Continuous Enrollment - first year

Maria Siciliano Mueller
Maria Siciliano Mueller
Fifth Anniversary
in Blackbaud Enrollment Management System™

Hello Everyone,

Does anyone have a sample communication to parents to announce the first year implementation of continuous enrollment through EMS?

Thank you!

Maria

Comments

  • Elizabeth Perron
    Elizabeth Perron
    Eighth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant

    Hi @Maria Siciliano Mueller,

    This discussion thread has been moved to the K-12 Community in order to get more eyes and replies.

    Please let me know if you would have liked me to do something different to help get your question answered.

    In harmony,
    Elizabeth
    Blackbaud Community Team

  • Jennifer Ray
    Jennifer Ray
    Third Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1

    @Elizabeth Perron How do I Find this discussion?

  • Julie Johnson
    Julie Johnson
    Sixth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant

    @Maria Siciliano Mueller Here you go. Spacing/Formatting is jumbled up. Just sending for content idea. A substantial part of our contract language explains CE as well.

    • WHAT IS THE PROCESS FOR CONTINUOUS ENROLLMENT?
      • January to early February

    The annual timeline:

    • Reminder email about auto-enroll and opt out
    • Email with tuition announcement
      • February
        • Reminder email about opt out date
        • Opt Out Date – February 20 (annually)
        • Auto Draft Date – February 28 (annually)
      • May
        • Last day to withdraw without a tuition penalty: May 31 (annually)

    Continuous Enrollment is a contract that enrolls a student for the upcoming year and all subsequent years or until:

    • The student graduates
    • The family decides to opt out

    It is always our priority to serve our community the best way we can, which means constantly re-evaluating our processes. As we find ourselves in a world where auto renew and auto draft are a part of our everyday vocabulary, and have become commonplace practices, we believe this was the right time to make the transition to a similar method for enrollment. We want to mirror those business practices that our community is familiar with, while at the same time providing a cleaner and easier enrollment process for our families.

    Current families no longer receive a contract to submit. Should any changes be necessary, you will contact us by the deadlines we have provided and your requested changes will be made. You will receive plenty of reminders and notifications as deadlines approach.

    If you are like the majority of {School Name} families who re-enroll each year and make no change to their tuition payment plan, you will not have to do anything moving forward!

    No, at this time {School Name} has made a decision to move forward with Continuous Enrollment to ease the re-enrollment process. We know that this process will be a benefit to our families.

    If at any time you decide you want to withdraw your student’s enrollment, you can do so. You will need to be mindful of the “Opt Out Deadline” which is February 20. Should you withdraw beyond that point, there will be an enrollment deposit or tuition penalty.

    The signed contract copy is always saved in your parent portal profile by clicking on “Files & Forms” and checking the box “show completed form” under each child’s name. Please contact the Admissions Office at admissions@schoolname.com with additional questions or if you are unable to locate the contract copy.

    Bank information in Blackbaud Tuition Management (BBTM) will remain the same until the parent changes it.

    The payment plan selection can be changed by contacting the Business Office / Student Billing at studentbilling@schoolname.com. Please complete the form on the Resource page on your parent portal and email it using “CHANGE PAYMENT PLAN” as the subject line.

    Starting for the 2023-2024 school year (February 28, 2023) the annual enrollment deposit will be deducted automatically based on the banking information that’s in the Blackbaud Tuition Management (BBTM) records when you signed the Continuous Enrollment contract. However, you can call Blackbaud Tuition Management (BBTM) or {School Name}'s Business Office / Student Billing at xxx-xxx-xxxx to change the payment source.

    The Financial Aid office has Open Enrollment each fall. So long as your Financial Aid application has been submitted by the Open Enrollment deadline, you will receive notification of your grant before the “Opt Out Deadline,” annually on February 20. If you need more time to consider your grant, and you ultimately decide the grant is not workable for your family, you will be able to withdraw and receive a refund of your enrollment deposit.

    If a student is withdrawn after the opt-out deadline, the enrollment deposit will be nonrefundable.

    Once the re-enrollment period is over and the Opt Out Deadline has passed, there will be a scheduled auto draft of enrollment deposits on February 28 for all re-enrolling students. Enrollment deposits are non-refundable, and it is our way of anticipating enrollment for the following Academic Year. Think of it as a placeholder for your child.

    Per the terms of the Enrollment Contract, any student withdrawn on or after June 1 will be required to pay 25% of tuition, unless the reason for withdrawal is for reason of a family relocation of over 75 miles from {School Name}.

  • Brian LeBlanc
    Brian LeBlanc
    Kudos 5 Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper Participant

    @Maria Siciliano Mueller If you are using integrated contracts with Tuition Management, be aware that doing continuous enrollment in this manner will cause significant issues with new enrollments in the same family (think along the lines of a younger sibling entering kindergarten) down the line. We tried this three years ago and it was such a disaster that we ended up backtracking and going back to a new contract for re-enrollment every year, although that “contract” is significantly shorter and we present it as a confirmation of intent to maintain enrollment.

    Essentially, you will need to manually add every new enrollment in Tuition Management for an existing family. They will receive an error when trying to complete the new enrollment contract, which will require you to manually return the contract. If you collect any sort of payment at the time of enrollment, they will need to log into Tuition Management and make a manual payment for that amount as well.

    It was a gigantic mess and took us the better part of four months to figure out what was happening and how to prevent it. I don't know how it works if you use Billing Management, but if you use BBTM, I strongly advise against this given our headaches with making it work.

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