How to: Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 1

How to: Create a tx Connect (Parent Portal) User Account Enter and Verify Email Address Enter and Verify Cell Phone Number Subscribe to Alerts View Alerts View Alerts in tx Connect (Parent Portal) Change Alert Subscriptions Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 1

Create a tx Connect (Parent Portal) User Account Welcome to tx Connect. This site provides Web access to school-related information about your students, including attendance, grades, discipline, assessments, and immunizations. In order to access the tx Connect parent access Web site, you must log on to the system. If you are a new user and do not have a user ID, you must create a user ID. To gain access to a student's records, you must provide a unique student portal ID for each student. The student portal ID is distributed by your student's district or campus administrators. From the Login page, click the link under New tx Connect User to go to the Registration page. The Registration page allows you to register for access to tx Connect. The log on process is self-administered, which means that you choose your user name and password during registration. If you forget or lose your password, or if you want to change your password, you will go through an automated process to reset your password. To register, you must provide at least one valid student portal ID, which you will get from your student's campus. You must have a valid student portal ID for every student you want to add to your account. If you have forgotten your user ID or password, click the link under Forgot your Password on the Login page to go to the Forgot Password/Forgot User Name page where you can reset your password using an automated process. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 3

Register: At any point during the registration process, you can click Previous to return to a previous step in the registration process. Step 1: 1. In the User Name field, type a user name that will identify you when you log on to tx Connect, such as a combination of letters from your first and last names. The user name must be 6 to 25 characters and must be unique (i.e., not used by anyone else in the district). If the user name you entered does not meet the valid format you will receive a red message is displayed notifying you the user name you entered is not in a valid format. You must enter a user name in the valid format to continue. The user name is not case-sensitive (i.e., it does not matter if it is uppercase or lowercase letters). If you type a user name that is already taken, the system notifies you that the user name is taken. Another user name must be entered. 2. In the Password field, type a password that you will use when you log on to tx Connect. The password must be 8 to 25 alphanumeric characters. It must be a combination of the following: uppercase, lowercase, numeric, and/or punctuation (e.g., abc1234). The password is case-sensitive (i.e., it must always be typed exactly as it is entered here, including uppercase and lowercase letters. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 4

3. In the Confirm Password field, retype your password exactly as it was typed above. This step confirms that you typed your password as intended. The following two email fields are only displayed if email support has been set up by the district. 4. In the E-mail field, type your current email address. You cannot enter an email address that is already in use. Your email address must be entered in a valid format (e.g., name@domain.com). Your email address is required if: You are new to the district and you are registering a new student. (not available at this time) You are updating an existing student s enrollment. (not available at this time) You wish to receive attendance or grade alerts. 5. In the Confirm E-mail field, re-type your email address. This step confirms that you typed your email address as you intended. The addresses entered in the E-mail and Confirm E-mail fields must match exactly. Once you complete your registration, you will receive an email message at that address containing a verification code. You must type (or copy/paste) the verification code on the My Account page in order to verify your email address. 6. Click Next. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 5

If all required data was not entered, a red message is displayed to the right of each field that is missing data. That information must be provided before you can continue. If the data was entered correctly, the Hint Question - Step 2 of 3 page is displayed. Step 2: 1. In the Question field, select a question to which you will provide an answer. The question is asked in the event that you lose your password. 2. In the Answer field, type the answer to the question. You will be required to answer the question correctly in order to recover your password. You should select a question for which you will easily remember the answer. The answer is case-sensitive (i.e., it must always be typed exactly as it is entered here, including uppercase and lowercase letters). 3. Click Next. If you have entered data incorrectly, a red message will appear to the right of each field that has incorrect data. You must provide that information before you can continue. If you have entered the data correctly, the Step 3 page is displayed. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 6

Step 3: Your student s portal ID will be provided to you by the campus. 1. In the Student Portal ID field, type your student's portal ID. This ID will be provided to you by your student's campus. If you do not have this ID, you must contact the campus to get the ID. You cannot continue without entering a valid student portal ID. Note: The student portal ID must be typed exactly as it is printed (i.e., uppercase and lowercase letters). 2. In the Student Birth Date field, type your student's complete birth date in the MM/DD/YYYY format (e.g., 01/19/1998). The date entered here must match the birth date in your student's record at the campus. You cannot continue without entering the correct birth date. 3. Click Add. Your student's name appears in the Added Students box on the right side of the page. You must successfully add at least one student in order to create an account. 4. Repeat the previous steps to add another student, or click Complete. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 7

5. After clicking Complete, the Summary page opens displaying a list of your students on the left side of every page in tx Connect. You may now use the Menu Options at the top of the page to view your student s attendance and grades data. Grade information will not display in tx Connect until the teacher has entered the information in the gradebook. NOTE: Menu options such as Discipline, Assessments, and Immunization may not display in parent portal because the district has elected not to make this information available through parent portal. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 8

Enter and Verify Email Address To receive alerts as email messages, the parent s email address must be entered for his tx Connect account. When the parent creates his tx Connect account, he is prompted to enter his email address. The field is not required to create an account, but it is required if the parent wishes to receive alert notifications by email. If the parent has not already entered an email address for his account, he must add his email address in order to receive alert messages by email. He must be logged on to tx Connect to update his account. tx Connect > My Account Your current email address is displayed under Email Address if you have previously entered and verified it. 1. In the Email Address field, type your email address. In the Confirm Email Address field, re-type the same email address to verify that you typed it as intended. 2. Click Verify Email Address. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 9

A message is sent to the email address entered which contains the verification code. The fields are replaced with the Verify Code, Resend Code, and Cancel buttons. If the verification code is unsuccessful, click Resend Code to send a new code. 3. Check your email inbox for the message containing the email verification code. 4. Type (or copy/paste) the code from the email message into the Verification Code field, and click Verify Code. If the code was entered accurately, your email address is displayed. The Change or Remove button is also displayed. You can click Change or Remove at any time to change the email address registered, or to remove the email address. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 10

Enter and Verify Cell Phone Number To receive alert notices by phone as text messages, the parent must enter and verify his cell phone number. This step is not required to create an account, but is required if the parent wishes to receive alert notifications by phone. The parent must be logged on to tx Connect to update his account. tx Connect > My Account Your current cell number is displayed under Mobile Number/Text Messages if you have previously registered it. Otherwise, blank fields are displayed. You can add, update, or disable your cell number at any time. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you change cell phone carriers, you may stop receiving alert message, and you may need to reregister the number. 1. In the Mobile Number field, type the cell phone number to be registered in the AAANNNNNNN format, where AAA is the area code, and NNNNNNN is the number. Do not use hyphens. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 11

2. Retype the number in the Confirm Mobile Number field to verify that the number is entered accurately. 3. Click Verify Mobile Number. The fields are then replaced with the Verification Code field. You will receive a text message at the number entered which will contain a verification code. Messages will vary somewhat depending on your carrier. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 12

In tx Connect in the Verification Code field, type the verification code that was sent in the text message, and click Verify Code. NOTE: If the verification code is unsuccessful, click Resend Code to send a new code. If you sent the code to the wrong cell number by mistake, click Cancel to cancel the request. If the code was entered accurately, a message is displayed indicating that you have successfully signed up to receive text messages. 4. You can click Change or Disable at any time to change the cell phone number registered, or to disable registration of the number. Clicking this button will remove the current number. You can re-start the process to register another number if needed. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 13

Subscribe to Alerts The Subscribe to Alerts tab allows the parent to add alerts and change his alerts subscription at any time. Alert subscriptions must be set for each student individually. The parent can also indicate if he wants to receive alert notifications as email messages or text messages, or to not receive alerts. A parent cannot receive both email and text messages. When the parent creates a tx Connect account, he is automatically subscribed to two alerts which will be sent as email messages: Unexcused absence alerts, first occurrence of the day Failing grade alerts tx Connect > Alerts > Subscribe to Alerts Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 14

Set Alerts For each alert type, specify the alerts you want to receive. Attendance Alerts Attendance alerts allow you to be notified if your student is late or absent. If you do not want to receive attendance alerts, select Don t send me alerts for all three attendance alert types. 1. Under Unexcused Absences, select one: Select Don t send me alerts if you do not want to be notified of your student s unexcused absences. Select Send me an alert for the first occurrence of the day to be notified of an unexcused absence on the first occurrence for the day. Select Send me an alert for every occurrence to be notified of every unexcused absence throughout the day. 2. Under Excused Absences, select one: Select Don t send me alerts if you do not want to be notified of your student s excused absences. Select Send me an alert for the first occurrence of the day to be notified of an excused absence on the first occurrence for the day. Select Send me an alert for every occurrence to be notified of every excused absence throughout the day. 3. Under Tardies, select one: Select Don t send me alerts if you do not want to be notified of your student s tardies. Select Send me an alert for the first occurrence of the day to be notified of a tardy on the first occurrence for the day. Select Send me an alert for every occurrence to be notified of every tardy throughout the day. 4. Click Save Subscriptions. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 15

Grade Average Alerts Grade Average alerts allow you to be notified if your student s grade average in a class falls below a specified grade. By default, you will receive an alert any time your student s grade average in a class falls below failing. You may change the alert by specifying another grade. 1. Under Average Alerts, select one: Select Failing to be notified if your student s grade average in any class falls to a failing grade. Select Custom to specify a specific grade. Then, in the Custom Average Threshold field, type a numeric grade (0-110). Any time your student s average falls below this grade, you will receive an alert. If you do not want to receive grade average alerts, select Custom, and type 0 in the Custom Average Threshold field. 2. Click Save Subscriptions. Assignment Grade Alerts Assignment alerts allow you to be notified if your student receives an assignment grade below a specified grade in any class. 1. Under Assignment Alerts, select one: Select Failing to be notified if your student receives a failing assignment grade in any class. Select Custom to specify a specific grade. Then, in the Custom Assignment Grade Threshold field, type a numeric grade (0-110). Any time your student receives an assignment below this grade in any class, you will receive an alert. If you do not want to receive assignment grade alerts, select Custom, and type 0 in the Custom Assignment Grade Threshold field. 2. Select Incomplete Assignments to be notified of your student s incomplete assignments. 3. Select Missing Assignments to be notified of your student s missing assignments. 4. Click Save Subscriptions. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 16

Indicate How You Want to Receive Alerts On the Subscribe to Alerts tab, the Alert Notification Type field allows you to indicate if you want to receive alerts at your email address, sent as text messages to your cell phone, or not sent. To receive alert notices by email, select An email message. This option is only available if you have successfully registered your email address on the My Account page. To receive alert notices as text messages, select A text message. This option is only available if you have successfully registered your cell phone number on the My Account page. Select Neither if you do not want to receive alerts. You will still be able to view alerts one you have logged on to tx Connect. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 17

View Alerts Once the parent subscribes to alerts, he will begin receiving messages according to the preferences he set. Receive Notifications Email Messages If you indicated that you want to receive alerts by email, you will receive email messages throughout the day according to your settings. The email message provides data about the alert, as well as a link to the tx Connect login page (if provided by the district). Sample Attendance Alert: Sample Grade Alert: Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 18

Text Messages If you indicated that you want to receive alerts as text messages, you will receive text messages throughout the day according to your settings. The message informs you that you have an alert, but you must log on to tx Connect to view full details about the alert. Messages will vary somewhat depending on your carrier. Sample Alerts: Text messages do not provide a link to the district s tx Connect website. You must have a link to the website or mobile app, and log on to tx Connect to read the complete message. HERE S A TIP: If you have registered your cell phone number, the Send Link button is displayed on the tx Connect Summary page. Click Send Link to receive a text message that contains a link to the tx Connect login page for your student s campus. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 19

View Alerts in tx Connect Alerts can be viewed in tx Connect from the View Alerts tab on the Alerts page. The parent can go directly to the Alerts page to read the message(s) by clicking the alerts notification below the student s name from any page. Or, he can click Alerts in the main menu and select the student for whom he wants to see alerts. The View Alerts tab is displayed. tx Connect > Alerts > View Alerts Alert messages are displayed in the order received, with the most recent alert at the top of the list. New alerts that have not been read are bold. Once you have read an alert, you can select Read to indicate that you have read the alert. The alert will no longer be bold. If you select Read accidentally, you can clear the check box it to change the alert back to unread. You can adjust the page to display or hide the alerts you have already read: To see only new, unread alerts, the View Read Alerts check box should be blank. To see all alerts, the View Read Alerts check box should be selected. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 20

Change Alert Subscriptions The parent can return to the Subscribe to Alerts tab at any time to change his subscription. tx Connect > Alerts > Subscribe to Alerts Make changes as needed, and click Save Subscriptions. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you remove or change your email address, your alert notification options will be reset. To reset your alerts, go to Alerts > Subscribe to Alerts, and set the Alert Notification Type field according to your preferences. The option to receive alerts by email will not be available unless you have an email address successfully verified. Revised 8/22/2016 Copyright 2016 by Region 7 Education Service Center. All rights reserved. Page 22