District and Campus: Set Up ParentPortal

Prerequisites:

1. Log on to ParentPortal as an administrator.

   
   

   Administrator access to ParentPortal is accomplished by a separate Administrator Login page containing adminLogin?distid=xxxxxx in the application URL, where xxxxxx is the county-district ID.

   
   From the Administrator Login page, type your administrative user name and password and click Login.
   
   
   
   The Administrator website opens with User Settings as the default page.
   
   

2. Update district settings for ParentPortal.

   
   ASCENDER ParentPortal Admin > Admin Menu > District Settings

   This page allows administrative users to manage the district-wide ASCENDER ParentPortal settings, such as site theme and security questions.

   
   

   NOTE: Selections are automatically saved for most fields. Clicking Save is only required where indicated.

   
   
   

   Access Control

   Site Access:

   ❏ Enable or disable access to ASCENDER ParentPortal.
   

   ParentPortal is	Active is displayed if the application is currently available to parents. Inactive is displayed if the application is not currently available to parents. NOTE: Parents will receive a message that the portal is Inactive when it has been disabled by the district.
   ParentPortal is active as of	The date for the active/inactive setting is displayed. If Active, the date indicates when ParentPortal became active. If Inactive, the date indicates when ParentPortal will become active. To change the date, click Change. In the ASCENDER ParentPortal will be active as of field, type the new date. Click Save. The new date is displayed, and the system is automatically activated or inactivated accordingly on that date.
   Allow Campus Admins to View All District Students	Indicate if campus-level administrative users can see all students in the district. No - Campus-level administrators are blocked from accessing students who are not at a campus they have access to, and from impersonating a user to access those students. For example, if a parent has two students - one that the campus administrator should be able to see, and one that he should not be able to see, the campus administrator can impersonate that parent, but only students at his campus are displayed. Yes - Campus-level administrators can access students who are not at a campus they have access to, and can impersonate a user to access those students.

   
   
   

   Display Access:

   ❏ Determine what data is displayed to ParentPortal users.
   
   
   
   

   Display Discipline Records	Indicate if you want discipline information (with or without comments) displayed in ParentPortal. No - The Discipline page is not available for parents in ParentPortal. Yes, without comments - The Discipline page is available for parents in ParentPortal, but any comments associated with an incident are not displayed. Yes, with comments - The Discipline page is available for parents in ParentPortal, and any comments associated with an incident are displayed below the discipline record. Discipline Flow Chart
   Display Schedules	Indicate if you want to display student schedule information in ParentPortal. No - Parents will be able to access ParentPortal and use some parts (such as online registration), but will not be able to view data that would require a student's schedule to be displayed (Summary, Attendance, Grades, and Assignments). When set to No, the message “Student schedule is not available at this time” is displayed at the top of the Summary, Attendance, Grades, Assignments, and My Account pages. Yes - Student schedule data is displayed throughout ParentPortal.
   Display Immunization Records	Indicate if you want to display immunization data for parents in ParentPortal.
   Display Immunization Resource Path	If Yes: Path: Type the address for the website providing information about immunization requirements, such as the Texas Department of State Health Services website. Click Save. NOTE: The Texas Education Code requires that a link to the Texas Department of State Health Services website be provided to parents as part of the Immunization Awareness program. This field provides a way to adhere to this requirement; however, you are not required to use this field.

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   Site Resources

   Security Questions:

   ❏ Enter security questions that parent users can use to recover a user name or reset a password.
   
   
   
   

   Question	Select the language of the question. Type a question in the corresponding language that the user will answer.

   
   ❏ Click Add.

   • New questions are displayed in the grid at the top of the list.
   • Once the page is refreshed, all questions are listed in alphabetical order.

   
   
   - Click to remove a question from the list.

   NOTE: You cannot remove a question if it has a parent's answer associated with it.

   
   
   

   District Links:

   ❏ Provide links to helpful websites. These links will be displayed on the Links page.
   
   
   
   

   Web Address	Type the URL for the website.
   Label	Type the text as you want the link to appear. The text can be the URL or specific words such as the website name.
   Description	(Optional) Type an additional description of the website, such as why it is being provided, or what information it provides.

   
   ❏ Click Add.
   
   ❏ On the right:

   - Click to stop displaying the link in ParentPortal.

   You are prompted to confirm that you want to delete the link. Click Yes.
   The link is removed from the list.

   
   - Click to modify the properties of the link.

   A pop-up window opens allowing you to modify the properties. Click Save Changes.

   
   
   

   Color Customization:

   ❏ Change the ASCENDER ParentPortal district-wide color scheme.
   
   
   
   

   Enable Color Customization	Select On to enable modifying the ParentPortal color scheme. Additional fields are displayed allowing you to select web accessible colors.

   
   ❏ For each color choice:

   ❏ Click the drop-down arrow to open the color palette.
   ❏ Click a color in the palette to select it, or enter the Hex code or RGB code.
   ❏ Click Apply.

   
   

   Background Color	Changes the background of the left-side navigation bar.
   Text Color	Changes the color of the text in the left-side navigation bar.
   Accent Color	Changes the color of the main menu headings, drop-down arrows, vertical bars, and a few other navigation elements.

   
   ❏ When all colors have been selected, click Check Accessibility to confirm that your color selections meet ADA requirements. If not, make different selections.
   
   ❏ Click Save Theme.

   You cannot save a theme until you have checked its accessibility.

   
   
   NOTE: To reset to the original colors, set Enable Color Customization to No.

3. Update campus-level settings for ParentPortal.

   
   ASCENDER ParentPortal Admin > Admin Settings > Campus Settings

   This page allows you to maintain campus-level settings for ParentPortal.

   
   
   

   NOTES:

   • Selections are automatically saved. There is no Save button.
   • If you are logged in as a multi-campus user, most of the following fields are not available.

   
   

   Settings

   Campus Selection:

   Campus	Select the campus you want to update settings for.

   
   
   

   Display Settings:

   ❏ Indicate how the Campus Notes should be displayed on the Summary Page in ParentPortal.

   The text for the campus notes are entered on Registration > Maintenance > Parent Portal > Campus.
   
   Any notes entered are displayed on the Summary page, which is the first page displayed when a user logs on to ParentPortal.

   
   

   Campus Message Height	Short - Height is 100 pixels. Medium - Height is 150 pixels. Tall - Height is 300 pixels. Extra-tall - Height is 400 pixels. For all options, the width will adjust according to the user's screen size.

4. Update alert and other settings for ParentPortal.

   
   ASCENDER ParentPortal Admin > Admin Settings > Alert Settings

   This page allows you to set a district-level schedule for the parent alert messages, as well as several district-level security settings.
   
   Alerts refers to the update that occurs in the system.
   

   NOTE: Please contact your System Administrator if your district wants Alerts turned off.

   
   Notification refers to the text or email message that is set to the parent as notification that there is an alert. Notifications do not have to go out at the same time the alert occurs.

   
   
   

   Set Alerts

   

   Start/End Time	Select the start and end times to specify the time of day when alerts are generated.
   Interval	Type the number of minutes that will elapse between each alert during the specified time.

   ❏ Click Save.
   
   

   Set Notifications

   

   Start/End Time	Select the start and end times to specify the time of day when notifications are sent to parents.
   Interval	Type the number of minutes that will elapse between each notification during the specified time.

   ❏ Click Save.
   
   

   ParentPortal Settings

   

   ParentPortal Default URL	Type the full URL that parents in the district will use to access ASCENDER ParentPortal. This URL will be used during the email verification process.

   
   
   

   ❏ Under Email Settings:

   User Authenticated Email Server	Indicate if the client's email notification email server requires a login and password. If Yes, enter the user name and password in the Mail Server Login and Mail Server Password fields.
   Mail Server Host	Indicate the address of the outgoing mail server.
   Mail Server Port	Set the port that the alert service will be running on.
   Mail Server From	Type the email address that will be displayed in the From field when a message is sent by the ParentPortal mail server.
   Maximum Number of Emails	Type the maximum number of email messages that go out in a notification run.
   Mail Server Login	If using an authenticated email server, type the user name.
   Mail Server Password	If using an authenticated email server, type the password.
   Use Encryption	Select to use encryption.

   
   
   ❏ Under SMS Settings:

   SMS Default URL	Type the path used for text messages.

   
   
   ❏ Click Save.
   
   

   Email Authentication Verification

   

   Email Address	Type any email address you wish to test. This allows you to confirm that SMTP and other settings are set up correctly.

   ❏ Click Send.

   If the email address is set up correctly, a message will be delivered to that email address indicating that it was verified and functioning properly.
   
   

5. View ParentPortal usage data.

   
   ASCENDER ParentPortal Admin > Admin Menu > Site Statistics

   
   

   This page provides information about form usage across the district or campus, or for a specific parent/guardian, is displayed. Archived forms are not included in these counts.

   
   

   
   
   

   • Click each graph to view additional details.
   • Click on sections of a graph or the adjacent legend to download a csv file containing details for a particular section.

   
   
   The following information is displayed:
   

   Total Users	Provides a count of all ParentPortal users in the district.
   Active Users	Provides data about the number of users who have logged on since a particular date.
   Student Accounts	Provides data about students associated with a ParentPortal account (includes student accounts).
   Student Enrollment in Portal	Provides data about returning students who have registered online using ParentPortal (whether they have started and/or completed the process).
   New Student Enrollment	Provides data about students who have enrolled online using ParentPortal (whether they have started and/or completed the process). NOTE: In the Status column on the downloaded spreadsheet: Code 1 = Started (pink) Code 2 = Submitted (green) Code 3 = Enrolled (purple)

   Administrative Users
   

   Administrative Users	Provides counts of district-wide and campus-wide administrative users.

6. Set an optional alert message.

   
   An optional alert message can be displayed on the Login page. This message is displayed in a pop-up window, and the user must click OK to close the window.
   
   
   
   The message file (alert.txt) is located on the application server. Contact your technical administrator to enable, disable, or update the message.