Federal Race Categories

As the second part of a two-part question that appears on the student General Demographics page and the staff Edit Information page, students and staff members may be asked to choose one or more races, such as:

• (A) Asian

• (B) Black or African American

• (I) American Indian or Alaska Native

• (P) Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

• (W) White

Federal race categories must either be imported or manually entered. Once federal race categories are defined, indicate the sort order in which you want each federal race category to display relative to other federal race categories.

Import Federal Race Categories

During the initial setup of federal ethnicity and race, use the Quick Import function to transfer federal race categories into the PowerSchool Federal Race Categories table. The import file must include the following columns: Name (FederalCode), Value (Description), and SortOrder. 

When importing federal ethnicity and race settings and data into PowerSchool, it is important to perform the imports in the following order: Federal Race Categories, Race Codes, Student Races, and then Teacher Races.

Add a Federal Race Category

Use the following procedure to create new federal race categories.

1. Navigate to the Federal Ethnicity and Race Settings page. 

2. Under Federal Race Categories, click New.

3. Enter the federal race category code, such as A.

4. Enter a description of the federal race category code, such as (A) Asian.

5. Click Submit. 

Sort Federal Race Categories

Use the following procedure to indicate the order in which you want each federal race category to display relative to other federal race categories. The lower the sort order number, the higher the federal race category appears in the Race section of the student General Demographics or staff Edit Information page. Federal race categories that have only one district race code associated with them appear higher than federal race categories that have multiple district race codes.

You can use 0 or negative numbers, such as -1, to precede other entries. If two items have the same sort order number, the first one created precedes the other.

1. Navigate to the Federal Ethnicity and Race Settings page. 

2. Enter a number in the respective Sort fields.

3. Click Submit. 

Edit a Federal Race Category

Use the following procedure to edit existing federal race categories.

1. Navigate to the Federal Ethnicity and Race Settings page. 

2. Under Federal Race Categories, click the code or description of the federal race category you want to edit and update the information as needed.

3. Click Submit. 

Delete a Federal Race Category

Use the following procedure to delete existing federal race categories.

1. Navigate to the Federal Ethnicity and Race Settings page. 

2. Under Federal Race Categories, click the code or description of the federal race category you want to delete. 

3. Click Delete.

4. Click Confirm Delete. 

Enable Or Disable the Race Decline to Specify Setting

Using the Race Decline to Specify setting, indicate whether or not you want to permit students and staff members to be able to decline to specify their race.

1. Navigate to the Federal Ethnicity and Race Settings page. 

2. Do one of the following:

   • Select the Race Decline to Specify Allow / Label checkbox to include an option on permitting students and staff members to decline to specify their race and then enter the text that you want to appear next to the option. As an example, the text Decline to Specify Race appears the first time you navigate to this page.

   • Deselect the Race Decline to Specify Allow / Label checkbox to not include an option permitting students and staff members to decline to specify their race.

3. Click Submit.