District Options
Account Information
Creating an account
Self-Associating to an existing Contact Record
Adding additional students to an account
Overview
The Aeries Parent and Student Portals are available for Parent and Student use. Accounts need to be created before they can access the Portals. These same accounts can be used to access the Aeries Mobile App. Parents who have multiple students within the same district need only a single account to access all their students, however each Parent should have their own account.
The creation and maintenance of Parent/Student accounts within Aeries may also be referred to as the Parent Account Management System (PAMS).
Aeries supports Automatic Account Creation, but Schools may choose to have Parents and Students create their own accounts which is covered in this article.
District Options ↑
The option to allow Parents/Students to create their own account, reset their passwords and change their email address is controlled by these options on the District School Options page. If options are disabled, Portal users need to request help from their Schools to make changes.
Account Information ↑
Before the Parents/Guardians can create an account they need 3 pieces of information for each Student:
- Student ID (STU.ID)
- PrimaryTelephone(STU.TL)
- Verification Code (STU.VPC)
VPC codes are created when a Student gets added to Aeries and should never be changed. There are two options in District Settingsthat control the display of the VPCand who can view it.
- Display Verification Pass Code (STU.VPC) on Students form - Student Data 2 (STU) tab - Displays the VPCfield with the code masked. When the cursor hovers over the masked code, the Code is shown in a tooltip. The VPC can also be seen by clicking the 'Change' button to enter edit mode, then clicking in the VPC field.
- Allow Users With Read Permission to STU to View Verification Pass Code (STU.VPC) - Normally, Update toSTUpermission is required to view the VPC. This option allows users with Readpermission to STU to access the VPC for printing on letters and labels.
Should there be a situation where some students do not have a VPC code, running theAvery 5160 Labels report with the optionLabels with Parent Portal Info automatically generates VPC codes for any that are missing.
This information is typically provided to the Parents in a letter that includes instructions and a URL to theParent Portalwebsite. This information could be distributed during Registration, Back-to-school nights or sent by mail.
AnAeries Query Letter or mail-merge could be used to produce these letters. Avery 5160 Labels report with the optionLabels with Parent Portal Info (Avery 5160 Labels) can be printed out and sorted by Class.
Note: Automatic Account Creation does not require the use of the VPC.
Aeries Software recommends not printing the telephone number on the label or letter provided to the Parents/Guardians. They should be reminded that the key information to associate their account with their Student(s) must be kept secure to prevent anyone else from creating an account and gaining access to their Student's information. Parents/guardians may want to remind their Students not to share the information with their friends or other individuals outside the family.
Creating an account ↑
Once Parents/Guardians or Students have the required information in hand (ID Number, Telephone, and VPC), they can go to the AeriesPortal link provided by their District and click on the Create New Account link. This takes them through the Registration Process.
Note: Multiple languages are supported within the portal.
During this process, the individual selects theirAccount Type, 'Parent' or 'Student'. With this individual account creation process, there is no way to prevent Students from being able to create accounts if Parents can create accounts. Students may eventually end up acquiring the VPC, ID, and TL from their parents and try to create a Parent account of their own.
Next they are prompted for an email address and a password to use for their new account.
A confirmation email is sent to the email address. The User then clicks on the Confirm This Email Address link in the email.
If they are unable to click on the links in the e-mail, they can manually go to the URL specified and Accept or Reject the account.
Note: The “Email code” should not be confused with the VPC code. The E-mail code is only used as part of the one-time activation process.
After clicking the 'Confirm' link in the email, the following message displays.
They then click Return to Login Page and sign In with their email address and password. The Registration process continues with entering in the information for their Student. If the information matches a Student record in the database, this account is associated with that student.
If the School allows Parents to Self-Associate with a Contact record, the Parent is presented with a list of all contact records (CON) for that student. This only applies if the account was created as a Parent account, and there is at least one Contact record existing for the student.
If the account is a Student account, the student email address field (STU.SEM) is updated.
The Contact Options Self-Associate feature must be enabled to allow Parents to associate themselves with a Contact record. See Contact Management in the Parent Portal for an explanation of the options.
When a name is selected and the Parent clicks' Next', the account email address attempts to populate that Contact record’s e-mail field (CON.EM). If the Contact record has an existing email address populated that is different than the account email address, the Parent must click OK to replace it.
Once overwritten, an email is sent to the old email address informing the owner that the email address stored in Aeries has changed and to Contact the school if there is a concern.
If the Parent selects “None of the above” no Contact records are updated.
Now that the account is created and associated, the Parent or Student can login to the portal and view the information about their associated student.
Adding additional students to an account ↑
The Aeries Parent and Student Portals allow individual Parent accounts to be associated with multiple students enrolled in the District.
To add a new student to an account, the user must first log in to Parent Portal. The menu option to Change Student, displays a dropdown list of students currently assigned to this account well as the option to Add New Student To Your Account.
To add additional students, the Parent is prompted for theStudent ID, Primary Telephone and VPC Code and also be asked to select their Contact record as mentioned previously. The Student now appears in the Change Student drop-down.
Note: Although parents can add Students to their accounts they may not remove them. Only School and District Staff may remove a Student from a Parent account.
