Ecollect Forms/Enrollment Express 25.9.0.0

Admin - Duplicate Contact Prevention

Schools or districts can reduce the risk of duplicate contact records in PowerSchool SIS using a new Duplicate Contact Prevention process integrated into the form response approval workflow. This feature introduces a built-in contact matching mechanism that helps ensure submitted contact data is matched accurately to existing records or added as new records. As a result, this feature significantly reduces the risk of duplicate contact records, one of the most common data quality issues in student information systems.

When a responder (parent, student, administrator, or teacher) submits a form containing contact information, the system now flags each contact dataset with one of the following statuses:

• No Changes (indicating no updates were made and no review is needed).

• Delete (indicating the contact was deleted and no review is needed).

• Update (indicating existing data was changed and may require a review if identifying fields were modified).

• New (indicating a newly submitted contact that involves review and matching).

This provides administrators with immediate insight into what type of action is needed. School and district staff can review and approve individual form responses from the response detail view or bulk approve multiple responses from the Response Report. During approval, administrators are guided through a streamlined Review Contact window that compares submitted data with existing PowerSchool SIS records. If a potential match is found, staff can choose to update an existing contact or create a new one, ensuring every record is handled with intention and accuracy.

The system identifies potential matches by comparing submitted contact datasets with existing PowerSchool SIS records using different matching criteria based on whether Auto-Match is enabled or disabled. When Auto-Match is disabled, it employs a logic that includes begins-with matches on first names and contains matches on last names, alongside soft matches on the address line. Alternatively, the system may also identify matches based on an exact match of any email address or an exact match of any phone number and extension. Conversely, with Auto-Match enabled, the system seeks exact matches using stricter criteria, and if a single match is found, it automatically matches to that record. If no unique match is identified, it defaults to the criteria for presenting possible matches. Upon a match decision, approved datasets will either update existing PowerSchool SIS records or create new records based on the administrator's selection.

To streamline this process and increase efficiency, an Auto-Approve All Responses option is available for forms with a contact element. This option allows districts to automate form response approvals. When enabled, the system automatically attempts to match and approve submitted contact data once daily with an automated nightly routine. If all contact datasets in a form meet the criteria for auto-approval, they are processed without staff intervention. If any dataset includes name changes, unresolved potential matches, the response remains pending for manual review. An additional configuration option, Create New Contacts for Potential Matches, allows districts to choose whether potential matches should default to new contact creation. With these two options, School/Districts can also control how the system handles potential matches, balancing the trade-off between automation and precision.

Administrators can configure in the menu path: select System Management, Forms, Manage Contacts Auto Match, and then choose Auto Approval, including setting the daily processing time and auto-match criteria.

Note that form approval is mandatory for all forms containing a contact element to ensure that submitted contact data is validated before being delivered to SIS.

Note that this feature requires the PowerSchool SIS version 25.9.0.0 or later.

Admin - Contact Element Flexibility

School and district administrators can fully customize the contact element in Enrollment Express/Ecollect Forms using the new Customize Contact Element configuration. This feature allows administrators to move beyond the default set of contact fields, such as First Name, Last Name, Relationship, Phone, Email, and Address, by adding additional fields sourced directly from the PowerSchool SIS Person table and any 1-to-1 extensions off the Person table. Adding these extra fields to the contact element offers flexibility in collecting and managing contact information tailored to each school/district’s unique requirements.

Administrators can access a new "Customize Contact Element" page to switch from the default layout to a custom layout. Within this page, they can add or remove fields (excluding required default fields), assign custom field labels and translations, define field configuration, control field visibility on the contact card, and rearrange the order in which fields appear on the contact card or edit the contact window. Once configured, these fields are inherited across all forms and automatically become available in the Form Editor for further adjustments, such as setting specific fields as optional or required.

When a parent or guardian completes a form, they will see the contact element exactly as defined in the customized configuration. Upon submission and approval by an administrator, the collected contact data, including any newly added custom fields, will be delivered to the appropriate fields within PowerSchool SIS core Person table as well as any 1-to-1 extension fields. During the approval process, the Review Contact window (part of Duplicate Contact Prevention) displays all newly configured fields for contacts with a status of New or Update, giving reviewers full visibility into the submitted data for more accurate validation.

This feature can operate independently or alongside the Duplicate Contact Check for ID-based contact matching (delivered in 24.6.0.0 release) or Expanded Custom Contact Address Structure (part of 25.9.0.0 release).

Note that this feature requires the Duplicate Contact Prevention feature to be enabled, which is also a part of the 25.9.0.0 release.

Admin - Expanded Custom Contact Address Structure

School and district administrators can now add more fields to the custom contact address structure in Enrollment Express/Ecollect Forms using the Manage Contact Custom Address Structure configuration introduced in the 24.9.0.0 release.

With this expanded configuration, administrators can define up to 13 custom address components, each with customizable labels and translations. This improves upon the previous version, which allowed only 7 custom address components.

This configuration will continue to be inherited by all contact elements across all forms, eliminating the need for repetitive setup, and the feature will continue to support soft match, exact match, and exclusion options for address components while performing the contact match.

When enabled, parents will see the new address structure (with additional address components up to 13 if configured) when editing or adding a new address within the contact element for any form. The updated address will be stored in the respective PersonAddress column within the PowerSchool Schema fields configured for contact match and delivery.

This feature can operate independently or alongside the Duplicate Contact Check for ID-based contact matching (delivered in 24.6.0.0 release) or Contact Element Flexibility (part of 25.9.0.0 release).

Note that this feature requires the Duplicate Contact Prevention feature to be enabled, which is also a part of the 25.9.0.0 release. Customers on earlier versions will continue to support only up to 7 fields until they upgrade to 25.9.0.0.

Teacher - Calendar

To improve contextual understanding for teachers, we have updated the calendar functionality nomenclature to reflect the purpose of calendar entries.

When teachers log into the PowerSchool SIS Teacher portal and navigate to the Forms -- Calendar menu, the tab previously labeled Calendar is now renamed to Form Appointments. The column names have also been changed: Calendar Name to Form Appointment Name, and Calendar Description to Form Appointment Description.

Note that these changes are also visible in the Faculty Calendar view for administrators.

Admin - Maximum Form Size

Previously, when editing the form, if the size exceeded the limit, administrators received an error stating: Maximum form size exceeded – please contact support for assistance. This left administrators uncertain about their unsaved changes and whether the form was recoverable.

To keep administrators informed, the error message has been updated to: The form has exceeded its maximum size limit. Your recent changes have not been saved. If this is an existing form, the last saved version remains accessible in the form editor. If this is a new form that has not yet been saved, there is no previous version to restore. To proceed, please remove some content from this unsaved version and try to save it again.

Admin - Apply Contacts

Previously, the Apply Contact To and Apply Contact List options did not appear for pre-registered student records. This enhancement now includes pre-registered students in these options, allowing responders to apply contacts across these records. This is particularly useful for sibling enrollments during pre-registration.

Admin - Form Approval

When an administrator navigates to PowerSchool SIS and selects the triangle icon from the top right navigation under the Ecollect section, the tooltip displays: There are X student(s) awaiting approval of the form. However, clicking on X reveals a different number of students in the current selection. This inconsistency arose because the X included inactive students, excluding only those transferred out to another school, or pre-registered. This has been resolved to make it consistent with the current selection.

EEC-6516

Admin - Category Completion Report

When administrators navigated to the Category Completion Report and selected a category with special characters, such as a colon (:), the report failed to load. This has been resolved, ensuring the Category Completion Report renders correctly regardless of special characters in the category name.

EEC-13940

Admin - Pre-Registration Form

When an administrator creates a pre-registration form containing custom regular expressions in any form element, such as the phone number, an error occurs when saving a form. This has been resolved.

EEC-14926

Admin - PowerSchool Field Mapping

Previously, when editing a form, administrators could map any form element to the Student_Web_Password field option in PowerSchool Field option. This mapping displayed the encrypted password text in the form. This has been resolved by prohibiting mapping to Student_Web_Password in the form editor.

EEC-15670

Admin - Pre-registration Approval

Previously, when an administrator approved a student in the pre-registration form reports, the approval dialog displayed the name as First Name, Last Name instead of the consistent Last Name, First Name used throughout PowerSchool SIS. This has been resolved by changing the order to Last Name, First Name.

EEC-17397

Admin - Staff Form

When a discrepancy occurs between the PowerSchool SIS value and the response data in a Faculty/Staff form, the tooltip in the flag is updated to display: Your response of 'X' has been overwritten by the staff record value of 'Y'. Previously, it referenced the student record instead of the staff record.

EEC-22078

Admin - Share Permissions

Previously, the View Only Admin Permission was bypassed if a user had a role assigned to a group. PowerSchool SIS accounts without group access to the form could still gain access through a role linked to a group. This has been resolved by ensuring group-based Share Permissions. A PowerSchool SIS account assigned to a group not listed in the Share Permission will not have access to a form.

EEC-28880

Admin - Form Reset

Previously, if a form had its reset option set to date and included a date upon export, importing that form resulted in two extra forward slashes instead of the actual date in the reset options. This has been resolved, ensuring the date appears correctly upon import.

EEC-33245

Responder - Form Submission

When a responder submits a form with a blank value for Home Phone, it sends 000-000-0000 instead of leaving it blank. This has been resolved.

EEC-33558

Admin - Enhanced Collection Table

When a form with an enhanced collection table mapped to a one-to-many extension with the datatype Date includes a form element with date validation, if responders add a row and submit the form without entering a date, the system previously sent “//" to the database instead of blank, resulting in a Duplicate field column error. This has been resolved.

EEC-33768

Admin - Form Import

When an administrator configures multiple semesters for an academic year in PowerSchool SIS, importing the pre-registration form results in two entries for the current year in the form configuration. Although the user interface displays only one year, duplicate entries persist in the system. Upon saving, these duplicates are stored in the database. This has been resolved.

EEC-33904

Admin - Element Properties

Previously, the system failed to account for permissions when executing required validations on form elements. As a result, validations were triggered even when elements were marked read-only and the responder could not provide a value. This has been resolved. Required fields will only be enforced for users with permission to edit them.

EEC-34262

Admin - Response Reports

When an administrator loaded the Response Reports with Show by Response for a form, they occasionally experienced that form responses did not load. This occurred due to discrepancies in how grade_level data was fetched for Show by Response. This has been resolved.

EEC-35453

Parent - Form Permissions

Parents encountered an issue during form submission where forms with identical share permissions behaved differently. When attempting to edit or submit a response, only one form was editable while the other remained read-only. This occurred when students were previously transferred out and later re-enrolled in a school within the district, causing the system to incorrectly apply parent permissions for editing or viewing the form. This has been resolved.

EEC-35699

Student - Element Permissions

When a form element is marked as read-only for students while other elements have global permissions, the PowerSchool SIS student portal does not accept the global read/write permission and blocks students from accessing the form elements. This has been resolved.

EEC-36174

Admin - Form Import

Previously, when an administrator imported a form, if it contained a collection element, the system threw an internal error and failed to import the form. This has been resolved.

EEC-36257

Parent - MyPowerHub Forms

Previously, forms within the MyPowerHub forms tile were shown twice due to an internal error. This has been resolved.

EEC-35921

Responder - Contact Element

Previously, parents could reorder contacts even when the contact element was designated as read-only. This has been resolved, ensuring that reordering contacts within a contact element is not possible if the element is marked as read-only.

EEC-36962