POWERSCHOOL PARENT PORTAL. The Basics

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1 The Basics 1. Click on the A+ Parent Portal link on the right side of the Mt. Mourne website 2. Click on PowerSchool Login for Parents - use Chrome or Firefox not IE 3. If you already have an account, please enter your Username and Password, then Sign In If you need to create an account please Erin Hieb at erin_hieb@iss.k12.nc.us for instructions and your student s access ID and password. 4. When you login you will see a Navigation menu on the left side. You can click on each icon to navigate to that page.

2 Grades and Attendance View your student s current grades and attendance information 1. In the Navigation menu, click Grades and Attendance 2. To view student s dropped classes, click Show dropped classes also 3. To view grades for a specific term, click on the dash mark in the current term. N1 = 1st Quarter N2 = 2nd Quarter N3 = 3rd Quarter N4 = 4th Quarter F1 = Final Grade E1 = Final Exam Grade We do not use S1 or S2 at Mt. Mourne *Note: At Mt. Mourne we do not calculate a student s grades by finding the average of all the student s scores. Grades are determined using a rubric on a 0 to 8 scale. PowerSchool automatically tries to calculate grades as a percent and occasionally a teacher may forget to override this function. If you see a grade show up as a percent, that is not an accurate reflection of your student s current grade. You may click on the grade or dash mark to see the student s grades on assignments for the term selected. Only grades for F1 and E1 will be calculated as a grade out of 100.

3 Grade History View your student s grades from previous years 1. In the Navigation menu, click Grade History 2. On the Grade History page, courses are listed by term showing the student s final grades Attendance History View attendance history for the current academic year 1. In the Navigation menu, click Attendance History 2. Course names are listed in the first column and the weekly dates are listed in the subsequent column headings. 3. Middle schools only officially take attendance, during first period. 4. The attendance codes are defined in the legend at the bottom of the page. Notifications Modify the information sent to a parent/guardian 1. In the Navigation menu, click Notification 2. Select the desired information to be included in the report 3. Open the How often? menu and select the frequency of report delivery 4. To send the report to other addresses, enter the addresses in the Additional Addresses field (separate additional addresses with commas) 5. If these changes are for all students on the account, check Apply these settings to all your students? 6. To send a report immediately for the selected student, click Send no for [student name] 7. To save the preference, click Submit Teacher Comments View teacher comments that appear on student s report card 1. In the Navigation menu, click Teacher Comments 2. Select the reporting term from the pull down menu 3. View any available comments in the Comment column My Schedule View your student s schedule 1. In the Navigation menu, click My Schedule 2. Select the Week View or Matrix View tab towards the top of the page. 3. With Week View you will see your student s schedule for the current week 4. With Matrix View you will see your student s schedule split up by A day and B day. School Bulletin and Class Registration Mt. Mourne does not currently utilize these functions

4 Frequently Asked Questions GENERAL Q. What is PowerSchool? A. PowerSchool is the student information system that Delaware Valley Regional High School uses to manage information such as grades, attendance, demographics, courses, etc. Since PowerSchool is web-based, some of this information can easily, but safely be shared with parents and students. Q. What is the PowerSchool Parent Portal? A. The PowerSchool Parent Portal is a feature of the PowerSchool Student Information System that provides parents/guardians immediate access to grades, assignments and attendance records in an effort to facilitate and improve communication between home and school. Q. Whom should I contact if I have a question? A. Grades for class assignments during the current semester: Talk with your child first. If you still have questions, it s best to your child s teacher. General attendance questions should be directed to your school s main office. LOGIN Q. How do I get a PowerSchool Parent Portal username and password? A. Contact Mt. Mourne Data Manager, Erin Hieb at erin_hieb@iss.k12.nc.us or x1304 Q. Do I need a separate login for each of my children? A. No, you just need the Student Access ID and Password for each child. You can obtain that information from the data manager at each child s school. Q. I can t remember my password/username OR I tried the reset my password link and it didn t work. What should I do? A. First, it s important to know that usernames and passwords are case sensitive and the forgot my password function doesn t work. If you need help with your password, please Erin Hieb at erin_hieb@iss.k12.nc.us and she will reset your password for you and verify your username.. Q. How many times can I log in incorrectly? A. If you try to sign in three times incorrectly, you will be locked out of the PowerSchool Parent Portal and will have to contact the school data manager. Q. I try to log on to the site, but I keep getting an error message login has expired or cannot access site. What is wrong? A. All browsers are not created equal and sometimes your browser holds on to the memory of a prior login, which blocks you from being able to login now. If you get one of the above error messages, please first quit your browser. Then make sure you re logging in on the correct page To quit your browser: If you re using a Mac, with your browser open, click and hold command and the letter q at the same time. If using a PC, click the x in the upper right corner of all windows open within your browser. Q. My husband/wife and I are separated/divorced or we want our own logins; can we get another parent username and password for our child s account? A. Yes, PowerSchool allows for multiple parent accounts to be created per child. Therefore, both parents can have their own username and password that is linked with the Student's Access Key.

5 EXPECTATIONS Q. How often can we expect grades to be updated? A. Teachers need time to grade projects, assignments and tests. Each day teachers are expected to have new material and lesson plans ready for class. Many teachers are also involved in extracurricular activities such as clubs that take time to plan and attend. With that in mind, teachers do need time to get projects, assignments, and tests graded and input those grades into their gradebook. Please be patient, there are many factors that determine how soon a teacher can complete this process. Some projects or assignments do take longer than others to grade. Q. How often can we expect attendance to be updated? A. Attendance is updated daily and is only officially taken once a day in middle school. Unexcused absences may take a few extra days to be updated (changed to "excused") depending on the number of absences, promptness of the parent excuse note and/or day of the week. Attendance questions can be directed to Erin Hieb at erin_hieb@iss.k12.nc.us Q. How quickly and often can I expect a teacher to respond to my s? A. Teacher addresses are posted in PowerSchool. If you choose to contact a teacher by , please realize that due to the nature of the job, most teachers have little time to respond to during the school day. Please do not expect an immediate response to messages, though our teachers do make a very strong effort to respond within 1 business day of parent/student s. We strongly advise that you include the name of your child in the subject line. TROUBLESHOOTING Q. I am not getting s from PowerSchool. How come? A. There could be multiple reasons for this: 1. Did you sign-up for Notifications on the Notifications page? Please double check the address you entered because if one character (letter/number/space) is off, you won t receive s. 2. Does your program have a spam blocker that could be blocking the messages? If so, you will want to add the address donotreply@iss.k12.nc.us to the list of allowed addresses so PowerSchool s can get through. 3. Did you check your 's SPAM folder? Check to see if the messages are going there and choose to mark them as NOT SPAM. You will have to consult your 's help menu or manual to learn how to do this as it is different for every program. Q. I can't login to the parent or student portal. I put in my username and password and click submit. After clicking submit, the page reloads to a blank username and password line and does not login. Help? A. PowerSchool uses "cookies" and this means your internet security is set too high, probably to the highest level of security, which blocks cookies. Depending on your browser, you will need to find the Internet Security area and turn it down a level or two so cookies are accepted. You can find out more information about this by going to your web browser's help menu and doing a search on "cookies" or "internet security. Q. I replied to the PowerSchool auto- with a question, but have not received a response. Why? A. The PowerSchool auto-generated is created and sent by the PowerSchool server, not by an individual. The server will not reply to your sent to that address. If you have questions about your child's progress, please direct those questions directly to the faculty member.