The student schedules feature unlocks a ton of capabilities, including teachers having their current class roster on their home screen, faster pass creation since students/teachers won’t have to select an “origin” anymore, and teachers can look up where any student is currently located.
This guide will walk you through how to set up schedules and classes as an admin, but if you want to take a look at accepting classes from a teacher's perspective, please head over here. If you are having teachers accept classes, please be sure to toggle this permission on.
1. Uploading your Bell Schedule
By clicking the Bell Schedule tab on the left of your admin page you will see 2 options to share your bell schedule(s) with us. You can upload a file or share a URL with us. You can upload more than one file if your schedules are contained in different files.
You will be asked for information about your schedule during the upload process. Once you submit this form our team will begin working on adding your schedule(s) into SmartPass. We will reach out once this is complete.
2. Confirming and Adjusting Bell Schedules and Holidays
Once our team has reached out to you to let you know your schedules have been entered you will find your schedules shown under Bell Schedule on the left of your admin page. You will need to confirm your bell schedule is correct before it goes live.
Approving your Bell Schedule
Approving your Bell Schedule
Once we reach out to you head to your bell schedule tab and ensure everything looks correct. If so please check the box and click "Everything Looks Good". If there is an error please let us know by clicking "Something is Incorrect"
Please note that you will not see any of your synced classes until you have approved your bell schedule.
3. Finish Setup: School Year & Terms
After you approve your Bell Schedule, you will need to set your school year and terms. Please pay mind to using the correct dates.
A. Setting Up Your School Year
A. Setting Up Your School Year
There are 2 quick steps to set up your school year
School year name
Start and end dates (first and last day of school for students)
B. Adding your Terms
B. Adding your Terms
Add as many terms as needed for the school year.
If all of your classes are full year courses, then you do not need to add terms
Be sure to name terms in a way that is easily identifiable and add the correct dates.
Example of terms are quarters, semesters, trimesters, etc.
Click Save
Important Notes on Adding Terms:
You will want to ensure terms are set up correctly for multiple reasons. The most important is that your teaching staff may have classes only taught during the 1st quarter, so you will need to have this data entered correctly for them to accept classes.
You only need to enter the smallest unit of terms. For example, if you operate on a schedule with 2 semesters and 4 quarters, you only need to enter Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4. A teacher adding a class for the 1st semester would select Q1 and Q2. By adding overlapping terms such as Q1, Q2 and Semester 1 you will end up with errors for your classes.
If you need to edit a term, please head here for more info.
If your school needs overlapping terms due to having classes held in quarters and trimesters, or a similar scenario, please reach out to our live chat, our team can help set this up for you.
C. Changing your Schedule
C. Changing your Schedule
If you need to make changes or switch your schedules to line SmartPass up with your schedule, click Change Schedule.
After making any needed changes simply click Yes, Set This Schedule.
Consider using "Other" for schedules you do not have uploaded yet. Learn more here about pausing your schedule.
D. Adjusting Holidays
D. Adjusting Holidays
To adjust holidays either:
Click on an existing holiday to edit
Click Add Holiday to make a new one
Learn more about adding, editing and deleting holidays by clicking here.
4. Accepting Synced Classes
One you had added your schedules, the last step to gain the full benefit from this feature is to accept your classes. SmartPass can sync classes from Clever, ClassLink or Google Classroom. You can also manually add classes.
Option 1: Allowing Teachers to Add/Edit Classes
Option 1: Allowing Teachers to Add/Edit Classes
Share this video guide with your teachers on how they can accept their classes from your integration. It should take them less than 5 minutes.
Pro Tip: At your next faculty meeting, walk your teachers through how to set this up together. You can review the teacher guide for accepting classes here.
Option 2: Accept the Classes for your Teachers
Option 2: Accept the Classes for your Teachers
Often teachers are super busy, and they may not have time to get things set up. As an admin, you can do this for them.
By clicking Classes on the left you will see all of the classes in your school.
Step 1: Hover over "More Details" and note the information for the class you are setting up. You will want to determine information such as the term and period data.
Step 2: Indicate what room the class is held in and hit Accept to get started. You will then be asked to enter the date(s) and time(s) for the class. Hit Save when you are finished.
Step 3: You are all done! Now this class will show up on the teacher's home screen. At this point, you can set up the remaining classes.
Alternatively, you can toggle to view the classes from list view.
Benefits of Adding Schedules
After classes are set up, teachers will see the current period and class on their homepage. They can quickly create passes for students in their class, see students who are coming to them and more.
If you want to look up where a student currently is, you can just search for a student and SmartPass will tell you their currently scheduled room.
On the student side, they’ll see the current day and when they create passes, they won’t have to select their current location.
Adding a Class Manually
If your school is manually creating classes, or the sync does not include every class in your building, no worries, building a class is easy. Head over to this article to learn more.
Permissions
By clicking Permissions at the top right of your Classes page you will be able to allow or prevent staff from creating or editing and accepting classes.
Teacher Can Create New Classes allows teachers to manually add classes that are not part of the sync. If your school is syncing classes with Clever, ClassLink, or Google then this is toggled off by default. This is toggled on if you are manually adding classes.
Teachers Can Edit Classes allows teachers to not only accept a synced class but also edit and fix it if there is an error message associated with the setup. By default, this is toggled on.
If you do not have this permission toggled on then teachers will be able to see their classes, but they cannot accept classes.
FAQ
It says my period times are still processing. When will it be finished?
We'll work quickly to get the period times processed. If it's not processed by the day you have your modified schedule, you can still set this schedule. No period times, classes or student locations will show up, teachers and students will see that it’s a modified day, and everything else will work as usual. Learn more.
How does SmartPass know my school's class rosters?
SmartPass can sync classes from Clever, ClassLink or Google Classroom. You can also manually add classes. Read more here.
Do you support my schedule type?
Yes. Rest assured we did our homework and studied schedules from many different schools. We can support your schedule regardless of how complex it may be. After you upload your schedule, we will let you know if we have any questions.
Are teachers able to set up their own classes?
Yes, as long as teachers have permission toggled on to do so, they can do this. Share these steps with them.
What happens if some classes are not set up and some are? Will my school still be able to use SmartPass?
Yes, no worries! For those students without a class set up for the current period, pass creation will still function, just students and staff will not have access to the information containing the current class the student is in, meaning they will have to select it manually. Staff will see a message prompting them to correct this issue.
What if I have a last-minute schedule change?
On the Bell Schedule tab, click Change schedule and then select Other. Your schedule will pause for the day: No period times, classes or student locations will show up, teachers and students will see that it’s a modified day, and everything else will work as usual. Learn more.
Need to add an additional modified schedule not in SmartPass? (ex- 2 hour delay, pep rally)
On the Bell Schedule tab, go to the date when the modified schedule will occur. Click Change Schedule, then Edit Schedule, and follow the instructions.On the Bell Schedule tab, click Change schedule and then select Other. Your schedule will pause for the day: No period times, classes or student locations will show up, teachers and students will see that it’s a modified day, and everything else will work as usual. Learn more.