Parent Language Settings

Not all parents speak / read in English. You need to be able to send messages in a manner that the recipients will understand. To help with this we've included some fields that you can use, but if you are already maintaining a field such as a state reporting language field, we can use that as well. Below are the options you have and how they are used.

Where to Find the Settings

The settings in the Enhanced UI can be found by going to  System Management > Data > BrightArrow Settings. On that page you'll click on the Filters link to pull up the settings for that specific building. District Office settings are the default settings for the other schools and for servers that are system wide setups (one district on the server rather than a shared server where every building is its own district). District Office is the only place that the language settings can be adjusted.

The Parent/Guardian settings will be in the first tab with the student language settings in the third tab.

What are the 3 fields and what are they used for?

Depending on your settings you'll see between 1 and 3 fields. The first controls whether the other 2 are needed. When the other 2 fields are not viable with the chosen setting, they will be hidden to reduce confusion. The 3 fields are:

Label Use
Use Custom Language Field (requires custom plugin) Where is the language value coming from? This is used in the PowerQueries and current selection queries. There are 3 stock options and 4 additional options if you have a custom data plugin. 
Display on Parent Portal Would you like to display the value on the parent portal page so that parents can see what their current setting is? In some instances you can also allow parents to change the chosen language themselves.
Language Field (informational only) This field only shows when a custom field option is selected in the first field. The data entered in it will display on the settings page within a student record so users can know which field the data is sourced from for the exports and current selections.

What are the options for the language field and what do they mean?

The stock BrightArrow plugins have 3 language options by default.

  • Contacts Language Field - Built In: This is the language field PowerSchool added to each individual contact. Note that the field doesn't show up in Contacts unless you set it up. Since it is a stock field that everyone has, we are able to use it without further customization.
  • BrightArrow Legacy Language Field: This is a 1:1 field (each student can have 1 and only 1 value) that comes with the BrightArrow plugins. With this setting every parent/guardian contact would use the same language value. The field defaults to English when used directly and is blank when used as an override (more on that below). The field displays as a drop down which is populated with a Code Set that comes with the plugins as well. The code set contains all the languages that BrightArrow translates to as of the time the plugin was designed.
    • If this option is chosen you may also allow parents to make their own language choice changes on the parent portal.
    • Field is U_BA_MsgFields.messagingLanguage for parents and U_BA_MsgFields.messagingLanguageStd for students.
  • BrightArrow Contacts Language Field: This is a 1:1 field off of the contact itself rather than the student. This allows each contact to have their own language. If a student's mother speaks Spanish but the father speaks English, they can each be set that way. The field displays as a drop down within the contact. 
    • Field is U_BA_MsgFields_Person.messagingLanguage. 

The default setting is BrightArrow Legacy Language Field but the other 2 can be chosen without any special change needed and after saving the queries will immediately change to use the new selected option. When there is no custom plugin present, the other 4 fields are not selectable as there is no way to use them from the stock BrightArrow plugins. However, if you do have a custom plugin active they will be available to be chosen.

The other options are:

  • Legacy Language Field: Use a custom 1:1 student field by itself. This most likely will be a field your district created.
  • Contacts Language Field - Custom: This option can be chosen if your custom field is a contact field (rather than a student field). 
  • BrightArrow Legacy Language Field as Override: This option is similar to Legacy Language Field in that it will use your custom field but our 1:1 student field will still be present. With this choice the BrightArrow field will default to blank and using our field will signify you are overriding the other field for the purpose of messaging through BrightArrow. This is extremely popular when the custom language field is a state field. This allows you to use the state value always, but if a parent says they want to be messaged in a language that is different you can change the language in our field without tampering with the state reporting data.
    • If this option is chosen you may also allow parents to make their own language choice changes on the parent portal but they will only be changing our custom field, not your other field. This removes any risk of tampering with state data.
  • BrightArrow Contacts Language Field as Override: Just like the legacy version, this one allows you to use our contact language field as an override to a different custom field. For example, perhaps you want to use the state language field normally but want to also allow for a single contact to have a different language than the rest for the same student. This would allow for that.

What is the source of the drop downs for the BrightArrow language fields?

The drop downs are populated from a code set in PowerSchool called BrightArrowLanguages. The code set is populated with the languages available for translating within BrightArrow. Selections are stored in clear text, no decode is used on these fields.

What is the Display on Parent Portal option for?

This option allows you to choose to reveal the language value on the BrightArrow parent page within PowerSchool, PowerTeacher, and PowerSchool Guardian portals. This is only possible when the language choice is Legacy Language Field, BrightArrow Legacy Language Field or BrightArrow Legacy Language Field as Override. By default this is off.

  • Do not display on the Parent Portal: Default option. The chosen language option will not show on the BrightArrow Parent page.
  • View on the Parent Portal: The language will show on the parent page but will not be editable.
  • Allow Edits on the Parent Portal: The language will show on the parent page and the BrightArrow drop down will be available to make changes.
    • This is not an option when Legacy Language Field is chosen, only when one of the two BrightArrow Legacy Language Field options are selected.

When a display option is chosen it will be reflected on the parent page within all portals. This is so users can see what the parent sees without having to go to that portal to see for themselves. From the admin portal you can see what the parents see by going to a student record and then clicking Student Profile > BrightArrow Parent. This is to show you what the parent sees while still in the admin portal. 

Ex: When View is the selected value: 

Ex: When Edit is the selected value:

What is the Language Field (informational only) option and where is it displayed?

This is used to communicate with PowerSchool users what field the custom language is being sourced from. When users go to a student's record in PowerSchool and navigate to Student Profile > BrightArrow Settings they will be able to see what language is being sent for this student's parent/guardian language and student language. The value entered here is injected into a message to the user.

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