*This article applies to California schools only*

After the end of the school year but before the End of Year process is run, schools need to answer a few questions about who to include and who to exclude in the following school year.  To do this, we separate our students into three groups:

Group 1:  Students expected to leave the school (but are not graduating).

Group 2:  Students expected to return to the school.

Group 3:  Students that will graduate.

This article seeks to show you a walk-through of the processes for these groups of students.

Group 1:  Students expected to leave the school but are not graduating.

This is the group that you want to start with.  To complete this step, transfer students out of the school as you normally would using the article “How do I exit a student from PowerSchool?”.

Only AFTER you are complete with Group 1 should you begin processing the rest of the students.

Group 2:  Students expected to return to the school.

All students will need to have exit code to meet CALPADS requirements, even those who will return.  The End of Year Process in PowerSchool will allow you to mass update the students who are returning with the exit code E155, if you have set the next school and scheduled next year grade fields in PowerSchool.

IMPORTANT:  Having an Exit Code and Exiting a student are two different things.  Updating a student to have an exit code using the following process will NOT exit them from PowerSchool.  Only by following the formal process of exiting using the article “How do I exit a student from PowerSchool?” will a student be exited from PowerSchool.

Group 3:  Students that will graduate/matriculate from your school.

To graduate from the school is not only limited to 8th and 12 graders.  For CALPADS reasons, they are the highest grade that is offered at the school.

Step 1:  For our example, we will select all of our 8th graders that will matriculate to high school.

Step 2:  From the pull-down menu under the list of students, select “Student Field Value”.

Step 3: Select Field To Change use “CA_SchoolCompletionStatus” and for New Field Value use “480” if a student matriculated from the school’s highest grade. 

Press Submit. 

If prompted to review changes, review and Submit again.

Graduates/Non-Graduate Completers (Seniors in High School)

If a student did not matriculate, as is common in the case of high school level completion codes, substitute 480 for one of the following School Completion Codes:

• 100 – Graduated, standard HS diploma – The student left school after meeting all state and local high school graduation requirements and received a standard high school diploma, or a student in foster care who met the state and local graduation requirements of a district they previously attended, as specified in Education Code Section 51225.3.
• 120 – Special Education certificate of completion – A student with exceptional needs (having an individualized education program [IEP]) left school after receiving a certificate or document of educational achievement or completion meeting the requirements of Education Code Section 56390.
• 250 – Adult Ed High School Diploma – The student left school and the district has acceptable documentation of the student having received a high school diploma through an adult basic education program.
• 320 – Completed GED (and no standard HS diploma). – Student left school and the district has acceptable document of the student having received a General Educational Development (GED) certificate.
• 330 – Passed CHSPE (and no standard HS diploma) – Student left after passing the California High School Proficiency Exam (CHSPE), and the district has acceptable documentation.
• 360 – Completed grade 12 without completing graduation requirements, not grad – Student completed grade 12 or exceeded the maximum age for high school attendance but did not meet the state and/or local high school graduation requirements, and there is no evidence that the student is in an academic program leading toward a high school diploma or its equivalent. This does not include students who did not graduate because of failure to pass the California High School Exit Exam.
• 480 – Promoted (matriculated) – The student transferred to another educational service institution after completing the highest grade level at a particular school in California prior to high school completion

The CDE also requests that graduates are labeled with Golden State Seal Merit Diploma indicators and the Student Seal of Biliteracy indicators (completed with a Yes/No) in CALPADS.

In PowerSchool, you may find these indicators in the students’ Transfer Information page, which looks like the following:

To update these fields, follow steps 1-2 above, and use the Student Field Value to mass update these fields for all seniors to a “Y” or “N”.  To be more efficient, you could mass update all seniors to “N”, then manually update the students who earned these.   Or hand select the student from the start page that will be listed as a “Y”, then use the Student Field Value function to update them.

 End of Year Process

Once these fields are updated, the End of Year Process in PowerSchool will auto-populate the exit codes and promote/retain students such that the CALPADS SENR (Student Enrollment Report) may be run to capture the exit dates, exit codes, completion statuses for those matriculating, and the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma and Student Seal of Biliteracy indicators.

If you are unfamiliar with this process, please do not attempt the EOY Process.  Contact your PowerSchool Database Administrator.