Manage Schedules: Perform Block Scheduling for Elementary Schools

When an elementary or middle school's class schedule is set by a homeroom, the block copy feature of Administrator's Plus can expedite the scheduling process. After you've created a new scheduling year, you can schedule one student from each homeroom and apply that schedule to their classmates.

How Block Scheduling Works

Elementary schools have unique scheduling needs that can be met using a three step process:

1. Assign students to their homerooms in the Administrator's Plus Data Base.
2. Schedule one student from each homeroom.
3. Block copy the scheduled student's data to the rest of the homeroom.

If any students have an elective that they don't share with their homeroom, you can manually schedule them into that course after you complete this process.

This process can be repeated for each homeroom, following the same steps, until all homerooms are scheduled.

The homeroom demographic field plays an important role in this process. Many elementary school students stay in (or with) their homeroom all day. This results in a schedule that is shared by all students within that homeroom. Due to their shared schedule, you can schedule one student from a homeroom and then block copy that student's schedule to every other student with the same value in their homeroom field.

Before starting this process, create a backup of the school year folder. This ensures that you can revert the school year if you need to undo this process. For guidance on creating a backup, see How do I run or schedule a backup?

Assign Students to Homerooms

Using the homeroom demographic field, you can group students into their homerooms to simplify the process of scheduling these students. Using the Batch Entry feature, you can add a homeroom to multiple students at one time. You can batch enter fields in a specific grade level, which can help you avoid accidentally including students in a homeroom for the wrong grade level. For more information on batch entry, see Batch Enter Database Information.

To batch enter data to the HOMEROOM field, do the following:

1. Click Data Base, and then click .
   

2. In the Batch Functions dialog box, click 1. Batch entry, and then click Next.
3. In the Batch Entry: Demographics dialog box, click Grade number, click the homeroom's grade level from the drop-down list, and then click Next.
   

4. In the Batch Entry For dialog box, enter a value into the HOMEROOM field, and then click Accept [F10].

   We suggest that you set Include Which Students to Active Only.

5. Click Individual members / groups, select the students you want to add to the homeroom, and then click Next.

Schedule a Student from Each Homeroom

The schedule you create in this step becomes the schedule for an entire homeroom. You can schedule any student and then copy that student's entire schedule to every other student in the same homeroom, as defined by the homeroom demographic field.

To add classes to a student's schedule, do the following:

1. In the Lookup screen section of the Home screen, click a student. Click Schedules, click Line Schedule, and then double-click the schedule.

   You can also take a shortcut by clicking a student from the Lookup screen, and then clicking (or pressing Shift + F4).
   

   If your school doesn't have Scheduling Plus, click Report Cards, click View Change, and then, in the View Transcripts dialog box, click Line Schedule.
   In the top-left corner of the View Schedulesdialog box, do either of the following:
   • Enter a student name or ID into the Enter ID/Name box, and then press Enter.
   • Click , click the student in the Student Lookup dialog box, and then click Select.

2. In the left menu of the View Schedules dialog box, click New, and then click Sections [Alt+F5].

   You can also take a shortcut by right-clicking anywhere in the schedule table, and then clicking Add New Course/Section [Alt+F5].

3. In the Select a Course/Section dialog box, click a course section to select it from the list, and then hold Ctrl on your keyboard while clicking or dragging to select additional course sections.
   Additionally, you can hold Shift and click two course sections to select every course in the range between them. You can adjust this range by dragging it. This method always selects a continuous range of courses.

4. After you've selected the course sections you want to add to a student's schedule, click Select.

Block Copy a Schedule from One Student to an Entire Homeroom

Using the View Change program, you can block copy the schedule that you created for the initial student to an entire homeroom of students. This step relies on every student having the correct data in the homeroom demographic field. If any students have an elective that they don't share with their homeroom, you can manually schedule them into that course after you complete this step. For more information on manually scheduling students, see Add Students to Existing Sections.

To copy a schedule from one student to an entire homeroom, do the following:

1. In the Lookup screen section of the Home screen, click a student. Click Schedules, click Line Schedule, and then double-click the schedule.
   

   You can also take a shortcut by clicking a student from the Lookup screen, and then clicking (or pressing Shift + F4).
   
   
   
   If your school doesn't have Scheduling Plus, click Report Cards, click View Change, and then, in the View Transcripts dialog box, click Line Schedule.
   In the top-left corner of the View Schedules dialog box, do either of the following:

   • Enter a student name or ID into the Enter ID/Name box, and then press Enter.
   • Click , click the student in the Student Lookup dialog box, and then click Select.
     
2. Click All Courses AND Requests, and click Copy TO [Alt+F9].
   

   Before you block copy, make sure that the specification in Specs. [Alt + S] for the Block Copy Field is set to HOMEROOM. If this specification is set to a different field, you will schedule the wrong group of students. Additionally, when you copy this data, Administrator's Plus won’t warn you if you exceed the optimum section size or if there are scheduling conflicts. Ensure that the schedule is accurate before copying it to the other students in the homeroom.

3. Click Yes to confirm the Copy Schedules (Block Copy) message.