Monthly Mentions Newsletter – April 2020

If your school is approaching the 3rd quarter report, then these functions in FastDirect might need to be addressed.

Opening up teacher input for 4th Mid-Quarter Report will require:

• Confirming the mid-quarter dates in ‘Grades’ then ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Changing input for mid-quarter from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Having teachers go through the mid-quarter report card input process
• Closing the input process by changing ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’

Is your school feeling the challenges of Distance Learning?
Click this link to see how we can help make the transition easier for administrators, teachers, parents and students!

At the top of the Home screen, we’ve posted the need for some Spring Cleaning!   With the distance learning surge, the files saved to our servers has also increased.
Click this link to find out how you can remove any unwanted or no longer needed files from your account.

Opening up teacher input for 3rd Mid-Trimester Report will require:

• Confirming the mid-trimester dates in ‘Grades’ then ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Changing input for mid-trimester from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Having teachers go through the mid-trimester report card input process
• Closing the input process by changing ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’

Is your school feeling the challenges of Distance Learning?
Click this link to see how we can help make the transition easier for administrators, teachers, parents and students!

At the top of the Home screen, we’ve posted the need for some Spring Cleaning!   With the distance learning surge, the files saved to our servers has also increased.
Click this link to find out how you can remove any unwanted or no longer needed files from your account.

We have recently made some changes to the FDmail settings for Students. These new settings allow you to control who students are able to initiate messages to (Staff, Parents, students). Please review these settings and make any necessary changes by check marking the options you feel are best suited for your school. Here are the steps to view these settings:

1.) Go to Settings
2.) In the left hand menu, click on FDmail
3.) Scroll down to the heading for ‘Allow Student Messaging’
4.) Check or uncheck the options you want
5.) Click ‘Save Changes’ in the top right hand corner

For more information on students and logging into their accounts and additional Distance Learning information, please read this FAQ.

Every Independent school in the US belongs to a school district or Local Educational Agency (LEA). In most cases, it is possible to apply for Professional Development funds through Title IV. In addition to the regularly earmarked funds, states and local educational agencies will receive a bulk of funds from the federal CARES act in response to the economic impact of COVID-19. Some of these funds will be available help schools set-up remote/e-learning.

Click this link for an article that has a good summary of what’s available for schools. Here are some highlights of the article:

• “Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund would receive $13.23 billion.”– The funds flow from feds to State Ed. Agencies to Local Ed. Agencies to Schools
• “The CARES Act requires the Education secretary to make applications for both funding streams available ‘no later than 30 days after enactment’ of the law, and applications must be approved or denied within 30 days of receipt of the application.” — so if schools act, they could have money within 60 days!!
• “Under this provision, schools can leverage funds for “Planning and coordination during long-term closures, including how to provide meals to eligible students, how to provide online learning technology to all students, how to provide guidance on meeting IDEA requirements, and how to ensure other educational services can continue to be provided consistent with federal, state, and local requirements. CARES Act Section 18003(d)(8).”

Contact HelpDesk if you would like to find out how FastDirect can help!

We understand that Distance Learning can be a challenge for everyone, especially teachers.  We have several FAQs specifically created for how teachers can use FastDirect to help with assignments and communication information to parents and students. Here are some FAQs to help get you started:

• How to send assignments home for your Distance Learning Plan (DLP)
• How to share documents with students and guardians for my Distance Learning Plan
• Distance Learning or eLearning Overview

Whether it is your first time in FastDirect or you’ve been logging in regularly, we have an FAQ that will help break down some of the features in FastDirect that will be used with Distance Learning:

• For Students and Parents/Guardians – Using FastDirect for Your Distance Learning Plan

• When creating a new event in GradeBook, what are the ‘Status’ Options?
• How do I add access to FastDirect Communications to the home screen of my smart phone?
• How do I delete a link from the ‘Links’ section?

Helpful FAQs from April 2019:

• How do I create a link to an uploaded file?
• What should I do at the end of the year in relation to keeping records of the student’s history in Nurse?
• How do I edit data fields using the Make Your Own Report?

Helpful FAQs from April 2018:

• How can an administrator view and/or print a tax report for a specific family?
• How do I set up Tuition account for next year?
• How do I print labels in the Reports section?

Watch this video tutorial to find out more about reassigning courses in Show Who Teaches What:

• Click here to watch the video tutorial as an MP4!
• Click here to watch the video tutorial in YouTube!