Managing Event Types for Group Events

Overview

Group Events always have a Group Event Type specified which determines what that event will look like and its functionality in the system.  To review your Event Types go to the Event Types link on the System homepage.

Configuration

Group Event Types are configurable by either Veracross staff or by your school’s SysAdmin users. If you need a new Group Event Type, SysAdmins at your school may add them; or if you would like consultation on whether this would work for your school, please speak with your Veracross Account Manager.

System

System means the event type has logic tied to it within the system and cannot be deleted.  The following event types are System event types with a definition of the logic that is associated with each one.

1. Holiday – The system will recognize these events as days where no school takes place and will therefore not create any attendance records. At schools where Faculty/Staff attendance is enabled (via the ‘Staff_Attendance_Enabled’ System Parameter), Faculty/Staff Master Attendance records are not generated for holidays. Events with the event type ‘Holiday’ prevent the nightly script from creating Master Attendance records for Faculty or Staff members. The event must not be any more specific than campus or school level, otherwise the system assumes that only students are being targeted.
2. No School – The system will recognize these events as days where no school takes place and will therefore not create any student attendance records. The ‘No School’ event type has no bearing on Faculty/Staff attendance, since this is the only event type available to schools wanting to schedule faculty development, conference, or other faculty/staff-only days. See below for further recommendations on using this event type to “cancel” classes for grade levels.
3. Early Dismissal – The system recognizes these as a day where school gets out early and, therefore, gives the associated students a Master Attendance Status of Early Dismissal. Associated students must only be defined by School Level or Grade Level.
4. Fundraiser, Appeal & Development Event – These events will only be visible by the Development office and System Administrators.
5. Game – These events will be displayed on the Athletic Calendar
6. Practice – These events will be displayed on the Practice Calendar
7. Admissions Event – These events will only be visible by the Admissions office and System Administrators.
8. Admissions Visit – These events will only be visible by the Admissions office and System Administrators. If Advanced Admissions has been purchased, this event type is used to manage advanced student visits.
9. Parent/Teacher Conference – If the Parent/Teacher Conference module has been purchased, this event type is used to setup and manage conferences.
10. First/Last Day of School – These event types are used when you need to initialize the rotation for the upcoming school year before the current year is closed. To learn more on initializing rotations using these group event types, see the documentation here.

Internal Use Only

Internal Use Only means that the events with this type will never show on calendars. For example, the Parent/Teacher Conference event type is flagged as internal because you never want to show the unscheduled conference events on someone’s calendar. Once a conference is scheduled, it will show up because it is individual event attendance record, not the group event.

Attendance

Excuse MA means that any members of this group event should be excused from master attendance. Their attendance status will be set to “Not Expected.”

Excuse CA means that members of this group event should be excused from class attendance. Their attendance status will be set to “Not Expected.”

Calendar Color

Calendar Link Style is where you can set the color you would like each event type to be when displayed on all the appropriate calendars. If you need help setting the calendar colors, contact your Veracross Account Manager.

Canceling Classes for a Grade Level or Campus

Occasionally, a school may need to cancel classes only for a certain grade level or campus, rather than the entire school. This can be done using the “No School” event type and applying either a grade level filter or a campus filter. Please note that in this circumstance, both filers cannot be applied to the same group event. Here are the specific steps:

1. Navigate to the Calendars homepage and click Add a Group Event.
2. In the Event Type drop-down menu, select the No School option.
3. Set all Visibility options to NO. This is to ensure that this event will not appear on the school calendar, which could potentially cause confusion for people accessing the calendar that the event doesn’t apply to.
4. Under the Classification section, select either campus or grade level from the appropriate drop-down menu. To cancel classes for multiple grade levels, create separate group events for each grade level.
   Example: Middle School (grades 7 & 8) classes need to be canceled for a day due to repairs being made on a building. The group event creator would need to create two separate group events identical in every way except one: one event would have “Grade 7” Grade Level and one would have “Grade 8.”