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Formation and Student Processes

Promote Students to the Next Grade Level

CAUTION: This process alters data. We recommend backing up your data before proceeding.

Before using this process, ensure that the Grades and Degrees keyword list contains each grade you plan to promote and that the list is sorted in numeric order.

With this process, you can promote a group of students from one grade level to the next. Grade/Degree displays in the Personal window.
Note:

If you share data with another program, note that students who are not visible in any program will not be promoted during this process.

Remember that you can also promote students during the Formation Remove/Advance process.

  1. On the Information tab, click Students > Processes then, on the Formation Processes tab, click Grade Promotion.
  2. Determine which grades you want to promote. Select either Promote the Formation Grade Only, Promote the School Grade Only, or Promote both the Formation Grade and the School Grade, then click Next.
  3. If you ran this process last year and want to start with the same options, click Use Values from: <date>. You will be able to review and make changes before processing the data.
    Note: If you don't see this button, it means you have not run this process since updating to 11.1 B. You must run the process at least once before the values can be pulled.
  4. Determine which member types to promote. Select either Promote members with type of Child, Promote members with type of Young Adult, or both.
  5. Enter the range of grade levels you want to promote. Typically, you start with the first grade level on your list (Preschool or Kindergarten) and end with the last grade level that your school promotes to.
  6. You can automatically change the type for graduating members. If you're only promoting children, these will change from Child to Young Adult. If you're promoting young adults, these will change from Young Adult to Adult. Select Change the type for those currently in the last grade listed below... to do this automatically. You can also change the member type manually for each person in the grid.
    Note:

    A student's type is set in the Personal window. This is one way to distinguish between students whose last grade completed is 12 and students who are currently in grade 12.

    If selected, note that individuals changed to Adult during this process will not be included in the next grade promotion (since they are no longer considered a student).

  7. If you selected to change the member type, you can choose to automatically change the relationship for graduating members as well. Select Also change their Relationship to, and select the relationship from the drop-down list.
  8. Select to include only active, only inactive, or all students.
  9. Review the grades for promotion in the grid, and make any necessary changes. Click Next.
  10. Review your list. When you're ready to promote the selected individuals, click Next.
  11. To post the new grades, click Promote Students.

Watch & Learn

Learn how to promote children and/or young adults from one grade to the next. 10 min 46 sec

It may take a minute for the video to display. To enlarge the video, click the Fullscreen icon four arrows pointing out from center in the video player.

To watch more videos, visit the PDS Video Library.

Video
Church Office
Formation Office

Last updated: September 2, 2026

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