What is included with every integration?

When a new school signs up with us there are the basic things we set up, the things everyone gets. There are also a bunch of extras that can be added at no extra charge. For the purposes of this article lets call the things everyone gets "the basics" and the other free options "extras".

The Basics

• Base plugin 1 installed. This plugin contains the DB extensions (custom fields). It has to be kept separate from the PowerQueries because of an order of operations issue with how the plugin install process works.
• Base plugin 2 installed. This plugin has to come after Base Plugin 1 is installed and enabled. It contains
  • Localization tags - the tags in PowerSchool that allow you to change text from English to Spanish or just change what a label says
  • PowerQueries (PQ) - stored queries that put all the different tables together in a way that makes getting data out of PowerSchool easy. We use these in Data Export Manager (DEM) to send nightly files.
  • Custom web pages - The pages that embed in PowerSchool so that you can use the system without having to log in somewhere else.
• Data plugin installed if needed. The data plugin contains variations that pertain to your setup that aren't standard with PowerSchool. This could be a custom language field, custom phone fields, custom email fields. etc. Maybe you'd like us to create lists for specific situations like remote learners, that logic would be in the data plugin as well. Many schools don't need one of these.
• Setup your sFTP account. This allows PowerSchool (via DEM) to send us files securely. Each customer gets it's own account that points to a folder with only their data.
• System is initialized within PowerSchool
• Staff export is created and scheduled out of DEM. We use this to auto-create your users and create the single sign on between their PowerSchool accounts and their corresponding account with us. Most schools also use this as their staff contact source.
• Parent export is created. This export contains student names and the parent/guardian phone/emails. This may include other information if you've requested it to be transferred as well.
• Student export is created. This export contains the student names and the cell phone and email fields to contact them. We include a student cell phone field in the plugin so you don't need to create one and by default we get student emails from the student email page.
• Within your account with us we create groups for each school. These groups will contain users who will all see the lists that are owned by the group. You may request more groups for departments, such as Transportation, and we'll set those up too if you'd like or you can set them up yourself later.
• Your accounts are created using the information from the staff file. Admin users will either be put in the district group or a single school group. Teachers (defined as staff that can log into PowerTeacher but can't log into PowerSchool admin portal) will be created as individual users. Individual users can't see each other's information unless specifically shared with them which replicates the amount of student data they'd have access to from PowerTeacher.
  • Staff can only be members of 1 group. The district group will be able to see all information from every group and teacher account if they want but school groups will only see the information assigned to that group. That said, members of 1 group who can switch schools within PowerSchool can still use a current selection from the other school(s) to send data, they just won't have the other group's default lists.
  • While accounts will be created the ability to use the system within PowerSchool will be left disabled for all except our main contact person/people. That person can then decide who else gets access to send messages.
  • Click here for more information on how automatic staff creation works
• Subset lists will be created for each school so that they have access to the staff, parents, students that pertain to their building. 
• Report Emailing lists are created for district and each school. Many times we'll only make the parent report emailing lists but we can also make student report emailing lists if you feel you'd like to email reports to the students directly.
  • More information on Setting Up Report Emailing can be found here.

What else can be automated?

Practically anything in PowerSchool can be used to automate a message. We can also automate with other system as well if you have non-PowerSchool systems you'd like to automatically trigger messages. Since the list changes frequently we've created this separate article for common PowerSchool automations.