Setup Guardian Sync

Using Little SIS for Classroom, you can synchronize guardian invitations from data in an SIS export. The guardian sync works differently than the Class and Roster Sync jobs. With Class and roster sync jobs, you can create as many data sources with defined scopes as you like. For Guardian Sync, Little SIS only accepts a single sync job for the whole domain. This means you'll want to ensure your CSV export contains all students. This would be the entire universe of students you may want to send guardian invitations to. You'll be able to apply inclusion and exclusion rules to this job. So, if you are in a pilot phase, you don't need to worry about filtering out students in your export process.

Once you’ve created your data source, setting up Guardian Sync is a multi-step process In Little SIS:

  1. Create the guardian sync and review basic information
  2. Select your source data
  3. Map your data source fields
  4. Manage inclusion/exclusion rules
  5. Set update preferences
  6. Set automation settings

Before You Begin

Your guardian sync will rely on a data source to sync information. The data source holds information exported from your SIS. Before you set up a guardian sync in Little SIS, you must create your data source. 

Your data source must be in CSV format. It must contain:

  • Student Google Workspace Email
  • Guardian Email
  • Student-guardian relationship rows. How these rows look depends on the SIS you are using. Relationship information will be in one of these formats:
    • One row per student, where many guardian email addresses may exist in one or more columns within the row. The student row could have a column for each guardian's email. It could also have a column with the email addresses separated by commas.
    • One row per student-guardian relationship. A student with three guardian contact emails on file would contain three rows.

You may consider adding these optional but useful fields:

  • Student ID: Useful for SIS lookup
  • Student Grouping: This could be grade level, homeroom, or house. This information is useful for sorting and displaying purposes in Little SIS Sync.
  • School ID: Useful for display purposes and for applying inclusion and exclusion rules.
  • Any other field worth using with inclusion and exclusion rules.

Note: If your data source contains headers, it should not contain special characters. For example, @, #, $, %, and &.

Creating a Guardian Sync and Review Basic Information

  1. Access Little SIS for Classroom.
  2. Click the 9 box menu at the top left of the page.
  3. Click Sync.
    Sync9Box.gif
  4. In the left navigation pane, click Guardians then Sync Job.
  5. If this is the first sync job, click the + button.
    After setup, you an select the ellipsis (...) menu in the Guardian Sync Job card and click Edit. The Edit guardian sync job stepper opens to the Basic info step.
  6. Review the Basic information.GuardianSyncEditBasic.png
  7. Click Next to go to Source Data.

Selecting Source Data

Now that you have a data source, you can select it in the Guardians explorer. This is how you tell Little SIS the file to use for guardians sync. Once you choose the file, you can create field mappings for the fields in the file.

To select source data, do the following:

  1. From Source data, click CHOOSE FILE.
  2. Navigate to and select the data source file.
  3. Click Open.
    GuardianSyncEditSource.png
  4. Click Next to go to Data mappings.

Creating Data Mappings

The Data mappings step displays your data source at the left and Little SIS Premium guardian fields at the right. In this step, you'll map fields in your data source with Little SIS Premium.

To map fields, do the following:

  1. In the Field Mappings section, click the Build Expression gear for a field needing mapping. The expression editor opens.
  2. To show the available source fields in your data source, click the down arrow to the right of the file name.
  3. Double-click or drag your source fields from the Available Source Fields list to the Expression Editor.
  4. Double-click or drag additional fields if necessary. Your expression can be made up of more than one field. 
  5. If necessary, you can include string values as separators by placing your cursor in the Expression field.
  6. If necessary, click the shaded area between fields to insert custom manual text.
  7. Click Save. The Field Mapping section updates to show both the field and its mapping.
    GuardianSyncEditMapping.png
  8. Repeat these steps for each field you need to map.
  9. Click Next to go to Manage inclusion/exclusion rules.

Managing Inclusion/Exclusion Rules

Inclusion and exclusion rules let you set the scope for the sync or the students for whom guardian sync will apply. In this step, you’ll identify students to include and those to exclude in the guardian sync. You can use any information in the data source to identify students. This can be quite useful during the pilot phase. Here you decide which school sites, grade levels, or other student groupings to use in the sync. You can set an inclusion rule for any column in your source data.

Note: You will need to create at least one inclusion rule to define the outer boundary of the data set. If you want to include all students, we recommend using the rule Student Google Workspace Email contains @.

For inclusion rules, you'll specify criteria the guardian invitations must match to be included in the sync.

For exclusion rules, you'll specify criteria that if guardian invitations match, they will be included in the sync.

To add an inclusion rule, do the following:

  1. From Manage inclusion/exclusion rules, in the Create and manage guardian invitations where any of the following are true section, click ADD RULE.
  2. Click into the Source Field and select a field for the rule from the list popup.

    Note: As you enter rule criteria, the number of guardians updates to reflect the guardians that fit the rule.

  3. Select the criteria for the rule; equals, contains, is one of, starts with, ends with, does not equal, does not start with, does not contain, and is not one of.
  4. Enter a Value for the rule to match on. 
  5. Repeat if necessary to add additional rules. GuardanSyncEditInclusionExclusion.png

To add an exclusion rule, do the following:

  1. From Except where, click ADD RULE.

    Note: As you enter rule criteria, the number of guardians updates to reflect the guardians that fit the rule. 

  2. Click into the Source Field and select a field for the rule from the list popup.
  3. Select the criteria for the rule; equals, contains, is one of, starts with, ends with, does not equal, does not start with, does not contain, and is not one of.
  4. Enter a Value for the rule to match on. 
  5. Repeat if necessary to add additional rules. 

If desired, use the Preview Guardian Sync button to verify that the data to be used appears accurate.

After adding all inclusion and exclusion rules, click Next to advance to Update Preferences.

Setting Update Preferences

Now that you’ve identified which guardians the sync applies to, you need to decide what should be updated during the sync. These are your update preferences. 

Configurable update preferences include: 

  • Whether you want guardians both ADDED AND REMOVED, or only ADDED during the sync.
  • How old an invitation should be before sending a new one.
  • The max number of invitation attempts to make to the same guardian email address.

To set update preferences:

  1. From the Analysis tab of Update preferences opens, select an option for When differences are detected between the source guardian list for a student and the list in Classroom. Options include:
    • Add new guardian emails from source data, DO NOT REMOVE unmatched guardians from Classroom.
    • Add new guardian emails from source data, AND REMOVE unmatched from Classroom.
    • Add new guardian emails from source data, and REMOVE guardians in Classroom where the email address does not match the source data, AND REMOVE ALL guardians for students not included in the source data.GuardianSyncStep5.png
  2. Click the Invitations tab.
  3. If unacepted invitations are to be resent: 
    • Check the Re-send guardian invitations if a non-accepted invitation is expired or older than checkbox.
    • Select a time frame from the drop-down; 4, 6, or 8 weeks. When there are unaccepted invitations, the invitation will be sent at this interval.
  4. Enter the number of times an invitation can be re-sent in the We will attempt to send guardians invitations _ times over the course of your selected timeframe blank field. GuardianSyncEditUpdateInvitation.png
  5. Click Next to go to Automation.

Set Automation Settings

You can configure the sync job to be:

  • Staged and run manually
  • Staged automatically on a schedule but held for manual review and execution
  • Staged and run automatically on a schedule, with threshold conditions for holding the job

We recommend starting off with a manual run until you are confident in the integrity of the process.

To set automation settings:

  1. Select an option for the Automation settings for guardians sync field. Options include:
    Run sync manually
    Perform analysis and stage changes on a schedule
    Perform full automated sync on a schedule
  2. If you selected either of the perform on schedule options, you’ll need to complete the Automation schedule section.
    • Check the Every Day checkbox or checkboxes for the days of the week the sync is to run. 
    • By default, the sync will run at 12:00 AM. Change the hour, minute, and AM/PM if necessary.
  3. If You selected the Perform full automated sync on a schedule option, you’ll need to complete the Hold all actions section. The sync will be held for manual review if there are more than the specified number of invitations to be sent or guardians/invitations to be withdrawn.
    • Enter a number for the _ or more new invitations are to be sent.
    • Enter a number for the _ or more existing guardians or invitations are to be withdrawn. GuardianSyncEditAutomation.png
  4. Click Save
Document Version Date Description of Change
1.0 3/27/2024 Added animated gif
1.1 7/30/2024 Reverify

 

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