How do I Add or Pre-Register a New Student in PowerSchool?

The process to add or pre-register a new student is quite similar with a few extra settings to pre-register a new student.

Introduction

Schools may choose to pre-register new students for the next school year at some point during the spring term or the summer months.  However, a few administrative tasks must be completed prior to the pre-registration process.  The new school year start date, end date and years and terms should be defined in PowerSchool’s “Years and Terms.”  Once these dates have been defined, use the process below to pre-register students.

Please do not skip this very important step!

Prior to adding a new student to PowerSchool, we must first check that the student is indeed new. Returning students can easily be mistaken as new since PowerSchool “hides” previous students once they leave, leading you to believe that they are no longer in the system even though they still have an inactive record.

Additionally, in states like California, the student’s State Student Number (SSID) cannot be added to the new enrollment and will create a fatal error when trying to save the SSID into the new record.

Pre-Register or Add a New Student

To Pre-Register New Students

There are a few administrative tasks that must be completed prior to the pre-registration process at some point during the spring term or the summer months. Once these dates have been defined, use the process below to pre-register students.

Define the following data elements in PowerSchool:

From the homepage > Select the desired school (top right corner)> School Management > Scheduling > Years and Terms.

• New School Year
• Start Date
• End Date

Then continue with the steps to Add a new student below.

To Add a New Student:

Step 1: Search for a previous record by typing a “/” before the first few letters of the student’s last name.

This will reveal any matches in the database for both new and old students. It is recommended to manage this search from the District (school) in PowerSchool if you have multiple schools on the server.

If no match is found, you will receive a search alert that “Current Student Selection (0).” You are now ready to create a new student.

Step 2: From the home page> School enrollment > Enroll New Student.

Step 3:  Fill in missing fields

For fast creation, fill in the bare minimum information which includes the following fields within the red boxes before selecting “Submit”.

However, because you have time during the pre-registration process, entering all the demographic information now is recommended.

• Student’s Name (Last, First Middle)
  • This is a required field for first and last names.  Use the students LEGAL name as it appears on the birth certificate.  Middle name is optional.
    • Legal Name
      • Is only required if different than the preferred name above.
• DOB (Date of Birth)
  • There are two options to enter the Date of Birth
    • Manually type in the birth date in MM/DD/YYYY.
    • Use the Calendar wizard to enter the date.
  • Gender – Required
    • Male (M)
    • Female (F)
  • Legal Gender
    • Is only required if different than the preferred Gender above.
      • Male (M)
      • Female (F)
  • Enrollment Date
    • New Student
      • This is the FIRST DAY that the student attends classes at the school. It will pre-populate with the current date, adjust to their first day of school.
    • Pre-Register Student
      • It will be pre-populated with the current date, but you must adjust this to pre-register a new student for next year.  Use the first day of the new school year as the enrollment date.
  • Full Time Equivalency – Required
    • This field is setup for attendance reasons and is required.  Most schools will only have one value in this field to choose.
  • Grade Level – Required
    • Students in Transitional Kindergarten should use KG as their grade level.  Not PK4 (Pre-Kindergarten).
  • School Entry Date – Required
    • This date will be the same as the Enrollment Date if the student is new and never attended the school before.
  • Student is enrolling in a CA school for the first time – (CA specific)
    • If the student has never attended school in California, select the checkbox.
  • California School Entry Date (CA specific)
    • Today’s date will auto populate in the date field.
  • Enrollment Status Code
    • (10) Primary Enrollment is the most typical code selected, however, there are some instances where a different code applies.

• Information for Family Match
  • For the purposes of quickly adding a student to PowerSchool, we ignore the Family Match function.  To do so, select the following:
    • Select “Enroll without Linking or Copying Information”
    • Unclick “Include Student’s Last Name (last) in Search”

If everything was entered correctly, a student record with an inactive enroll status of -1 is created.  (This field is stored as Enroll_Status in the Students Table.)  Additionally, a pending enrollment is created and will become active at midnight on the enrollment date you entered.

Note of Caution:

Before you add any other new or pre-registered students:

• Check the Transfer Info page in the new student entry – be certain that:
  • Enrollment Date:
    • New Students
      • The Start Date matches the first day the student began in the current school year.
    • Pre-Registered
      • The Start Date matches the first day of the next school year.
  • Exit Date:
    • New Students
      • The End Date matches the DAY AFTER the last school day of the current school year (double-check the year).
    • Pre-Registered
      • The End Date matches the DAY AFTER the last school day of the next school year (double-check the year).
  • Confirm enrollment status:
    • New Students
      • Student is listed as Enrolled.
    • Pre-registered
      • Student is listed as Pre-Enrolled.