TABLE OF CONTENTS

• New Grade Level Entry Dates
• Provider Enhancements
• Meals & Snacks Enhancements
• General Enhancements
• Family Application Enhancements
• New Staff Education Types & Enhancements
• Credit Adjustment & Discount Enhancements
• Fixes & Adjustments

New Grade Level Entry Dates

• We have updated the single "Grade Level" field on the student record to be a one-to-many grid where staff can create grade level records with an "Entry Date." For example, a student can now have a K-grade record with an "Entry Date" of 7/01/2025 and a 1st-grade record with an "Entry Date" of 7/01/2026. In attendance reports, the child will reflect their Grade Level according to the report date, so if a report is pulled for July 2025, then the student will be reported as grade level K, but if the report is pulled for July 2026 then the student will be reported as grade level 1.  
• The notes below will be important to review following this update:
  • A Grade Level record does not require an "Entry Date" to be added to the grade level. If a student has more than one Grade Level record and none of them have an "Entry Date," then the system will consider the highest Grade Level as their current grade.
  • Upon release of this update, the existing Grade Level selected on the child’s record will have a new Grade Level record created for it. The Grade Level will not have an "Entry Date" and will be considered the child's current grade level.
  • If a parent or staff selects a new Grade Level for a child in a Family Application, a new Grade Level record for that grade will be created upon intake of that Application.
  • If a report is run for multiple days/months and only has one Grade Level value, such as the "Annual Attendance" report on the Expanded Learning Attendance Reports record, then the student's Grade Level on the last day of the "End Month" in the report will be reported. However, if the report allows for multiple Grade Level values, such as on the EAR and Enrollment Category Report, then the student's Grade Level for each attendance day in the report will be reported.
  • There are many other places in the system where the student's Grade Level is reported. Please click here to review this in detail.
• This update will also contribute to the eligibility of the "Dual Language Learner" (DLL) adjustment factor category for a student, as follows:
  • If a child is age-eligible for the DLL adjustment factory category, then they must also have either a TK, K, or blank/no Grade Level created. If the student has any other active Grade Level during the report period, then they will not be eligible for the DLL category.
  • For example, if the student has a 1st Grade Level record with an "Entry Date" of 5/1/2025, then the student will no longer be eligible for the DLL category starting on 5/1/2025.

Provider Enhancements

• Updated the Provider Settings menu item to improve user functionality and add new fields, including the changes below:
  • Moved the Provider Setting menu item to the top of the Provider sub-menu, since this will be the first area that users should visit when setting up or managing Providers
• Updated the Provider Settings record to now be three tabs:
  • Invoice Settings - This tab will house the Agency information that will be listed on the Provider Statement, such as the Agency Name, Phone, Fax, and Mailing Address. In this tab, users can also access the setting to include non-scheduled attendance days in the adjustments modal.
  • Participating Providers - This tab will allow users to add sites as Participating Providers. The site must have an Early Learning Setting of either FCCH or FFN to be included in the list of sites that can be added as providers.
  • (NEW) Purchase Order Setup - This new tab will allow users to add a PO Number and PO Number for Cost of Care Plus for each site that was added in the "Participating Providers" tab. The PO Numbers listed here will be added to the Provider Statement, (please refer to the next bullet point for more information on this update).

• In addition to the PO Number being added to each site for the applicable Provider Statements, we have also added an Account Code field for Provider Payments and Cost of Care Plus. The Account Codes can be added to the Funding Contract by checking the new option within the Funding Contract record titled "Used for Provider Payments." 
  • With these new updates, the Provider Statement will be categorized by Provider Payments and Cost of Care Plus first, with the PO Number appended to the section's title. Then, within each of those two sections, the statement will be further categorized by Program Contract, with the funding contract's Account Codes appended to the contract title within each of the Provider Payment and Cost of Care Plus sections.

Meals & Snacks Enhancements

• Updated the CACFP Monthly Roster grid and download to ensure the correct Date Enrolled and Certification Dates are displayed. The Date Enrolled will be the child's historical Start Date, but if this date is before July 1st of the report's fiscal year, then it will be shown as July 1st of that year. The Certification End Date will be shown as July 31st of the report's following fiscal year if the date is either blank or after July 31st of the report's following fiscal year.
• Added two new columns to the CACFP Monthly Roster grid titled "HS, EHS, or ES" and "Migrant." These columns will show "Yes" for any student identified as a Head Start student or a student in a Migrant child care program on the Meal Benefit Form. The data on the grid will match the information in the download.
• Added a new "Download with Signature" option when downloading the CACFP Monthly Roster to allow staff to download the roster with an eSignature and date of signature.

General Enhancements

• Users must now select a "Funding Contract" when creating or editing a student's schedule. The Funding Contract is an essential field on the schedule record that feeds many reports, forms, and contracts throughout the system, so this update aims to ensure this piece of data is not missing.
• Updated the age columns on the All Students grid to show their age on September 1st and December 1st in both the current fiscal year and the following fiscal year. For example, if the fiscal school year is 2024-2025, we now have four columns: Age on 9/1/2024, Age on 12/1/2024, Age on 9/1/2025, and Age on 12/1/2025. 

• Also on the All Students grid, we added tooltips to the Drop Date and Transfer Date columns that provide brief explanations of how the system derives these dates, as well as links to the schedules where the date is derived from for both those columns.

• We've updated the All Schedules grid on the Agency, Site, and Session levels. These updates include adding the columns Agency Program, Funding Contract, and updating the column name "Funding Type" to instead be named "Subsidy Type". We have also added filters for the Agency Program and the Funding Contract columns on these grids.

• We have added a new field to the Agency record within the "Corporate Information" card titled "Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)." This field will allow users to add the Agency's UEI (12 digits, alphanumeric) for entities conducting business with the federal government.

Family Application Enhancements

• Please note that the following update will only be enabled in systems using the Family Services feature: Added a new functionality to the Intake process for Family Applications that allows users to automatically caseload the Case Managers with the family, so long as the staff have the role of Family Caseworker previously assigned to their staff account. This new option in the "Intake Application" modal will be titled "Case load this family to staff listed here upon intake." This update aims to help staff seamlessly enroll and caseload families with their previously assigned application Case Managers.

New Staff Education Types & Enhancements

• Added new filters to the Staff Education grid within the "Degrees" and "Permits" tabs. The Degrees tab will now have a "Degree Level" filter that allows users to filter for staff with selected degree types. The Permits tab will now have a "Permit Type" filter that allows users to filter for staff with selected permit types.
• We have added new/updated several Staff Education records, including:
  • Added a new Permit type titled "Emergency Specialist Teaching Permit in Early Childhood Education"
  • Added a new Permit type titled "Emergency Transitional Kindergarten Permit"
  • Added a new Credential type titled "PK-3 Early Childhood Education (ECE) Specialist Instruction (Preliminary)." Please note that this is a new option, and the option previously titled "PK-3 ECE Specialist Instruction" will now be re-titled to be "PK-3 ECE Specialist Instruction (Clear)" - any staff with this Credential created before this update will be automatically appended with "(Clear)" in the title.

Credit Adjustment & Discount Enhancements

• Updated the Credit Adjustment Template when adding a credit to a family's account to allow staff to modify the "Description" of the credit record. The "Description" entered here will be the title of the credit in the family's billing statement. Previously, Credit Templates did not allow staff to modify the Description, but this restriction has now been removed upon request from users. Please note that the Credit Template being used to create the credit will be preserved upon editing the Description, so users can still filter for all credits created using the template.

• Added a new option for Discount Templates in the Family Fees Setup area titled "Amount differs by family." Selecting this checkbox for any Discount Template will allow staff to update each families' discount amount. Specifically, the Discount type (Dollar or Percentage) will be un-editable, but users will be able to modify the title of the Discount and the total Dollar or Percentage amount that the discount will be for the family.

Fixes & Adjustments

• Updated the Simple Application to ensure that parents and staff cannot remove existing children from the application. Parents/staff will be able to mark which students are applying in the application, but removing an existing child that is not applying can create issues upon intake of the application.
• Updated the Income Calculation Worksheet in the household and the family application within the "Fluctuating" income section to list two (2) months as a "Number of Months" option, pursuant with California regulations of averaging the total countable income from at least two months.
• Fixed a field label issue in the Income Calculation Worksheet within the "Bi-Weekly" pay section, so that Parent A has both "Pay Period 1" and "Pay Period 2" fields.
• Fixed an issue with Family Contracts where student schedule fees were duplicated on the contract.
• Fixed an issue with the Messaging tool when translating to a language other than English.
• Updated the Parent Survey Results Download to allow users to view results if more than one parent has completed the survey.
• Updated the Applications & Waitlist grid to ensure that all Document Checklists assigned to an application are displayed in the "Uploaded Documents" column, even after the core Document Checklist template record has been archived. The checklist assignment will also continue to show in the "Overview" tab of the application record, in the Parent Portal, and on the Household record.
• Fixed issues with Head Start PIR sections B.11.e and C.44.m - C.44.q