Gathering Parent Information Through the Portals

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Overview

Schools depend on parents for up-to-date information about their student’s information, including emergency contact(s), household address, student allergies, medications, and more. Historically, such information was gathered on paper forms and sent to parents at various points throughout the year and then entered manually into the system by school staff. This no longer needs to be the case.

As Veracross continues to expand its online portals’ products, many of these paper processes can be moved to the web. The following article seeks to give a comprehensive overview of the kinds of information schools typically gather from parents and where this information can be collected in Veracross.

Tools for Capturing Information from Parents

There are three web interfaces aimed at gathering parent-submitted information. They are known as the Household Profile Update interface, the Enrollment Policy interface, and the Medical Profile interface.

Household Profile Update (HPU)

The Household Profile Update interface replaces a “single form, single save” web page with a collection of mini-forms (known as Category Cards) organized into categories on a web page. These collections of cards are configurable to the different use-contexts of Online Re/Enrollment, Parent Portal, Admissions Portal, and more.

There is also a tool which school administrators may use to configure the visibility and behavior of the Household Profile Update page.

School Policies

The School Policy interface allows schools to set up targeted questions with specified answer-sets (similar to setting up a survey) in order to facilitate policy agreement between parents and the school. Policies are usually set up as part of the online Re/Enrollment process. Schools can also make policies available to parents throughout the summer and school year via the Parent Portal.

Medical Profile

The Medical Profile exists as a category within the Household Profile Update interface. Unlike other categories, the Medical Profile is a separate page. The top half of the page represents all the health information a school currently has on file for each child in a Parent’s family. The bottom half allows parents to enter medical updates per student along with an indication of the specific type of update they are making (e.g., allergies, medications, immunizations, etc.).

Current Veracross Functionality

See the article linked below which outlines many of the different possible data sets that schools may be interested in capturing from parents.

Medical Questions

Can parents submit itemized immunization information?

Veracross does not support an itemized interface for capturing immunization information from parents. Instead of providing an itemized interface for parents, Veracross makes available a generic medical text box called “Health Change Requests” where parents can submit immunization information. The medical profile update page includes a drop-down option for “Immunization,” enabling parents to categorize health change request submissions as immunization-related.

We are still evaluating the possibility of adding dedicated support for parents entering itemized immunization information in the future. Check with your account manager to be subscribed to future updates to this feature.

Billing Questions

Can parents indicate which parent, guardian, or organization is responsible for paying invoices?

Improved support for capturing which person or organization is responsible for paying invoices will be added in a future update.

Transportation Questions

Can parents submit general information about busing preferences?

Veracross does not currently have a dedicated interface for parents to enter busing preferences. We are still evaluating the possibility of adding support for this information in the future.

Depending upon the wording of specific transportation preferences, a school may be able to create Enrollment Policy questions to capture this information. Although, it is important to note that there is no dedicated connection between policies and the transportation module.

Can parents indicate day-by-day dismissals and/or special pick-up times?

Veracross does not currently have an interface for parents to enter day-by-day specific transportation information. Let your Account Manager know if you are interested in this feature for a future update.

Volunteer Questions

Can parents sign up for volunteer opportunities at the school?

Veracross does not currently have an interface for parents to sign up for volunteer opportunities online. There are no plans to offer this in the near future.