Parent Connect On-line Demographic Change Requests

Revised  7/23/2020

Prep Work to Utilize Demographic Change Requests Parent Connect
For those who want to allow parents to request Demographic changes to their student’s records OR validate specific data that you select through Parent Connect, below are the necessary steps to complete the setup for Parent Connect. Completing this section enables parents to request changes to their student/s demographic records on-line.

Access WSO | Administrative Utilities | Data View Definitions

•     Click in the “Request For Change” circle on the left.

•     From the Default View dropdown on the right select Basic Demographics.

•     Now add or remove the fields you want Parents to be able to edit or verify.

•     Save the new view with a name that will help your parents understand what they are seeing, i.e. Grade School Demographics or Emergency Contact Information. Note that multiple views can be created so that the view reflects specific information about the student.

o  If you name the views with numbers (i.e. 1-Mailing Address Information, 2-Emergency Contact Information), then the views will appear in the order that you want the parent/guardian to review the data.  This is not required, only a suggestion to help your data flow. 

Access WSO | Administrative Utilities | SDS Web Office Settings

•     Scroll down to the item called Allow Parents to Submit Requests for Change.

o  Setting this option to Y will turn “on” the feature to allow parents to request changes from Parent Connect.

o  Setting this option to N will turn “off” the feature to allow parents to request changes from Parent Connect.

•     Select the appropriate setting and click the Save Changes button at the top or the bottom of the screen.

•     Note: for schools not running Parent Connect from their live database, the database must be copied to the Parent Data folder before the Parent Connect site will reflect any changes made. This option can be turned on or off depending on whether the individual school wants parents to have this feature available at all times or just during specific times such as summer registration.

Prep Work Parent Connect On Line Demographics Change Requests – User Security
To “turn on” the Demographics Change Request option for Parent Connect users, go to Administrative Utilities |User Security. (If you don’t have this option, you can ask your tech to do this for you) In the security tree for the _ParentConnect Parent group, the following items need to be addressed:

Open and uncheck these folders: Web Menu and Data Entry Options | Data Change Request | the name of the custom view(s) you created in step 1 above

Note that it is not recommended that you open this area for the Parent Connect Non-Custodial or the Parent Connect Student groups.

What Parent Connect will show Parents
When the above steps are completed and the databases (sdsxplan.mdb and sdscplan.mdb) are copied to the ParentData folder (this is required only for schools not running Parent Connect from their live database), the next time Parents log into Parent Connect they will see a new “icon” below the Other Options: area



When the parent clicks the icon a new page opens with the “views” that you created in the Data View Definition area. Parents can click in a field and change the data then click the “Submit Changes” diskette icon at the top of the screen. The changes requested are now displayed on the right side of the screen for the parent to edit or delete if they have made a mistake.



What happens when Parents request data changes
The next time a Web School Office user goes into Student Information after a parent has clicked to Submit changes in Parent Connect, the Web School Office user will get a message informing them of a change request. Note that if you have multiple school locations in your database, the only users who will receive this message are users whose school location matches the school location of the student with the change data request.



The Web School Office user will also have a new icon located at the top of the screen
Clicking this icon will display another page with the change requests as shown below. The office staff, or any user who has rights to change demographic data, will have the ability to approve or deny the changes. If the changes are approved, the live database is then updated. No live data is changed until approved by the office staff.

To approve changes, do the following:

•     Blacken the dot next to Approve.

•     Place a check mark in the line items you are accepting from the parent's requests for changes.

•     Click the .

To deny changes, do the following.

•     Blacken the dot next to Deny.

•     Place a check mark in the line items you are not accepting from the parent's requests for changes.

•     Click the .

NOTE:  The Changed By field indicates the security group of the Parent Connect user who requested the change. 

Indicator of Parent Access to the Change Request Area:

If you want to know which parents have clicked/accessed the “Request Data Changes to Demographic Information” icon, look at the demographic field “Verified_Information_Y_or_N”.  This field can be found in the Demographics All fields View.

ü If a parent accesses the page and does not check the box “No Changes Needed”or Submit changes:

•     Verified_Information_Y_or_N  = “N”

ü If a parent accesses the and does check the box “No Changes Needed”

•     Verified_Information_Y_or_N = “Y”

ü If a parent accesses the page and changes student data

•     Verified_Information_Y_or_N = “C”

Once the flag is set to “Y” it will not change going forward unless a change request is submitted.

Demographics fields pertaining to the Demographic Change request:

•     Verified_Information_Y_or_N 

•     Viewed_by_Parent_Code

•     Viewed_Date