I wanted to let you know about the updates we’ve made recently at Scholastico which include some great new features that our clients have requested. We have the best parent-teacher conference registration software around, and it just got better. Our after-school activity signup software has new features, and our Ecoballot election program is easier to use and more flexible than ever. If it’s been a while since you’ve used Scholastico, you should sign in and take a look. If you evaluated Scholastico a while ago, but never made an account for your school, it’s free and easy to sign up.
Here are some details about our new features:
Localizations: This new feature lets you customize almost all the displayed text, including the success and error messages, the text on the buttons, and more. Any character set is supported, so you can include multiple languages and really make the system fit your school or organization’s needs.
Better CSV Upload: now it’s easier than ever to upload data from your SIS. Columns can be in any order, and your file can include extra columns. When you upload the data, you’ll match your data up to the fields available. Various versions of CSV formats are supported better, so exports from older systems will work seamlessly.
Mail Merge: one of the most-requested features was the ability to send parents their signup links directly from Scholastico, rather than from your school email system. We’ve added that functionality. And if you send reminders to parents using the Scholastico mail merge, it will only go to those parents who haven’t yet signed up for any activities.
New Knowledgebase: all of the new features are documented in our updated knowledgebase. To access it, make sure you are signed into your Scholastico account, then go to https://scholastico.net/help/
Specific Updates for Parent-Teacher Conferences
Parent Request: you can add a tickbox to the registration to allow parents to make a special request. Some schools would like parents to be able to request that a counselor or translator be present for the conference, for example. You can customize the text to suit your needs. The request data is added to the teacher’s schedule as well as to the exportable master spreadsheet, so that you can filter and sort as needed.
Student Comment: you can add extra text to the student record, which you can have displayed on the teacher schedule. Some schools would like to let teachers know which grade level the child is in, or what language they speak at home. Any data that you wish to include can be displayed.
Teacher Types: you can have three different teacher “types” with matching timeslots. If you want classroom teachers to have 45-minute slots, while art and music teachers have only 15-minute slots, that’s easy to do now.
Specific Updates for After-School Activities
Phases: Now you can set the maximum number of activities a child can be registered for in three separate phases, to help keep the first parents from taking up all the available slots. You could have 1 activity per child for the first two days, then switch to phase 2, when you might have 3 activities allowed per child.
Maximum per day: You can limit the total number of activities per day, per child.
Parent signup: You can have certain activities that parents are allowed to register themselves for. If you don’t have any activities like that, parents won’t see their own names as an option to register.
Waitlist Everyone: If you are holding tryouts, giving preference to certain students, or if you have some other method of choosing who will be confirmed you might not want to allow first-come-first-served signups. Now you can choose “waitlist everyone” on the activity edit menu and make selections after signups are complete.
If you have suggestions for more new features to add to our roadmap, please let us know!