End of School Year Preparation for PowerSchool Administrators | Scribe

End of School Year Preparation for PowerSchool Administrators

    Introduction

    This guide outlines the annual process PowerSchool Administrators should follow to prepare for the district's End-of-Year (EOY) Rollover. These steps help ensure accurate data, compliance with state requirements, and a smooth transition for students into the new school year.

    What Happens During the End of Year Process?

    What Happens During the End-of-Year Process?

    The End-of-Year (EOY) process in PowerSchool is a critical, one-time procedure that prepares your data for the upcoming school year. Once executed, it finalizes the current school year and transitions student and system information forward. Below is a breakdown of what happens during this process:

    Validates Student and School Setup for Next Year

    Before the rollover takes place, PowerSchool checks each student to ensure they have:

    • A valid Next School Indicator (where they’ll attend next year) for currently enrolled and pre-registered students.

    • A valid Next Grade Level for currently enrolled and pre-registered students.

    • A properly configured school year term at the receiving school
      Any errors—such as missing next year data or invalid grade/school combinations—must be resolved before the process can proceed.

    Activates Pre-Registered Students

    Students who have been pre-registered for the new school year (but not yet enrolled) are officially activated and given a current enrollment record for the upcoming year.

    🔁 Promotions, Retentions, or Transfers Students

    All other students are automatically:

    • Promoted to their next grade level or Retained at the current school

    • Moved to their new school, if applicable (based on their Next School Indicator)

    🎓 Graduates Students

    Only students in 12th grade who have met graduation requirements should be marked as Graduated in PowerSchool and transferred to the designated Graduated Students School, School 999999. This process removes them from active school rosters and supports accurate alumni tracking and reporting.

    🍎 Carries Forward Lunch Balances (If your school uses these features)

    Student meal account balances from the current year are carried over to the next year, ensuring no financial data is lost during the rollover.

    🧹 Clears Outdated System Logs

    System logs older than 365 days are automatically deleted to maintain optimal system performance and storage efficiency. This includes login records, PowerLunch data, attendance logs, download history, Incident Management data, class ranking information, transcripts, and other backend log files.

    As a best practice, we recommend downloading and securely storing the following reports for your records:

    • Attendance Download

    • Incident Management

    • Class Ranking

    • Transcripts

    ⚠️ Important Note:
    The End-of-Year Process is run only once at the District Level by a single authorized individual. Schools do not execute this process themselves. It is critical that all schools have completed their preparation steps well in advance to ensure the process runs smoothly and accurately. Before the End-of-Year rollover, the district will remove all PowerSchool user access. This process usually lasts about a week, during which the system will not be accessible.


    Pre-Rollover Checklist – School PowerSchool Admins

    Complete this checklist before the district runs the End-of-Year (EOY) Rollover

    Before beginning this process, please ensure your school's final grades have been stored. If this has not yet been completed, it must be done prior to initiating the End of Year process. For additional guidance, please refer to the linked resource Storing Grades Assistance.

    🔁 General Preparation

    • Finalize all grades and attendance for the current school year

    • Ensure all scheduling and enrollment updates are complete

    • Notify any relevant staff of upcoming EOY processes and timelines

    • Conducting a thorough review and making any required updates to Incident Management data

      • Keeping Incident Management records accurate and up to date in PowerSchool is important for SCDE reporting. These records help the state track school safety and meet compliance requirements. Fixing any errors ensures your school’s data is correct and complete.

      • Please ensure that the following areas of Incident Management data have been thoroughly reviewed and corrected as needed:

        • Level Data Validations

        • SCDE DQR Reporting

        • EdFi School-Level Data Exchange – Student Discipline section

        Accurate and complete data in these areas is critical for state compliance and successful reporting.

    • Clear Level Data Validations Before Rollover

      • Clearing all applicable Level Data validations prior to rollover is essential to ensure a clean and accurate Level Data Validation Summary. Addressing these validations in advance helps prevent data errors from carrying over into the new school year and supports compliance with SCDE reporting requirements. Taking the time to resolve issues now promotes smoother processing and accurate state reporting.

    🗂 Data Review & Validation

    📆 Scheduling & Term Setup (Completing the schedule)

    Note: Setting up your Schedule and Terms early helps make the start of the school year easier. It reduces last-minute changes and ensures your data is accurate from the beginning.

    • Years & Terms: Confirm that the upcoming school year has been created with correct dates

    • Bell Schedules: Review schedules for accuracy and alignment with periods

    • FTE Defaults: Confirm each grade level has a default Full-Time Equivalency (FTE)

    • Calendar Setup: Ensure in-session days, membership values, and cycle days are correct

    • Note: If you are in need of Scribes for any of the above topics listed, please see:

    🧾 Reports & Records

    • Historical Grades exported (Recommended, but no required)

    • Reports printed:

    • State Reports

      • End of Year Funding Reports

        • SC01- Data Verification

        • SC02 (PK3/PK4 Only)- Cumulative Class Report

        • SC03 (PK3/PK4 Only)- Cumulative Class Report (CSV)

        • SC04- Daily Activities Log

        • SC05- Daily Activities Summary Log

        • SC06- Membership and Attendance Report

        • SC07- Membership and Attendance Worksheet Report

        • SC08- Master Classification List

        • SC24- Add-On Weightings Update

        • SC27- Add-On Weightings List

        • SC28- Add-On Weightings Report

        • SC31- High Achieving List

        • SC34- High Achieving Report

      • Attendance Summary

        • SC37- Chronic Absenteeism Update Process

        • SC38- Chronic Absenteeism School Report

        • SC40- Truancy Report by Student

        • SC41- Truancy School Detail Report

        • SC43- Truancy List

        • Optional Attendance Reports: SC46, SC47, and SC48.

      • Report Cards

      • Incident Management

      • CRDC Reports

      • PowerLunch (if used)

    • Meal transactions exported or printed (if applicable)

    🏫 General Clean-Up

    • Attendance codes and categories reviewed

      Accessing and Verifying Attendance Codes
    • IMPORTANT: Review your "Student Programs" to verify all students enrolled in a student program have an "Exit Date" prior to rollover:

      Student Program Section
    • Fees Setup (Optional)

      • Confirm if fee balances should roll over or reset.

      • Update course/school fees if needed.

    • Print/Export PowerLunch Data (Optional)


    Running the End of Year Process

    ⚙️ District-Handled End-of-Year Process

    Great news — schools do not need to complete this part of the process! 🎉
    This final step in the End-of-Year (EOY) rollover is strictly managed by the District Office to ensure consistency and accuracy across all schools.

    Here’s what the District Team will take care of on your behalf:

    • 📁 Exporting and archiving key data

    • 🛠 Setting default exit codes, entry codes, and exit comments.

    • ✔ Running the EOY Validation process until all errors are resolved

    • 💾 Backing up the PowerSchool database.

    • 🚫 Ensuring no users are logged into the system

    • ▶ Officially launching the “Perform EOY and Promote Students” function

    ⚠️ Important Note for Awareness Only:
    This process is only run once at the district level. If the session closes or times out, the district monitors progress through the System Logs.
    Schools do not need to take any action here.


    Post-End-of-Year Checklist and Why It Matters

    After the district has completed the End-of-Year (EOY) process, schools enter a crucial phase of preparation for the upcoming academic year. This post-EOY review ensures that your PowerSchool environment is accurate, complete, and aligned with your school’s instructional goals. Each item below plays a vital role in ensuring a smooth start to the new year.

    Years & Terms

    Verifying the new school year's calendar structure is foundational. Years and terms define the framework for scheduling, attendance, and grade reporting. If this information is inaccurate, it can lead to incorrect enrollment dates, scheduling errors, or issues with grade calculations throughout the year.

    Periods and Cycle Days

    Accurate period and cycle day setup ensures your school's daily schedule runs as expected. These settings affect bell schedules, attendance tracking, and how teachers and students interact with the schedule in PowerSchool. Any misalignment here can disrupt instruction and attendance reporting.

    Attendance Codes, Categories, Conversions, and Preferences

    These components define how attendance is recorded and reported. Reviewing them ensures that PowerSchool reflects your school’s attendance policies and that your data aligns with state and district requirements. Incorrect settings can lead to data compliance issues or misreported absences.

    Bell Schedules and School Calendar

    These determine how time is structured throughout the school day and year. Bell schedules must match the actual instructional day, and the school calendar must accurately reflect in-session days, holidays, and other non-attendance days. Errors here can impact everything from attendance records to instructional minutes and funding reports.

    Final Grade Setup

    Final Grade Setup involves configuring the grade calculation settings used to determine students' final grades for a term or school year. This includes defining grade scales, final grade formulas, term weighting, and store codes to ensure grades are accurately calculated and stored. Proper setup is essential for generating transcripts, report cards, and meeting state reporting requirements. Final Grade Setup should be reviewed and confirmed before storing grades at the end of each term.

    GPA, Honor Roll, and Grade Display Settings

    These settings impact how student performance is calculated and displayed. Accurate GPA and honor roll setup ensures fairness and consistency in academic recognition. Grade display settings also control what information is visible in the parent and student portals, affecting transparency and communication.

    Student Activities

    Activities like clubs, sports, and extracurriculars contribute to a well-rounded student experience. Keeping this information current ensures accurate student records and supports engagement, reporting, and eligibility tracking throughout the year.

    ✅ Student fields that clear after rollover

    The following codes must be re-entered after initialization and added for any new students entered after rollover:

    • SPED EFA Codes

    • EFA/EIA Codes

    • Pre-code Data

    Please make sure these fields are updated as soon as possible to ensure accurate student records.

    Summarized Post-End-of-Year Checklist

    ☑ Verify Years & Terms

    ☑ Confirm Periods, Cycle Days

    ☑ Review Attendance Codes, Code Categories, Conversions, and Preferences

    ☑ Confirm Bell Schedules and School Calendar setups

    ☑ Review Reporting Segments and Final Grade Store Codes

    ☑ Update GPA, Honor Roll, and Grade Display Settings

    ☑ Add or update Activities for the upcoming school year

    💡 Why This Matters:
    Completing this post-EOY review ensures that your school begins the new year with clean data, accurate setups, and fewer technical issues. It also supports compliance, minimizes schedule disruptions, and allows staff and students to begin the school year with confidence.


    (Optional) PowerScheduler and the End-of-Year Process

    If your school uses PowerScheduler, it’s important to commit the master schedule to the live side before the End-of-Year (EOY) process. Committing the schedule ensures student course enrollments and scheduling data are properly recorded for the upcoming school year.

    ⚠️ Important:
    Do not mass update students in grade levels managed by PowerScheduler after the schedule has been committed. Doing so may cause scheduling conflicts or override key data needed for accurate student placements in the new year.

    By finalizing your schedule and avoiding mass updates, you help ensure a smooth transition through rollover and into the new school year.


    Resources


    PowerSchool Community Resources:

    SCDE Resources:


    Conclusion

    By following this guide, school-level PowerSchool Administrators help ensure a smooth and accurate transition into the new school year. Completing each step with care supports student success, maintains data integrity, and aligns with both state and district requirements.

    To assist with setup after the End-of-Year process, please refer to the Start of the Year Scribe resources, which provides step-by-step guidance for essential school-level setup tasks. These tools are designed to help you confidently prepare your PowerSchool environment for the first day of school.

    If you have any questions or need assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the Institute PowerSchool Team. We are here to help and look forward to supporting you whenever needed.