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Digitizing annual enrollment packets/forms

Nathan Ong

Hello, we would like to digitize our enrollment packets into Blackbaud (they are currently sent as PDFs for parents to fill out and sign).

Every year before school starts, parents submit an enrollment packet, which includes updated emergency contacts, adults approved pick up, medical info, etc. even if their child has been enrolled before.

Just wondering how did you build this out for folks who did? Something like a checklist/series of forms that have to be reviewed and signed annually.

Would it be in forms in Enrollment management? We just started using the Enrollment module last year when we moved our application online/into Blackbaud. But since parents need to re-sign every year, do you distinguish between forms by year 24-25, 25-26 etc., or even have a different checklist like 24-25 checklist, 25-26 checklist?

Just trying to get ideas, thanks!

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Comments

Dave Baacke

@Nathan Ong
Not my area of expertise, but we do our enrollment contracts through the enrollment management module. They are changed every year because there are updates made every year to tuition, student handbook, etc. Any form that they need to sign off on are included in the packet as well as the ability to collect our non-refundable enrollment fee. It has made things a lot better trying to get documents signed and returned

Lisa Tulchin

@Nathan Ong
Hi Nathan! We have a combination of mandatory Blackbaud School Forms and Magnus Heath forms that need to be signed at the beginning of the year. This year I'm going to try to put all the School Forms in a Student Checklist before the start of school with links to Magnus. Still doing research to see if I can still track who completes the forms as well as I can in individual School Forms. We're planning to launch the forms around July 1st, as the reenrollment deadline has passed and some of the documents have not been finalized yet.

Mary Stanton

@Nathan Ong Hi Nathan!

Every year we have forms that must be completed at the time of the annual contract for re-enrollment or enrollment for new students as well as have forms that parents must complete over the summer before each school year for every student to update contact info, emergency contacts, medical forms, handbook acknowledgement, etc.

These forms all are done in Blackbaud using a combination of School Forms and the Student Checklist in Enrollment Mgmt. Some school forms are in Core, the others that are Medical related are in Academics. In addition, a few of our forms are still PDFs (writable) but we have parents access and submit them by using the Student Checklist. The Student Checklist allows the parent to download the form from the checklist step, complete the form offline, and then upload the completed form via that same checklist step. If I remember correctly the Student Checklist can only be assigned by student and since we have some forms that are assigned per family, those items cannot be on the checklist.

And yes, we do differentiate the forms and student checklists by school year which allows for changes each year if needed but also makes it easier for us to manage which forms have / have not been completed for the start of a particular school year.

Not sure if any of this is the ‘best’ approach, but it is the one that has worked for us over the last few years as we used Blackbaud more and more.

FYI, there are some nuances to Student Checklists so just be aware and test how they work for what you are trying to do. Here is another older discussion (https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewtopic/300/58582) related to checklists and declined school forms that may be helpful. Note that I have not tested Student Checklists or the Decline option since last spring so don’t know if these nuances still exist.

Good luck!

Lauren Marcus Eisenberg

@Lisa Tulchin

Beware: checklists are very flawed!
For instance, once a parent starts a form that is part of the checklist, it will show in the parents' count of outstanding forms. On the other hand, when clicking into Checklists, no other forms will show.

I was so excited when checklists was launched. After two years of wrestling with it, I won't use the tool.

P.S. ALL of our back-to-school forms are online in BB.

Lisa Tulchin

@Lauren Marcus Eisenberg Thank you for reminding me! Yes, I was told during training that the school form in the student checklist doesn't official start tracking for a parent until they click to activate the form, even though the checklist was assigned to the parent. I think the work around was to take the completed list and compare it with the original school checklist list?

We have so many forms though, I'm going to give it a shot. It was also good exercise to go through all the departments in the school to figure out what they send to parents every year. We'll also follow this up with emails and our normal in person meetings. At least if it parents have the opportunity to have the forms accessible in one spot with the other info they need that's an improvement over forms being sent to them from different databases at different times during the summer and into the first month.

It's not perfect, but would be such a good selling point if they could make it more accountable.