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Overview

This section details the available settings for customizing and managing your SchoolEngage platform to better suit your district’s needs.

Table of Contents

Getting Started

Preliminary Steps

Permissions: Before managing district settings, please ensure you have the “District Options” permission located under the “District” section.
To access District Settings: simply navigate to “Settings > District”.

Updating District Settings

You can easily update your district settings by editing any field within the available tabs. Once you've made your changes, click “Save Changes” at the top of the window to apply them.

Undoing Changes

To revert any edits, click the yellow “Undo Changes” button at the top of the window. This will reset any modifications made before saving.

Indicators for Unsaved or Invalid Changes

✏️ A pencil icon will appear next to a tab if there are unsaved changes on that page. Once saved, the icon will disappear.
⚠️ A warning icon will appear next to a tab if there is a missing or invalid field that needs attention.

When the "Save Changes" Button is Disabled

The button will be disabled if:

There are no changes to save.
A tab contains invalid or missing information.

Tip: Hover over the “Save Changes” button to see why it is disabled.

Downloading the Latest Plugin

To get the latest SchoolEngage plugin for PowerSchool, click the blue "Download Plugin" button at the top of the screen.

System Settings

District Details

These settings manage your district’s branding and key details, including the district name and logo displayed to users upon login.

Setting	Description
District Name	Appears on the home page above the greeting message and district logo.
District Logo	Shown on the login and home page to represent the district.

Tip: To update your logo, click "Change Logo", select an image, and crop it before uploading it to the system.

Map Source Extensions

This section allows you to import custom PowerSchool extensions into SchoolEngage. Select your .zip or .xml file using the "Browse" button and then click "Upload". You will then be able to map form fields to your newly imported extension.

Note: For more information on acquiring PowerSchool extensions, see our article on Importing Customizations into SchoolEngage.

Plugin Credentials

These settings allow SchoolEngage to connect and communicate with PowerSchool.

Settings Overview

Setting	Description
Client ID	A unique identifier found on the Data Provider Configuration page in the SchoolEngage Data plugin.
Client Secret	A secure key found on the Data Provider Configuration page in the SchoolEngage Data plugin.
SAML Certificate	The Single Sign-On (SSO) certificate used to enable SSO from PowerSchool. This can be found on the View PowerSchool IDP Metadata page in the SchoolEngage SAML Plugin.

Changing Client ID and Secret

To update the Client ID or Client Secret, enter the new key in the respective field and save your changes.
To remove both credentials, leave both fields empty and save.
If a Client ID is entered and no Secret Key is stored, a Secret Key is required, and vice versa.

Tip: The system never displays your Secret Key after it has been saved. Once entered, it is securely stored and removed from the page for security purposes.

Parent Portal Creation

These settings configure the PowerSchool account responsible for creating Parent Portal Accounts. If no account is provided, Parent Portal Accounts will not be created.

Settings Overview

Setting	Description
PowerSchool Account	The username of the PowerSchool account.
PowerSchool Password	The password for the PowerSchool account.

Updating or Removing Credentials

To update the account name or password, enter the new value in the respective field and save your changes.
To remove both credentials, leave both fields empty and save.
If an account name is entered, a password is required, and vice versa—both fields must be provided together if no credentials are currently stored.

Tip: The system never displays your stored password for security reasons. Once entered, it is securely stored and removed from the page.

Interface Settings

These settings control what displays on the user interface across SchoolEngage.

Setting	Description
Show Event Manager	Determines whether the Event Manager option is available on the navigation bar for staff and parents.
Adjust District Grades	Hitting this button will allow districts to alter what grades are selectable across many dropdowns in the system with the Is Selectable? checkbox. Those grades that are selectable can also be renamed to better suit individual district needs.

Accounts and Security

Account Settings

These settings manage account functionality and user access within the platform.

Setting	Description
Allow parents to create student accounts	Grants parents the ability to add students to their account.
Prevent SchoolEngage accounts from being made	Disables the SchoolEngage registration page, preventing new account creation. Accounts will continue to sync from PowerSchool
Force authentication through SSO	Requires all users connected to PowerSchool to log in via the access portal.
Allow independent student account creation	Enables students to register a SchoolEngage account independently.

Parent Portal Settings

These settings control the Parent Portal Creation process.

Setting	Description
Parent portal username format	Specifies the username format used when creating parent portal accounts during writeback.

Important: To ensure this feature functions correctly, verify that the PowerSchool account credentials in the System tab are accurate.

Password Settings

These settings define the minimum password requirements for users.

Setting	Description
Password Length Requirement	Specifies the minimum number of characters required in a password. If left unspecified, the default is 8 characters.
Minimum Number of Digits	Determines the minimum number of numeric characters required.
Minimum Number of Letters	Specifies the minimum number of alphabetic characters required.
Minimum Number of Special Characters	Sets the minimum number of special symbols required.

Note: The default minimum password requirements are:

Length: 8 characters
Letters: At least 1
Numbers: At least 1
Symbols: At least 1

Greetings and Messaging

System Messaging

These messages define the system-wide messages that appear for all users.

Message	Description
Login Message	Displayed on the login page.
Registration Message	Shown on the account creation page.
Default Greeting Message	The message displayed on the SchoolEngage home screen after user login.

Note: The default greeting message will be overridden if a user-specific greeting is set for that user type.

User-Specific Greetings

You can set custom messages for different user types, replacing the default greeting.

Adding a Greeting

Click Add User Specific Greeting.
Expand the newly created greeting.
Select the user type this message applies to.
Enter the text you’d like to display for this user type.

Removing a Greeting

Click the Remove button next to the greeting message.

Note: Each user type can have only one custom greeting message. If no custom message is set for a user type, they will see the default greeting.

Contacts

Contact Sync

The Contact Sync allow you to configure which contact information is synced from PowerSchool into SchoolEngage.

Important: The Contact Sync is specifically designed to support SMS sendouts, enabling districts to communicate with emergency contacts. If your district does not use this feature, enabling the sync is unnecessary and may increase the number of parent accounts in the system with no benefit.

Please note, this functionality is not related to the Unlimited Contacts Map Source in any way.

How to Enable Contact Sync

Enable Contacts Sync:
To activate the Contact Sync, check the “Contacts” checkbox.
Prerequisite for Toggles:
The Contacts checkbox must be selected before enabling any other toggles.

Note: Only staff members with the appropriate permissions can modify Contact Sync settings.

Toggles and Criteria

Contacts

This is the core contact sync, which pulls in contact information from PowerSchool.

Criteria for Contact Sync:

The contact must have at least one active student (enrollment status of 0).
The contact must have a PowerSchool Guardian ID.
The contact must have a PowerSchool Contact ID.

Student-Contact Relationship

This toggle syncs the relationship between students and their contacts from PowerSchool, along with their relationship details.

You can refine the sync by selecting specific flags, such as Active Contacts, Emergency Contacts, or Lives With, to determine which relationships to include.
Communication Behavior: When a message is sent, all contacts associated with a student will receive the message. Note that these flags are not displayed on user profiles.

Example

This configuration will pull in the following data from PowerSchool during the sync process:

Contacts that have at least one of the following flags in PowerSchool:

Active
Emergency

If a contact doesn’t have either Active or Emergency flags, they will be skipped during the sync.

Contact Phones

Enabling this option will sync contact phone numbers from PowerSchool.