Using the Re-Enrollment Tool

Use the Re-Enrollment tool to re-enroll all your returning students into the upcoming term in the new Academic Year (graduates and attrition students will not be re-enrolled). If you haven't yet, be sure to Change the Matriculation Status for Students not Returning Next Year/Term. This article will cover the following topics:

When it's appropriate to use the Leads Module for re-enrollment
How to re-enroll IF NOT using the Re-Enrollment Tool
Special note on re-enrolling early childhood programs IF NOT USING the Re-Enrollment Tool
How to re-enroll IF using the Re-Enrollment Tool
Special note on re-enrolling early childhood programs IF USING the Re-Enrollment Tool

When You Should Use the Leads Module for Re-Enrollment

Re-enrolling students from the previous academic year is easy in BigSIS. But before you proceed, you need to decide if you will be using the Leads module to handle re-enrollments or not. This is entirely optional and is determined by your preferences. Here's an easy way to determine whether you should use the Leads module for re-enrollments or not:

Do not use leads for re-enrollments if:

there is little reason to process re-enrollments one at time (e.g., students just need to be upgraded to a new program such as from 1st to 2nd grade) and you would prefer to process re-enrollments as quickly as possible

Do use Leads for re-enrollments if:

you are using the contracts module with BigSIS to process contracts for students
or you like to process re-enrollments one at a time (i.e., one-by-one for each student, completing a checklist of tasks along the way to ensure no detail falls through the cracks)

If Not Using the Leads Module for Re-Enrollments

Method if NOT USING the Leads module for re-enrollments
Special Note: Re-enrolling Kindergarten and Nursery when NOT using the Leads module
- If your school allows students to remain in Kindergarten or Nursery programs for multiple years until they are old enough to move on to the next level, then you will have to do something slightly different for students who were enrolled in these programs last year (you may SKIP this step if this is not applicable to your school). To re-enroll these programs do the following two things:
  - Step 1: Use the re-enrollment tool again and select the two terms (current and new) as you would for any other program, but in the field labeled "Program Action" select "Keep Students in the same program/grade." Now, process their re-enrollments just like any other program.
  - Step 2: After these students have been re-enrolled, go to Students > Other > Change Programs. Use this utility to move groups of students as needed between programs.
  - For example, say you had 10 students in Kindergarten last year but 5 of them need to move on to first grade this year, the rest need to remain in Kindergarten (or, as many schools do, you have several classrooms of Kindergartners, sometimes separated by age and you need to move some students around them). After completing Step 1 as instructed above, these students should now be re-enrolled in that very same program for the new term. From the Change Program utility (Step 2), select the new term and in the field titled "Currently in Program" select the program they were in last year; you will now see a list of all 10 students who are enrolled in the same program (Kindergarten in our example) they were in last year. Now, select the new program that 5 of those students need to be moved to (First grade in our example). Then, check the box next to each of those 5 students in our example that need to be moved to the new program and click the "Change Programs" button.
  - You may need to complete these steps multiple times if you are placing several groups of students into new programs.

If USING the Leads Module for Re-Enrollments

Before you may use this method, you need to turn it on in client settings. If you know it's already on, then proceed to the next step. Otherwise, to turn it on or to verify that it is on go to System > Settings > Client Settings. Click on the "Leads (Inquiries & Applications) tab." Check the box labeled "Use Leads for Re-enrollment" and then hit save.

Go to Leads > Re-enrollment Tool
In the Current Enrollments field", use the drop-down menu to select the term you would like to re-enroll from (i.e., the term the students are or were already enrolled in).
In the New Term to Enroll Students In field, use the drop-down menu to select the new term you want students to be enrolled in. After you select which term you would like to use, the programs eligible to re-enroll from the current to the new term will update at the bottom of the screen under the "programs" heading.

Note: If you do not see any programs listed there, then (A) either no program is eligible to re-enroll from the selected current term into the selected new term (make sure the two terms make sense, if you are using semesters, you want to enroll from, e.g., Spring '16 to Fall '16 rather than from Spring '16 to School Year 16/17) OR (B) you are attempting to PROMOTE students from a program that has no upgrade program (e.g., many schools let students remain in Kindergarten or Nursery for multiple years so these programs tend not to have automatic upgrades into, for example, 1st grade), for help on this see "Re-enrolling Kindergarten and Nursery when USING the Leads module" below OR (C) you have not completed the setup of the new academic year correctly.
Re-enrollment lead options
- The following two items are entirely optional, but they may be very useful depending on your needs. When you use the Leads Module for re-enrollments, your returning students are placed into a "Re-enrollment Leads" table after you run this "Re-enrollment Tool." These students are not immediately enrolled, they are treated similar to regular leads. That is, they will remain in the "Re-enrollment Leads" table and must proceed through phases (unlike leads for new students, though, leads for returning students are usually much shorter comprising only one or two phases rather than 6 or 7 phases since returning students do not normally need to go through inquiry and application phases). You may use the two options below to further speed up the lead process for returning students.
- (Optional, requires the Contracts Module) Check the box to create contracts for these re-enrollment leads. Don't worry, you can still customize each contract for each student after you do this. This simply adds a base contract (with any standard fees and discounts you added in the lead enrollment configuration) to each student being re-enrolled to save you a few clicks. If you prefer to skip this and instead manually add contracts one at a time anyway, just leave this box unchecked.
  - Note: If you leave this box unchecked but check the box below it to create enrollments immediately, then the re-enrollment leads you create here will be considered complete as soon as you run the re-enrollment tool. Thus, they will not display on the re-enrollment leads table by default unless you change the default filter on the table to a filter that displays completed re-enrollment leads too.
- (Optional) Check the box to create enrollments immediately if you want to go ahead and re-enroll the student into the new term right now. To understand what this will mean, recall that regular leads (i.e., not re-enrollment leads) must proceed to the enrollment phase before they can be admitted into the school and enrolled in a term. Unlike regular leads, re-enrollment leads can bypass this requirement and be enrolled into the upcoming term immediately when you run this re-enrollment tool if you check the box here. This is a great option if you want to save some time when processing re-enrollments for returning students.
  
  Some additional considerations about this option:
  - Some schools prefer to leave this unchecked because they want to wait until some other task has been completed before re-enrolling a student. For example, a school may want to wait until a contract or some other document has been processed.
  - If you leave this box unchecked, each student will remain in the "Re-enrollment Leads" table and will not be enrolled in the new term until you manually move the student into the re-enrollment phase and enroll them there.
  - If you want to use tasks for each re-enrollment lead just like you do for regular leads, then that is an additional reason to leave this box unchecked.
  - Finally, if you do check this box and leave the 'Create Contracts Immediately' box unchecked, then the re-enrollment leads you create here will be considered complete as soon as you run the re-enrollment tool. Thus, they will not display on the re-enrollment leads table by default unless you change the default filter on the table to a filter that displays completed re-enrollment leads too.
- Select the program action for re-enrollments. Use the drop-down menu to choose between Promote students to the next program/grade, Keep students in the same program/grade, and Demote students to previous program/grade.
- Set the new enrollment date for new term. Use the calendar icon to select a date or enter it into the enrollment date field.
- Select the programs that you want to use re-enrollment. Each program listed will tell you the number of students in each program, the number of qualifying students, the program they will be enrolled into, and the students who did not qualify for re-enrollment.
- Click Process Re-enrollments button at the bottom of the page.
- Finally, to view all your new re-enrollment leads, go to Leads > Re-enrollment Leads

Special Note: Re-Enrolling Kindergarten and Nursery when USING the Leads Module

If your school allows students to remain in Kindergarten or Nursery programs for multiple years until they are old enough to move on to the next level, then you will have to do something slightly different for students who were enrolled in these programs last year (you may SKIP this step if this is not applicable to your school). To re-enroll these programs do the following two things:
- Step 1: Use the re-enrollment tool again and select the two terms (current and new) as you would for any other program, but in the field labeled "Program Action" select "Keep Students in the same program/grade." Now, process their re-enrollments just like any other program by completing the remaining steps for re-enrollment leads listed above under "Re-enrollment lead options."
- Step 2: After these students have been re-enrolled, go to Students > Other > Change Programs. Use this utility to move groups of students as needed between programs.
- For example, say you had 10 students in Kindergarten last year but 5 of them need to move on to first grade this year, the rest need to remain in Kindergarten (or, as many schools do, you have several classrooms of Kindergartners, sometimes separated by age and you need to move some students around them). After completing Step 1 as instructed above, these students should now be re-enrolled in that very same program for the new term. From the Change Program utility (Step 2), select the new term and in the field titled "Currently in Program" select the program they were in last year; you will now see a list of all 10 students who are enrolled in the same program (Kindergarten in our example) they were in last year. Now, select the new program that 5 of those students need to be moved to (First grade in our example). Then, check the box next to each of those 5 students in our example that need to be moved to the new program and click the "Change Programs" button.
- You may need to complete these steps multiple times if you are placing several students in different programs.

If you are rolling over your Academic Year, continue to Step Six: Course Generation

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When You Should Use the Leads Module for Re-Enrollment

If Not Using the Leads Module for Re-Enrollments

If USING the Leads Module for Re-Enrollments

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Articles in this section

Helpful Links

When You Should Use the Leads Module for Re-Enrollment

If Not Using the Leads Module for Re-Enrollments

If USING the Leads Module for Re-Enrollments

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