Current/Past Term Finalization and Student Cleanup (Including the Bulk Attrition Tool)

BigSIS provides a utility called Graduation & Bulk Attrition tool that will help you handle graduating and attrition (i.e., withdrawn, expelled, etc.) students easily so that they are not accidentally added to next term's student rolls. Additionally, you can use this tool to create alumni records for all of your graduating students. You can use this tool at any time. If you have not begun setting up your next academic year yet, then you may want to use this tool first. If you have already set up your next academic year, that's OK, you can still use this tool at the end of the current academic year to complete graduation and attrition for the current year.

From the Left-Menu:

1. Go to Students > Other > Graduation and Bulk Attrition Tool.
   (Click here to skip ahead to "If setting Attrition status for non-returning students.")

If graduating students and creating Alumni Records:

1. Select the Term you want to work with (by default, the current term will preload but you can change this if you need to).
2. Select the Program you want to work with. For graduates, this is usually the 8th or 12th grade.
3. Click on the Select the Graduation Date radio button.
4. Enter a Graduation Date.
   
5. Check the Create Alumni Records checkbox if you want to do so (highly recommended).
6. Now, select the type of alumni.
   Note: By default, BigSIS comes with two types: (1) Alumnus - Alumnus and (2) Alumnus - Alumnus Non-graduating. The word before the hyphen designates what type of role you are setting (e.g., an alumnus role), the words after the hyphen designate the name of that type (you can make these names anything you'd like, contact BigSIS for more information). Your school may or may not see the two default options listed above depending on whether your school decided to stick with the defaults BigSIS provides or changed them to something else. So if you are using this tool and don't see one or both of these options, it is because your school elected to create its own types. Also, if you do see "Alumnus Non-graduating" you should know that is no longer really needed because the latest version of BigSIS now has much better tools to track students who leave without graduating. Bottom Line: Select the alumni type that corresponds with graduates (if using the BigSIS defaults, that would be "Alumnus - Alumnus").
7. Finally, select the students who you would like to graduate and click the Set Statuses button.
   (Right-click to 'Open image in new tab" and enlarge)
   

If setting Attrition status for non-returning students:

Note: This may not be something you need to do if you have already been doing attrition properly throughout the academic year. If you have already changed the status of every student who exited the school and didn't graduate, then you are done. You only need to use this tool if you have several students who need their status changed in bulk AND if (A) you haven't already changed the status of these students at some point earlier in the academic year or (B) these students are just now leaving at the end of the school year (and you're certain they will not be returning next year) and their status has not yet been changed to attrition (this latter reason is actually the main and best purpose for using this tool). If you only need to change the status of one or two students (especially if they left the school on different dates), you can still use this tool but it's often better to just go to their student record directly and do the attrition from there.

1. Select the Term you want to work with (by default, the current term will preload but you can change this if you need to).
2. Select the Program you want to work with.
3. Select an Attrition Type (options are Expelled, Leave of Absence, On Exchange, Withdrawn/Left). These are the only options available and they may not be changed.
4. Select the Left on Date.
   PRO TIP! Again, as mentioned above, if you are exiting several students at once, make sure they all left on the same day (e.g., the last day of the term or school year) or, at least, that the date doesn't really matter (e.g., you don't need their attendance data to be accurate, you don't need their status logs to be precise with correct entry and exit days, etc.). Do not use this tool if the students you are exiting left on different dates and if you need the date to be accurate for other uses. In those cases, go do the attrition from the student records themselves by going to Students > Student Records > Edit a Record > Click on "Change Matriculation Status" > Select Attrition Type
5. Enter a Reason for Leaving (Optional).
6. Select an Attrition Status (these are explained on screen in the drop-down list).
7. Finally, select the students who are exiting with these settings and click Set Statuses.
   (Right-click to 'Open image in new tab" and enlarge)
   

If rolling over your Academic Year, continue to: Setting up a New Academic Year with the Academic Year Wizard