

Image attributed to http://www.wordle.net
To select a group of students by hand, follow these steps:
From the PowerSchool START PAGE
Select a group of students in which you can make your selections (i.e., all, grade level, names beginning with A, etc.)
From the functions drop down list, click SELECT STUDENTS BY HAND
Hold down the CONTROL KEY as you select the students you need Note: You may have to use the scroll bar to see the entire list.
When all desired students are selected, click on the Functions button to perform a task with the selected students.
Two things to remember:
1. You can use this function in reverse, for example if you need to select 8th graders but have only a few to exclude from the list, you can select the names of students to remove from your selection, then select the remove selected students option. Then click functions to perform a task with the selection.
2. Remember, one of the group functions in PowerSchool is Save Stored Selection. Once you have hand selected the students, save the selection if you will be working with this group of students again.
Do you wish you could save a selection of students that you spent time selecting by hand? PowerSchool is capable of doing this with Stored Selections, here's how:
Make your selection of students
Click Function box
Choose “Save Stored Selection”
This page will appear:
This page will appear:

Name Your selection
Click Save
Submit (Your selection will appear in blue on this page, including the number of records in the selection)
To Work With Your Selection
Click on Stored Selections on PowerSchool’s homepage
Select the go functions to work with the students
To Add Records to a Saved Selection
On the start page, select the students that you want to add or combine with another stored selection.
The group becomes the current selection.
Click functions, Choose Save Stored Selection
Check the selection you want to modify
Click Add, Then Submit. You will need to name your selection to save it again.
To Delete Records to a Saved Selection
Click Go Functions next to the selection you want to modify
Click on the number at the top of the page, to list the students currently in your selection
Click the function, select students by hand
Choose the students to delete from the selection
Choose, remove selected students
Click selections
Rename your current selection (Should have fewer records in it)
Delete your first selection
Remember stored selections are only a snapshot of a certain time, these records will not update as students enroll and drop.
Does the field you are trying to include in a letter or report only contain a code? You can decode the field for report purposes, here's how:
Tto insert the name of the next school building in a letter:
~(decode;~(next_school);3;Nelson Elementary;4;Rex Elementary;5;Freeman Elementary;6;Oatville Elementary;9;Ruth Clark Elementary;10;Prairie Elementary)
The same is true with grade_levels:
decode;~(grade_level);9;Freshman;10;Sophomore;11;Junior;12;Senior)
This frame will appear

Enter exit date (The date after student’s last day of attendance) Enter exit code Check the box to transfer out of Special Programs Answer the Kansas questions if applicable. Check the last box if student will be enrolling the following year to save all scheduling related to the student. Submit
E-mail the following departments so they can keep their records accurate:
SPED: Dana Collier dcollier@usd261.com
Foods: Laurann Latham - llatham@usd261.com
Transportation: Crystal Walker - ccwalker@usd261.com
SPED will change the codes and date if needed, to keep their records accurate. Students who are transferring within the district, SPED will remove the exit date and code and the student will remain in the Special Program at the correct school.
For PowerSchool exports to open directly into an Excel spreadsheet everytime, do this:
All Exports will open in Excel.
Access the PowerSchool Start Page, In the search box, type the following:
Prim_name contains (all or part of last name)
ex: Prim_name contains Anderson
or
Sec_name contains (all or part of last name)
ex: Sec_name contains Anderson
A list of students will be displayed. Use the Counselor's Screen to click through the list until you find the correct student.
**Note: We use the contains search instead of = ,because if the information doesn't match exactly it will not find it.**
To search a Phone number:
Home_phone contains (area code + phone number)
ex: home_phone contains 316-555-5555
To find a student with a phone number you may need to search all phone number fields.
The following are some codes to get a list of birthdays, considering PowerSchool only stores dates of birth:
Today Birthday
To find all students with today as a birthday, type the following in the search box on the
main student page:
*birthday=today
Specific Birthday
To find all students with birthdays on a specific date, (for instance, April 5th), type the
following in the search box on the main student page:
*birthday=4/5
Birthday within a Specific Date Range
To find all students with birthdays within a date range, (for instance, the month of
August), type the following in the search box on the main student page:
*birthday>7/31;*birthday<9/1
The list produced will be alphabetical. If you want to sort the list by date, you must do a
quick export. Export the following fields:
lastfirst (or first_name last_name)
^(dob;dateformat=mm/dd)
You can then sort by the DOB field to get a list sorted by birthday.
Select students
Select the Mailing Label layout (If you don’t see the one you need you can set up a new label)
Click Submit
The print queue screen will appear, click refresh, when the status of your job changes to completed, click on completed.
A pdf of your labels will appear, click print. Be sure the page scaling is set to “none” otherwise the labels will not line up.
Click ok.
Yes, PowerSchool has given us several search commands to get to information that would otherwise be difficult to find. The following student search command examples can be used from the start page in PowerSchool.
Birthdays (today)
*birthday=today
Finds all students whose birthday is today, matching only month and day.
Birthdays (date)
*birthday=5/1
Find all students whose birthday is May 1
Birthdays (range)
*birthday>=5/1/99;*birthday<=5/31/99
Find all birthdays in May of 1999
Active students
*as_of=2/1/2006
All students in the school that were active as of 2/1/2006
Students not in a period
*not_enrolled_in_period=1
All students not enrolled in period 1
Students in a course
*enrolled_in=9500
Students in course number 9500
Students in a course and section
*enrolled_in=9500.5
Students in course 9500 section 5
Students not in a course
*not_enrolled_in=9500
Students not enrolled in course number 9500
Students who have completed a course
*has_completed_course=9500
Students who have at least one entry of course 9500 on the historical grades screen
Students who have not completed a course
*has_not_completed=9500
Students who do not have any entries of course 9500 on the historical grades screen
Students with X amount of credits
*cumulative_credit_hours<15
Students with less than 15 credit hours on their historical grades screen
Students with X amount of attendance points
*attendance_points>10
Students with more than 10 attendance points
Students with X amount of attendance points per quarter
*attendance_points(Q2)>5
Students with more than 5 attendance points in Q2
Students with X amount of attendance points by date
*attendance_points(1/1/2006,1/31/2006)>5
Students with more than 5 attendance points for January 2006
Students in a special program
*special_program=resource
Students in the Resource special program
Requested credit hours
*hours_requested<10
Students who have requested more than 10 credit hours
Secondary Students
*secondarystudents=all
A list of students in all grades who are taking classes in the current school, but not enrolled in the current school.
*secondarystudents=
A list of students in all grades who are taking classes in the current school, but not enrolled in the current school.
*secondarystudents=5
A list of students in grade 5 who are taking classes in the current school, but not enrolled in the current school.
All Students
*allstudents=all
A list of students in all grades who are taking classes in the current school, including those students enrolled in the current school.
*allstudents=
A list of students in all grades who are taking classes in the current school, including those students enrolled in the current school.
*allstudents=5
A list of students in grade 5 who are taking classes in the current school, including those students enrolled in the current school.
To perform an “and” search, separate the two search commands with a semicolon. ex: last_name = smith;grade_level=6
To perform an “or” search, perform the first search then use the “+” before the next search command.
ex: To get all 5th grade students and any student whose last name is Smith
Click 5th grade to make these students your current selection. Then to add names to this selection,in the search box type:
+last_name=smith.
To search for inactive students, begin your search command with a forward slash “/”.
Watch for more tips to come!
Run this report to check that each student is scheduled to be moved to the appropriate school and grade level when the year end process is ran.
Select All students > Quick Export>

Select student>on left menu select Scheduling Setup>Make changes>Submit

