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Manage Students at Year End

Remove and Advance Records

At the end of the religious education school year, you can do any or all of the following:
  • Update students' permanent records with this year's information
  • Update catechists' history records with this year's information
  • Remove parents/guardians' volunteer activities and/or preparation classes
  • Remove graduating/inactive students and/or inactive catechists
  • Clear the number of online student registrations to reset class size limits
  • Delete current year information for students and/or catechists
  • Promote students to the next grade or from one session to another
If you don't run all these activities at one time, make sure to keep a log of what you did so no duplicate information is posted.
CAUTION: If you want attendance to display on permanent records, be sure you are using a Year/Period for sessions on the Student Detail window. You must have attendance totals listed. If you don't, go to the Class Schedules window and select Calculate Days Present. Make sure there are dates in the Dates List window. If there are no dates, select the checkbox and set the frequency for existing classes/sessions.

There are a few things you need to do to remove and advance records.

Back up your data

  1. On the File menu in your PDS program, click Backup / Restore / Archive > Backup Data.
  2. Click Backup Data.
  3. Enter a reason for the backup, such as "Backup before removing records".
  4. Select a backup method, and enter or select any relevant information.
  5. Click Start Backup.
  6. After your data is backed up, you can print the backup information for your reference.

Print the final versions of this year's reports

Once you run this process, only the new year's information displays. Print any reports you may need with this year's information.

Watch & Learn

Learn to print student progress report cards. 4 min 49 sec

It may take a minute for the video to display. To watch in full screen mode, click the expand icon in the video player.

To watch more videos, visit the PDS Video Library.

Post student progress

If you track students' marks in certain categories or subjects, make sure you've entered them for the appropriate reporting period(s).

  1. On the Information tab, click Students > Quick Posting > Student Progress.
  2. Select whether to enter student progress for an entire class/session or for individual students.
  3. Enter the reporting period number you want to post for, then click Next.
  4. If you're posting for a class/session:
    1. Select the name from the drop-down list.
    2. Select whether to include only active, only inactive, or all students.
    3. All available categories for this class/session display in the grid. Clear the checkbox beside any you don't want to record for this posting. If needed, click the add icon green plus sign to insert another category in your student progress definitions.
    4. Click Next.
    5. For each student in the list, select a mark for each category.
  5. If you're posting a group of individuals:
    1. Select the name or ID from the drop-down list, and confirm that you have the correct student using the information provided.
    2. All available categories for this student's classes/sessions display in the grid. Clear the checkbox beside any you don't want to record for this posting. If needed, click the add icon green plus sign to insert another category or class/session.
    3. For each class/session in the grid, select a mark for each category. When you're finished adding marks for this student, click Add Student to List.
    4. Repeat this for each record you want to process. When you're finished, click Next.
  6. Review your list. If needed, select or clear the checkbox. When you're ready to post to the selected records, click Next.
  7. To post, click Finish.

Watch & Learn

Learn to post marks to a group of student records. 4 min 5 sec

It may take a minute for the video to display. To watch in full screen mode, click the expand icon in the video player.

To watch more videos, visit the PDS Video Library.

Remove and advance records

CAUTION: If you have one class per grade and you're moving all students from one grade to the next, use Automatic Class/Session Promotion instead of removing sessions during this process.
  1. On the Information tab, click Students > Processes then, on the Formation Processes tab, click End of Year - Formation Remove/Advance.
  2. If you track student progress, you're asked if you have posted it yet. Click Yes to continue or No if you need to go back to post student progress first.
  3. If you'd like to be guided step by step through this process, click Assist Me and follow the prompts. Instead of seeing all the options at once, each step asks you one question and provides details about what it means. You'll have a chance to review everything before processing the data. Once you complete the wizard, you can skip to the last step of these instructions.
  4. If you ran this process last year and typically select the same options for a new year, you can click Use Values from: <date> to pull those values from last time. You'll have a chance to review and make changes before processing the data. Once the values display, you can skip to the last step of these instructions.
    Note: This feature relies on data from the last time you ran the process using version 11.1 B or higher. So, the button will not display unless you've run the process at least once after updating to 11.1 B.
  5. Select which year or period to process.
  6. Select whether to clear the number of students who have pending online registrations. This does not remove those students' registration forms from your Check Registrations process.
  7. Select any options for updating students' permanent records.
    • Add this Year/Period info to the Permanent Records – Enter the class or session year/period for the information that's updated. If multiple catechists handle a class/session and you want all their names listed in permanent records, select Add a line for each Catechist. To add just the first catechist in the Class Schedules/Session Information window to one line of the students' permanent records, select Add one line (use first Catechist).
    • If you already assigned students to classes for next year, you can only select which class to add on the permanent records if you've assigned year/periods to the classes. If year/periods haven't been assigned, both classes are recorded.
    • If you run Automatic Class/Session Promotion, the current class/session is deleted when you promote classes. To add the current class/session to the permanent record, you must update the permanent records before you run the process.
    • To view permanent records: On the Information tab, click Students > Enrollment/Perm. Rec.. Results of sessions attended and attendance data are copied from the student's records to his or her permanent record. This process doesn't remove current year information. We recommend that you remove current year data prior to the next update of permanent records so that information isn't duplicated.
  8. Select any options for removing old student records.
    CAUTION: If you share data, these options do not remove students who are members of Church Office. Instead, they are hidden from your Formation listings.
    • To remove students who are graduating, select Graduating Students and select a graduating grade. If you have multiple graduating grades (such as 8A, 8B, and 8C), select Grade Starts With. Otherwise, select Exact Match. To print records of graduating students removed during this process, select Print Student's Info.
    • To remove inactive students, select Inactive Students. To print records of inactive students removed during this process, select Print Student's Info.
    • To remove inactive families, select Inactive Families. To print records of inactive families removed during this process, select Print Families' and Student's Info.
    • You can delete all current schedule information from the List of Sessions in the Student Detail window. Select Students' Schedules for the Year/Period. If you want to keep this information, make sure you select to update permanent records before processing.
    • You can delete all current service and retreat information from the Student Service/Retreat window. Select Students' Service/Retreat List. This isn't included on permanent records.
    • You can delete all current attendance information from the Student Attendance window. Select Students' Attendance for the Year/Period. If you want to keep this information, make sure you select to update the permanent records before processing.
  9. Select whether to run the Automatic Grade Promotion during this process.
    CAUTION:

    If you already ran the Automatic Grade Promotion process separately, don't select this.

    If it's been less than a year since you last performed grade promotion, a message displays to protect against promoting students again.

  10. Select any options for updating catechists' history and removing old catechist information.
    • Add this year's Info to the Catechists' History window – Enter the date you want recorded in the History window for the information that's updated. The catechists' current session information is copied to the history. This doesn't remove current year session or schedule information. We recommend you remove current year information for the catechists prior to the next update of the history records so that information isn't duplicated.
    • To remove catechist data that's no longer needed, select Inactive Catechists. To print records of catechists removed during this process, select Print Catechists' Files.
      CAUTION: If you share data, these options do not remove catechists who are members of Church Office. Instead, they are hidden from your Formation listings.
  11. Select any options for removing old parent/guardian information.
  12. If you removed graduating students or inactive records, select an option for keeping or deleting the associated family and fund records.
    • Keep all families & funds – Removes all members in the family, but keeps family information (as inactive), including fund history.
    • Keep the family & fund records of ONLY those families who owe money to the church
    • Delete those families & funds – Removes (or hides, if sharing data) family and student information in Formation Office.
    CAUTION: Any records you mark to remove are permanently deleted unless they're being used in another program.
  13. If needed, select Process Inactive Records for all Selected Processes. If you didn't select to delete inactive students or catechists, select this option when you have records that are temporarily marked inactive but should be included in grade promotion or advancement processing.
  14. When you're ready to being the process, click Process, and click Yes to being processing. If you selected to run the grade promotion, the wizard displays. For information on that process, see Promote Grade Levels.

example of the End of Year - Formation Remove/Advance process

Remove families based on giving

You can delete or inactivate the records of families who haven't given or pledged in a specified period of time.

  1. On the Information tab, click Families > Processes > Delete/Inactivate Based on Giving.
  2. Select whether you want to delete or mark records inactive.
  3. If you chose to delete records, select what to do with the information.
    • If you share data with other PDS programs, select whether to keep or delete the removed records in the other programs.
    • Otherwise, select whether to keep (but hide) records or delete them from your database.
  4. Enter the date range to check, then click Next.
  5. Select to delete/inactivate all families or only those who fit the conditions you add to filter the list.
    Note: For help with conditions, see the Additional Selections section in the topic, Report Selections.
  6. Select to include only active, only inactive, or all families in the process.
  7. Click Next.
  8. Review the list of families. When you're ready to delete or inactivate the selected records, click Next.
  9. Select whether to print a list of the removed families.
  10. Click Finish to delete or inactivate the records.
Formation_Office

Last updated: November 4, 2024