The following information will provide the options available for administration when setting up the Aeries Web Version Portal.  This information provides the different variables that are available for the many different users for each school. 


Options for the Teacher, Parent, & Student Portals, are integrated into the Aeries Web Version and are controlled through security access permissions and the Portal Options page.


The Portal Options page can be accessed from the navigation tree under the School Info | Portal Management node.


The Portal Options page displays a school list on the left side of the form.  There are 7 tabs for various options:  Attendance, Grades, Gradebook, PFT, Scheduling, Miscellaneous and Parent Data Changing.



Security changes may not take effect for up to 5 minutes due to caching.

 

NOTE:  After changes are made to any of the pages the Save button must be clicked to submit the changes.




Translations

The Portal Options page has the ability to translate custom text areas. A language selector has been added to the top of the Portal options page.



Once custom text translations are entered they will display to the portal when a parent logs in with one of the corresponding languages. The default language is English. If no translations have been set up for other languages the English text that has been entered will display to the portal as the default text.

The current custom text areas that translations can be added for the portal include the following tabs and fields:

Miscellaneous Tab

• Graduation Status Form Disclaimer

Parent Data Changing Tab

Full documentation on how to set up Parent Data Confirmation and translations can be found in the Parent Data Confirmation Setup document on our website.


To set up a translation, select a school from the list on the left side of the Portal Options page. Select a tab to translate text on. Next use the language selector at the top of the Portal Options page to select a language to translate for.



Note: Numeric field information will apply to all languages and cannot be translated. 


Enter the translated text into the text box. After the text has been entered click the mouse on the Save button at the bottom of the page.



The translated text will now display in the data confirmation area when the corresponding language is selected by the parent when logging into the portal.



Attendance

 

The Attendance tab will display the various attendance options.  Verify the correct school is selected from the school list on the left hand side of the page.


  • # Days Teachers can Back Post – The number of days prior to today that a teacher is allowed to post attendance. 
  • # Days Teachers can Forward Post – The number of days beyond today that a teacher is allowed to post attendance.  Note – use zero (0) in both of these fields to limit teachers to just the current day.
  • # Days to Display Add & Drops – Students who have been added and dropped from a class will display to the teacher for the specified number of days. 
  • Attendance Codes – These codes are displayed on the Attendance page for teachers to see.
    • Unverified Absent (usually ‘A’) – This is the absence code used to mark a student absent by a teacher. 
    • Tardy (usually ‘T’) – This is the tardy code used to mark a student tardy by a teacher.
    • Present (usually ‘P’) – This code is only used when doing Positive Attendance Reporting.  When doing Negative Attendance Reporting, this code is not used because choosing the P option on the Attendance page will blank out the current absence code.
    • Additional Att Codes – This option will display additional attendance codes for teachers to use.
  • Student (STU table) Fields on Attendance Screen – these fields will display next to the students name on the Attendance page.  Enter the field code and Description. 

Other Attendance Options

  • Enable Lunch Count 
    • This option is only available for Daily Attendance school types.
    • Codes must be added to the Code Table for Lunch Type (LNC.TY)
  • Disable Attendance if Site Is External (set via AppSettings) – Prevents teachers from taking attendance on an instance of Aeries Web Version configured to be "External". This is done by modifying your AppSettings.config file and adding an XML element for "External" with a value of "True" like in the example below:

<External>True</External>

If you do not have an AppSettings.config file on your external Aeries web server, please contact Aeries Support for assistance.

  • Take Attendance For Each Period in a Blocked Section (MST.BL) – When this option is On, attendance must be taken for every period of a blocked section.  If Off (default), attendance taken in the main period will be applied to all the periods in that section’s block.

 

  • Allow teachers to override verified absences – When this option is On, teachers will be able to override a verified absence code on the attendance screen.  Note: This option is not normally advised and can have attendance auditing complications.

 

  • Teachers can Add & Update Attendance Note – With this option On, teachers can Add and Update attendance notes on the Teacher Attendance page.  Appropriate permissions need to be granted for the Portal Group of Teachers for Attendance Notes in Security.

 

  • Teachers can View Attendance Notes Added by Others - With this option On, teachers can view attendance notes added by other users on the Teacher Attendance page.  Appropriate permissions need to be granted for the Portal Group of Teachers for Attendance Notes in Security.

 

  • Allow Teachers to Setup Seating Charts Before Attendance is Initialized – With this option on, teachers can arrange their seating chart before attendance is initialized.

 

Positive Attendance Options

  • Post Attendance by Month – This option will allow teachers to take attendance on a monthly basis.  Teachers can click on the check mark for each day to enter the Present code.  It is intended for Independent Study-Type schools and is not normally advised.  This option will disable the logging of Attendance Submits.
  • Mark Absent if not Present – This option is designed for schools taking attendance by month.  Selecting the check box at the top of the date column will submit an Absent code where the Present check box is not selected for all students in the class for that date.
  • Enable “Mark All Students Present” button – This option is for Positive attendance schools.  When this option is selected, a “Mark All Students Present” button will display on the teacher’s attendance page.  When the button is clicked, the Present code will be populated for all students.  This option cannot be used with the Attendance by Month option.

Attendance Times

  • Attendance cannot be posted outside of the following times (leave empty to always allow) this range of time specifies the absolute times every day when teachers are allowed to update attendance. Outside of the times specified, attendance is read-only.
  • Do Not Allow Attendance to be Taken Before or After the Class Period (according to the Bell Schedule in Aeries) This option will restrict the attendance page to only allow the current period of attendance to be updated. Outside of the start and end times, a period will be read-only for attendance.  This option will be disabled in Daily Attendance schools.  Note: If this option was never turned On, it will no longer show as an option to select. If it was previously turned On, it will continue to display until deselected and will override the two options listed next.
  • Attendance cannot be taken before a period starts  - When this option is On, attendance cannot be taken for a period before its start time (according to the Bell Schedule in Aeries).
  • Attendance cannot be taken after a period ends – When this option is On, attendance cannot be taken for a period after its end time has occurred (according to the Bell Schedule in Aeries).

 

Supplemental Attendance Options - The Security for the Portal Groups of Teachers needs Read and Update permissions to Supplemental Attendance Data Security area.

  • # Days Teachers Can Back Post Attendance:  The number of days prior to today that a teacher is allowed to post Supplemental Attendance.

 

  • # Days Teachers Can Forward Post Attendance: The number of days beyond today that a teacher is allowed to post Supplemental Attendance.  Note – use zero (0) in both of these fields to limit teachers to just the current day.

 


Grades

The Grades tab will display the various options and date windows for GRD and SBG.




  • Support Standards-Based Grade Reporting – supports standard based grades grade reporting on the Grades page and in the gradebook.
  • Allow Teacher to Print SBG Report Cards – allows the teacher to print the Elementary Standards Based Report Cards.
  • Allow Teachers to Print HIS Transcripts – allows the teacher to print the student Transcript.
  • Allow Teacher to Change Credit in GRD – allows the teacher to update the Credits - GRD.CR field.
  • Allow Teacher to Change Absences in GRD – allows the teacher to update the Absence - GRD.AB field.
  • Hide Current Info from Students and Parents when Teachers are Updating Grades – This option will hide the current grade reporting mark, citizenship, work habits, absences, credits, and comment fields while the teacher grade posting window is open.
  • Start and End Dates – This is the date range that teachers are allowed to update grades via the Portal.  This is NOT the start of the grade reporting period (quarter or semester).  This option needs to be maintained and updated each grade reporting cycle.
  • Require Comment – With this option checked, a teacher is required to enter a comment in addition to a mark. The missing mark listing report will honor this new option and include students where a mark was entered, but no comment.
  • Can Mark Page as Complete? – allows teachers to click a button to mark the page as complete. This is useful for progress reports where not every student may receive a mark. The Missing Mark Listing can be run to ignore pages marked as complete, even if a mark is missing. A GRD record is considered “complete” if there is an “X” in the GRD.TG field.

 

Gradebook

The Gradebook tab will display the various gradebook options.




  • Only Show Check Marks for Assignment Scores to Parents and Students – with this option selected, a check mark will display in place of the students assignment score. 

 

Below is an example of Parent Portal Gradebook with the option selected.  Check marks display in place of scores.



  • Allow Teachers to Import Any Student in their defined Grade Range into their Gradebook – On the Manage Gradebooks screen in Manage Students tab, the Add Students Not in Your Classes button will display with this option selected.  The Add Students window will honor the Teachers low and high grade ranges - TCH.LO and TCH.HI


Below is the Manage Students screen with the option selected displaying the Add Students Not in Your Classes button.



  • Allow Teachers to Add Students to Gradebook Before Attendance is Initialized – This option will allow teachers to import students before the school year starts into their gradebook.
  • # Decimal Places to Display in Assignment Scores – Calculated scores can display up to 4 decimal places.  This option does not apply to manually entered scores.  Manually entered scores will display as entered up to 4 decimal places. 

 

  • Hide Trend Graph in Gradebook Summary View from Parents and Students – with this option selected, the Parent/Student Portal will not display the gradebook trend icon or assignment graph to parents or students.  They will still be viewable to other users such as teachers, counselors and admin.

 

  • Enable Backpack (allows students to upload files) – with this option selected, the student Backpack will appear on the Student Portal Home page. This will allow students to view a list of assignments from the Home page along with any teacher documents attached to the assignments. If the teacher activates the Dropbox for an assignment the student will also be able to upload a single document to that assignment. A file size limit can be entered for the student documents to ensure that students do not upload extremely large files. The default file size per file is 15 MB. Also, certain file types can be restricted from being uploaded, such as .exe and .bat files. A default set of restricted files is provided in the Restricted File Types box. When adding or removing restricted file types the period before the extension and the comma afterward are required. For example, to restrict a WAV file type, enter “.wav,” to the end of the list.
  • Enable Briefcase (allows teachers to upload files) – with this option selected, the teacher Briefcase will appear on the Teacher Portal Home page. This will allow teachers to display a list of assignments for their gradebooks from the Home page along with any documents they have attached to those assignments. If the teacher activates the Dropbox for an assignment and students have uploaded files, it will also display a count of students that have submitted files for that assignment (at this time students are limited to submitting one file per assignment).
  • A file size limit can be entered for the teacher documents to ensure that teachers do not upload extremely large files. The default file size per file is 15 MB. Also, certain file types can be restricted from being uploaded, such as .exe and .bat files. A default set of restricted files is provided in the Restricted File Types box. When adding or removing restricted file types the period before the extension and the comma afterward are required. For example, to restrict a WAV file type, enter “.wav,” to the end of the list (see above screen shot).
  • Allow Teachers to Hide Gradebooks from Parents and Students – with this option selected, an option will display in the Teacher Portal in the Gradebook/Options area as shown below to Hide this gradebook from Parents and Students. 

 


If the teacher selects this option for a gradebook, that gradebook will no longer display to the Parent/Student portal. 

  • Allow Teachers to add standards that are associated to existing standards and linked to their courses (Secondary Schools Only) – this option will add a Standards screen in the teachers gradebooks. The Standards screen will allow teachers to add custom teacher standards to existing standards linked to the courses they are teaching. This option is only available to Secondary schools where the Support Standards-Based Grade Reporting Portal Option is turned on and the Standards Based Coursers (SBR) table is populated to link standards to courses.
  •  



Physical Fitness PFT

The PFT tab will display the option and date windows to allow teachers to enter PFT results.  The Security for the Portal Groups of Teachers also needs permissions to Physical Fitness Test Results.



Full documentation on how to set up Physical Fitness can be found in the Physical Fitness Multiple Testing Administrations document on our website.



Scheduling

The Scheduling tab allows students and parents access to the Course Request Entry page in the Parent Portal.  The Scheduling tab will display an option and date windows per grade level for Parents and Students to update course requests and other scheduling options. 

The security for the Portal Groups of Parents and Students requires Update permissions to Course Requests.

The Portal Groups page can be accessed by clicking on the Portal Groups link from the Course Request tab.


The option Allow Parents/Students to edit Alternate Course Reqs will allow Parents and Students to add Alternate Courses if selected.



The Course Request Entry page can be accessed from the Student Info dropdown in the Portal.



Below is an example of the Parent/Student Portal Course Request Entry page.  This page displays the Course Request (CRQ) table by grade level.  The CRQ table must be set up in the Scheduling Cycle for parents and students to view.



The students existing course requests, if any, will display on the left side in the Course Requests area of the page in order of Subject Areas. 



Click the mouse on the    Information icon to display Course information. Click the mouse on the Exit icon to exit.




Click the mouse on the Remove icon to remove a Course Request.  The icon will only display if the course is not locked  or  scheduled with a section. 

The Filter Courses area in the center of the page can be used to filter for a specific course or a specific Subject Area.  Enter the name, partial name or course number into the Name or Nbr field.  Hit the Enter key or click the mouse on the Search button to search.  Click the mouse on the Remove Filter button to clear the filter fields.



There are 2 ways to request a course.  Click the mouse on the course and the following message will display. 

Click OK to add the course or Cancel to exit.  A course can also be requested on the   Information popup. 



Click the mouse on the Request button to add the course or the Exit icon to cancel.  Once a course has been requested, it will display on the left side of the Course Request Entry page in the Course Requests area.


In the example below, the subject area of Fine Arts is filtered displaying only the courses with subject area of Fine Arts for the students grade level.  Acappella Choir is requested.



After the course is requested it will now display on the Course Requests area on the left side of the page in the Fine Arts subject area.  Acappella Choir now displays with Art 1 in the Fine Arts Subject Area.



If the option Allow Parents/Students to edit Alternate Course Reqs is selected, the Parents or Students can add Alternate Requests.  The page will display with an Add Alternate option next to the Primary Requests.




When the Add Alternate option is selected, the page will display highlighted in the Filter Courses area.



The Parents or Students can Search and add another Course Request.  The Alternate Course will display in italics.



Scheduling Options



  • Hide Scheduling Results from Parents and Students - This option prevents parents and students from seeing preliminary scheduling results online. They will only see the Course Requests if they have permissions to View Course Requests


  • Hide Currently Scheduled Classes For Future Terms from Parents and Students – This option will prevent any scheduled classes for a future term from being seen in the parent and student portals.



Miscellaneous

The Miscellaneous tab will display the various miscellaneous options.


  • Hide Student Contact Info (STU & CON) – when this option is selected, contact information (such as phone numbers, street addresses, and email addresses) is not available to Teachers, Parents and Students. A red message will display on the Student Demographics page.


Most fields on the Emergency Contacts page will not display at all.


  • Do Not Show Teacher/Counselor Field to Parent/Students - when this option is selected, the Teacher or Counselor field is not available to Parents and Students.  It will display as N/A.

 

  • Disable Session Keep-Alive for Teachers – When this option is selected, the session keep alive will be disabled for teachers on certain keep alive pages like Gradebook and Attendance by Month. Selecting this option will display the session time out messages to the teacher if their Aeries Web Version session reaches the time out setting.

 


Discipline entry notification email address (for tchr adds) - When a teacher enters new DIS records (if security permissions allow), an email is now sent to the email address identified in this field

 

  • Graduation Status form disclaimer (if any):  text can be added that will display on the Graduation Status section of the Students Profile, on the students Graduation Status page and also on the Graduation Status report.  Below is an example of the text that will display.

 



  • Hide students in parent portal: Students will be hidden from the parent and student portal if their status tags match what is specified here. These students will not be displayed on the Change Student menu in the portal. Status tags are entered as a comma-delimited list. You may specify any status tags to hide. The example below would hide Inactive, Pre-enrolled, and No-show students. To hide the active tag, add a comma followed by a space to the end of the string. This setting can be different for each school. Leaving this field blank will allow all status tags to be shown to parents and students for that school.



Parent Data Changing


Parent Data Confirmation is a feature of Aeries Web Version that allows parents to modify or enter student demographics, contacts, medical conditions, and authorization information. It also allows documents to be available to parents.

Full documentation on how to set up Parent Data Confirmation can be found in the Parent Data Confirmation Setup document on our website at: Aeries_Parent_Data_Confirmation.pdf