This release marks a significant step forward for SchoolSet, introducing cutting-edge technology alongside highly requested operational improvements. We are proud to debut some new AI-powered features, designed to synthesize complex student data into actionable insights instantly.
Beyond innovation, this update focuses heavily on financial flexibility and administrative control. From payments improvements, report card layouts and online registration flows, these tools are built to handle the unique complexities of your school. We have also deployed major performance optimizations to the Fundraising module, ensuring that schools with large donor databases experience a faster, smoother interface.
AI & Student Insights
We have been laying the groundwork for the future of school reporting with our first AI-integrated features. We understand that reviewing a student's status often involves clicking through multiple tabs—grades, attendance, and behavior. This update changes that workflow.
AI Academic Summary: We have introduced a new AI-generated summary widget on the Student Profile page. This tool automatically analyzes a student's data points—including test scores, report cards and attendance records—and synthesizes them into a concise, readable paragraph. This allows principals and guidance counselors to grasp a student’s academic standing at a glance without manual data crunching.
**Coming Soon** AI Reporting Framework: Behind the scenes, we have deployed the foundational framework for AI-assisted database queries. While this is currently a backend update, it paves the way for future releases where users will be able to ask questions about their data in plain English to generate reports.
Where is it located:
The Academic Summary is visible directly on the Student Profile page.
Online Registration Enhancements
The Online Registration module has been refined to offer a seamless experience for parents while giving business offices better control over the financial aspects of enrollment.
6-Month Payment Plans: To accommodate families who register mid-year or require specific financial arrangements, schools can now configure 6-month payment plans specifically for the online registration portal.
Enhanced Financial Visibility: Transparency is key to reducing office inquiries. Parents can now view their existing payment and credit details directly within the online registration interface. This ensures they have a complete picture of their financial standing before finalizing re-enrollment.
Smart Allocation Logic: We have resolved complex logic issues regarding how immediate payments interact with future plans. Now, if a parent pays a portion of their contract upfront during registration, the system correctly calculates and adjusts the remaining balance on their selected payment plan, preventing over-billing or calculation errors.
Requirement Flexibility: We have updated the requirement settings, allowing for more detailed validation rules to ensure you get the exact data needed during intake.
Where is it located:
These settings are managed via Settings → Registration Setup.
Financial Management & Billing
This release significantly expands the versatility of the Finance module. From new payment methods to better integration between billing and fundraising, we are closing the gaps in school accounting.
Zelle Payment Support: As payment preferences evolve, so does SchoolSet. We have added Zelle as a standard payment type, allowing business offices to record and track Zelle transactions alongside checks, cash, and credit cards.
Connecting Credits to Funds and Campaigns: Financial credits often stem from scholarships or donations. You can now directly link a credit on a family's account to a specific Fundraising Fund or Campaign, ensuring that your scholarship accounting aligns perfectly with your donor records.
Payment Link Messaging: When sending payment links to families, administrators can now attach a custom message. This is ideal for adding context to fees or explaining specific charges.
Where is it located:
Payment types and Credit settings are found in Financial → Payments.
Report Cards & Academic Management
Report card season is underway, and flexibility is required to ensure documents look professional and accurate. We have added several tools to give you granular control over the output.
Manual Subject Reordering: The structure of a report card shouldn't be dictated by the system. Administrators can now manually reorder subjects that sit at the same hierarchy level within settings. This ensures that "Math" appears before "Science," or "Judaic Studies" appears before "General Studies," exactly as you prefer.
Batch PDF Regeneration: Mistakes happen. If an error is found in a report card template after generation, there is a new button in the Report Card Archive that allows you to regenerate the PDFs for an entire batch instantly.
Display Customization: New toggle settings allow schools to decide whether the School Name and School Year should be printed on the final PDF, offering cleaner layouts for schools with pre-printed letterhead.
Grading Safeguards: To prevent data errors, the system now restricts the "Use Default Grading" option if a subject does not actually have a default grading scale assigned, prompting the user to select a valid scale.
Where is it located:
Subject ordering and display settings are in Settings → Report Cards.
Regeneration tools are in the Report Cards module.
Fundraising Performance & Optimization
For schools with extensive donor histories, loading lists and processing data can become time-consuming. We have overhauled the backend of the Fundraising module to improve speed and usability.
Performance Overhaul: We have optimized the database views for the Donor List and Fundraising tables. Users with thousands of donor records will notice significantly faster load times and smoother scrolling.
Donor Search: We have added a dedicated search function to the Add donation Donor List, allowing to help locate specific donors instantly without scrolling through the whole list
Where is it located:
These improvements are accessed via the Fundraising menu.
System Enhancements & Data Control
This release includes a wide range of improvements to data management, security, and general system stability.
Comprehensive Student Export: Data portability is essential. Student export functions have been expanded to include data on Attendance and Test scores.
Digital Forms Management: Administrators now have the ability to delete specific responses from digital forms, making it easier to clean up duplicate or erroneous submissions.
Attendance Improvements:
We resolved a bug that prevented the editing of attendance records from previous dates, ensuring historical accuracy can be maintained. The paper attendance uploader has been fixed to handle files that contain multiple attendance tracks simultaneously.
Where is it located:
These can be found in their respective modules/pages: Students, Forms and Attendance
Bug Fixes & Quality of Life Updates
We have addressed several reported issues to ensure a smoother daily experience:
Immunization Accuracy: Corrected calculation logic for Vaccine Compliance regarding Pneumonia, MMR, Tdap, and DTP to ensure state reporting is accurate.
Receipt Formatting: Adjusted the visual spacing on generated receipts to be more condensed and professional.
Broadcast Reliability: Fixed an issue where the broadcast system would occasionally stall and only partially generate messages.
Pop-Up Data: Resolved an issue where Parent Names were not appearing in the broadcast pop-up, and Home Phone numbers were missing from the Family Page display.
Date Precision: Fixed a bug in the student downloader where the Date of Birth (DOB) was shifting by one day due to timezone offsets.