10.0.X Back-Merges - Part 2

SIS
General

Google Classroom

Updated the error message that displays when teachers link an assignment in Focus to one already created: Google - This assignment cannot be updated from Focus. Previously, the error message read: Google - @ProjectPrmissionDenied The Developer Console project is not permitted to make this request.

Updated the error message that displays if the gradebook does not sync, which includes a new “Display Errors” link.

Updated so Focus no longer syncs categories with topics in Google Classroom. Previous functionality imported the Focus assignment category in the Google Classroom even if the Google assigned was created in a Google topic when linking assignment from Google.

Updated to prevent sending Google Classroom invitations to students that are already enrolled or have already been invited to the class. 

Updated to retrieve Google Classroom draft grades even if the grades are entered and not returned; these grades are saved as drafts when Return is not clicked.

Updated to restrict the Sign in with Google links to display domains that are associated with the teacher's school.

Updated so student daily grades automatically update after importing grades from Google Classroom.

Updated so only the marking period selected by the user from the pull-down in the top right is synced. Previously, if a teacher had assignments in two marking periods and full year or semester gradebook selected, all marking periods would be synced.

  • This change applies to the Progress Periods selected from the top right pull-down, as well, when the school uses progress periods in place of marking periods.

Added the setting “Send Categories as Google Classroom topics when syncing grades,” which allows users to synchronize Focus assignment categories to topics in Google Classroom set via Setup > System Preferences > School Preferences / Default School Preferences > Grading.

Seating Charts

Updated Attendance > Seating Charts and Students > Seating Charts so the display of student names now depends on the selection made from the “Student Name Format” pull-down via My Information > Preferences > Student Listing tab.

Added a “Text Box” feature to a new Notes section via Layout > Furniture tab.

  • Text boxes can be placed anywhere in the chart and can overlap with other items, if desired. If overlapping, text boxes appear in front of other item types. 
  • The color options available for many seating chart items are also available for text boxes. 
  • The text box item may be resized, but cannot be rotated. If a text box item is too small to fit its contents, it will attempt to wrap the text to fit, but depending on the size of the box, this option is not recommended. If the box cannot fit the text, the overflow is cut off; it is then recommended that the user make the text box larger.

Student Info / User Info

Added the ability to unlock a student or user’s account directly from Student Info and User Info when the student or user is locked out. When viewing the student or user’s record, a red lock icon will display at the top-right corner of the screen next to the Print icon when the student or user is locked out. Clicking the icon will unlock the student or user’s account.

Updated so that check box fields within logging fields can be used to search in More Search Options.

Web Pages

Updated so the “Link directly to Google Hangouts” check box is no longer selected by default.

Assessment

Standard Grades Report Cards

Added an “Effective Date,” which allows users to pull data as it pertains to specific active schedule records as of a specific date selected.

Added the ability to email standard report cards to students and contacts, in addition to printing and publishing report cards.

Updated so users without edit permissions can view and select a sorting option from the “Sort Report Cards” pull-down, which allows districts using the standards based report card to hide all other settings from users without edit permissions and still allow them to sort the report cards.

Standards

Added a “Grading Scale” pull-down to standards. If a grading scale is not selected, the current functionality remains. 

  • If a grading scale is set on a standard, the grading scale is used to grade that individual standard. 
  • If the grading scale selected for a standard is not available at the selected school, current functionality (the current grading scale) will remain intact.

Updated so standards cannot be deleted by administrative users if the standard is attached to an assignment in a teacher’s Gradebook. If an administrative user tries to delete a standard, the following warning message displays: “There are [6] grades linked to this standard. Please delete them before deleting this standard.”

Test History

Added the EOC (End of Course) Requirements summary to the top of the screen.

Attendance

Attendance Verification / Sub Rosters

Added the check box to “Print Student Alert Icons” on attendance verification sheets and/or sub rosters.

Late Check In/Early Release

Added the ability to check students in or out from the Late Check In/Early Release screen for past or future days. Previously, students could only be checked in or out for the current day.

Perfect/Excessive Attendance

Added the “Skipped Period” column to the Skip Report tab, which displays how many times the student has skipped a specific period.

Seating Charts

Updated the Link Additional Periods section when creating a new seating chart so the additional periods display the class section names.

Verification Sheets/Sub Rosters

Added the “Print Student Alert Icons” option to the Extra section of the screen so users can select whether alert icons should be printed on verification sheets. Note: The alerts printed on the sheets must first be set up via Setup > Edit Rules & Workflow > Alert Icons tab and must be enabled so teachers have permission to view them; i.e. select the applicable Teacher profiles from the Profiles pull-down.

Discipline

Referrals

Updated so that when a referral is duplicated, the custom field aliased referral_incident_id (usually custom_83) will not be duplicated if the same student as the original referral is selected.

Grades

Added the “Course Table Font Size” pull-down to the Transcripts screen, which allows users to select the font size to be used when printing transcripts.

Updated Final Grades, GPA, & Class Rank when transcripts are printed so Focus uses the “Course Table Font Size” used when printing transcripts via Grades > Transcripts if users click “Save Settings as Default” to save the font size used.

Final Grades, GPA, & Class Rank

Added the “Met Online Course Req” field to the Grades Summary report.

Updated the Detailed Report so it now includes fields set up with the “Visible on Student Grades” toggle enabled via Students > Student Fields.

Added an additional check when counting attendance to make sure the attendance records occurred between the student's enrollment and schedule start/end dates.

  • This new logic also supports the case where the student has multiple enrollment/schedule records for the same class (drop + re-enroll).
  • For example, if a student has 5 absences prior to 8/31/2020 and is enrolled as of 8/31/2020, the absences from before the student's actual enrollment are not counted in the totals on the grade summary screen.

Added a “Show Exams” check box to the Grade Summary to allow users to view exam grades. This change has also been applied to the Grades screen of the Parent / Student portal.

Updated the modal that displays when teachers are messaged or emailed from the Final Grades, GPA & Class Rank > Grades Summary screen (for administrative users), from the Grades screen and from the Grade tab of the Parent/Student Portal. The email and/or message now opens in a Send a Message or a Send an Email pop-up window depending on the users’ Messenger permissions.

  • When clicking a teacher's name, a modal appears allowing users to send an email/message to teachers. Whether you are in email mode or message mode depends on if you have Focus Messenger permissions.
  • The same modal now appears regardless of whether you are sending a Chat message or an Email.
  • The recipient is now a multi-select SwiftBox with all available recipients.
  • In Email mode (i.e. no Chat access), you can now edit your email address.
  • In Email mode as a student, you can only edit your email address if the "Remove the from email address on the portal page for Students" system preference is not enabled via Setup > System Preferences > Default School Preferences > General.
  • In Email mode, a CC text box has been added.
  • In Email mode, a "Receive a personal copy" check box has been added. Selecting the check box sends a separate copy of the email to the user's email address with "(PERSONAL COPY)" prepended to the Subject.
  • The “Display communication Options on the Parent/Student Portal” setting must be enabled in order for parents and students to message and/or email teachers via Setup > System Preferences > School Preferences / Default School Preferences > Grading.

Updated the Grades Summary so it calculates grades when NULL (no grades) has been posted and the posting window is still open.

Updated the Grades Summary so when users select the Group By Course check box to group by course numbers, Focus now displays the most recent schedule record.

Updated so the Grades Summary now pulls schedule records if the student has at least one enrollment record at the school during the applicable school year. Previously, the Grades Summary pulled grades for schedule records without verifying that said schedule records are linked to an enrollment at the school. Note: The Grades Summary report shows a combination of schedule records and student report card grades, which always display; therefore, remain unaffected by this change.

Gradebook

Removed the “Use Gradebook Grades” option for posting final grades and posting standard grades for teachers who do not have permission to use the gradebook.

Gradebook Configuration

Added a warning message that displays under the Grade Title Colors section of the screen when a teacher has no assigned sections. The message states, “Note: You must be assigned a section before changing Grade Title Colors.” 

Added the option to “Hide Assigned and Due Dates.” When enabled, students will not see the assignments and due dates in the Student Portal.

Added the option to “Show All Assignments in Student Portal.” When enabled, students can see all gradebook assignments in the Student Portal regardless of publish date, including those where the publish date is null.

Graduation Requirements Report

Added the “Met Online Course Req” field.

Updated so the report now includes fields set up with the “Visible on Student Grades” toggle enabled via Students > Student Fields.

Removed the Total Credits field that displayed above the Merit Designation Requirements when viewing the report for an individual student. 

Removed the level 3 course restriction for considering EQ Chemistry/Physics Scholar courses.

Post Final Grades

Removed the client ID restriction so that any district can specify courses to hide the grades column in their menu_include.php files. This change allows districts to hide the Grade column, which can be useful for teachers posting standards and skills.

Updated so the green confirmation of completion of grade posting only displays when the teacher has posted grades for all students in the class when the students are enrolled in different grade levels. Previously, a green confirmation displayed because 12th grade students were a part of a different marking period than the rest of the students in the class.

Added the Grade Levels(s) pull-down, which allows selecting one or multiple grade levels for which to print verification sheets.

Report Cards

Updated so the “Abbreviate Marking Periods” and “Abbreviate Other Columns” options always display. Previously, these options only displayed when “Abbreviate Column Names” was enabled.

Kiosk, Handheld Device, and Mobile App

Added the Focus PowerBI Reports functionality to the mobile app. 

  • There are currently 2 mobile app reports - PS School Snapshot Mobile Beta and School Daily Snapshot 1.2 Mobile Beta.
  • In the mobile app, tap PowerBI Reports in the hamburger menu to access the reports.
  • When using the desktop, a Mobile view/Desktop view toggle has been added to the PowerBI Reports screen. When clicking Mobile view, the report will display in the mobile format. 
  • The Mobile view tag and icon is now available in the Admin > Tags tab in the desktop PowerBI Reports screen.
  • When a report is tagged Mobile view, the report is available on the mobile app.

Added the ability for parents and students to access the Online Application or the School Choice applications from the mobile app.

  • After clicking More Info in the mobile app, parents/students with the requisite profile permissions will see a button for each of the School Choice applications. Clicking the application button will open the application. 
  • In Setup > Community App, a new “Online Application” option has been added when setting up a link. When this option is selected, the icon will link to the /apply site.
  • A warning pop-up message will display if the user tries to use the back button and there are unsaved changes in the school choice application.

Updated the mobile app to display up to 100 recent items when viewing the news tab.

Updated the web portion of the mobile app to support new changes in the app version 3.2.

  •  While the app is open and foregrounded, it now listens for incoming push notifications and displays them.
  • The app now responds while open if the user taps a received push notification, whether backgrounded or foregrounded. If tapping a notification received from Focus Messenger, the app will foreground (if in background) and then show Messenger. Notifications received from Portal Notes will foreground the app and show the News tab.
  • Translations from the My Preferences screen in Focus are now supported in the mobile app. The language can be changed for the app by changing the language within the Settings on the phone. When the user has a language selected currently supported by Focus, the app will use it; other languages cause the app to fall back to English.

Updated the mobile app to display the Terms and Conditions pop-up in the app when the system preference “Enable Terms and Conditions” is enabled and the profile has the “Enable Terms and Conditions” permission enabled.

Updated the mobile app to add the Reports tab to the Student Summary for parents and students, just as it displays on the Portal.

Updated so that the grades that display in the Courses tab of the mobile app matches the data displayed in the Grades tab on the Parent and Student Portal.

Added the following improvements to the mobile app:

  • Enlarged the header and footer to make it easier to tap the options.
  • For students, the menu now contains links to all the existing mobile app screens, as well as the new screens for Grades Summary, Purchase & Pay, and Graduation Requirements (depending on profile permissions and setup). Note: For parents, the buttons to view student-specific screens such as Grades Summary and Graduation Requirements are available when viewing the Student Summary.
  • The Graduation Requirements screen has been updated to make it more responsive and mobile-friendly.
  • For CTE schools, the attended hours are displayed in the Student Summary table instead of excused and unexcused absences. The options to select a marking period are also removed from the Student Summary.
  • When selecting a class from the Student Summary, the header now includes the display room or room for the section, if specified on the section record.
  • When a section is in session, additional information for the section is now displayed, including the room number, section title, and current attendance code. If there is an upcoming section, the section information is displayed as well. Note: This does not apply for CTE schools.

Updated the kiosk so that a QWERTY keyboard displays for entering student IDs instead of just a number pad for districts that use student IDs that contain letters (set up in the config). 

Updated the kiosk to display the current date/time at the top-right instead of the server date/time, as the server time was sometimes behind by a few minutes. The time is updated every 5 seconds. 

Updated so that when checking in or out using the kiosk or the Late Check In/Early Release screen, the Time In and Time Out columns in the Absence Summary and Administration screens are updated. Updating the Time In and Time Out columns in the Absence Summary or Administration screens will update the corresponding Entry and Release columns on the Late Check In/Early Release screen. Note: The system preference “Track Time In/Time Out on Daily Attendance” must be enabled for the Time In and Time Out columns to display on the Absence Summary and Administration screens.

Updated so that a student can check out without having to first check in when using a kiosk logging field. 

Updated to display student alert icons in the Students list and on the Student Summary screen in the mobile app.

Online Application

Updated so that when applicants click to add an additional contact on the application, the entire contact entry block opens.

Parent/Student Portal

Added a new type of Test Score Report called “IEP Progress Report” as a downloadable link to the Reports tab of the Student Information block. Note: After uploading files to the appropriate uploaded assets folder, users will need to run the Test Score Reports cron job via Setup . Scheduled Jobs to make the download links appear on the Student/Parent Portal. Example filename: EP Progress Report_Qtr4_FL123412341234.pdf

Updated so “NG” displays and is linked to the Grades screen > Grades (Assignments) on the Grades tab of the Student Information block when an empty grade is entered; previously, if an empty grade was entered, the Grade column was blank.

Added the following updates to the Check In block: In addition to the district system preference or school system preference titled “Display Check-in block on the Student Portal that allows students to mark themselves Present for the day’s sections,” the Student must have an entry in the “Instructional Method” logging filed via Students > Student Info that meet the following criteria:

  • The block now only appears if the student has an entry in the "Instructional Method" logging field that is:
    1. Not marked "In Person."
    2. The start/end dates are included today.
    3. The days of the week include today.

Updated the Check In portal block so the attendance code defaults to P (Present) if the new setting “Attendance Code for Student ‘Check In’ Block” isn’t enabled when populating attendance records via Setup > System Preferences > School Preferences/Default School Preferences > Attendance tab.

Updated the School Choice Application, Magnet Application, and Special Placement Application to display a pop-up warning message when the parent navigates away from the application after making changes and not clicking the Save button. The message states “This page is asking you to confirm that you want to leave - data you have entered may not be saved.” 

Updated so that when the custom title of a school choice application contains slashes, the title wraps properly in the menu. 

Updated the Portal so upon messaging a teacher, the parent or student must now click the "Show CC" link to display the CC field.

Added the Print icon to the footer of the Grades (Assignments) screen, which allows students and parents to print from a PDF pop-up window.

Updated the message that displays to parents when accessing available forms on the Forms Summary screen to “The district has made the following forms available for you to complete as needed to update information.” An Available Forms section now displays for each student associated with the parent, regardless of which student Forms Summary was selected for. The section is titled “Available Forms for (student_name).” When a form is clicked, the student’s name displays at the top of the page so that the parent knows which student this form is for.

Portal

Updated how Portal Messages and Events are displayed for administrators, teachers, parents, and students on the Portal. 

  • Portal messages that were set up without any schools selected will display with the subtitle “District Announcement” in the District & School Announcements Portal block.
  • Portal messages that were set up with a single school selected will display the school’s name in the subtitle.  
  • Portal messages that were set up with multiple schools selected will display without a subtitle. 
  • For administrators and teachers, only Portal messages and events for the school selected at the top-right of the screen will display. For parents, Portal messages and events across all schools their children are enrolled in will display.

Updated the “X teachers haven’t taken attendance yesterday” portal alert so it now displays based on the previous day in the school calendar as opposed to the previous day; previously, the alert did not display if “yesterday” was not a school date.

Reports

PowerBI Reports

Added an “Afternoon refresh” option to the Scheduled Refresh options. When enabled, the refresh will be marked as “'Y” in the new database column “Afternoon_Refresh.”

Added the Custom Filters tab to the Admin screen, which allows administrators to create filters with built in functions. Now filters can be applied to limit views based on the schools the user is allowed to view.

Added the new custom filters “getCurrentMarkingPeriodId” and “getCurrentSyear” to allow Gradebook Reports to be teacher specific.

SSRS Reports

Updated the “Effective Date” logic, which has been replaced by today’s date logic so reports published during the summer (between school years) display on the Student/Parent Portal.

Added an “Apply My Last Settings” button to the Generate tab available to all reports created through ssrs.config.php file. The button is not available for SSRS Reports created through District Reports. When the button is clicked, Focus applies the report settings submitted by the user the last time he/she generated a batch of the report.

Scheduling

Elementary Scheduler

Added check boxes next to each teacher’s name at the top of the screen. Deselect teachers that should not be included when optimizing student assignments. 

Added a new option “Show Alert Icons.” When enabled, alert icons will display next to student names.

Updated so that classroom total seats are accounted for. Once a classroom has the maximum number of students assigned, adding any more will result in a pop-up error. When optimizing, some students may be left over in the Unassigned column if there are not enough seats available amongst all teachers.

Updated so that the enrollment date is set to the start of the relevant school year and not the current date. 

Updated so that a grade level tab will not display if there is not at least one student or teacher associated with the grade level.

Mass Add Course

Added a “Room at Capacity” error and “Section is full” error to Mass Add Course when attempting to mass add courses to a group of students and the room is at capacity or the section seats are filled. The user cannot proceed unless they have the Student Schedule profile permissions “Allow User to Overfill Sections” or “Allow User to Overfill Rooms.”

Master Schedule Builder

Removed the Mass Update button from the Assign Teachers tab. 

Updated so that a master schedule snapshot can be automatically created when sections are first imported into the Master Schedule Builder. After clicking “Import Sections from Master Schedule” on the Courses tab, two new options display in the pop-up: “Use Snapshot” or “Overwrite Snapshot.” The first time “Use Snapshot” is selected, the system will create a new snapshot. The subsequent times “Use Snapshot” is selected, the system will use the previously created snapshot when importing sections. Selecting “Overwrite Snapshot” will create an additional snapshot. These snapshots will not be deleted by the cronjob and will display under Master Schedule Snapshots with the default description “MSB Auto Snapshot.”

Teacher Schedules Report

Added the “Co-Teachers” option to the Show pull-down. When selected, the sections the teacher is a co-teacher for will display on the report. Co-teacher sections cannot be dragged and dropped. 

Setup

Application Editor

Updated the entry of addresses and contacts on the online application to provide a more user-friendly experience to the end-user.

  • The “Contact Required” system preference is no longer needed, as the address and contact fields can be marked as required on the application.
  • Added the Address Group and Contact Group items to the Application Editor. When the “Allow Additional Addresses” check box is selected on the Address Group, the “Add New Address” button displays to the end-user on the application after saving the first address. When clicked, the user is provided additional address fields for entering another address. When the “Allow Additional Contacts” check box is selected on the Contact Group, an “Add More Contacts?” button displays to the end-user on the application. When clicked, the contact information entered by the user is saved and the user is provided additional contact fields for entering more contact information. 
  • In addition, the System Addresses and System Contacts field categories were added, which allows individual address and contact fields to be added to the application. When an address or contact field is added to the application, they are automatically displayed within the Address Group or Contact Group, and cannot be dragged out of their respective groups. Any subsequent address or contact fields that are added to the application are also included in their respective Address Group or Contact Group. No other field types can be included in the Address Group or Contact Group, except labels. Individual address or contact fields can be marked as required, marked as hidden, or given alternate text.
  • The Address Group should be added to its own page of the form, without any other groups or fields added. The Contact Group should be added to its own page of the form, without any other groups or fields added. The Address Group page should come before the Contact Group page. 
  • The Address Catalog will be used to validate addresses and provide address suggestions when the Address Catalog is enabled and the preference set to use it for validation. 
  • Added the columns “Include on Enrollment Forms” in the Contact Detail Flags and the Contact Flags tabs in Students > Address Fields. Selecting this option allows the item to be included on enrollment forms set up in the Application Editor.
  • Added the “Contact Address” select one field to the System Contacts fields on the Application Editor. Including this field in the Contact Group on the application will allow the user to select the address to associate with the contact they are adding. The pull-down will be populated with the currently saved addresses for the student. If there are unsaved addresses (in the case of re-enrollment forms that require approval), then the addresses are displayed beneath the pull-down in a list, noting to the user that “These addresses require approval.” When an address is selected and the contact is saved, that contact's record in students_join_people is updated with the corresponding address_id. Note: Ensure the Contact Group displays after the Address Group on the application. Otherwise, there will be no addresses to select from when adding the contact.

Blackboard APIs, Blackboard Transfer Logs

Added the Blackboard APIs screen, which allows Focus to integrate with Blackboard. Student and teacher enrollment information can be transferred for courses and sections in Focus and Blackboard.

Added two new scheduled jobs in Setup > Scheduled Jobs: Transfer Blackboard API Data (transfers records from Focus to Blackboard) and Load Data from Blackboard API (loads data from Blackboard to link user and course records to Focus).

Added the Blackboard Transfer Logs screen.

Edit Rules & Workflow

Added a {current_staff_id} option on the match query.

Form Builder

Added a new option “Allow editing of selection text” to the options for the Dropdown component. When the new option is enabled, a pencil icon will display next to the dropdown on the form. After the user filling out the form selects an option in the dropdown, the pencil icon will be enabled. Clicking the pencil icon will convert the dropdown into a text box where the option text can be edited. Clicking the pencil icon again will convert the text box back into a dropdown. The selected option text displays the edited value.

Updated the E-Signature component in the Form Builder (as well as the Signature fields used in the Online Application, Student Info, and User Info) so that a user can authenticate and sign as any other user, as long as they have that user’s credentials. For signature fields that require authentication, users must now authenticate first before drawing their signature. Clicking the Clear button now only clears the signature image; the credentials entered are still authenticated. 

Added the option “All Student Guardians” to the Student Field component when creating a custom header. When this field is added to a header, the header will include all the custodial guardians from Addresses & Contacts. 

Added the options “Student School Name” and “Student School Name and Number” to the Student Field component when creating a custom header.

Added “Void” option to the Form Builder to void forms submitted by students and other users. 

  • A new system preference “Enable Voiding of Forms” has been added to Setup > System Preferences > Default School Preferences or School Preferences > General tab. 
  • A new profile permission “View Voided Forms” has been added for administrator profiles under the Form Builder permissions in Users > Profiles. This permission only displays when the system preference “Enable Voiding of Forms” is enabled. Selecting this permission allows administrators to view forms that have been voided.
  • When the system preference is enabled, the Void button displays when an administrator views a form submitted by a student or other user. After clicking Void, the administrator must confirm voiding the form.

 

  • Voided forms are moved to the Voided tab.

 

  • When viewing a voided form, “VOIDED” is displayed at the top of the form. VOIDED is also displayed on the printed form.

Gradebook Comment Codes

Added Min Syear and Max Syear columns to Gradebook Comment Codes to limit when specific codes are active.

Importer

Added district_id to the following conversion queries:

  • standard_id conversion for standards_join_courses
  • standard categories conversions for standards and standards_join_courses
  • parent_id conversion for standard categories 2-4

Added the administration dates for the school year 2021-22 to both the PG and MSSQL versions of the ACT Test Parser.

Added the ability to map the PEOPLE.TITLE field when importing Student Contacts; once imported, the Title field will now be available to map from the list of fields in the pull-down, which displays the PEOPLE.TITLE column in the student contacts table when processed.

Added the school_id to the following conversion queries:

  • standard_id conversion for standards_join_courses
  • standard categories conversions for standards and standards_join_courses
  • parent_id conversion for standard categories 2-4

Added school_id to the import keys for the following tables (migration file):

  • standard_categories_1
  • standard_categories_2
  • standard_categories_3
  • standard_categories_4
  • standards

Login History

Added the “Mobile App Login” column to the Login History report. If the login was from the mobile app, the column displays “Yes.” The column could also display “App Review” if a user logged in to review the app for Apple or Google. 

  • A single mobile app login, or session of mobile app activity using the token from a previous mobile app login, now creates just one entry in the login_history table (visible on Login History report at that school).

Manage Integrations

Added a date picker to the Start Date and End Date text fields upon editing a Scheduled Execution for an integration.

Updated the PEER integration to include StaffDemographicInfo in the list of available extractions.

Portal Messages

Updated so the messages display on all portals (Admin, Student/Parent, and Teacher) in the District & School Announcements block with the published date and time (the date created), as opposed to displaying the Start Date entered and an inaccurate time stamp.

Updated so multi-day events display on the Portal in the Upcoming Events block on all applicable days not just the first day of the event.

Updated so that If there are multiple unsent push notifications sent at the same time, and an error occurs while sending, the error is now saved on the community_app_notification record of the failed notification. The Portal Messages push notification queue is now limited to only sending notifications generated within the last 12 hours.

Run Lottery

Added “Race Options” and “Choice” pull-downs to the Specialized tab. Selecting one or more Race Options will limit what students who run in the lottery. Students with a value of 1 in the applicable race student system fields will run. The Choice pull-down allows you to run the lottery based on how the student ranked the program. For example, selecting 1 will run the lottery for students who ranked the program as their first choice.

Scheduled Jobs

Added the “Create Process Assessments” schedule job, which was created to run the current functionality found under Florida Reports > Assessment / Process Assessments for the FCAT/FSA ELA and EOC Course Assessment Status functions.

  • Users are able to select either FSA ELA or EOC Course Assessment Status.
    • Enabling FSA ELA allows the user to update multiple cohorts.
    • Enabling EOC Course Assessment Status allows the user to set the EOC Exam to process and set EOC Administration Start & End Date fields where the user can enter an Administration Date Range.

Updated the “Assign LCP” scheduled job to accommodate the New ESOL/ELCATE Listening & Reading Functioning Level and Adult Test Fields.

Added the “Update Cost Factor From Matrix of Services” scheduled job, which uses the Services Start Date for the IEP Event. Once the event is locked, Focus updates the McKay field (Matrix Cost Factor) and ESE FEFP Code fields throughout SIS from the Matrix of Services form.

Added a date picker to the Start Date and End Date text fields.

Added the “Symlink Photos” scheduled job, which Symlinks Student and User Photos when uploaded from the server. 

Added the Barbering program to the job Basic Skills Assessment, which includes the following information: Course: Barbering, Program Number: I120403, Test Scores needed on a TABE standardized test: 

  • Math > Grade EQ = 9, Language > Grade EQ = 9, Reading > Grade EQ = 9

Updated the Florida DOE Extracts and Verification Reports scheduled job so it updates the florida_verification & wdis_verification tables.

Added the “Refresh Choice Data” scheduled job. The new job does not affect the functionality of the Refresh Choice Data functionality when run manually on the school choice reports; the data is only refreshed for records that have a “Waiting” status. When refreshing data using the scheduled job, users can select the status' for the data you want refreshed. Users can also run the job for the current default year or the next year.

Updated the “Generate Test Score Report records based on report files” scheduled job so it now supports the 'G10R' ('English Language Arts (ELA) 10th Grade Retake') test. 

The job has also been updated to allow extended filenames on the FSA/Pearson test score reports:

  • Example of a currently valid FSA/Pearson test score report format: Spr17_16_0331_ABBOTT-ANDY-LEEANN_FL123412341234_AL1.pdf
  • Example of the new supported format: WTR16_16_0331_ABBOTT-ANDY-LEEANN_FL123412341234_G10R_57f680d2-06fc-ea11-80ed-941882806e62.pdf

School Choice Setup

Added a new preference to the Customize Application - Magnet, SPA, and Choice tabs, “Require parents to rank all available choice options.” When selected, parents will be required to rank all the available choice options, or the number that is selected in the preference “How many program choices can the user choose?,” whichever is fewer. 

Added two new preferences to the Customize Application - Magnet, SPA, and Choice tabs, “Enable Late Applications” and “Edit Late Applications Statement.” When “Enable Late Applications” is selected, the default value for school_choice_appliaction_status.deadline_met = 'N' and the school_choice_appliaction_status.status defaults to 0 ('Waiting'). When “Enable Late Applications” is not selected, the default value for deadline_met = 'Y'. For the “Edit Late Applications Statement,” enter the text to display when a late application is submitted. 

Added a new preference to the Customize Application - Magnet, SPA, and Choice tabs, “Display program titles on application to parents/students?” This preference is enabled by default. When this preference is disabled, the program titles in the Programs table are hidden from parents and students on the application. Administrators are still able to see the title of the programs. 

Added a new preference to the Customize Application - Magnet, SPA, and Choice tabs, “Display sibling section on application?” This preference is enabled by default. When this preference is disabled, the “List Siblings at Applying Schools” logging field is removed from the application.

Added a new preference to the Customize Application - Magnet, SPA, and Choice tabs, “Display preferences on parent/student application?” Also added a column to the Priority Chart Rankings tab, “Preference Code,” where a preference short name can be defined (maximum 4 alphanumeric characters). When “Display preferences on parent/student application?” is enabled, the application will display “Preferences” as the column header in the Programs table rather than “Priority.” The Preference Code short names that fit the priority the student is eligible for will display for each program in the Preferences column on the application. 

Added two new priority chart options to the Priority Chart Rankings tab, “CC = Child Care Needs” and “NPC = Neighborhood Preference - Former Magnet - Child Care Needs.” 

Added two new priority chart options, “NPDM2 - Neighborhood Preference Former Magnet 2” and “NPDM3 - Neighborhood Preference Former Magnet 3” to the Priority Chart Rankings tab, with the short names NPDM2 and NPDM3. This functions the same as the existing Neighborhood Preference Former Magnet option in the priority calculator, except it uses new database columns, address_to_district.former_zones2 and address_to_district.former_zones3, which the district will populate with |-seperated school_ids. 

Added a new priority chart option, “ASP - Automatic Sibling Preference.” If the applying student has a sibling at the school where the program for which they are applying is located, the student will qualify for that priority.

Removed the preference “Require parent to rank all available choice options” from the Customize Application - Magnet, SPA, and Choice tabs. Instead of using this preference, a new “Required” column has been added to the Programs tab. Selecting the Required check box on a program indicates that it is required to rank the program. In the application, the Choice pull-down will be highlighted in red for required programs that were not ranked by the applicant. The application will not save if the program is not ranked. A message will display to the applicant, “You must rank all required program options.” 

Updated the Programs tab to replace the grade level columns used to enter the number of seats available for each grade level with “Capacity” and “Available” columns for each grade level. The “Capacity” column is used to enter the maximum number of seats in the program for that grade level. The “Available” column is read-only, and displays the grade level capacity minus the number of students in that grade level that are enrolled in the program. A negative number indicates the program is overenrolled for that grade level. The available seats calculation only occurs for those grade levels that are selected as Eligible Grades in the dropdown. The All Grades column has also been replaced with “All Grades Capacity” and “All Grades Available.”

Added a Toggle Columns button to the Programs tab, which allows certain columns to be hidden from view. 

School Choice Reports

Added the following new columns to the Magnet Student List, SPA Student List, and Choice Student List tabs of the School Choice Report: Address, Amer. Indian/ Alaska Native, Asian, Black/ African Amer., Native Hawaiian/ Pacific Is., White, Hispanic/Latino.

System Preferences > Default School Preferences > General

Updated the “Restrict Parents/Guardians to editing their own Contact and Address info and Non-Custodial Contact info (During Parent Registration, the Parent/Guardian's name must also match one of their Student's Contacts)” setting, which now allows parents to also update contact information for contacts that are not flagged as custodial contacts.

Added the “Display Preference for Student Name Format on Parent/Student Portal” setting, which allows students and parents to select from the “Portal Student Name Format” pull-down via Preferences > Display Options tab. If this setting is not enabled, the pull-down does not display for parents and students; instead, the name format is determined by the selection made from the “Student Name Format” pull-down via Setup > System Preferences > Default User Preferences > Student Listing.

System Preferences > Default School Preferences > Localization

Updated to display two new system preferences when the preference “International Address - Add additional options for non-US addresses” is enabled and saved: “Make Country required” and “Make State required.” These preferences can be enabled if needed, and will make the Country and State required fields to be defined in the Address block. The Country is defaulted to the United States of America.

System Preferences > Default School Preferences > Online Application

Added a new system preference “Display Parent Portal Alert for In-Progress Applications.” When the preference is enabled, an alert displays on the Parent Portal when the parent has a linked student who is currently enrolled (default school) in the district’s applicants school whose application.status=’in_progress’. The alert says “Click HERE to complete {STUDENT_NAME}’s application,” and includes a link to complete the application.

System Preferences > Default School Preferences/School Preferences > General

Added a new system preference “Allow Teachers to Search Entire School for Positive Behaviors.” When enabled, teachers can award positive behavior badges to any student at the school on the Reward Positive Behavior screen, not just students in the teacher’s sections. The Reward Positive Behavior screen has new buttons added, Current Section, All Sections, Entire School, and Advanced Search, to change the list of students on the screen.

Updated so the “Hide Sender’s Name in Email ‘From’ Field” setting is honored and the sender's name is hidden when emails are sent from Report Cards, Progress Reports, Print Letters & Send Email (both Students and Users menu), Student Info, and Edit Rules & Workflow > Workflow Triggers.

Added the preferences “Maximum number of ISS days for an ESE/504 Student” and “Maximum number of OSS days for an ESE/504 Student” to separately define the maximum number of in school suspension and out of school suspension days for ESE and 504 students.

System Preferences > Default School Preferences/School Preferences > Grading

Added a new system preference “Select All Possible Personal Fitness Graduation Subjects” to assist with awarding awarding credit for PE and/or Personal Fitness on the Graduation Requirements Report. This system preference is used in conjunction with the preference “Use Personal Fitness Option on Graduation Requirements Report.” In the pull-down, select all the graduation subjects that are applicable for Personal Fitness.

Updated the setting “Hide grades until X days after posting closes (only use if above option is checked),” so users can now enter 3 digits in the provided text box. Previous functionality only allowed two digits.

Added a new system preference “Only Show Custom GPA.” When this preference is enabled, non-custom GPAs will be hidden from the box at the top-left corner of the Final Grades, GPA, & Class Rank screen and the Grades Summary. 

Added the “Report Card Comments Max Length” setting, which allows users to set the maximum number of characters allowed (previously 1121 characters). Note: When the value is set to null, comments per student are unlimited.

Added a new system preference “Include all students in the denominator for AICE rank.” When this preference is enabled, students with “Include in Class Rank” set to “AICE” will receive a rank with the denominator including all students. When this preference is disabled, the rank denominator only includes students set to AICE.

System Preferences > Default School Preferences/School Preferences > Attendance tab

Added a system preference to control which Attendance Code is used when a student checks in via the Check In portal block: “Attendance Code for Student ‘Check In’ block.” The “Display a “Check In” block on the Student Portal that allows students to mark themselves Present for the day’s sections” must first be enabled.

  • If a code is chosen that does not exist for all schools, schools without a matching code will default to whatever code is marked as the state default.

Added a system preference to allow “Student ‘Check In’ Period-by-Period” via the Check In portal block, which marks the student Present for the currently active class only. When the preference is not enabled (current functionality) it marks the student present for all classes that meet today.

Added a new system preference “Send E-mail and Text Message to parents when printing Tardy Slips,” which is enabled by default. When the preference is enabled, it maintains the current functionality of sending an email and text message to linked users when a student is marked tardy in the kiosk or mobile app.

System Preferences > Default School Preferences/School Preferences > Scheduling

Added a new system preference “Default section display room to resource display room.” 

  • When enabled, the Display Room column is added to Setup > Rooms, where the display room can be defined for each room (e.g. “Gym” as the Display Room).
  • The Resource Display Room field is added to the sections screen in Scheduling > Courses & Sections, and displays the Display Room from Setup > Rooms. 
  • The Display Room column is added to the Master Schedule Report and displays the Display Room from Setup > Rooms. 
  • The Display Room set up in Setup > Rooms displays as the room for the section throughout Focus, including on the Teacher Schedules Report, Student Schedule, Print Student Schedules, etc. 
  • The Display Room Option field on the section in Courses & Sections can be used to override the Resource Display Room.

Third Party Systems

Added a new column “Max Requests Per Minute.” This allows districts to set the rate limit for specific vendors. The default value is 600.

Added a new column “Log Full Response Payloads (slow).” When the option is selected, the new table external_api_log_body will be populated. The daily maintenance job will remove entries in the external_api_log_body that are a week old. There is also a new column "duration" added to the external_api_log.

Added a new column “Use Grade Posting End Date on Class Enrollments.” When this option is selected, the end date of the grade posting window is used instead of the end date of the marking period (marking_periods.post_end_date instead of marking_periods.end_date) for class enrollments. 

Added a new column “Endless Teacher Enrollments.” When this option is selected, teacher enrollments remain active once they have started.

Students

Add a Student

Updated so Alert Icons now display next to the Student Name in the Name column of both the Exact Matches and Partial Matches search results regardless of the students’ enrolled schools.

Added “Toggle Columns” to the Exact Matches and Partial Matches results.

Audit Trail

Added the “Referrals” tab to the report, which displays any changes made to referrals after the custom fields upgrade including referral logging fields. Note: Referral information is no longer displayed in the Student tab of the report.

Magnet/Special Assignment, School Choice Reports

Added the End Date column to the Magnet/Special Assignment screen, the School Choice Reports screen, and the school_choice_application_status table. Users with edit permissions to Magnet/Special Assignment or School Choice Reports can edit this column on the respective screens. The “School” validation rule that displays an error on the student enrollment screen if a student has an accepted status (school_choice_application_status.status=’1’) at a program at another school for that same syear now takes into account the end date of the program.

Mass Add Log Records

Added “Student Voucher” to the Logging Field pull-down to allow users to mass add log records for multiple students or individual students for student voucher fields.

Updated Print Avery Labels so that the search results only return schedule records tied to the search criteria entered by the user. Previously, when users printed labels for students with multiple schedule records, a label was printed for each schedule record the student had.

Added additional search widgets for More Search Options on the Print ID Badges screen.

Updated the layout of the ID badge to provide a space at the top for hole punching.

Updated so that the Edit permission for Print ID Badges in Users > Profiles is required for the profile to be able to edit and save the badge settings. When the profile does not have the Edit permission, the badge settings at the top of the screen are grayed out. 

Added the option “Include ID on Badge” in the Print ID Badges settings, which allows the student ID to be added or removed from the badge.

Seating Chart Contact Tracing

Added the “Send Messages” feature, which allows users to send batch messages to students and/or parents.

Updated the range for neighboring desks so it has increased. The scope has been increased vertically (stretched circle/pill shape) to account for the student cards rectangular shape, which isn’t exactly the same as chairs or desks (both squares). 

  • Students need to be at least 3 desks away from the primary student to avoid showing on the report. If students are arranged closely, it is now possible for two students to return from the same rough direction from the student. 

Added the “Include Secondary Charts” check box, which allows users to view additional seating charts used by teachers; this is applicable if more than one seating chart is used by the student’s teacher(s).

Added the name of the seating chart to the updated “Period Course Chart” column.

Updated the report to exclude students whose schedule record was inactive within the last week, or whose student_enrollment record was inactive at the scheduled record school when the report is run.

Student Fields

Added a new system field “Covid Symptoms Date,” which is used to note the date the student first reported Covid symptoms. The “Covid Symptons Alert” has also been added in Setup > Edit Rules & Workflow > Alerts tab. The alert will display for 14 days after the date noted in the Covid Symptoms Date field. The alert displays the Covid Symptoms Date in the tool-tip. 

Added input fields when the “Visible on Student Grades” flag is enabled: “Cohort Min Year” and “Cohort Max Year” (neither fields are required). 

  • If a field has a Cohort Min Year specified, the field would only appear in the EOC Requirements area for students whose "Year entered 9th grade" value was that year or later. 
  • If a field had a Cohort Max Year specified, the field would only appear for students whose "Year entered 9th grade" value was that year or before.

Student Info

Added an “‘Include student name/id on each PDF page (Print Only) check box, which displays in the print preview when users select a letter from the “Print a Form/Letter” pull-down (enabled via Students > Print Letters & Send Email). When the check box is left cleared, student names/IDs do not display in the header of each page. When the check box is selected, student names/IDs display in the header of each PDF page in the letter/form.

Updated so users can import immunizations even if students do not have a primary address on file; previously, shots could not be imported if students were missing a primary address.

Added the column “Recipient Email” to the Letter Logging tab, which displays the email address to which the correspondence was sent.

Added the option “Do Not Require Approval” to the Re-enrollment tab of Student Info. When this option is selected, the re-enrollment form for that particular student is automatically processed.

Added the Nickname field (custom_200000002) to General Information. When viewing a student’s record, click the student’s name at the top-left corner of the screen to view the General Information fields, including the Nickname. The student’s name format that displays at the top-left of the screen in Student Info and at the top-right of the screen when a student is selected will reflect the Student Name Format selected in My Preferences. 

Users

Calendar

Updated so that past assignments do not display in the side panel when teachers view assignments on the calendar. Only upcoming assignments display in the side panel. Past assignments can still be viewed on the calendar itself.

Added the Print ID Badges screen to the Users menu to customize and print ID badges for administrators, teachers, and parents. This screen functions in a similar manner as the Print ID Badges screen in the Students menu.

  • The Users > User Info screen and the ERP > Human Resources > Employee screens have also been updated to include the badge icon when viewing a user. Clicking the icon links to the Print ID Badges screen and allows for a badge to be printed for the individual user. Only users with the Print ID Badges profile permissions will be able to see and click the badge icon.

Updated so that the Edit permission for Print ID Badges in Users > Profiles is required for the profile to be able to edit and save the badge settings. When the profile does not have the Edit permission, the badge settings at the top of the screen are grayed out.

Profiles

Added the profile permission “View Inactive Student Restricted Information” for Role: Admin, which allows users to view restricted fields for inactive students.

  • Added a “Restricted” option/toggle to the Student Fields edit modal via Students > Student Fields, which allows users to flag specific sensitive fields, like SSNs, as restricted for inactive students.

Added the profile permission “View Waitlist Status” under the School Choice permission for parent and student profiles. This permission is enabled by default. When the permission is enabled, the current functionality that allows parents and students to view the “Wait Seq” column on the School Choice screen is maintained. When the permission is disabled, the “Wait Seq” column is hidden. 

Updated the profile permissions for parents for the School Choice Application, Magnet Application, and Special Placement Application. There are now School Choice Application, Magnet Application, and Special Placement Application permissions for the current school year and the next school year. For example, when School Choice Application 2020 is enabled, parents who click on the School Choice Application menu option with the syear 2020-2021 selected at the top-right can fill out an application for the current school year. When School Choice Application 2021 is enabled, parents who click on the School Choice Application menu option with the syear 2020-2021 selected at the top-right can fill out an application for the next school year.

SIS/ERP
General

Added a job to SIS > Setup > Scheduled Jobs called “Frontline Leave,” which imports leave requests and substitute fulfillments (where applicable) into Focus via FTP from Frontline Absence Management. Information from Frontline is imported to Payroll > School/Department Payroll Entry > Leave tab.

  • The job will only process if it finds a valid file called /FromAesop/Frontline_Leave.csv on the SFTP server. As soon as the process runs, it renames that file to Leave_YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.csv (where YYYYMMDDHHMMSS is the current date and time). Any subsequent running of that job will end with no action taken until Frontline puts a new file on the server.
    • You can reset this behavior by using an SFTP client to go out to the server and rename the file back to Frontline_Leave.csv.
    • Multiple runs of the same datafile will simply overwrite the data on the server, unless the leave data has been paid by a run. It will not create any new leave where that leave already exists.

The scheduled job is dependent on the new integration section: “Frontline Leave and Sub Fulfillment” set up via ERP > Setup > Settings > Integrations tab.

Updated so the prompt to name your computer no longer displays when logging in from a new device. The email that warns that a new device has been associated with your Focus account is still sent.

Employee Self Service

Employee Requests

Added the “Priority” field to Direct Deposit requests, which allows users to enter a Priority number indicating which account should be used first if multiple accounts are logged.

Added W-2 templates for the following years based on official documents from the IRS: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2020.

Portal

Updated the “Focus University Courses” portal block so it now displays links to “Video Tutorials,” “Help & Training Docs,” and “Weekly Webinars.” The Focus University portal block also includes a “Search Help Docs”search engine, which is linked to Focus’s help documentation platform, ScreenSteps.

  • The Focus University Courses portal block can be added to the admin and teacher portal screens via Setup > Portal Editor; previous functionality remains intact.
  • Note: Focus University is not currently available on the Parent/Student Portal.
CTE
General (SIS)

Updated so when the Student Schedule Enrolled date is after the Dropped date (reauthorization), the days are considered equal to the quantity on the allocation instead of performing day calculations. Note: This is only applicable when the new "Use Max Amount on Vouchers" preference is enabled for Students > Student Info > Vouchers via Setup > System Preferences > Default School Preferences > Billing.

  • The amount of the voucher now ignores days/hours/flat fees and fills in until max amount is reached.
Accounts Receivable

Funding Sources

Added the “1098-T Box 1” column to the Funding Sources tab, which allows users to flag a funding source for 1098-T box 1. The amount in box one reflects the amount minus the amount paid on the funding source from the first amount.

Added journals to recollect monies onto the funding source accounting strip when a funding source internal transfer payment is voided. The source is AR Receipt Collected. When a Funding Source payment is made and the type is Internal Transfer, a set of AR Receipt Collected Journals have been added for when the payment is voided. The journal(s) collect the monies back onto the funding source accounting strip. The debit and credit accounts inverse the AR Receipt Voided journal.

Point of Sale

Removed “Apply as Credit” when a refund is performed for a funding source payment. Previous functionality allowed applying funding source refunds as credit but the credit did not reflect origination from a funding source.

  • Updated so if ‘Reinvoice’ amount is not selected, the invoice is no longer reopened. Previous functionality reopens the invoice in the POS when the check box is not selected, requiring the reopened allocations to need cancellation.

Added the permission “Modify Finalized Deferrals” to Setup > Profiles, which allows users to access outstanding balances to clear or reduce deferrals via Accounts Receivable > Point of Sale after they have been finalized via Accounts Receivable > Funding Sources.

Updated the Additional Adjustments tab so all students recorded in the Student Information System (SIS) with a SSN display in the Student pull-down.

Updated so users can generate 1098-Ts for students with an adjustment record created from the Additional Adjustments tab. Previous functionality did not pull adjustments if the CRC setting was enabled (via Setup > Settings > 1098-T > Only generate 1098-T’s for students scheduled in courses with selected CRC(s)) and the student did not have a paid invoice for an appropriate schedule.

Updated so 1098-Ts printed from the student record are district wide so that all amounts for a student in the district print on a single 1098-T for a reporting year; this is especially applicable if a student is enrolled in and has fees at more than one school.

Receivables Report

Updated when Educational Credit is received via Funding Sources > Receive Payment tab so the amount of the credit shows in the Paid by Deferral column. Previously, Educational Credit displayed as a negative outstanding student balance and a positive outstanding balance in the Outstanding Deferred Balance  in the Receivables Customer Report when “Include Paid” was selected.

  • When running the report and selecting the box to “Include Paid,” the Paid by Deferral and Total Deferred Amount columns match if all money has been received.
  • This change has been applied to the Receivables Report and the Customer Report.
  • The overage checks do not affect outstanding balances in either report after the money has been received from the funding source.
Billing

Invoice Students

Added the ability to bill through mass invoice and manually add the due date to the invoice using the new “Due Date” text box. Users can assign their own Due Date which could be a future date to help users keep track of payments. This change also ensures that students see an accurate Due Date in their billing information.

Manage Limited Fees

Added a “Voucher Sources” pull-down and functionality to one time, annual, and additional fees.

SAP Minimum Requirements

Updated the SAP Minimum Requirements report generated by the SAP Alerts job to use the calculations made by the Student Academic Report in Billing > Student Academic Report. Program Hours percentages are now based on the student’s scheduled hours rather than the total program hours as is current functionality. The report will continue to pull based on the requirements set in the alert setup.

Grades

CTE Report Cards

Updated to use effective date when determining OCP status.

Parent/Student Portal

Customer Ledger

Updated so the Invoice Date is now used as the Payment Date for outstanding deferrals.

Purchase & Pay

Added the “Available Voucher Total” for reauthorization invoices to display in the cart, which displays the student voucher amount for fee template fees. Note: If the voucher amount covers 100% of the invoice, students/parents will be able to select the checkout button just as they would when purchasing a course for $0.00.

Updated so if an invoice allocation is over-deferred and causes a negative balance, it will be skipped in the payment process; i.e. it will not display in the cart.

Scheduling

Classes for Sale

Added the “Voucher Sources” column to the Optional Add-Ons tab, which allows users to assign vouchers to optional add-ons for students when purchasing courses from Purchase & Pay. Note: Users must assign the vouchers to applicable students via Students > Student Info > Vouchers tab.

Added an “Edit Seat Caps” permission accessible via SIS > Users > Profiles. If the permission is enabled, users can edit the “Total Seats” from the Classes for Sale screen.

  • If the user tries to edit the seat cap to more than the course period’s total_seats set via SIS > Scheduling > Courses & Sections, the user will get an error telling them the max possible seats they can choose.
  • If the user sets the seat count to exactly the course period’s total_seats, it will unset this value in the database (i.e. if the course_period total seat count changes later, this number should change as well).

Student Schedule

Updated so that the District Option “WDIS - Disable AGE 30 Day Schedule Validation” in Florida Reports Setup is respected on the Student Schedule screen. 

Updated so when vouchers are processed via Purchase & Pay (Student/Parent Portal), the Financial Assistance and Adult Fee Status codes are now updated on the student schedule based on the deferral created. This new functionality is triggered when partial payments are made on deferred items and when $0 payments are processed via Accounts Receivable > Point of Sale.

Setup

System Preferences > School Preferences/Default School Preferences > Scheduling tab

Added the “Don’t Allow Over Fill by Room” setting, which, when enabled, ensures Focus checks the room capacity on the first day of a student’s enrollment. If the room is at capacity, the student will not be able to purchase the course and administrative users will not be able to add the course to the student’s schedule.

  • When enabled, the system preference can be overridden when the profile permission, “Allow User to Overfill Rooms” is set via Users > Profiles.
  • When parents/students try to purchase full courses via Purchase & Pay or the Public Course Catalog, the Add to Cart / Enroll Now button displays as “Room at Capacity” and is grayed out (inactive).
  • When administrative users try to enroll students into a full course via Scheduling > Student Schedule, a message displays: “Error: Room at Capacity.”
  • Room capacity is determined via Setup > Rooms and Scheduling > Courses & Sections; from the Courses & Sections screen, sections are assigned to a Room from the corresponding pull-down.

System Preferences > Default School Preferences > Billing tab

Added the “Use Max Amount on Vouchers” setting, which enables the “Max Amount” column via Students > Student Info > Vouchers tab.

Setup (ERP)

Settings

Added the “Do not generate a 1098-T for students if Box 1 = Box 5” setting to the 1098-T tab. When the check box is selected to enable the setting, anytime the amount in a student’s box 1 and box 5 are identical, a 1098-T is not generated and this 1098-T is not included in the file to the IRS.

Added several options to allow users to transfer funding source money to an account for students by leveraging the current customer credit and deferral processes. Often a funding source will send more money than the student needs in a given moment. The money should not, and sometimes cannot, be awarded to the student but must be used for tuition. Therefore Focus has added the following settings to track this overpayment via Setup > Settings > Accounts Receivable tab > Customer Credit section:

  • Internal Accounts Funding Source Credit
    • If the “Internal Accounts Funding Source Credit” check box is selected the “Internal Funding Source Credit Setup” pull-down displays so users can select the Product from the Internal Accounts Product List that will be used.
    • If the “Internal Account Funding Source Credit” check box, the “Funding Source Credit Setup” pull-down displays so users can select a Product from the Product List.
  • Facility-Specific Funding Source Credit
    • If the “Facility Specific Funding Source Credit” check box is selected, a Facility pull-down displays in the “Internal Funding Source Credit Setup”or ”Funding Source Credit Setup” pull-down next to the Product pull-down.
  • Added the “Funding Source Credit” check box to the Select a Funding Source pop-up when Funding Source is selected as a Deferral via Accounts Receivable > Point of Sale. Note: This new check box is dependent on the new Customer Credit settings first being set.

 

  • When Funding Source Credit is selected, any overage or “unapplied amount” from what is listed in the Amount field is included in the amount that is sent to the Funding Sources screen when the payment is Finalized. Once the payment is received from the funding source, that unapplied amount (if paid in full) will create a Funding Source Credit on the student’s account visible from the Point of Sale screen.
  • Added the “Funding Source Credit” amount below where “Account Credit” would display if applicable in the Payments sections of Accounts Receivable > Point of Sale, which displays the total amount of credit held on account from all the funding sources for that student. Funding Source Credit will not display until the money has been received from the funding source. If the Funding Source does not end up providing the full amount that was originally indicated, then depending on how much was received, the Funding Source Credit amount should be adjusted.

 

  • Updated the pop-up that displays when clicking the Funding Source Credit link:
    • The “Customer Credit Transaction History” pop-up includes a Funding Source column that identifies what agency provided the credit and a column that shows the amount that was credited to the student (from the Funding Source for that transaction once funds have been received from the Funding Source).
  • Added “Funding Source Credit” to the Type pull-down of the Payments section of the Point of Sale screen, which draws from the Funding Source Credit account for the student.
  • Added the ability to process a refund for Funding Source Credit which ensures the refund be issued to the student not the Funding Source.

 

  • Updated so journals follow the same credit and debit settings that are defined in the Customer Credit setup.
  • Updated 1098-T’s to include the following logic:
    • The calendar year that the money is received is the year that the monies will be listed in Box 5 of the 1098-T. If the money is applied the next calendar year, it will not appear on the 1098-T because it was included in the previous year’s 1098-T.
  • Updated so anything processed as Funding Source Credit displays on the Customer Credit Management screen.
    • Added the “Funding Source Credit” column to the Account Management tab, which reflects the sum of all Funding Source credits the student maintains on his/her account.
    • Added the “Paid By” column to the Transaction History tab. If regular customer credit is reflected in the report, the customer’s name displays in the column. If it is a Funding Source credit, the name of the Funding Source displays in the Paid By column.
Students

Student Info

Added the ability to enable Percentage Vouchers to work with Optional Add-Ons.

Added the "Max Amount" column, which indicates the maximum amount of money that can be used during the voucher period. This applies to the funding source as a whole for the student (i.e. it includes deferrals made manually for the funding source not through vouchers).

Added a check box called “1098-T Less Than Half Time” to the demographics tab, which determines whether or not Box 8 (Check if at least half time student) on the 1098-T is selected. 

  • If the 1098-T Less Than Half Time check box is selected, Box 8 will not be selected. If the 1098-T Less Than Half Time check box is not selected, Box will be selected.
  • Users can customize the new student field via Students > Student Fields.

Updated so vouchers are calculated against each allocation on an invoice, while considering the max amount. Vouchers are then sorted in descending order by greatest amount used. Vouchers are then applied in that order to each allocation. 

  • Previously, fee-restricted vouchers were causing an overcharge for the student using the largest apply to logic, which was resulting in a fee being fully paid prior to the restricted voucher being applied.
ERP
Accounts Receivable

Updated so receipt allocations no longer have more than two decimals as it is not financially possible to pay these amounts.

Updated the Point of Sale > Transaction History report and the Student/Parent Portal > Customer Ledger so it now reflects the credit card type used, such as Visa or Mastercard in the Payment Type/Payment Method column when payments are made using credit cards.

Invoice Report

Updated so the most recent 1,000 invoices display in the report.

Point of Sale

Added the ability to void payments made online by parents/students from the Transaction History tab. Note: Users can void prior transactions if the “Void Only Same-Day Transactions” profile isn’t enabled. If enabled, users can only void current day transactions.

Updated the functionality of the “Hide Future Payment Plan Invoices” check box, so when selected, it hides all payment plan invoices except ones that are past due and the next upcoming installment that is due. For example, if payments are due on  6/12, 6/19 and 6/26, while viewing the screen on 06/11 with the check box selected, users will see the 6/12 installment but if viewing the screen on 6/13, users will see both the 6/12 installment and the 6/19 installment. Note: This functionality has also been applied to how installments are displayed on the Purchase & Pay screen via the Parent/Student Portal.

Added a Description column to the Transaction History tab that displays the Description information from POS and Trx # screens when the “Show Item Description” setting is enabled via Setup > Settings > Accounts Receivable.

Budgeting/General Ledger

Updated so balance only check transactions are visible in the Trial Balance balances and in the Journal Report; A balance only check is a check written directly from Fund Balance (no object code) that doesn't impact the expenditure report i.e your (1530) expenditure ledger. Note: Voiding a balance only check will have the same impact only in reverse.

Bank Reconciliation / Internal Account Bank Reconciliation

Updated so Receipts and Deposits remain as outstanding credits on the Outstanding Credits tab if voided in a future month.

Added the “Unfinalize” button to the Existing tab, which allows users to revert finalized reconciliations.

  • The Unfinalize button only displays when the new permission “Unfinalize Reconciliations” is enabled via Setup > Profiles.

Budget Maintenance

Added two new profile permissions enabled via Setup > Profiles, which allow users to create revisions that cause accounts to be negative: “Allow Negative Revision Balance for Budget maintenance” and “Allow Negative Revision Balance for Internal budget maintenance.”

District Budget Planning

Added the “History” tab so users can review adopted budget scenarios after they have been adopted. Clicking “View” from the History tab opens the scenario in the Current Scenario tab.

Journal Report

Updated when districts enter EOY invoices in FY 19/20 Invoice Batches after July 1, 2020, so these invoices expense when the invoice batch is posted and all committed funds are uncommitted if entered as a Non-PO invoice. Note: This change does not impact invoices entered against a PO as the journals for these invoice types are correct.

  • Journal Actions when an invoice meets the following criteria:
    • Invoice entered in the current FY in a previous FY batch
    • Source AP Invoice
      • No Impact to the GL
      • No Action
    • Source AP EOY Invoice Expended
      • Debit/Credit should look to Setup > Settings Misc
        • When an Invoice is to be paid next fiscal year
        • Scenario Example
          • Debit 1530 Credit 2121
      • Action Expend
    • Source AP Invoice Committed
      • No Impact to the GL
      • No Action
      • This journal should be removed
  • Journal Actions when a Warrant is issued for the above invoice
    • Source AP EOY Warrant Issued
      • Debit should offset the AP EOY Invoice Expended Credit GL and Credit Cash
        • Scenario Example 
          • Debit 2121 
      • The credit GL is determined by GL in Setup > Bank Accounts
        • Scenario Example
          • Credit 1118
    • Source AP Check Uncommitted
      • No Impact to the GL
      • No Action
      • This journal should be removed

Added the journal source “AR Receipt State Tax Uncollected,” which reflects the uncollected tax amount from the funding source strip when processing an internal transfer on a Funding Source upon receiving payment.

Fixed Assets

Manage Assets

Updated the screen to now include the following sections on the Current Asset tab: 

  • Purchasing Information is no longer displayed in a pop-up window when the Purchasing Information button is clicked. The Purchasing Information sections contains Purchase Order #, Purchase Order Date, Invoice #, Invoice Date, Check #, Check Date, and Vendor so information can now be entered.
  • Disposition Information displays if Disposition Code is no longer Active and includes Board Removal Date, Disposal Date, Disposal Method, Sold Amount, and Disposal Notes.
  • Location Information includes Facility, Room, Department, Assigned User, Building, and Assigned Student field that display as pull-downs. Note: There have been no changes to the Location History section.
  • Specialty Item Information now displays in place of fields displays when Toggle More Information was clicked.

Maintenance

Added a “Method of Disposal” tab, which allows users to create disposal codes, such as Sold, Donated, Trash, etc., and set an Asset Status, and Generate [a] Disposal Date. The codes established here display in the Disposal Method pull-down of the Disposition Information section on the Current Asset tab (Fixed Assets > Manage Assets). Note: The Disposition Information section only displays when the Disposition Code is set to not AC - ACTIVE.

Human Resources

Benefits

Added a benefit month pull-down to the Plans tab, which allows users to select the month for which recalculation is being completed.

  • This change ensures that if a benefit is not valid for a particular month, the benefit will not pull into the run via Payroll > Run Payroll. For example, an employee is not eligible for health insurance until October and is not prepaid; therefore, that deduction would not come out of the employee’s paycheck if the employee is working and being paid in September.
  • Once the recalculation is complete, the month selected displays via Human Resources > Employee > Benefits tab in the “Benefit recalc month” field.

Employee

Updated the logic on the Deductions tab so the “Suspend” flag is ignored for deduction adjustments.

Added the “Fund Source” pull-down to the Payroll Information - Base and the Additional Job Assignment sections of the Charter/Contracted Emp Info tab, which includes the following options:

  • A - Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by NCLB Title I, Part A
  • C - Charter School, Not Paid Through District
  • E - IDEA - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
  • G - State/Local Funded Programs (e.g., FEFP, State Categorical Programs)
  • H - Supplemental Academic Instruction (SAI) (FEFP)
  • M - Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by NCLB Title I, Part C (Migrant Education Program)
  • N - State Fiscal Stabilization Funds (ARRA)
  • O - Other Federal Programs
  • P - Targeted ARRA Stimulus Funds
  • Q - Other ARRA Stimulus Grants
  • R - Reading First Grant
  • S - Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) Reading Allocation
  • T - Race to the Top (ARRA)
  • U - Education Jobs Fund

Updated the Deductions tab so the Deduction Percent displays in the Emp % column and the Ded[uction] Amount displays in the Emp[loyee] Amount column.

Updated the Calculated by Employment section and the Calculated by Job section on the Deductions tab so the columns now read: Contribution Percent, Contribution Amount, Deduction Percent, Deduction Amount, Employee Percent, Employee Amount, which was previously Contribution %, Contribution Amount, Deduction %, etc.

Added the Filters feature and Sort options to the Jobs tab when Service Verification or Show Previous Years is enabled.

Leave Maintenance

Added a “Fiscal year” pull-down to the Adjustment tab of the Manual Leave tab, which allows users to override the current fiscal year, if needed. For example, if an employee that does not have a job in the current fiscal year needs his/her balance adjusted in the last year that they worked, the user can now select the applicable fiscal year.

Added the ability to enter a negative number in the “Adjust amount” text box on the Manual Leave > Adjustment tab in order to create a negative adjustment.

Position Control

Updated profile permissions to restrict users from entering/updating fields that are outside of their remit, which allows districts to specify view and edit right to each column available on the screen. The new profile permissions set via Setup > Profiles include:

  • Edit Job Fields: When this permission is enabled, users can edit Job Fields Only including the Job Posted and Jobs fields. All other fields will be view only.
  • Edit Payroll Fields: When this permission is enabled, users can edit Payroll Fields Only including the following fields: Slots, Pay Type, Facility, Hrs/Day, and Workmans Comp. All other fields will be view only.
Payroll

Moved “Increment Steps” from Payroll > Rollover to Payroll > Employee Wages > “Step Wages: Increment Steps” tab.

Moved the “Change Step Pay” tab from Payroll > Rollover to Payroll > Employee Wages > “Step Wages: Change Step Pay” tab.

Moved Recalc Employee Contracts and Undo Recalc Employee Contracts from Payroll > Maintenance to Payroll > Employee Wages.

Deduction

Added a “Medicare” pull-down to the Accounting section of the Show pop-up window located on the Calculated by Job tab.

Employee Wages (New Screen)

Added the Employee Wages screen, which displays staff job wage summaries in the following columns: Employee, Facility, Job, Position, Starting and Ending position dates, Step, Step Starting, Step Ending, Contract, Paid, Remaining, Type, Allocation, Perc, Starting, and Ending.

  • This screen must be enabled for applicable users via Setup > Profiles.

Maintenance

Updated the process for the Pay Raises module, which copies the rates from the previous year and sets the new rates for pay increases for min/max employees.

  • Users can create new rates via Payroll > Employee Wages > Individual: Change Step Pay.

Payroll Reports

Updated the “Net Pay By Fund” report so the report pulls allocations information from wage allocations if no deductions are present.

Added an “Hours Worked” column to the Salaried Employees report.

Added the new report “Payroll Site Employee Verification Report,” which includes Salaried and Hourly Employees, as opposed to the Salaried Employees report which only displays salaried employees not hourly.

Updated so users only have access to facilities in the Facility pull-down based on  their accounting strip permissions selected for HR/PR enabled via Setup > Accounting Strips.

Run Payroll

Updated the information that displays in the Answers pop-up window on the Checks tab when the Recalculate and Explain button is clicked.

Updated so encumbrances no longer includes suspended deductions upon running payroll.

Added the following batch title to the payroll explain: deduction adjustments, wage adjustments, supplement adjustments.

Added a link to the payroll run explain pop-up window for deductions which links users to Human Resources > Employee > Deductions.

Removed the “Freq” pull-down from the Pay Codes section of the Details pop-up window enabled from the Runs tab when the red arrow is clicked.

Added information to the Errors section on the Checks tab for projects that have expired before the journal date and after the employee’s allocations beginning date; for example, Adjustment for Employee Name : EIN has an expired Project: 1000.

School/Department Payroll Entry

Updated the “Employee” pull-down of the Permissions tab so users that are not employees can be selected and granted permission.

  • Users that are not employees are added via SIS > Users > Add a User.

Transfer Job Balances

Updated so the job transfers available are now limited to the current fiscal year.

W2 Reporting

Added 2021 W2 forms.

Portal

Updated so District Reports now only display in the District Reports block; previously, reports displayed in the Alerts block as well as the District Reports block. Note: If the District Reports block is removed via SIS > Setup > Portal Editor, reports will still display in the Alerts block as usual.

Purchasing/Accounts Payable

Updated the process in which P-Card Purchase Orders are released; original functionality required the receive and release of the P-Card PO just like a Standard PO, if the setting for standard is set to receive/release via Setup > Settings > Accounts Payable. However, since districts do not receive/release Pcard POs, P-Card POs will now automatically be released for payment in the check run when the invoice batch is posted.

Checks/Internal Account Checks

Updated so voiding a previous fiscal year check without voiding invoices no longer marks the invoice as unpaid, which prevents the check from appearing on invoice rollover via Setup > AP invoices.

Electronic 1099 (New Screen)

Added the Electronic 1099 screen per IRS requirements, which includes options for Form Type, Calendar Year, Federal Tax ID, IRS Control Number, District Contact Name, Create a corrected electronic 1099 check box, External 1099 Data attachment, and Import external data into Focus as manual vendor payments check box. The file generated is formatted from the IRS publication 1220.

Invoices

Added an error warning that displays if users try to post an invoice batch containing an invoice that was entered on an open purchase order but subsequently closed.

Added a “Form Type” pull-down, which allows for separate printing of the 1096 for MISC and NEC.

  • 1099 MISC
    • Box 3 will count MISC forms only
    • Box 4 will total any Federal income tax withheld 
    • Box 5 will total amount reported with this Form 1096 for MISC forms only
    • Box 6 1099-MISC 95 will be selected
  • 1099 NEC
    • Box 3 will count NEC forms only
    • Box 4 will total any Federal income tax withheld NEC forms only 
    • Box 5 will total amount reported with this Form 1096 for NEC forms only
    • Box 6 1099-NEC 71 will be selected

Updates Form 1096 per IRS filing 2020.

Purchase Requests/Orders / Internal Purchase Requests/Orders

Added an error when the allocation amount isn’t equal to the  line item total; i.e. changing the Ref # on Line Items will invalidate the Allocations and cause an error.

Updated so users cannot edit the allocation on a closed P-card purchase order.

Added an error message that displays when users try to click Liquidate Balance and there are unposted invoices attached to the purchase order preventing users from liquidating said POs.

Vendors/Customers

Added a “E-Verify” check box to the Current Contact and New Contact tabs, which allows users to indicate whether E-Verify authorization has been obtained to accommodate new Florida law regarding contractors doing business with the school district.

  • An “E-Verify” column/field has also been added to the Contacts tab of Vendors/Customers, the Purchase Request/Order Report screen, the Invoice Report screen, the Check Report screen, the Vendor/Bid Report screen, the Purchase Requests/Orders screen, and the Internal Purchase Requests/Orders screen.
Setup

AP Invoices

Updated so journals are not created in the rollover process if the allocation is missing an Object element.

Updated so End of Year PO Liquidation Journals now liquidate the entire PO when the invoice has been selected to close when it is rolled at the EOY process. Previous functionality liquidated the remaining funds when the warrant is issued in the new year and back dated to EOY.

Import Tools

Added an import tool for external professional development data (MyPD); the import tool has been set up and mapping created for importing data from an external professional development package; in this case, "MyPD." See the following steps to import a file:

  • On the Finance side (ERP), navigate to Setup > Import Tools, select the tab labeled 3rd Party Integration, and select the item called MyPD.
  • On the MyPD Upload tab, update the following controls:
    • Set Source Type to Local File if the import data resides on your local computer, or Remote File if the file is in the uploaded-assets/export/erpdirectory on the server.
    • Set Import File to the file name of the data to load. Set Import File Type to either Tab Delimited (fields are separated by a tab character) or Comma Delimited (fields are separated by a comma). NOTE: Fixed Width is not currently supported, and would require additional configuration to set up.
    • Set Import Mode to Insert/Update. If desired, Reset & Insert may be selected instead, with the distinction that this mode deletes all records from the staging table. See notes below on the Exceptions tab on the Professional Development page to see why you may want to use this mode instead.
    • Set Preload Mapping to MyPD.
    • Set Employee ID Type to EIN (when the employee field uses the EIN to identify employees) or SSN (when the employee field uses the social security number to identify employees). You may also use Auto, which tries to match up the employee identifiers to EINs first, then tries to match up any remaining items as social security numbers.
    • Click the Map button. Review the mapping to confirm that the fields in the file are being loaded into the right fields in the staging table.
  • If you selected Reset & Insert as your Import Mode on the previous page, please set the Clear out all records where control to Clear Whole Table.
  • Click Import.

Added the Exceptions tab to the Professional Development page.

  • After you have imported a file, the last step that the import performs is that it removes any records from the staging table that successfully loaded into the professional development component, activity and roster tables. Any records that weren't able to be imported show up in the Human Resources > Professional Development page's Exceptions tab. This tab will attempt to show why particular records didn't import properly, so that future loads may have their data corrected or adjusted.
  • Those records still take up space in the staging table. Any subsequent imports will not attempt to clear them out unless you select Reset & Insert as the import mode. Otherwise, they're processed with the next batch of records, and will likely fail for the same reasons as before, so in the end, though they don't harm anything, they will add to the time it takes for the import to finish. Many hundred or thousands of these records will cause a significant performance problem with future imports. As mentioned before, you can clear out these records when you import your next file by selecting Reset & Insert as the import mode, or you can click the button at the top right corner of the Exceptions tab labeled Reset All. The two processes accomplish the same goal.

Updated PD verification reports so once that data has been imported into the system, it can be manipulated just like any other professional development record, including being reported on via Florida State Reporting. The Professional Development tab in Payroll > Verification Reports should function just like PD data was maintained in Focus. The same goes for the Florida State Reporting Staff Extracts (Professional Development, Survey 5).

Profiles

Added the “Assign Disposition Code When Receiving Transfers to Disposal Facility” profile permission which allows users to assign disposition codes when receiving transfers to the disposal facility.

  • When this permission is enabled, upon receiving the fixed asset via Fixed Assets > Receive Transfers, the “Please enter location information” pop-up window now displays a “Disposition Code” pull-down.

Added two separate permissions for “Revenue Invoices” and “Expense Invoices,” which determines users permissions when creating and accessing Accounts Receivable > Invoices. Previously functionality gave users permission to both Revenue and Expense AR invoices.

Added the “View ‘Modified by Name’” profile permission, which allows users to determine if other users can view who made changes to employee fields in the “By” column. If this permission is not enabled, users will only be able to view the modified change date and time, not the user responsible for the changes. This permission impacts all Human Resources screens where employee information is viewable, such as Employee, Position Control, etc.

Updated the “View Only” permission for Position Control to “Edit Positions.” When the Edit Positions permission is enabled, users will have the ability to edit positions.

Purchase Orders

Added the “Close When Check Written” column to the Open Requests and Rolled Requests tabs, which indicates that the open purchase order has been flagged to close once a check is written. This field is automatically flagged on the rollover screen if the “Close PO when the check is written” check box is selected on the Invoices screen.

Added the “Invoice Amount Pending Payment” column to the Open Requests and Rolled Requests tabs, which displays a calculation pulled from the PO Summary > “Pending Payment Total.”

Updated so users who have permission to the Purchase Orders screen via Setup > Profiles now have the ability to delete select templates on the Templates tab during the EOY process; previously, users were not able to delete all templates if they were not the requester or associated with the requester.

Settings

Updated the Accounts Receivable tab by replacing the “Online Payments” section with the “Convenience Fees” section, which is used to set up all convenience fees (or left blank, if convenience fees will not be used). Note: If a district form fee convenience fee was set up in Online Payments, it will migrate into the Convenience Fees set up, but it will now also apply to Purchase & Pay payments.

  • The new Convenience Fees, when setup, applies to Purchase & Pay items, Form Template Fees, and the product based form fees (these are the only fees the previous convenience fee applies). 
  • The new fees can also apply to a fee from any facility. 
  • Convenience fees are assessed per invoice. If the facility for an invoice does not have a convenience fee setup, then no convenience fee will be added. 
  • If the facility has multiple convenience fees setup, the most recently active one will be applied. 
  • The total fee is shown to the user at checkout. When both payment methods are available, the amount shown is based on the method the user has started to fill out. The fee isn’t recorded on the invoice until the time of payment.
  • Once a convenience fee is used, its price cannot be changed. However, a facility may end date their active convenience fee to stop collecting it and may start a new convenience fee for the present or a future date.
  • When voiding a transaction, the convenience fee will be voided from the invoice. If a convenience is applicable at the time of a future payment, the current convenience fee at that time will be applied.

Added the “Require file on Direct Deposit” setting to the ESS tab; when “Yes” is selected from the pull-down, users are required to attach a file, in this case, a voided check when submitting a request for direct deposit.

  • Added a reminder to Employee Self Service > Employee Requests screen that reads: “ A copy of void check must be attached to avoid delay in processing” when users request Direct Deposit.

Added the “Allow creation of transfer requests during Inventory” setting to the Fixed Assets tab, which allows users to disable the ability to create transfer requests while conducting inventory when the check box is cleared.

Added a setting to the ESS tab called “Allow publish column in contact requests - Employee Requests,” which allows users to determine whether or not the “Publish” column displays via Employee Self Service > Employee Requests upon requesting a change to Contact Information. Users can select whether or not the new contact information being requested should be Restricted or Not Restricted for publication from Public Records Requests, such as Police and Safety Officers.

Adding the following new leave reasons to mapping for Integrations > Frontline Leave and Sub Fulfillment, so that districts can update codes as necessary, codes no longer hardcoded into class.: Unpaid Leave > Extended Leave (ES) : UPD:ES, Unpaid Leave > Personal Leave : UPD:EP, and Unpaid Leave > Worker's Comp. : UPD:WU.

Transportation

Setup

Updated the Field Trip Destinations tab so logged destinations can no longer be deleted; destinations can now be “Disabled.”

Added the “Ignore Account Strip Permissions on Requesting Facility” setting to the Misc tab, which allows users to select any facility, as needed, regardless of facility permissions set via Setup > Accounting Strips.

Warehouse

PetroVend Import

Updated so the expenditure is processed through the manual journal that is created from the Petro vend import. Previously, Focus used to expend on the process by creating a negative expense back to the transportation allocation, which was causing a budget line to have an overstated ending balance.

Work Orders

Work Order Requests

Updated the E-mail Address field from text box to text area, which also allows users to enter multiple email addresses separated by a comma and extend the size of the text area.

SSS

Added the ability to store threat classification information from SSS in SIS, and added the ability to trigger threat assessment and hope events in SSS from discipline referrals in SIS. 

  • Added a new System logging field in Students > Student Fields, Threat Classification. The logging field will display in the General Demographics category. 
    • The columns are: School Where The Threat Event Was Initiated, School Where The Threat Event Occurred, Date of Classification, Type of Classification, SSS Event ID, and Result of Assessment. 
  • Added a new System select one field in Discipline > Referral Fields, Hope Event. 
    • The select options are derived from a query of all the SSS HOPE events tied to the student.
  • Added a new System placeholder field in Discipline > Referral Fields, Create Hope Event. 
    • The field provides a link to the Manage Student screen in SSS to create a Hope event.
  • Added a new System select one field in Discipline > Referral Fields, Threat Assessment Event. 
    • The select options are derived from a query of all SSS Threat Assessment events tied to the student.
  • Added a new System placeholder field in Discipline > Referral Fields, Create Threat Assessment Event. 
    • The field provides a link to the Manage Student screen in SSS to create a threat assessment event.

Caseload & Services

Made the following updates to the Caseload & Services screen:

  • In the Caseload tab, deleting a student from a user’s caseload now also deletes the student from any of the user’s groups. 
  • In the Add Service and Add Group Service pop-up windows, the Service pull-down now allows selecting multiple services. 
  • In the Add Service and Add Group Service pop-up windows, the IEP Goal pull-down now only displays goals from the current locked IEP,  addendum IEP,  EP,  or SP.
  • In the Add Service and Add Group Service pop-up windows, a new Additional Documentation section was added, where supporting documentation files can be uploaded. A corresponding “Additional Docs” column has been added to the Service History and Drafts tabs to display the file name and format of the uploaded files.
  • In the Add Service and Add Group Service pop-up windows, a help icon (?) has been added between the Time In and Time Out fields. When hovering over the icon, a helpful hint for entering the time displays in a tool-tip.
  • In the Add Group Service pop-up window, there is a new “Mass Update Date & Times” button that updates the service date and times for the entire group at once (this uses the date and times entered on the first student in the group). The button does not appear if the group only contains 1 student.
  • Updated so that the Service Date field set on a template or group template populates as the Service Date when adding an individual or group service.

General

Updated the Number of Progress Periods pull-down to increase the maximum option to 16 instead of 10. 

Added the “Push Matrix of Services data to SIS” tool to the General screen. This tool is used if the Matrix of Services scheduled job did not process a matrix because the scheduled job was not run on the start date of the matrix. All matrices with a start date between the dates entered by the user will be processed after clicking Run.

Updated the “Push Matrix of Services data to SIS” tool and the “Matrix of Services” scheduled job to support stand alone matrices (matrices not part of an IEP). The IEP plan date and IEP Services Start Date (in Demographic step and Matrix of Services step) in the most recent locked IEP Event are used to run the tool/job.

Manage Student

Updated so that when an IEP event has a progress monitoring event, and an Amended IEP event is created later, any goals added to the Amended IEP are included with progress monitoring.

Added the “Date Locked” column to the Locked Events tab. The “Date Locked” field is also included on event reports in SSS > Reporting.

Updated so that if a student is in the 12th grade and a trigger for the IEP/Amended IEP exists to set Additional School Year (custom_699), it will now push data to SIS based on the value selected in defer_diploma field on the Demographics step of the IEP event.

Updated so that there is a separate graph for each row in the table for the Academic and Behavior PMP. 

Updated to include blank options in the Strategy and Hypotheses pull-downs in the PMP.

Updated the label for the Frequency field in the IEP Goals & Objectives step to display as “Frequency of Progress Reporting” in the print preview and in the printout. 

Added new print options “Hide Page Numbers” and “Hide Event Name” to the Select Steps to Print window. These options hide the page numbers and event names that display at the bottom of the printed pages. 

Updated the PMP so that the Sign-Off and Observations columns are editable regardless of the Tier Level selected. Also updated so that the options in the Strategy and Progress Monitoring Tool Type pull-downs are filtered based on the Tier Level selected. 

Updated the Student Search screen to include all of the search options that are included on other Student Search screens in Focus. 

Updated the Academic PMP to add the date picker (calendar) to the Begin Date, End Date, and Goal Date fields. The phrase “Student Data:” was also added before the strategy in the graph legend. 

Updated so that when an event is initially locked, computed table data viewed in the event does not change. For example, when an IEP event is locked, the Test History data in the computed table in the event does not change, even when Test History is updated. 

Updated the wording for the “Other” option in the IEP Event for the Accommodations/Modifications step to display as “Other Accommodations may not be allowed on Statewide Assessments.”

PMP Setup

Added behavior PMP tracking, similar to the academic PMP.

  • The PMP Setup screen has been divided into two tabs, one for Academic and one for Behavior. 
  • A new option has been added to SSS > General called “PMP Behavior Charts.” When enabled, the default charts that display for the Behavior PMP (discipline referrals) are replaced with charts similar to the Academic PMP. 

Added the ability to customize the content area field for the Academic PMP. In the Academic tab of the PMP Setup screen, the user can now select whether the Content Area field is free form text, dropdown, or both, and can enter the dropdown options.

Setup

Added an event trigger to update the ESE Exceptionalities student logging fields in SIS when filling out the “VCS ESE/Gifted: Tracking & Reporting” Event.

Added an Active column to the Accommodation Categories tab. This allows obsolete categories to be inactivated.

Added the ability to set up alert triggers using “is null” or “is not null” in the field condition. 

Added an event trigger action “Push Participation in State District Assessments,” which is used to push FSA Accommodations to the Test Accommodations logging field (custom_200000222) in the Graduation or ESE Tab upon locking the IEP,  IEP with Goal Bank, Amended IEP, or Amended IEP with Goal Bank. The same event trigger will also push the ESE test waivers from the IEP to custom_200000206 (ESE Test Waivers field) in SIS upon locking the IEP, IEP with Goal Bank, Amended IEP, or Amended IEP with Goal Bank.

Setup > Scheduled Jobs

Added a new scheduled job in SIS, “Synchronize Schedule of Services.” The job will push Schedule of Services data from SSS to the SIS fields “Time, With Non-Disabled,” “Time, Total Student Week,” and “IDEA Educational Environment” in the ESE tab of Student Info.

Users > Profiles

Added a new profile permission “Receive Emails” under the Alerts permissions in SIS. Users will receive emails if the “Send Email Notification” option is selected on the Alert Triggers tab on the SSS > Setup screen and the user’s profile has the new “Receive Emails” profile permission enabled.