Using data imports?
If your school’s teacher, student, or parent data is managed through file import or API sync, contact School Signals to coordinate annual updates to the data.
Defining the School Year
School Signals uses July 1 as the start of the new school year in the system. For the system, June 30, 2026, is the last day of the 2025-2026 school year. July 1, 2026, is the first day of the 2026-2027 school year.
Your school’s actual instructional calendar may begin on a different date.
The transition period during the summer, after the spring semester and before classes resume, gives administrators the time needed to prepare accounts for the upcoming year.
School Administrators can begin preparations even before the end of the semester. For instance, you can update continuing students' records in the spring, once you have this info available.
The To-Do List for School Admins
Make needed changes to the teacher accounts if teachers will be teaching different grades.
Add new teachers to the system and assign them grade levels.
Assign existing students to their new grade levels and set their primary teachers.
Manage graduating/leaving students and parents' access.
Add new students and parents.
Create classrooms for the new school year after teacher and student data have been updated.
Check your school's Groups and Clubs, and adjust memberships if needed.
Adding and Updating Teacher Accounts
Add new teachers and update existing teachers accounts to reflect their new grade levels in case there are changes.
When you update a teacher's account to a different grade level, note that the system does not store previous grade levels.
Be sure to update teachers’ grade levels before creating classrooms for the new school year.
The system uses the teacher’s assigned grade levels to suggest the audience when creating feed posts. However, teachers can choose another grade level or even make school-wide posts.
Adding New Students & Parents
Add new students first, and then add new parents after their students have been added.
Assign new students to a grade level for the new school year. Select primary teachers for the new students where relevant.
For existing parents who already have a student record, select Edit and assign their new student(s) in step 3.
Managing Continuing Students
You can update student records faster in a bulk view: Admin > Profiles & Accounts > Students > Assign Classes
To ensure a smooth transition, update existing student records with new grade levels and primary teachers before the start of the new school year's communication. You can begin this setup work while the school is still on in the spring.
You have an option to update student records faster in a bulk view. Go to: Admin > Profiles & Accounts > Students > Assign Classes. Before starting, it is recommended that you update the teacher records first to reflect the grades they will be teaching.
On the Assign Classes page, you can transfer the primary teacher from the entire class to another teacher. As an example, 3rd grade students in Mr. Jones' class can be moved to a 4th grade classroom for Mrs. Brown.
Select the new teacher, and click Assign.
You can leave the teacher unassigned and just transfer the students to the next grade.
Make any needed edits individually to student records.
Continuing Parent Accounts
Parents retain access to the School Signals platform as long as they have at least one student record in the system.
To access grade-level posts during the new school year, their child must have a grade level assigned. You don’t need to update the records of parents who still have their students at the school. Existing parent accounts continue to have access. However, note that access to grade-level posts requires that the student's grade-level data be up to date.
Leaving Students & Parents
Maintaining Parent Access by Keeping Student Records in the System
If you want to keep providing parents of leaving students access to the platform, keep the student records, but do not assign leaving students to new grade levels. Instead, use the “Student has graduated / left school” checkbox on the Edit Student page.
Parent accounts that have only students who have graduated/left the school:
Are excluded from bulk invitation emails
Are not listed in the school directory
Do not receive feed post notifications.
Can still log in and view content online
Can still be added to chats
Remain as group/club members.
Parents who have activated their user accounts can deactivate or delete their accounts at any time.
Removing Parent Access by Deleting All Student Records
Deleting a student removes the student record from the parent account. Parents only lose access to the platform if they have no other enrolled students.
Deactivating or Deleting Leaving Students as Bulk
Students who attended the last offered grade are likely to leave the school. You can manage this group of students as a bulk. Go to: Admin > Profiles & Accounts > Students > Assign Classes.
In the screenshot below, the example school's last offered grade is 5th grade. You can either deactivate or delete all 12 students' records.
If you choose to delete the records, please confirm the action as shown in the next step.
Adding New Classrooms
Classrooms are school-year-specific. Classrooms are created after July 1st (before or during the start of the new school year) and after the teacher and student data are fully updated.
Create new classrooms
After assigning applicable grade levels to teachers.
After updating the student's primary teacher information.
How to Access Previous Years’ Classrooms
Once the new school year has started, the old classrooms remain in the system but are no longer listed in the Classrooms page by default. To view previous years’ Classrooms, click the filters icon and select the previous year from the “Filter by Year” menu. The previous years’ classrooms are also available for parents to see.
Checking on Grade Level Groups
Group memberships do not depend on the school year or student data. However, if you’ve created groups intended only for parents of a specific grade level, you may need to adjust.
If the group uses a school-wide audience, you may simply want to rename it (e.g., “7th Grader Parents” to “8th Grader Parents”).
Alternative: remove all members and bulk-add all parents of the grade after the school year has started. This option may be more time-consuming, but all the group documents and other content remain.
Alternative: Hide or delete the old group and create a new one. This requires recreating any group-specific content (such as re-uploading documents).
Grade Level Clubs & Programs
Club/program memberships do not depend on the school year. Program admins should manage the membership manually.
Invite New Parents
When the school year begins, please invite new parents by using the bulk invite command. Invitations are sent only to parents who have not yet activated their accounts. You can see the Invite button on the Schools page. There is no limit to how many times you can send the invite. It would be recommended to send it a few times to get all parents active in the system.