Your SchoolWise school calendar needs to be set up by SchoolWise support every year.
- Indicate which schools for your LEA will be active in the upcoming school year and what calendar/marking periods will be used at each school. SchoolWise will setup a calendar for each school that will be active in the upcoming school year.
- Academic School Year: It is crucial to pay careful attention to academic school year start/end dates, ADA months (these dates impact PADC ADA reporting periods), day type, total in-session days (instructional days), and marking periods. If needed, the day type for a specific date can be changed after the calendar has been created in the SchoolWise desktop app (see below for more information).
- Fiscal School Year (July 1 – June 30): Expanded Learning Program and/or Attendance Recovery records have to be reported to CALPADS for the fiscal school year (July 1 – June 30).
- If you plan on operating ELP and/or AR on non-in-session days (non-instructional days), SchoolWise can setup an alternate ELP 365 day extended calendar track so you can take attendance on in-session weekdays and non-in-session dates (holiday, intersession, weekend, etc). Please indicate the specific dates ELP and/or AR will be offered so the ELP day can be enabled in the ELP 365 day extended calendar track.
- If you plan on operating ELP and/or AR only on in-session dates (before school or after school) during the academic school year, the regular academic calendar track can be used to take attendance on in-session weekdays.
- If you are operating summer school that spans 2 fiscal school years, separate course sections should be setup, one for each fiscal school year (since ELP and/or AR records must be reported to CALPADS for the fiscal school year). Ex. For 2026 Summer School - June 2026 must be reported in the 2025-26 fiscal school year, while July 2026 must be reported in the 2026-27 fiscal school year.
- Once your school calendar is setup, it's a good idea to verify everything by running the desktop School Calendar reports. You can also view your school calendar in desktop app or web app. Note that minimum days are not marked in the calendar.
School Calendar School Days
From the File menu in the desktop system, click on District Setup and then School Calendar Setup. When the school calendar opens, the School Days tab will be shown.
For in-session days (instructional days), the day type should be set to regular, distance, or mixed.
For non-in-session days (non-instructional days) the day type should be set to an appropriate type (ex holiday, staff day, snow day, etc.)
The day type for a specific date can be changed by clicking the day type and selecting the desired option (such as Emergency Closed Day). If a school calendar date is changed from an in-session day type to a non-in-session day type, attendance exception records previously created need to be cleared.
To change the day type in bulk, click on the Bulk Change Day Type button and then select the new day type and enter the effectivity date.
Note: Once setup, changes to the school year start/end date may require the student class map to be recalculated.
School Calendar Marking Periods
From the File menu in the desktop system, click on District Setup and then School Calendar Setup. When the school calendar opens, click on the Marking Periods tab.
Click on the Marking Periods - Edit Track Periods button.
Note: Some schools use dual track marking periods.
Choose the type of marking period from the menu.
Note: If a school only has an annual period (ie. 'Full Year - No Marks'), no marks can be entered in the Desktop Marks form and Web Gradebooks cannot be used. This calendar type is used for scheduling only.
If choosing trimesters, for example, you will be prompted to enter the ending dates of the terms.
You may include progress report sub-periods by checking the Include Progress-Report Periods box.
Click OK to create the marking periods.
Note: Once marks have been entered, the calendar marking period cannot be altered. However, an alternate calendar track can be added if you want to setup new classes using an alternate marking period.