Districts use PowerSchool custom page management to streamline demographics integration.
Steps
To setup demographics integration with PowerSchool:lightbulb Tip
You will need access to a PowerSchool Administrator account to setup this integration.
- Download custom pages
- Install custom pages
- Create a SameGoal PowerSchool account
- Enter PowerSchool information in SameGoal
- Test
Download the default custom page files below. Right click each link, choose Save as..., then save each file to a location of your choosing.
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uc_guardians.powerschool.html extracts parent/guardian contacts stored as Unlimited Contacts in PowerSchool. If your district has not migrated all parent/guardian Custom Fields to Unlimited Contacts, also download
guardians.powerschool.html. This file extracts parent/guardian contacts stored as Custom Fields in PowerSchool and requires additional customization for your district. If your district already has a customized guardians.powerschool.html file installed in PowerSchool, leave this file installed (in addition to uc_guardians.powerschool.html) until all parent/guardian Custom Fields have been migrated to Unlimited Contacts.
Login to your PowerSchool Administrator account.
- In the left menu, visit System (under Setup).
- On the System Administrator page, visit Page and Data Management.
- On the Page and Data Management page, visit Custom Page Management.
- In the Site Structure pane, expand admin then functions.
- Right click the functions folder. Select Upload.
- Click the Choose File button and browse to the location of students.powerschool.html saved in step 1.
- Click the Submit button.
- Repeat these steps for uc_guardians.powerschool.html.
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If your district has not yet migrated all parent/guardian Custom Fields to Unlimited Contacts, repeat these steps for your customized
guardians.powerschool.html file.
SameGoal uses an account with minimal access privileges to automatically log into PowerSchool nightly and retrieve a fresh copy of basic demographic information generated via these custom pages.
Login to your PowerSchool Administrator account.
(a) Create samegoal group
- In the left menu, visit System.
- On the System Administrator page, visit Security.
- Visit Access to Page Permissions.
- In the Turn modify permissions dropdown, select On. Click Submit.
- You will be redirected to the Security page.
- On the Security page, visit Groups. Click the Add Groups button in the top right. This page is optimized for adding multiple groups, but we only require one. Enter
- Number of groups to add: 1
- Prefix group names with: samegoal
- Group name preview will show group name of samegoal with a number (we will change later). Click Submit.
- You will be redirected to the Groups page.
- On the Groups page, use the Filter to search for the group you added. When located, click it.
- On the Edit Group page, set
- Group Name: samegoal (remove numbers)
- Access Level: No Access
- Can Modify Schedules: No, not at all
- Uncheck any other options or set them to No Access on this page.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Submit.
(b) Create samegoal user account
- In the left menu, visit New Staff Entry.
- On the New Staff Member page, enter
- Name (Last): goal
- Name (First): same
- ID: samegoal
- Click Submit.
- Click goal, same user account.
- In the left menu, visit Security Settings
- Visit the Admin Access and Roles tab.
- Sign in to Administrative Portion of PowerSchool: check
- Admin Username: enter username of your choosing
- Admin Password: enter password of your choosing
- Default Group: samegoal
- Roles and Schools: add Home School and District Office
- Click Submit.
(c) Grant samegoal account access to custom pages
Modify your URL bar to visit: https://[your-powerschool-host]/admin/functions/students.powerschool.html
- Scroll to the bottom.
- Click the Modify access privileges for this page link.
- Find the samegoal group and select View-only.
- Click Submit.
Repeat steps for: https://[your-powerschool-host]/admin/functions/uc_guardians.powerschool.html
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If your district has not yet migrated all parent/guardian Custom Fields to Unlimited Contacts, repeat these steps for your customized guardians.powerschool.html file.
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Custom page may take a long time to load.
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If the
Modify access privileges for this page link does not display, changes to
Access to Page Permissions in (a) may not have had time to propagate. Recheck this access permission was set to
On and/or wait for it to take effect.
If you do not have a SameGoal admin account, email tier2help@samegoal.com the following information:
- Admin URL: URL of your district Powerschool Administrator instance (eg: https://district.powerschool.com/admin/)
- Username: username from previous step
- Password: password from previous step
- Guardian Flags: Whether guardians should be limited to those with "Lives With" or "Is Custodial" flags in PowerSchool.
If you have a SameGoal admin account:
- Login to SameGoal using an admin account.
- Navigate to Settings > District Information > Details.
- Under PowerSchool, enter the above information.
- Click the Save button.
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Only encrypted (HTTPS/SSL) admin URLs are allowed.
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It may take up to 24 hours after PowerSchool information has been entered in SameGoal for the demographics integration to run (and for students/guardians to appear in the SameGoal web interface). If you would like to trigger a faster run for the purposes of debugging, email tier2help@samegoal.com.
Expected results: After the integration has run successfully, student and parent demographics of enrolled students will populate SameGoal. After the integration has run successfully at least once, ask your staff or tier2help@samegoal.com to inspect a handful of students in SameGoal. If the integration does not succeed:
- Verify you can login using the Admin URL, username and password entered in SameGoal.
- While logged in, verify you can visit both URLs below. Each page should generate demographic information without error:
- https://[your-powerschool-host]/admin/functions/students.powerschool.html
- https://[your-powerschool-host]/admin/functions/uc_guardians.powerschool.html
- If either page cannot be accessed, recheck Step 3 (especially 3c) was completed.
- If none of the above points to the source of the error, the issue may be data-specific. Contact tier2help@samegoal.com for assistance debugging.