PAR - Parent Lounge Licences
Parent Lounge Licences Overview
This program provides a tool to perform the following functions in bulk:
- Grant Parent Lounge access to new parents.
Grant Parent Lounge access to future parents.
- Remove Parent Lounge access from parents (eg: parents who become non-current when their last student leaves the school).
- Generate or enter Parent Lounge passwords for new or future parents.
- Generate or enter new Parent Lounge passwords for parents who already have access.
You would use program Student Admin > Parents > Parent Information > Parents when there is only a need to update Parent Lounge access for a single parent.
Important!
If a parent has been set up for 'Split Family' access through TASS.web program Student Admin > Parent Records > Setup Information > Parent Lounge Setup then this program will not allow the granting of Parent Lounge Access or the generation of a password for the parent. You need to maintain the passwords for split families in that program.
Any parent records that are set up in that program will be excluded from this grid.
Parent Tab
Use the 'Status' and 'Status Options' fields to determine the parent records to maintain Parent Lounge license for.
By default, the program will include parents who have students currently at the school.
You would change this to 'Non-current' when you are:
- Removing Parent Lounge access from parents (e.g. parents who become non-current when their last student leaves the school).
- Granting access to Enrolled parents (e.g. parents who only have students starting at the school at a future date).
Status | Status Option | Parents that will be included |
|---|---|---|
Current | All Parents | Parent records that are directly attached to a current student. The parent records are directly attached to students through the 'Parent Code' field on the 'General' tab in program Student Admin > Student Records > Student Information > Students. or Parent records that are not directly attached to a current student, but are attached to a current student via a 'Communication Rule' on the 'Addresses & Communication Rules' tab in program Student Admin > Student Records > Student Information > Students. A student is defined as current when his/her date of entry is less than or equal to today and has no date of leaving or his/her date of leaving is greater than or equal to today. |
Current | Only parents with students attached to their parent record | Parent records that are directly attached to a current student. The parent records are directly attached to students through the 'Parent Code' field on the 'General' tab in program Student Admin > Student Records > Student Information > Students. |
Current | Only parents with NO students attached to their parent record | Parent records that are not directly attached to a current student, but are attached to a current student via a 'Communication Rule' on the 'Addresses & Communication Rules' tab in program Student Admin > Student Records > Student Information > Students. This option is good for identifying the standalone additional parent records in 'Complex Split' arrangements. |
Non-Current | All Parents | This will include:
|
Non-Current | Only parents with students attached to their parent record | This will include those past parents where their parent record is directly attached to a student(s) and all of these student(s) have a date of leaving that is less than today. |
Non-Current | Only parents with NO students attached to their parent record | This will include standalone parents who do not have students attached either directly or via a 'Communication Rule'. or Parent records that are not directly attached to a student(s), but are attached to student(s) via a 'Communication Rule' and all of these student(s) have a date of leaving that is less than today. |
Non-Current | Only Parents with Enrolled Students whose Enrolment Status gives Parent Lounge access | This will include Parent records that are attached to an Enrolled Student record (i.e. a future student). Click here for more information on 'How to Provide an Enrolled Parent With Access to Parent Lounge'. |
| Fields that require further explanation | |
|---|---|
Parent Lounge Password | No Password — This will only include parents who don't already have a password. Use this option when you have new parents who you are granting access or issuing passwords for Parent Lounge (but you don't want to override the passwords for parents who are already registered). Password Present — This will only include parents who do have a password. Use this option when you want to reset passwords for existing Parent Lounge users only. |
Parent UD, Student, Student UD Tab
Fields from these tabs can be used as selection criteria to filter the data that will be available in the grid.
The 'Calendar' icons in the 'General' tab display date range pickers, these windows allow the entry of a date range, e.g. All student records with a 'Date of Birth' date between 01/01/06 and 31/12/06.
You may also notice that the drop-down menu arrows next to selected fields in the 'General' and 'User Defined' tabs look different, these different arrows indicate that more than one selection can be made from the drop-down menu for your search criteria.
Options Tab
Sort By
The default is for the records in the grid to be sorted by 'Parent Surname'.
Alternatively, you can elect to sort by 'Parent Code'.
Address Selection
If you are entering or generating new passwords for parents, there is an option to create a merge file.
You can also select the parent address that is to be included in the merge file from the 'Address Selection' drop-down list. The school default address has an '*' next to it.
The logic that the program uses to determine the address and email to use in the merge is:
- If the address selected is not the default, check if there are address details for the parent in the selected address block. If not go to the default address.
- If there is address detail, use this address (even if there is no email address for this parent in this address block. In this case insert a blank email address in the merge file for the parent).
- If the address selected is the default, then use the parent address details in that address block including a valid email if there is one.
Parent Lounge Licensing
This section of the screen displays the number of Parent Lounge licences:
- Currently available to your school.
- Allocated to current parents.
- Allocated to non-current parents.
Important Locking Information
When you load the 'Update Parent Passwords' grid, the system will lock the selected parent records. This means other TASS.web users will not be able to access these records whilst you are working. This lock will expire after 5 minutes of inactivity.
You need to acknowledge this before you can load the 'Update Parent Passwords' grid.
Important Warning
Important!
If a parent has been set up for 'Split Family' access through TASS.web program Student Admin > Parent Records > Setup Information > Parent Lounge Setup then this program will not allow the granting of Parent Lounge Access or the generation of a password for the parent. You need to maintain the passwords for split families in that program.
Any parent records that are set up in that program will be excluded from this grid.
Click the 'GO' button (or press 'Enter') to load the 'Update Parent Passwords' grid.
Update Parent Passwords Grid
This grid will display the parents based on the selections that you have entered on the previous tabs.
Parents who have not yet been granted access to Parent Lounge will have the 'Web Access' flag set to 'N'.
You can use this program to change the 'Web Access' flag for parents by clicking into the corresponding cell in the grid. There is a count at the top of the screen of the number of Parent Lounge licenses that your school has currently issued compared to the total number of licenses held by the school. As you make changes to the 'Web Access' in this grid, the count will change.
There are two ways in which a new password can be created:
Click an individual cell to enter a new parent password. The field allows a maximum entry of 32 characters and will be case sensitive.
Important!
'Fill Down' is available on the 'Password' column; however, it is not a good practice to issue parents with the same password. Parents may be able to guess another parent's ID and use the common password to gain unauthorized access. You should consult your school's security and password policy in order to adopt a secure strategy in this regard.
- Select the 'Generate' icon to randomly create a unique 7 character password for all parents displayed in the grid who have 'Web Access' = 'Y'.
If you make a mess, use the 'Restore' button to undo your changes. Unsaved data will be lost.
- The data will be restored back to the last 'Save'.
- If you have not yet saved, the data will be restored back to the way it was when you loaded the Grid.
To sort by a column, click on the column heading. To sort by multiple columns use shift-click in the second and subsequent columns that you want to sort by.
A typical 'workflow' when using the upgrade parent passwords grid would be:
- Make adjustments to the 'Web Access' cell for any parents who are to have Parent Lounge access added or removed.
- Use the 'Generate' icon to create passwords for those records in the grid where 'Web Access' is 'Y'.
- After generating passwords click 'Save'.
- Advise parents of their Parent Lounge usernames and password using one of the below options:
Merge — Click this button to create a Word Merge file. Check the merge file and use the Word® Mail Merge function to create a letter or email merge to notify the parents of their Parent Lounge usernames and passwords.
The parent account code (used for the Parent Lounge username) and the generated parent password are available as fields within the merge file. Include those in your Word Merge file template so that they are automatically inserted by the merge process.
Generate Emails. Click this icon to create an SMTP email to notify the parents of their Parent Lounge usernames and passwords. The email template used for this notification is called 'Parent Lounge Licences'. For more information see TASS.web program System Admin > Utilities > Email Settings.
Important!
For more information, refer to ' How to Enable SMTP Emailing and Set Up Communication Log Permissions'.
The 'Parent Code (used for the Parent Lounge username) and the generated Parent Lounge password are available as keyword substitution fields that can be included in the email.