number, Focus will only match the first 7 digits.
1. Click Class Requests.
Any requests already entered by administrative staff, teachers, or the student will be displayed in the table at the top of the screen. Requests entered by administrative staff or teachers will be locked from editing by the student.
Students can enter requests in the table at the top of the screen or by using the Quick List at the bottom of the screen. The Quick List is organized by graduation subject. If any requests have already been entered for a graduation subject, a green check mark will display next to the subject.
2. To enter requests using the Quick List, select a course from the pull-down next to the graduation requirement.
3. After entering the requests in the Quick List, click Save.
If an error is encountered, such as the prerequisites for a requested course have not been taken, a pop-up window will display with the error.
4. Click Cancel to close the message, and then change the request that caused the error. Click Save.
Once there are no errors, the requests are added to the table at the top of the screen.
5. To add alternate requests for a course, select a course in the Alternate Course 1, Alternate Course 2, and Alternate Course 3 fields.
If a primary course request cannot be scheduled, the system will attempt to schedule the Alternate Course 1. If the Alternate Course 1 cannot be scheduled, the system will attempt to schedule the Alternate Course 2, and so on.
6. Click Save to add the course requests.
7. To add requests to the table at the top of the screen, select the Course to request in the blank row.
8. Select an Alternate Request 1, Alternate Request 2, and Alternate Request 3, if desired.
9. Press Enter to add the row.
10. Continue adding additional course requests as needed. Click Save to save the course requests.
11. To modify a request entered by the student, select a different Course or change the Alternate Course 1, Alternate Course 2, or Alternate Course 3. The rest of the fields cannot be edited by the student.
12. Click Save.
13. To delete a request entered by the student, click the red minus sign next to the course.
14. In the confirmation message, click OK.
The row will be grayed out.
15. Click Save to complete deletion.
16. To delete multiple requests, select the check box next to each request to delete.
17. Click Delete Selected Requests at the top-right corner of the screen.
18. In the confirmation message, click OK.
The selected rows will be grayed out.
19. Click Save to complete deletion.
Students cannot modify or delete requests entered by administrative staff or teachers.
On the Mass Requests screen, the Elective Priority field on the Add and Replace tabs will not display. Three "Alternate Request(s) to Add" fields will display instead, allow up to three alternates to be designated. These selections will display in the Alternate Course 1, Alternate Course 2, and Alternate Course 3 fields on the Student Requests screen.
