FOCUS-39517- ER - Fixed Assets 'needs_barcode' & 'missing' fields

System enhancement adding the ability to mark an asset 'missing' or 'needs barcode' in Fixed Assets > Assets > Manage Assets > Current Asset screen.

See Manage Assets for details about these two new settings.

FOCUS-39329- Add Notes to Leave Overtime and Timecards for Pay Stubs

System enhancement adding 'Notes' columns in Payroll > Pay Run > School/Department Payroll entry.

See School/Department Payroll Entry for more information.

FOCUS-38201- Applicant Tracking - Override Position Control Allocations

System enhancement to Setup > Permissions > Profiles > Human Resources > Applicant Tracking adding a new permission "Override Position Control Allocations". When this permission is enabled the user can approve the employee action form, overriding the number of positions available.

FOCUS-39610- Teacher Portal: Maintain Applicable Section in Session when Viewing Student Schedule

This branch addresses an issue related to displaying a student's schedule. Instead of switching to a section the student is not enrolled in, the solution ensures that the selected section remains displayed when showing a student's periods. This way, the course period at the top right of the screen will not be cleared when viewing a student's periods, maintaining consistency with the selected student.

FOCUS-39590- Form Builder: Resolve Error when Collection References an Empty Field

Formbuilder can generate an error in certain cases when a collection references a distinct field within the same form. This occurs when the other field has no value, and the collection employs the {$fieldName} format. The problem arises from a missing dependency in the query, resulting in an empty result set. However, due to a name clash in processing predefined variables, one of the built-in variable values inadvertently takes the role of the query results. This mismatched data type often triggers an error. With this branch's implementation, this issue has been successfully resolved. The updated system ensures that no error occurs even when a collection on the form references an empty field. Additionally, the supplementary form now opens as expected, ensuring a smoother user experience without encountering the aforementioned error.

FOCUS-39581- Custom Fields: Better Handling of Empty Strings in JSON Fields

This branch addresses a specific problem in Advanced Reports, where errors were occurring. These errors were linked to situations where an associated Edit Rule & Workflow Validation contained a match query sourced from JSON data, and a value within the query could potentially be an empty string. This inconsistency was leading to errors in the system's functionality. With the implementation of this branch, the issue has been rectified. The adjustments made ensure that such scenarios are now handled appropriately, preventing errors and disruptions in the Advanced Reports feature.

FOCUS-39569- Communication Platform: Better Rendering of Announcement Images in Community Mobile App

Before this branch's implementation, when a large image was included in an announcement, it would extend off the visible screen area in the Community Mobile App. However, with the introduction of this branch, the issue has been resolved. Now, images added to announcements via the Communication Platform are automatically resized to fit within the mobile app's display window.

FOCUS-39568- Teacher Portal: Prevent Error when Permissions Change

This branch resolves an error that teachers encountered when attempting to log into Focus. The error was related to the User preference 'Default to ERP,' especially if the end-users' permissions had been modified.

FOCUS-39566- Discipline: More Options for Category Breakdown Report

This enhancement aims to provide end-users with access to all relevant Referral Fields when utilizing the Discipline Category Breakdown Report and selecting the "Breakdown Further" option. This enhancement ensures that users can access and analyze comprehensive information about disciplinary referrals, allowing for a more detailed breakdown and analysis of the data.

FOCUS-39560- Enrollment: Improve Multiple Active Enrollments Validation Criteria

This branch introduces a migration that enhances the edit rules and workflow for "Multiple Active Enrollments." In the previous state, the criteria only included "Enrollment: Second School Y, After." With this branch, it adds "Enrollment: School: Empty" to the criteria. This enhancement addresses a problem where the validation for Multiple Active Enrollments was not being triggered for users without edit permissions for the Second School.

FOCUS-39558- Discipline: Add Student Documentation Feature to Add a Referral

This enhancement introduces the 'I' icon for the Student Documentation feature to the 'Add a Referral' entry screen. Previously, this icon was only available when viewing existing referrals for students. With this enhancement, users can now access important information in real-time while entering new referrals for students, improving the efficiency and accuracy of the referral process.

See Add Referral (admin) and Add Referral (teacher) for more information.

FOCUS-39549- Communication Platform: Better Rendering of Signatures in Templates

This branch addresses an issue where signatures in letter templates created from the new Communication Platform were not generated correctly. The problem stemmed from the transparency of the signature image's background. During resizing, the alpha setting of the image was not being considered, causing the image to render as all black. The branch will fix this by taking the alpha setting into account, ensuring that the image resizes properly and maintains its transparency.

FOCUS-39515- Take Attendance: Bypass Early Attendance Restriction for Admins

This branch addresses an issue where administrators were encountering an error message while attempting to take attendance. The error message incorrectly stated that attendance cannot be taken before a certain period start time. This message was originally designed to prevent teachers from taking attendance before the specified period start time based on the system preference setting. However, administrators should not be restricted by this rule. The branch will correct this behavior, allowing administrators to take attendance without encountering the mentioned error message.

FOCUS-39514- Elementary Scheduler: Restrict Options in Achievement Level Type Preference for Clarity

This branch enhances the "Achievement Level Type" selection by limiting the available options to only those tests that are configured within Standardized Tests and have an associated Achievement Level Types Type. This change is made to improve clarity and prevent confusion for users of the Elementary Scheduler feature, which specifically requires achievement-level data

FOCUS-39495- School Choice: Improve Display of Notes in Magnet/Special Assignment Screen

This enhancement targets customers using the School Choice Module. It involves updating the database type for School Choice Notes entered on the Magnet/Special Assignment screen. By changing the database type to Text (school_choice_application_status.notes), this improvement makes the notes more readable and easier to manage, offering better flexibility for expanding the content. The previous database type was VARCHAR; no adjustments to customer's custom procedures or reports should be necessary.

FOCUS-39486- Print ID Badges: Update Badge Printer to use Cache Settings

This branch updates the Print ID Badges printer functionality to improve reliability by caching settings instead of relying on user session variables, which could lead to errors. This change provides a more dependable method for storing and using settings during the printing process.

FOCUS-39469- Address Fields: Support Editing "Address" on Contact Detail Flags for Existing Options

This branch resolves an issue where the "Address" checkbox on the "Address Fields > Contact Detail Flags" is not editable through the interface after a record has been added to the datatable.

FOCUS-39461- School Choice: Ensure Data Integrity for Magnet/Special Assignment

This branch introduces an extra precautionary step for School Choice customers, guaranteeing that the Application Type (SPA, Magnet, or Choice) value consistently defaults to the chosen application type when adding a new row in the Magnet/Special Assignment program.

FOCUS-39420- Enrollment: Prevent Error when Imported Records Exist Missing School Years

This branch addresses a problem that arises when a recently implemented school district imports student enrollment records without including school year values. The fix ensures that this situation no longer triggers an exception when attempting to edit other columns in the Student Enrollment module.

FOCUS-39416- Graduation Requirements Report (FL): Appendix Z Entries where Industry Cert Type is Null Shouldn't Count for Merit

This branch is specific to customers using Florida State Reporting. It ensures that the Graduation Requirements Report's Merit section will not grant the Merit Designation to a student if the Industry Certification entered in the student's logging field matches a value in Appendix Z with a null Industry Certification Type.

FOCUS-39378- More Search Options: Resolve Accuracy when Loading Reports with CTE Program Code Search Logic

This branch addresses issues specific to Postsecondary customers, resolving inaccuracies in the Attended Hours Report when using program codes as search criteria. Additionally, it corrects the student advanced report, which previously returned a blank report when searching by program code.

FOCUS-39363- School Choice Report: Mass Update Support for Reason Field

This enhancement is tailored for School Choice customers and introduces the ability to perform mass updates on the "Reason" column through the School Choice Report.

FOCUS-39310- Parent Notifications: Add Support for Other Field Types in Referral Notifications

This branch rectifies an issue concerning Parent Email Notifications regarding referrals. Previously, the email sent to parents contained fields that the parent did not have view permissions for. With this correction, the parent will now only receive information for fields in the referral that align with the specific field permissions granted by the school district. This improvement ensures that parents receive accurate and relevant information while maintaining the privacy and security of sensitive data in accordance with the designated field permissions.

FOCUS-39266- Student Info: Improve Display of Date Picker in Expanded Logging Field Entry

This branch enhances the user experience by improving the display of the Date Picker when selecting a date in the expanded view of a logging field entry within the interface.

FOCUS-39263- Online Application: Change State Entry to 2 Characters

For customers who have not enabled the "International Addresses" system preference, a change has been made to the online application's state field. Previously, this field accepted up to 255 characters, but now it will only allow a maximum of 2 characters for the state abbreviation. It's important to note that this adjustment will only affect new entries and will not impact existing data in the address.state field where the length exceeds 2 characters. This change ensures that the state field aligns with the specific requirements and limitations for customers without the "International Addresses" preference enabled.

FOCUS-39252- Attendance: Resolve Search Issue in Perfect/Excessive Attendance Report

This branch addresses a problem in the Attendance Perfect/Excessive Attendance report where users were unable to search on the excessive and skip tabs when clicking the search button. Previously, the search function only worked on the perfect tab. However, after implementing the branch, both teachers and admin profiles can now conduct searches using search filters from the Excessive Absences and Skip Reports screens without being redirected back to the Perfect Attendance Screens. This enhancement ensures a smoother and more user-friendly experience.

FOCUS-39177- Late Check-In/Early Release: Allow Notes for Check-Ins not Associated with Schedule Records

This enhancement introduces the capability to input text for students who are not currently scheduled in an active period or scheduled record in the Attendance Late Check-In and Early Release feature. This enhancement empowers users to add notes for special situations, providing greater flexibility and context in attendance management. This branch includes a schema change by adding a new column "notes" to the table "kiosk_entries" (kiosk_entries.notes VARCHAR 255). When a note is entered via the report that is tied to an active period schedule record, the applicable attendance_period.attendance_reason value is also updated.

See Late Check In/Early Release for more information.

FOCUS-39168- Attendance: New Filter Feature on Absence Summary

This enhancement enables the ability to apply filters to multiple columns in the Absence Summary Report, enhancing the flexibility and customization of the report's data presentation.

See Absence Summary for details about this new feature.

FOCUS-38987- Parent/ Student Portal: Render Reports with PDF.js

This enhancement involves rendering report cards (non-Laravel) and test score reports using PDF.js on the Parent/Student Portal. This change aims to enhance the user experience on the Community Mobile App, specifically on Android devices, by allowing these reports to be viewed directly without the need for downloading.

FOCUS-38940- Scheduling: Better Section Naming when Non-Consecutive Periods Allowed

This branch addresses a problem related to section names generation in cases where the "allow multiple non-consecutive periods" preference was enabled. Previously, under this preference, section names were not being generated as expected. However, after implementing the branch, section names will now accurately reflect all periods associated with the section for customers who have enabled this preference.

FOCUS-38919- Focus Assessments: Answer Key Only Test Feature Enhancement

This feature enhancement is exclusively for customers using Focus Assessments. It introduces a new option for tests: "Answer Key Only." With this option, users can upload a file that students will be able to access. The user can define the number of questions and indicate the correct answers. The results of these tests will be displayed on various reports, similar to other test types. This enhancement offers additional flexibility in test administration and evaluation, especially for scenarios where only answer keys need to be shared with students.

See District Assessments (admin), District Assessments (teacher), and Teacher Assessments for more information.

FOCUS-37155- Document Management Module Improvements

This feature enhancement in the Document Management Module includes the following additions:

1) Added the Uploaded Files Report to the Users menu.

2) Introduced profile permissions for Users to align with the existing options found in the Students section for 'Edit Academic Student Record' in Print Letters & Send Email.

3) Implemented profile permissions for Users in alignment with the available options in the Students section for 'Uploaded Files Report'.

4) Added a dropdown for the Academic Record Category in the Users->Print Letters & Send Email section

See Uploaded Files Report and Print Letters & Send Email for more information.

FOCUS-36760- Attendance: Allow Incomplete Attendance with No Default Selected

With this enhancement, in cases where the school lacks attendance codes designated as the default for teachers, teachers are required to manually input attendance records for each student in the relevant course period. If attendance is taken for specific students rather than all, teachers will still appear on the administrator's Teacher Completion Report until all attendance entries are completed.

FOCUS-39512- SSS/Formbuilder Snapshot (August 2023)

https://focusschoolsoftware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/18011904700059-August-2023-Forms-Functionality-Updates

See Manage Student: ESE Events and Manage Student: ELL Events for the reflected changes.

FOCUS-39625- Scheduled Jobs: New Year Feature to Assign LCP Job (FL)

This enhancement is relevant exclusively to Postsecondary customers based in Florida. It introduces a school year option to the "Assign LCPs" scheduled job. Previously, users had to modify the default school year to influence the job's execution year. With this enhancement, users gain increased flexibility in controlling the year when the job will run.

See Scheduled Jobs for more information.

FOCUS-39519- Scheduled Jobs: Assign LCP Job Update for CAG Test (FL)

This enhancement is specific to postsecondary customers in Florida. When a student completes the CAG test for Reading rather than the TAB test, the Assign LCP Scheduled Job will now use the results of the CAG test to update the relevant flags on schedule records for GED Prep courses. This ensures accurate and appropriate course assignment based on the specific test completed by the student.

See Scheduled Jobs for more information.