Options for Entering Course Requests

Focus offers multiple options to enter course requests for the new school year.

Options for Entering Course Requests

Scheduling teams have multiple options for entering student requests:

  • Create and run Automatic Course Requests (ACRs) to mass add requests 
  • Manually Mass Add Requests (one-time feature)
  • Enter requests student-by-student
  • Teachers enter requests for scheduled students
  • Students enter requests (can also enable the option for Teachers to Approve those student requests)
Setup Requirements

There are system preferences related to Automatic Course Requests (ACRs), which dictate whether students and teachers can enter requests, and whether teachers can approve course requests. System preferences for teachers must be enabled in the current school year, while preferences for students must be set up in the new school year. Once configured, the course selections can seamlessly transition from one school year to the next and can be modified as needed.

System Preferences Setup in the Current Year

1. Go to the Setup menu and select System Preferences.

2. Select the Default School Preferences tab, then select the Scheduling tab.

3. Enter the date that students can start entering requests in the Allow students to enter course requests starting text box.

Most district also elect to enable this setting in the new/next school year.

4. If students will be entering requests, select the Teachers approve course requests check box.

5. If ACRs are used, select the Allow teachers to override automatic course requests check box.

6. In the Maximum Number of Next-Year Teacher Schedule Requests text box, enter a value of 2 or greater.

7. Click Save.

System Preferences Setup in the New Year

1. Select the new school year from the School Year pull-down in the header.

2. Go to the Setup menu and select System Preferences.

3. Select the Default School Preferences tab, then select the Scheduling tab.

4. Enter the date that students can start entering requests in the Allow students to enter course requests starting text box.

Most district also elect to enable this setting in the new/next school year.

5. Select the Prevent students from requesting courses in core subjects already requested by an admin/teacher check box to prevent students from requesting core subject courses that have already been requested by a teacher or admin profile.

6. Click Save.

Profile Permissions enabled in the Current Year (Students)

1. Go to the Users menu, and select Profiles.

2. From the Permission Type pull-down, select Menu.

3. Select Student from the Role pull-down.

4. Select the applicable Student profile from the Profiles pull-down.

5. Click the My Information tab, the select the View check box for Class Requests.

6. Click Save.

Profile Permissions enabled in the Current Year (Teachers)

1. Go to the Users menu, and select Profiles.

2. From the Permission Type pull-down, select Menu.

3. Select Teacher from the Role pull-down.

4. Select the applicable teacher profiles from the Profiles pull-down.

5. Click the Scheduling tab, the select the View check box for Next-Year Schedule Requests.

6. Click Save.

Profile Permissions enabled in the Current Year (Admin)

1. Go to the Users menu, and select Profiles.

2. From the Permission Type pull-down, select Menu.

3. Select Admin from the Role pull-down.

4. Select the applicable administrative profiles from the Profiles pull-down.

5. Click the Scheduling tab, the select the View and/or View and Edit check box(es) for Teacher Next-Year Schedule Request Completion.

6. Click Save.

Setup Courses from the Master Schedule Report in the New Year

1. Go to the Scheduling menu, and select the Master Schedule Report.

2. Select the Courses tab.

3. Select the Allow Students to Request This Course check box for all applicable subjects/courses.

Master Schedule Report

4. To filter the courses displayed, click Filters.

a. Enter the applicable filtering data, such as a Title; for example, "hist" and "prep."

Master Schedule Report

5. To select the Allow Students to Request This Course check box for all displayed courses, click Mass Update.

a. Select Allow Students to Request from the Column pull-down.

b. Select the Value check box to mark the column as selected.

c. Click Update.

Master Schedule Report

6. Follow the steps above to Filter for specific subjects or courses and individually select or Mass Update the Allow Teachers to Request This Course check box.

a. If teachers will be able to request courses outside of the graduation subject that they teach, the Request Subjects must be selected from the corresponding pull-down.

7. The current graduation subject(s) and the outside graduation subjects must both be selected.

Master Schedule Report

If teachers will be approving student course requests, Allow Teachers to Approve Requests can be enabled here as well.

Alternate: Setup From Courses and Sections in the New Year

1. Go to the Scheduling menu, and select Courses & Sections.

2. Select the applicable Course to allow teachers to make requests.

3. Select the Allow Teachers to Request This Course check box.

4. To allow teachers in specific graduation subject areas to request a specific course, select the Grad Subject area(s) from the Requests Subject pull-down.

5. Click Save.

Courses & Sections
Creating and Running Automatic Course Requests

Courses can be mass added to a specific group of students by the district or individual schools via the ACR feature. Automatic Course Requests can be rolled from one school year to the next for all schools or for individual schools. 

From the Scheduling menu, select Automatic Course Requests.

District users will see two options on the Automatic Course Requests screen for running ACRs on the District Requests tab:

  • Run Course Requests for Current School
  • Run Course Requests for All Schools

School-based users, dependent upon district preferences, may see Run Course Requests for both the District Requests tab and the School Requests tab.

Adding a District Course Request

The ability to add and edit district course requests is controlled by the Edit permission for "Allow District Access" under Automatic Course Requests in Users > Profiles.

1. In the Scheduling menu, click Automatic Course Requests.

Focus remembers the last tab you had open on the Automatic Course Requests screen and that tab is displayed by default.

2. Click the District Requests tab if not already opened.

3. Enter a Title for the course request in the blank row.

4. Click the Search Terms field.

5. In the pop-up window, enter search criteria to locate the students who will be given this course request. For example, if students enrolled in English 1 Honors last year will be given a course request for English 2 Honors, click the Scheduling category and select English 1 Honors in the Scheduled into Course(s) Last Year field.

6. Once the search terms are entered, click Set Search Terms.

The search terms entered are displayed in the Search Terms field.

7. Select the Courses to request. One or multiple courses can be selected.

8. Enter a number for the Priority. When multiple course requests are run at the same time, the priority determines the order in which they are run. A request with a 1 will run before a request with a 2, and so on.

9. When finished entering the course request information, press Enter.

The course request is added to the table and is auto-saved. A new, blank row is displayed at the bottom of the table for adding additional course requests.

Adding a School Course Request

1. In the Scheduling menu, click Automatic Course Requests.

Focus remembers the last tab you had open on the Automatic Course Requests screen and that tab is displayed by default.

2. Click the School Requests tab if not already opened.

Depending on your profile permissions, you might only have access to the School Requests tab, in which case it will be displayed by default.

3. Enter a Title for the course request in the blank row.

4. Click the Search Terms field.

5 In the pop-up window, enter search criteria to locate the students who will be given this course request. For example, if students enrolled in Spanish 1 last year will be given a course request for Spanish 2, click the Scheduling category and select Spanish 1 in the Scheduled into Course(s) Last Year field.

6. Once the search terms are entered, click Set Search Terms.

The search terms entered are displayed in the Search Terms field.

7. Select the Courses to request. One or multiple courses can be selected.

8. In the Run nightly for students without requests pull-down, select Yes to run this automatic course request nightly for students who do not have any course requests. Select No if you do not want to run this request nightly.

9. Enter a number for the Priority. When multiple course requests are run at the same time, the priority determines the order in which they are run. A request with a 1 will run before a request with a 2, and so on.

10. When finished entering the course request information, press Enter.

The course request is added to the table and is auto-saved. A new, blank row is displayed at the bottom of the table for adding additional course requests.

Running District Course Requests

The ability to run district course requests is controlled by the View permission for "Allow District Access" under Automatic Course Requests in Users > Profiles. This allows district or school users to run district course requests for the schools they have permissions to. The ability to run district course requests for all schools is controlled by the View permission for "Allow All Schools Request Access" under Automatic Course Requests in Users > Profiles.

1. In the Scheduling menu, click Automatic Course Requests.

2. In the District Reports tab, select the course requests you want to run by selecting the check box to the left of the request. One or multiple can be selected. To select all course requests in the list, select the check box in the column header.

3. Select Only run for students without requests if you only want to run course requests for students who do not have any course requests.

4. Enter a date in the date field to run the selected ACR(s) for students without requests as of the entered date.

Entering a date is useful when a student may qualify for more than one ACR. When the first ACR runs, the student receives the request since the student did not have any previous requests. When the second ACR runs with no date provided, the student would not receive the subsequent requests since the student had requests entered by the first ACR. Entering a date in the past allows the student to receive all the ACRs he or she qualifies for.

5. To run course requests for the current school only, click Run Course Requests for Current School. To run course requests for all schools in the district, click Run Course Requests for All Schools.

A pop-up window is displayed indicating the number of students who had requests entered for each course and the list of students. It will also indicate if the course does not exist for a school. The pop-up may contain a pull-down to select the specific course request that will be added to students for each applicable school.

6. To delete the requests for students, select the check box next to each student, or select the check box in the column header to select all students in the list.

7. Click Delete Selected Requests.

8. To select the specific course request that will be added for students at certain schools, select the course in the pull-down beneath the school name and click Complete when finished.

Running School Course Requests

1. In the Scheduling menu, click Automatic Course Requests.

2. Click the School Requests tab.

3. Select the course requests you want to run by selecting the check box to the left of the request. One or multiple can be selected. To select all course requests in the list, select the check box in the column header.

4. Select Only run for students without requests if you only want to run course requests for students who do not have any course requests.

5. Enter a date in the date field to run the selected ACR(s) for students without requests as of the entered date.

Entering a date is useful when a student may qualify for more than one ACR. When the first ACR runs, the student receives the request since the student did not have any previous requests. When the second ACR runs with no date provided, the student would not receive the subsequent requests since the student had requests entered by the first ACR. Entering a date in the past allows the student to receive all the ACRs he or she qualifies for.

6. Click Run Course Requests.

A pop-up window is displayed indicating the number of students who had requests entered for each course and the list of students.

7. To delete the requests for students, select the check box next to each student, or select the check box in the column header to select all students in the list.

8. Click Delete Selected Requests.

Mass Adding Requests to a Group of Students

The Mass Requests screen is used to mass add course requests to a group of students. You can search for students using a variety of criteria. For example, you can search for students who were scheduled into English 1 Honors last year and add a request for English 2 Honors.

Mass Requests is used for a one-time instance only and cannot be saved. To save a particular scenario, use the Automatic Course Requests feature.

1. In the Scheduling menu, click Mass Requests.

Be sure the school year selected at the top-right corner of the screen is the year that you are scheduling requests, i.e. the next school year.

2. On the Search Screen, click More Search Options to search for the group of students.

3. Click a category in the pull-down, and then click the field to search by.

In this example, the Scheduling category was clicked, followed by the Scheduled into Course(s) field.

Mass Add Course

4. Once the search field is added, set the search criteria.

In this example, the search will look for students scheduled into English 1 Honors last year.

Mass Add Course

5. Continue adding additional search criteria as needed.

If you have a spreadsheet that includes student IDs, the student IDs can be copied from the spreadsheet and pasted into the Student Search field.

6. When finished entering the search criteria, click Search.

7. At the top of the screen, click the Choose Course link.

8. In the pop-up window, click the subject and course to request.  

The selected course is displayed next to Request(s) to Add at the top of the screen.

9. Click the Choose more Courses link to add more course requests if needed.

For parent/child linked courses, only the parent course needs to be selected. Students will be scheduled into the parent and child sections once the Scheduler is run.

10. If the wrong course was selected, click the red X next to the course.

11. Select the Inclusion check box if all the students from the search criteria need to be scheduled into an inclusion section as well as the primary section of the course.

When the students are scheduled, the system will look for sections that were set up with an inclusion section in Courses & Sections, and will only schedule the students into the section that has an inclusion section attached. If there are no inclusion sections attached to primary sections, the students will not be scheduled into the course.

Be careful that you only select the students in the list that need both the inclusion section and the primary section of the course. You will need to do a separate search and mass request for students who do not need inclusion.

12. If applicable, enter the Elective Priority.

Entering a 1 ensures the elective is scheduled at the same level as core courses. Electives with a 2 or higher will only be scheduled if the course with an elective priority of 1 is not scheduled. Leaving the elective priority blank indicates the course is a core or non-elective course, but if this is left blank, then alternative requests will not be looked at.

13. If applicable, select teacher and period restrictions in the With and Without Teacher and Period pull-downs.

Restrictions can only be set if sections have already been created for the new school year.

14. Scroll down to the student list. Select the check box next to each student for which this request will be added. To select all students in the list, select the check box in the column header.

15. Click Add Request(s) to Selected Students at the top of the screen.

A green check mark and confirmation message is displayed, indicating the course request has been added to the selected students.

Dropping Requests from a Group of Students

If you are adding a new request to replace the course request you are dropping for the group of students, be sure to add the new request first, and then drop the course request that is not needed. If you drop the course request first, you have lost the ability to search for the group of students using the Requested Course(s) search option.

1. In the Scheduling menu, click Mass Requests.

Be sure the school year selected at the top-right corner of the screen is the year that you are scheduling requests, i.e. the next school year.

2. On the Search Screen, click More Search Options to search for the group of students.

3. Click a category in the pull-down, and then click the field to search by.

In this example, the Scheduling category was clicked, followed by the Requested Course(s) field.

Mass Add Course

4. Once the search field is added, set the search criteria.

For example, to drop the course request for English 2 Honors for students who have this course request, ENG HON 2 was selected as the course.

Mass Add Course

5. Continue adding additional search criteria as needed.

If you have a spreadsheet that includes student IDs, the student IDs can be copied from the spreadsheet and pasted into the Student Search field.

6. When finished entering the search criteria, click Search.

Mass Requests

7. At the top of the screen, click the Choose Course link.

8. In the pop-up window, click the subject and course to drop from the students' requests.  

The selected course is displayed next to Request(s) to Add at the top of the screen.

9. Scroll down to the student list. Select the check box next to each student to drop this request. To select all students in the list, select the check box in the column header.

10. Click Drop Request(s) to Selected Students at the top of the screen.

A green check mark and confirmation message is displayed, indicating the course request has been dropped from the selected students.

Adding Requests Using the Quick List

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.

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/Elective Priority 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.

5. For electives, enter the Elective Priority.

Entering a 1 ensure the elective is scheduled at the same level as core courses. Electives with a 2 or higher will only be scheduled if the course with an elective priority of 1 is not scheduled. Leaving the elective priority blank indicates the course is a core or non-elective course, but if this is left blank, then alternative requests will not be looked at.

6. To enter an additional elective course request beyond the spaces provided, click the green plus icon and enter the additional requests.

Some schools will have an Elective category with only one pull-down available, but multiple courses can be selected in the pull-down. Once the requests are saved, the elective priority can be added at the top of the screen.

7. Once the course selections have been made, click Save.

The course requests are added to the table at the top of the screen.

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.

Adding Requests at the Top of the Student Requests Screen

Course requests can be entered directly in the table at the top of the screen.

1. In the Scheduling menu, click Student Requests.

2. In the Search Screen, enter search criteria to locate the student and click Search.

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/Elective Priority column.

4. In the blank row at the top of the table, select the Course.

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:

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.

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."

Elective Priority: Enter the elective priority for the request for elective courses. Entering a 1 ensures the elective is scheduled at the same level as core courses. Electives with a 2 or higher will only be scheduled if the course with an elective priority of 1 is not scheduled. Leaving the elective priority blank indicates the course is a core course or an elective course where you do not want an alternative to be scheduled, but if this is left blank, then alternative requests will not be looked at.

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.

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 when finished.

The request is added to the list and is auto-saved.

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.

Setting Elective Priorities

Elective Priorities allow schedulers to add a numerical value to electives to indicate if and in which order an alternate elective should replace an elective that was unable to be scheduled. Elective Priorities should only be used:

  • If the school scheduler wants the system to look for and schedule an alternate for a selected elective course
  • If the school scheduler just wants to indicate alternates, but not have them to schedule

Listing multiple elective alternates in excess of what is needed for the student to have a full schedule, without entering priorities, will inflate the demand for those courses. This will lead to inaccurate Builder Reports, which are used to determine the number of sections needed for a course.

Example: Student needs 2 electives to have a full schedule:

  • Spanish should not be replaced by alternates, so there is no Elective Priority entered
  • Culinary Arts is needed but the 1 indicates it can be replaced by an alternate
  • Pers, Car will be the first alternate considered to replace Culinary Arts if it can’t schedule
  • 2-D Art would be the second alternate considered if Pers, Car couldn’t schedule
Students Enter Requests

The courses available for students to request is based on the courses the district/school has enabled by selection of the Allow Students to Request This Course check box, set prerequisites, and set grade level(s) required.

1. In the current year, from the Students menu, select Student Info, and search for the applicable student. You can also select a student from the Select Student/Staff pull-down in the header.

2. From the Student Info screen, while viewing the student's record, click the Log In as icon.

3. From the Student Portal, click Class Requests in the menu.

4. Click Switch to 20XX-20XX school year to enter course requests for the next school year.

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 edit and delete their own requests; they cannot modify requests added by an administrator. 

If the student tries to enter a request to which they don’t have access, already took, or don’t meet the prerequisites set, they will receive an error and won’t be able to add the course. A manual override is available to admins.

Class Requests - Google Chrome

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.

5. To enter requests using the Quick List, select a course from the pull-down next to the graduation requirement.

Class Requests - Google Chrome

6. For electives, enter the Elective Priority in the field next to the course pull-down.

A priority of 1 ensures the elective is scheduled at the same level as courses without a number. A priority of 2 or higher will only be scheduled if a course with an elective priority of 1 could not be scheduled. Leaving the priority blank indicates that this is a core or non-elective course. If this is left blank, than alternative requests will not be looked at by the system. 

7. If an additional elective needs to be requested beyond the three spaces provided, click the green plus icon.

Class Requests - Google Chrome

8. Select the course from the pull-down and enter the Elective Priority.

Class Requests - Google Chrome

9. 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.

10. Click Cancel to close the message, and then change the request that caused the error. Click Save.

Class Requests - Google Chrome

Once there are no errors, the requests are added to the table at the top of the screen.

Class Requests - Google Chrome

11. To add requests to the table at the top of the screen, select the Course to request in the blank row.

12. For electives, enter the Elective Priority.

Class Requests - Google Chrome

13. Press Enter to add the request.

14. To modify a request entered by the student, select a different Course or change the Elective Priority. The rest of the fields cannot be edited by the student.

15. To delete a request entered by the student, click the red minus sign next to the course.

Class Requests - Google Chrome

a. In the confirmation message, click OK.

Class Requests - Google Chrome

16. To delete multiple requests, select the check box next to each request to delete.

Class Requests - Google Chrome

17. Click Delete Selected Requests at the top-right corner of the screen.

Class Requests - Google Chrome

a. In the confirmation message, click OK.

Info for Prerequisites:  

Focus will review a student’s grade history and schedule to determine prerequisite requirements when the student is entering a request:

  • If the student is currently enrolled in the prerequisite course, Focus will assume the student will pass the course and meet the prerequisite without a grade history record present. The student will be able to enter the request.
  • For a grade record to meet the prerequisite, the student must have earned credit (the credits earned cannot be 0) and the grade record must be flagged for Course History.
  • If the District uses extra characters on course numbers, Focus will match the course numbers exactly when comparing schedule and grade records. BUT if the prerequisite uses a 7-digit number and the course requested uses an extra character, Focus will only match on the first 7 digits and may allow the request.
Teachers Approve Student-Entered Requests

If your school allows teachers to approve the course requests that their current students have entered for the next school year, the Student Requests screen is used to view the students' course requests and approve or not approve them. You will receive a Portal alert when there are student course requests awaiting your approval. You will only be able to view and approve course requests that are within the graduation subject that you teach. When the scheduling team at your school reviews student course requests, there will be an indication that you approved or did not approve the course requests.

1. To access the Student Requests screen, click the schedule requests Portal alert.

Alternatively, in the menu, click Students. Then click Requests.

The Student Requests screen displays any course requests that you have not yet reviewed. The student's name, student ID, and the current class they are scheduled in is displayed. The Course Name column displays the name of the course the student requested for the next school year.

2. To approve or not approve a course request for an individual student, select Approved or Not Approved in the Status column.

The selection is auto-saved.

3. To approve all course requests in the list, click Approve All Requests at the top of the screen.

The Status column updates to Approved for all course requests in the list. The selections are auto-saved.

To view the student's current grades in your class, click the i icon next to the student's name. A pop-up window will open with an overview of the student's Gradebook grades for your class.

Student Requests

4. Once you navigate away from the Student Requests screen, the reviewed course requests are hidden from the screen. To view previously reviewed course requests, click View Reviewed Requests.

The previously reviewed course requests are displayed, and can be modified if needed.

Teachers Enter Student Requests

This option allows teachers to make requests for the student, and the district may also opt to allow teachers to make requests for courses outside the teacher’s graduation subject area.

1. In the current year, from the Users menu, select Next-Year Schedule Requests under the Teacher Programs submenu.

2. To search for a specific teacher, enter the teacher's information in the User text box and click Search. Then, click the teacher's name in the User column.

3. Select the applicable section from the class section pull-down.

4. For each student, select a course request from the Course pull-down.

5. Click Save when done. Repeat for all class sections.

Next-Year Schedule Requests

If the teacher selects a course that has already been requested by the scheduling team, the teacher will not be able to save their choice.

If ACRs have been used to push out requests, teachers cannot override ACR requests unless the applicable System Preference has been enabled.

Teacher Next-Year Schedule Requests Completion Report

If your school allows teachers to enter course requests for their students for the subject area that they teach, the Teacher Next-Year Schedule Request Completion report is used to view the teachers who have not entered requests for their students for the next school year. You can enter course requests on the teacher's behalf.

1. Go to the Scheduling menu and select Teacher Next-Year Schedule Request Completion.

The report lists teachers who have not entered requests. An X in a period column indicates the teacher did not enter requests for some or all of their students in that period.

2. Click an X to open the Next-Year Schedule Requests teacher program in a pop-up window, where you can enter requests on behalf of the teacher.

The section taught in the period that you clicked is automatically displayed. You can change the section at the top of the screen, if needed. If the teacher has entered some requests already, the course request will display next to the student.

3. Next to each student in the list, select the Course to request for the student.

4. When finished, click Save and close the pop-up window.

Requests Reports

Request Reports offer useful tools for monitoring and cleaning up student requests. There are six reports provided. This document will review 4 of the 6 reports.

Requests by Course

The Requests by Course Reports allows the scheduler to view each subject by course and the types of requests (Total, # of Alternates, # of Inclusion, totals by grade level) for each course. This is helpful to determine that requests were accurately entered, especially if pushed out by ACRs.

1. The Requests by Course tab is selected by default.

2. Click on an underlined number of requests to open a list of students with that request in a new tab.

3. Click a student's name in the new tab to view and edit the student's requests. 

4. Click the course link to view the course information in the Courses & Sections screen, which will open in a new tab.

Duplicate Requests

The Duplicate Requests Report displays students that have more than one request for the same course. This may be ok in certain situations.

1. Click the Duplicate Requests tab.

2. To edit a student's requests, click the student's name. 

The Student Requests screen is opened in a new tab. Make any edits as needed, and close the tab when finished.

3. To delete the duplicate requests for all students in the list, click Delete All the Duplicate Requests at the top-right corner of the screen. 

Be sure you wish to delete all the duplicate requests in the list, as in some cases duplicate requests are okay.

Students with too many Requests

The Students with too many Requests report displays students with more requests than allowed based on the number of semesters and periods scheduled in a school day (periods are selected at the top of the report). Requests with a priority of 2 or higher are not included in the totals since they are alternate requests.

1. Click the Student with too many Requests tab.

2. On the Search Screen, enter search criteria to locate the students you want to view and click Search. To view all students who have too many requests, click Search without entering any search criteria.

The Periods in the School Day at the top of the screen come from the periods set up in Setup > Periods. The periods that are marked as Required for Scheduling in the period setup will be automatically selected by default in Students with too many Requests. Deselect any periods not used for complete scheduling. The report displays the student name, student ID, grade level, number of requests, and number of credits. The system counts requests in the following manner:

  • If sections are created for a course requested as full year, the system counts the request as 1
  • If sections are created for a course requested as a semester, the system counts the request as 0.5
  • If sections are created for a course requested as a quarter, the system counts the request as a 0.25
  • If no sections are built for a course, the system looks at the Course Length field set on the course. If the Course Length is set to Automatic, the system will look to the "Default Course Length" system preference.

3. To edit a student's requests, click the student's name.

The Student Requests screen is opened in a new tab. Make any edits as needed, and close the tab when finished.

Students with too few Requests

The Students with too few Requests report displays students with fewer requests than needed based on the number of semesters and periods scheduled in a school day (periods are selected at the top of the report). Requests with a priority of 2 or higher are not included in the totals since they are alternate requests.

Individual students can be hidden on the report. This may be useful if certain students (such as juniors and seniors) do not need to have requests for all periods. This is controlled by the permission “Allow User to Dismiss Students on Requests Reports” in Users > Profiles.

1. Click the Students with too few Requests tab.

2. On the Search Screen, enter search criteria to locate the students you want to view and click Search. To view all students who have too few requests, click Search without entering any search criteria.

The Periods in the School Day at the top of the screen come from the periods set up in Setup > Periods. The periods that are marked as Required for Scheduling in the period setup will be automatically selected by default in Students with too few Requests. Deselect any periods not used for complete scheduling. The report displays the student name, grade level, student ID, number of requests, and number of credits. The system counts requests in the following manner:

  • If sections are created for a course requested as full year, the system counts the request as 1.
  • If sections are created for a course requested as a semester, the system counts the request as 0.5.
  • If sections are created for a course requested as a quarter, the system counts the request as a 0.25.
  • If no sections are built for a course, the system looks at the Course Length field set on the course. If the Course Length is set to Automatic, the system will look to the "Default Course Length" system preference.

3. If you have the profile permission “Allow User to Dismiss Students on Requests Reports,” you can hide students on the report by selecting the Dismiss Student check box next to each applicable student and clicking Save Dismissed Students.

Requests Reports

The selected students are hidden on the report. The total number of students with too few requests indicated above the report will not change since the students are not permanently removed from the report, just hidden.

4. To re-display the students that were hidden, click Show Dismissed Students.

Requests Reports

The dismissed students are re-displayed on the report.

5. Click Hide Dismissed Students to hide the dismissed students again.

6. To edit a student's requests, click the student's name.

The Student Requests screen is opened in a new tab. Make any edits as needed, and close the tab when finished.

Printing Requests by Student

The Print Requests by Student tab is used to print student requests sheets for individual students or for a group of students.

1. Click the Print Requests by Student tab.

2. In the Search Screen, enter search criteria to locate the student or group of students and click Download Requests Sheets

A PDF preview of the requests sheets is displayed, which can be saved to your computer or printed. 

Students with zero requests will have a requests sheet printed.

3. Click Return to Focus to go back to the Requests Reports screen.

Printing Requests by Course

The Print Requests by Course tab is used to print a list of students who have requested specific subjects or courses.

1. Click the Print Requests by Course tab.

2. To print a list of students who have requested certain subjects, select the Subjects.

3. To print a list of students who have requested certain courses, select the Courses.

4. Select the Format. Selecting PDF will generate a PDF that can be saved to your computer or printed. Selecting List will display a list of the students that can be exported.

5. To limit the results by team, select the Team.

6. Select a Letterhead Template, if one is set up for printing requests.

7. To limit the results to a specific student group, select the Student Group.

8. Select Include Inactive Students, if desired.

9. Click Download Class Lists.

The PDF or list is generated.

10. Click Return to Focus when finished.

Example PDF:

Example List:

Requests Reports - Google Chrome