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Working with students 

NOTE: Give special attention to saving, printing and navigation instructions: Always click the "Save" button after information is entered or changes are made. Always use the SpEd Forms "Print" button, instead of selecting "Print" in the "File" menu. Always use the SpEd Forms "Back" button rather than the browser's "Back" feature.

2.1 Setting up your students

Only case managers or others assigned the correct authority by your SpEd Forms administrator may create new student records.

1. Navigate to the "Main Menu".
2. Click on "Work with students".
3. You will then see a list of all your students (shown with a pink background) and those that other IEP managers have shared with you (shown with an ivory background).
4. Click on the "Add New Student" button to add a student or click on the "Pickup Student" button to obtain the record for a student that is on another SpEd Forms server (see section 2.2.4).

NOTE: If this screen does not have the "Add New Student" button you are not set up as an IEP Manager or you have not been given access to create new student records. Contact your SpEd Forms administrator if your feel your status needs to be changed.

5. Fill in any known information on the setup page.
6. Click the "Save" button.
7. The student will now be added to the list.

NOTE: Status, Student/MARSS ID, First Name, Last Name and Serving District are required.

You can click on any of the drop down boxes to see a list of choices.

Click on any link to get a more detailed description. The link for the "Federal Setting" will take you to a list of settings and descriptions of settings for various ages. You will need to close this new window and choose the setting number from the choices on the drop down box.

2.2 Student setup

Besides administrators with edit privileges, only IEP managers and those with edit access may edit the student's setup or exit a student from SpEd Forms.

1. From the "Main Menu" click on "Work with students".
2. Click on the student's name or the "Work on this record" button.
3. On the "Form Menu" click on the "Edit Setup" button.
4. Make changes as needed and click on the "Save" button.
5. Click "Form Menu" to return to the form menu for this student.

NOTE: The "MARSS" button will only show up for those students that have a MARSS compliant Student/MARSS ID (no more than 13-digits).

1. From the "Main Menu" click on "Work with students".
2. Click on the student's name or the "Work on this record" button.
3. On the "Form Menu" click on the "Student Sharing" button.
4. You will be taken to a page showing users with access to that student and the users which are available.
5. Click on the "Select a User" drop down box.
6. Select a category or "View All" and a screen will appear listing all available users.
7. Select the desired user by clicking the "Share" button next to that person's name.
8. The user's name will then appear in the list on the right.
9. If this user should be able to edit the forms, click the "Edit Access" box. If the box is not checked, the user will have read only access.
10. To remove a user from the list, click on the "Unshare" button to the left of that person's name.

NOTE: "(Case Manager)" will appear next to your name (do not remove your "Edit Access").  Clicking on the link to a users name will display a staff profile information box. Their name, title, location, phone, fax and email will be shown (if this information is available in their record).

1. From the "Main Menu" click on "Work with students".
2. Click on the student's name or the "Work on this record" button.
3. On the "Form Menu" click on the "Student Sharing" button.
4. Click on the "Send this student to a new case manager" button.

1. Navigate to the "New Case Manager" screen (see section 2.2.3).
2. In the top box labeled "SEND [STUDENT] TO A LOCAL IEP MANAGER", click the drop down box to see all available managers.
3. Scroll down until the correct name is displayed and click on the name.
4. Click "Send" to send the student to that IEP manager (If you no longer need to have access to this student, put a check in the box labeled "Reset current student sharing").

NOTE: After a new IEP manager is assigned, only the new IEP manager can set student sharing.

1. Navigate to the "New Case Manager" screen (see section 2.2.3).
2. In the bottom box labeled "SEND [STUDENT] TO A REMOTE IEP MANAGER", fill in your phone number, the new IEP manager's name & the new IEP manager's (10 digit) fax number.
3. Click on the "Create Fax" button (this will create a faxable cover sheet with information that the remote IEP manager will need to pickup this student).
4. Print this page and fax it to the new IEP manager.

NOTE: This procedure is used to inform the school of your server address and create the pickup code they will use to import the data. The student will remain on your system until they are exited (see section 2.2.5 for more information on exiting students).

1. From the "Main Menu" click on "Work with students".
2. Click the "Pickup Student" button.
3. Fill in the server address and pickup codes listed on the fax you received from the remote school district and click on "Next".
4. Create the new record. If you are given the option to "Update" the record, be advised that this will replace all current information with that from the remote server (if recent changes have been made to this student's record, those changes may be lost).

NOTE: If the server address and/or pickup code were typed incorrectly, you may get a message stating such and be given an opportunity to "Try Again". Ensure all information is correct (must be a secure server address, "https://..."). If you continue to get this message, the pickup code may have expired. Contact your SpEd Forms administrator.

1. From the "Main Menu" click on "Work with students".
2. Click the "Request Student" button.
3. Fill in the first and last name of the child you want access to and click on the "Next>>" button.
4. A list of students will appear that match the name that you entered. Click on the "Request" button next to the student you want access to.
5. A confirmation will then appear, confirming that a message has been sent to the teacher.

The "Messages Inbox" appears toward the bottom of the Main Menu. You can check your messages at any time by navigating to the "Main Menu". If a request for access appears in your massages, you can navigate to the "Student Sharing" page for that student (see section 2.2.2 for more information), add sharing for the sender (if appropriate) and then "Delete" that entry from your messages.

1. From the "Main Menu" click on "Work with students".
2. Click on the student's name or the "Work on this record" button.
3. On the "Form Menu" click on the "Edit Setup" button.
4. Select a new "Status" and/or "Status End (Exit Reason)".
5. Update any pertinent information.
6. Click on the "Save" button to save your changes.

NOTE: You must choose either an "EXIT" Status OR an "EXIT" Status End (Exit Reason) to inactivate the student. The exited student will then disappear from your list of active students.

1. From the "Main Menu" click on "Work with students".
2. Make sure there is a check in the "Show inactive/exited students" checkbox.
3. Click on the student's name or the "Work on this record" button.
4. On the "Form Menu" click on the "Edit Setup" button.
5. Select a new "Status" AND clear or choose a valid "Status End (Exit Reason)".
6. Click on the "Save" button to save your changes.

NOTE: Ensure that neither the Status nor the Status End (Exit Reason) have an "EXIT" value (you can choose "---Clear---" for the Status End (Exit Reason) to clear out its value).

2.3 Working with student information

1. From the "Main Menu" click on "Work with students".
2. A list of students you have access to will appear.

NOTE: These are either students you have setup (shown with a pink background) or ones assigned to you by another IEP manager (shown with an ivory background).

3. To work with student information, click on the "Work on this Record" button next to the appropriate student. Your student list also provides you information about important dates at a glance. Green smiley faces indicate dates appear to be entered correctly. Red and orange faces indicate important dates have not been entered or need to be edited/adjusted (for more information, click on the appropriate face).

1. From the "Main Menu" click on "Work with students".
2. Click on the "Work on this Record" button next to the appropriate student.
3. This will take you to the forms menu for that student. This menu lists all the forms available in SpEd Forms including the IEP, IFSP, IIIP, Evaluation Report and many other additional forms.
4. To navigate to a form, click on the form's name. You will be taken either to the form or, in the case of multiple-page forms, a listing of the pages within that form.

The forms menu lists all form templates available in SpEd Forms. Form templates which are replicates of forms posted on the Department of Education web site are marked with an "*". The other forms have been developed over the years in conjunction with various school districts. If "Active" appears next to the service plan, the student is currently on that plan. You can change which form is "Active" by clicking on "Edit Setup" and changing the "Service Plan".

1. From the "Main Menu" click on "Work with students".
2. Click on the "Work on this Record" button next to the appropriate student.
3. On the "Forms Menu" click the "History" tab.
4. Find the history page or form that you want to view and click on the "View" button.
5. You will then come to a page with the form's page(s) listed. Choose the page(s) you want to view and click on the "View Selected Pages" button.

NOTE: While viewing these selected pages you will have an opportunity to print or navigate back to the page listing, history page or forms menu.

6. To delete a history page or form, click on the "Delete" button next the name of the history you want to delete.

NOTE: Administrators have the option of allowing users to permanently delete history records directly or to flag the deleted record for review by the SpEd Forms administrator. The warning that appears when the "Delete" button is clicked should give you an indication of whether the record will be "permanently" deleted or you "want the history to be deleted". If the record is not "permanently" deleted, the SpEd Forms administrator will have an opportunity to review the record and make the final decision to delete the record or restore it to your list.

1. From the "Main Menu" click on "Work with students".
2. Click on the "Work on this Record" button next to the appropriate student.
3. On the "Forms Menu" click on the form in which you wish to work.
4. Enter the necessary data.
5. Click "Save" so that your changes are saved to the server.

NOTE: You can navigate through multiple-page forms by clicking the "Forward" button at the top of the screen. Make sure to "Save" your changes before exiting a page.

ER Forms has always had a feature that prevented other users from accessing the same page of a particular student's report while you are working on it. Now, all student forms have this feature.

When you navigate to a form you are given "exclusive rights" to that page for one hour (provided that nobody else has already begun working on the same student's form). As long as you continue to "Save" the page at regular intervals within that hour (we recommend saving every 20 minutes), your "exclusive rights" will be retained and you can work on that particular page as long as you want.

Information in the navigation bar keeps you informed of the status of your "exclusive rights". Five minutes before the time that your "exclusive rights" will end, a warning with a bright yellow background will appear in the navigation bar to inform you that your "exclusive rights" are about to expire. If you do not "Save" the page to retain your rights, that warning will change (at the time of expiration) to inform you that your rights have expired.

If a team member/administrator is working on the same student and they navigate to the same form that you are working on, they will get a popup that states:

WARNING: [Your Name] (last login: date/time) appears to be already working on this page. The save button has been disabled.

NOTE: If you ignore basic recommendations and wait longer than an hour to "Save" your work, all of your changes could be lost if another user begins working on the same page after your "exclusive rights" have expired. Please pay attention to warnings and please take note of the following examples.

Example 1
Sally opens section 5 of Johnny's ER at 2:00pm. She has "exclusive rights" in section 5 until 3:00pm. Sally "Saves" her work each time she completes a paragraph and/or completes a few lines of data (when the page is "Saved", "exclusive rights" are reset to one hour). Meanwhile, Kim saves a form that she is working on and navigates to section 5 of Johnny's ER at 3:01pm. Kim is warned that Sally is working on that page and navigates to another form until Sally is finished.

Example 2
Sally opens section 5 of Johnny's ER at 2:00pm. She has "exclusive rights" in section 5 until 3:00pm. Sally concentrates and continues to work without "saving". Meanwhile, Kim saves a form that she is working on and navigates to section 5 of Johnny's ER at 3:01pm. Sally's "exclusive rights" have expired so that Kim can access the page (unaware that Sally is also working on section 5). Kim then has "exclusive rights" to section 5 until 4:01pm. At 3:30pm, Sally finishes her work in section 5 and clicks the "Save" button. Since Kim now has "exclusive rights" to section 5, Sally will get a popup informing her that: Kim appears to be working on this page and the save button has been disabled. After clicking "OK" the information on Sally's page will revert to whatever Kim has saved or what is currently in the database (all of her work, since 2pm, will be lost).

1. After you have navigated to a form and made changes, click on the button in the SpEd Forms navigation bar.

NOTE: The only fields that will be checked are the text fields with a scrollbar on the right side. If there are no fields to spell check on this page a warning box will popup stating that "There are no narrative fields to check".

2. A new window will appear and if a word is suspected of being misspelled, it will be shown in bold red text. Suggestions of the correct spelling will also be shown.

NOTE: If you are working on a Spanish page in SpEd Forms you can change the dictionary to Spanish by choosing "Espanol" from the drop down box next to "Dictionary language".

3. Make sure the correct spelling is highlighted and click on the "Change" or "Change All" button. If you want to skip making changes to that word click on "Ignore Once" or "Ignore All" to skip all words that are spelled the same

NOTE: If none of the suggestions are spelled correctly, click on the misspelled word in the top window and make the proper corrections. Click on the "Change" button to set the correction. This word may then be shown as misspelled again in the top window if it is not found in the dictionary. If you want, you can then click on the "Add to Dictionary" button to add that word to your personal dictionary.

When the spell check is checking grammatical errors the words will be shown in bold green text (or just normal text) and the "Ignore All", "Add to Dictionary", "Change All" and "AutoCorrect" buttons will be grayed out (unavailable). If you do not want to check or correct grammatical errors, uncheck the "Check grammar" button (sometimes the spell check can be a nuisance by bringing up too many grammar suggestions and single words or number sequences from table data).

When misspelled words are being found you can click on the "Options…" button to set some of the advanced features. Click on "Reset Personal Dictionary" to clear out any words you have added to the dictionary or click on the "Reset AutoCorrect" to clear the "AutoCorrect" database.

4. Click "Done" to stop. A summary will then shown for the number of words checked/changed.
5. Make sure to "Save" the page you are working on after the spell checker has completed.

Please make sure to read section 1.1 of this user guide before printing any forms from SpEd Forms.

To print the completed form, make sure that anything you are printing has been saved by clicking "Save" from the SpEd Forms screen before printing.

1. Click the "Print" button at the top right corner of the screen.
2. DO NOT use the "Print" command from the "File" menu.

• PC users can use CTRL + P as a shortcut.
• Macintosh users will see a "Print Preview" page before the form prints. After clicking the "Print" button in the SpEd Forms navigation bar, use the browser's File/Print feature (if a print dialog box does not come up automatically) or use COMMAND (open apple) + P as a shortcut.

Users can print all the pages of these service plans rather than printing each page individually.

1. Navigate to the "Forms Menu" of the appropriate student.
2. Click on one of the service plans listed above.
3. Click the "Print..." button (directly under the service plan name/student's name).
4. A new window will appear with check boxes next to each form page.
5. Select the pages you want to print and click on the "Print Selected Pages" button.