Dual Signatures on New Enrollment Contracts

Heather Whigham · March 2022

Hello,

We require dual signatures for all new student contracts regardless if the parents are married, divorced, or any other arrangement. Our legal counsel here in TN advised us to do this to protect the school if collections need to be pursued with any family.

We are not currently able to require this field in Enrollment Management where the secondary email would be entered that would then enable the second parent to login and sign the contract. We have contacted support and they have said that field is hard coded and the only thing we can do is to put a note at the top of the enrollment screen telling parents to enter that second email address. We are to the point that we are going to process each new contract in DocuSign and email both parents the contract for both signatures rather than try to require the second parent to create an account and login and then validate that contract has two signatures before creating the account in Tuition Management.

My question is two-fold. 1.)What is your process and how effective is it to require two email addresses for the parents of your students? 2.)Do you require two signatures on the enrollment contract? I am curious to see what other schools are doing, and if it has helped or hindered your collection process if it has been taken to court?

Thank you for your input!

Sandra Ross · March 2022

Hi Heather, we require both parental signatures also on all contracts. Our process is to make sure both parents have a unique email address when we offer the contract initially so they can easily request their login. The email sent to parents when contract is ready to view has step by step instructions (with pictures) on retrieving their login (usually one has their login at this point from completing the application). Most complete without any issues. The instructions have a note to email me if they have any trouble or need assistance. If any have trouble, I can put in a temporary password which prompts them to reset upon entry.

We also have a few registration forms that require both signatures so we remind parents to set a password they can remember as they will need it again during their students time at our school.

Please let me know if you need more detail or wish to talk thru the steps.

Andrea Prothro · March 2022

Hi Heather,

This is our second year using the online contract feature and it has gone very smoothly. We require both parents' electronic signature. When we post acceptances online, any parent who does not have a login is prompted to email us. We use Blackbaud ID which has made the process even smoother. (And now both parents are good to go for the school year!) Next year we are going to try to require both parents to set up Blackbaud ID at the time the application is submitted. Hope this helps!

Jess Moxsky · March 2022

I agree with other respondents. Our school only requires one signature, but I have also worked at schools that required both signatures. Since you are using Tuition Management, it would be much easier for you to build and process contracts within Enrollment Management rather than docusign, but there is one caveat when using Tuition Management - each child can have a maximum of two Responsible Signers when using EM/TM integrated contracts. So for divorced families, you will need to specifically designate which parent/guardian relationships are the responsible signers.

When you build your EM contract and add the signature block, go into the block settings and make sure it's set to All Signatures Required. I'd also suggest adding text to the contract itself + the e-signature agreement to make it clear to parents that both signatures are required in order to process the contract.

Edit: I also send out communications to all new parents before contracts are assigned or generated explaining how to create their EM account and log in. Frequently, we have one parent create the account to apply in the first place, but often times the second parent account is either not created (Parent 1 did not include Parent 2's info) or they simply never logged into the second account. With the coming BBID changes in July, I'm expecting this to be much more simplified for upcoming admissions seasons since the process will be more uniform.

Brian LeBlanc · March 2022

Hey Heather - we only require one signature except in the case of split tuition, where we do require two signatures. I agree with Jess that the BBID changes will be a huge help in this area, because there are a good number of EMS accounts that are never created right now because we do not require email addresses for additional parents beyond the one that completes and submits the application.

In addition, some parents share an email account, and those situations would be a nightmare to explain to parents that one parent needs to use the shared email address and the other needs to log in some other way.

In general, it's much more streamlined to only require one signature; typically in our experience one parent is the point person for all school-related requirements (contracts, checklists, etc.) and I think it would be much more of a headache to require both parents to log in. I am not a lawyer, and I wouldn't argue against legal advice, but solely from a database admin perspective, if you can get away with only requiring one signature, do it.

Lauren Marcus Eisenberg · May 2022

@Heather Whigham We require two signatures for enrollment contracts (as well as for many of the required forms) regardless of the marital status of the parents/guardians. As a consequence, I am vigilant about collecting unique emails for each parent/guardian. (As it is said, one never knows what goes on behind closed doors!)

Karla McNamee · May 2022

We also require both signatures on our contracts and I believe on all our other permissions forms. We have been using BBID for a while and as someone else said, it has made things easier (at times). I am always editing my emails that go out to parents to try and be more detailed and have started including screenshots.

I also have wording that tells them to contact me if they have issues with logging in or haven't provided the second email. I am hoping to try and make the second email required on our application but because we also take the common app it won't solve all the issues.

I'd be interested in seeing examples of other schools emails to new families on how the BBID login process and their contract process.

Karla

Dual Signatures on New Enrollment Contracts

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