1. 6 th Annual Focus Users’ Conference 6 th Annual Focus Users’ Conference Communication Tools Presented by: Lauren Velazquez Presented by: Lauren Velazquez

2. Communication Tools Agenda: Print Letters & Send Emails Student menu vs Users menu Creating Letters & Emails  Samples of Letters Using Letters & Emails  Printing Letters  Sending Emails  Logging Letters  Accessing from the Student tab  Using with Workflow Triggers Parent Portal Communication Options for Notifications Publishing Report Cards Focus Messenger

3. Print Letters & Send Emails Print Letters & Send Emails allows users to create customized letters and emails to send to parents, students, and/or districts users. Formal, formatted letters can be created, saved, and reopened/edited directly within the Print Letters and Send Emails function, so the same letters and forms can be kept on hand for future use. Examples: o Attendance Letters o Withdrawal Forms o Notifications such as Open House, Book Fair, etc.

4. Print Letters & Send Emails Student Menu vs User Menu Print Letters and Send Emails can be accessed by both the Student menu and Users menu. The Students Menu allows users to print letters for or send emails to students or parents, with the option to log the communication on the student’s record. The Users Menu allows users to print letters or send emails to users within the system, which includes parents and school staff.

5. Print Letters & Send Emails Creating Letters & Emails Access Letters & Emails through Students Menu > Print Letters & Send Emails. Users can edit existing letters or create a new one. Helpful Hint Users also have the option to include a letterhead by choosing Existing Letterhead Templates.

6. Print Letters & Send Emails Creating Letters & Emails There are various icons for formatting the letter/email. Many of these icons are similar to what you would view in a Word document. Below are some Focus-specific icons: Save Template – Save the template to the template file Preview Letter: Preview the letter/email Source: View the “code” to copy format to another letter/email Insert a Field: Add student and school fields to the letter/email Note: There will be a separate session dedicated to Print Letters and Send Emails.

7. Print Letters & Send Emails Creating Letters & Emails When saving the template, Users can assign the letter to a student tab. This will allow the letter to be printed directly from that tab when in a student’s demographic record. (For more details, see slide 16.)

8. Print Letters & Send Emails Examples of Letters Example of using the Insert a Field to customize who to send the letter to.

9. Print Letters & Send Emails Examples of Letters Open House letter for incoming 8 th graders.

10. Print Letters & Send Emails Examples of Letters The Withdrawal Form auto-fills student information, immunizations, grades, etc. for transferring students. It is usually accessible through the Demographic or General tab.

11. Print Letters & Send Emails Using Print Letters and Send Emails Users can use the More Search Options to send letters and emails to a select group of students.

12. Print Letters & Send Emails Using Print Letters and Send Emails Once the user has searched for a particular group of students, the user is then given the option to choose: o Delivery Method - Print Letters or Send Emails o Recipient – Student, Parent, or One Per Family

13. Print Letters & Send Emails Printing Letters The user can choose to Preview or Print Letters. Preview will open a preview of the letter. Print Letters will open the letter in PDF for easy printing. Helpful Hint Letters should not be printed from Preview, as it will not keep the desired formatting. This feature should be used for previewing the letters and verifying that the information is correct prior to printing.

14. Print Letters & Send Emails Sending Emails When using the Send Emails function, the user is given the option to change the Email Subject, add an email address to cc, or attach a file to the email. If the email is sent successfully, a green checkmark will appear towards to the top of the page with a confirmation message. If the email is not sent successfully, an error message will appear listing the student(s) for whom the email was not sent. Helpful Hint Reasons for receiving this error message include: there is no student email address on file, the student’s parental contact(s) do not have an email address on file, or the student’s parental contact has an email address on file but does not have the custody box checked.

15. Print Letters & Send Emails Logging Entries The correspondence can be sent with or without adding log entries. Log entries creates a log in the student’s demographic Letter Logging tab. This feature logs the HTML code of the letter sent, the date and time the letter was sent, the recipient, the sender, and the subject of the correspondence.

16. Print Letters & Send Emails Using Print Letters and Send Emails from the Student Tab The Form/Letter pull-down is a quick link to letter templates that is accessible from within a student’s demographic information. Helpful Hint Letters will be available on a given tab only if that letter was assigned to that tab when saving the template in Print Letters and Send Emails. (See slide 7)

17. Print Letters & Send Emails Using Print Letters and Send Emails from the Student Tab This will open a PDF of the letter that can be printed. Helpful Hint Printing letters from the Student Tab should be used when the letter needs to be printed for only the student whose record is open. If letters are required for multiple students, Users should use the Print Letters and Send Emails function in the Student menu.

18. Print Letters & Send Emails Using Print Letters and Send Emails from the Student Tab As part of the new enhancements to LMS in version 7.0.X, users will be able to print a PDF of the letter from the student tab or email the letter without having to go to Print Letters and Send Emails.

19. Print Letters & Send Emails Using Print Letters and Send Emails with Workflow Triggers Workflow triggers can be used in conjunction with letter templates to send emails or generate letters in the Letter Queue. The triggers can be based on: o Attendance o Student Data and changes to Student Data o Discipline o Student Form Records o User Form Records o Online Application

20. Print Letters & Send Emails Using Print Letters and Send Emails with Workflow Triggers Adding a letter to the Letter Queue will require a user to go the list of letters, select it, and Print the letters. Users can choose to either Print Without Adding Log Entries or Print Letters & Add Log Entries. Attendance Letter Triggers are ran as scheduled jobs each evening due to the number of changes to the attendance throughout the day. All other triggers happen instantly.

21. Print Letters & Send Emails Using Print Letters and Send Emails with Workflow Triggers Selecting Send Email will trigger an email to be sent automatically. Users can choose to send an email to a Student, a student’s Parents, Users at the school where the workflow trigger is set up, or to a Custom E-mail Address. The Letter Template is selected from the list of letters created through Print Letters and Send Emails. Helpful Hint: The trigger selected must include exactly the same values as the fields in order to function.

22. Parent Portal Communication Options for Notifications Parents have the option of receiving email communication regarding their student’s information. Parents can access these preferences by going to My Information > Preferences > Notifications. Helpful Hint Parents will need to verify their email address in order for this feature to work.

23. Parent Portal Communication Emailing Report Cards By default, the report cards will be printed as a PDF from which hard copies can be printed. Additional options Include: o E-mailing the report cards o Publishing the reports cards to the Parent/Student Portal. Helpful Hint “To each Custodial Contact” will send an email to any contacts on the student’s Address tab that have the custody box checked.

24. Parent Portal Communication Publishing Report Cards to the Parent Portal Parents can have their student’s report card published to the Parent Portal as a PDF. Parents can view the report card by clicking on the link in the Messages box under Communication Options. This can be used instead of or in addition to a printed report card. Helpful Hint In order for parents to receive notifications on the Parent Portal, the system preference “Display Communication Options on the Parent Portal must be turned on.

25. Focus Messenger As part of the new enhancements to LMS in version 7.0.X, a brand new communication tool called Focus Messenger will be available to enhance users’ communication within in the system. Focus Messenger can be accessed by clicking on the chat icon on the bottom right corner. A list of recent chats will appear on the right hand side of the user’s screen. Users can choose to make themselves visible or invisible to other users.

26. Focus Messenger To set Preferences, select the gear icon in the upper right corner of the chat bar. Send me Email Alerts – Sends user an email if a message has gone unread within a certain amount of time. This timeframe will be set up system-wide and not by user. Send me SMS Alerts – Sends user an SMS text message when he/she receives a new Focus message. Play Sound on Alerts – Plays a sound anytime the user is signed in and receives a new message. Full Chat – This is the default setting which allows users to both send and receive messages. Read Only – Allows a user to send messages, but recipients will not be able to respond to those messages. Remove me from Chat – Removes the user from Focus Messenger. Other users will not be able to send messages to this user.

27. Focus Messenger Users can send messages to students, parents, and/or staff. Messages are visible when the user signs in to his or her portal page. If the message is not viewed within a certain period of time, the message will trigger an email to the user. Note: “Send SMS Alerts” is a new option that allows Administrators to send text messages. This can be utilized for emergency text messages if needed.

28. Focus Messenger To search a history of chats, go to the Setup menu and select Focus Chat Messages. Users can search on chat history by student, parent, or school users, within a date range, and by keywords.

29. Focus Messenger Users can also view a history of all messages exchanged with a particular user by selecting that user’s name from the recent chats toolbar. For example, a teacher can view all messages exchanged with a particular student. Note: Students will not be able to communicate with each other through this feature.

30. Focus Messenger Messages will now be available in other areas of Focus. For example, users will be able to message teachers who have not taken attendance yet today through the Teacher Completion report in the Attendance menu. For further details about Focus Messenger, please refer to the forthcoming release notes.

31. Questions? Lauren Velazquez Project Coordinator, Focus School Software laurenv@focusschoolsoftware.com ph: (727) 388-7051 fax: (727) 213-6999 http://www.focusschoolsoftware.com

32. Thank You Please be sure to complete the comment card for this session and enjoy the rest of the Users’ Conference!