PowerSchool Overview
PowerSchool is Vandalia-Butler City School’s student information system (SIS). It is used to update emergency contacts, approve consent and authorization forms, and record and track student recordsincluding grades and attendance. It also allows us to share attendance and grade information with parents/guardians.
Students DO NOT need to create an account, they only need to login with the credentials provided to them.
If you encounter problems logging inor have lost your account access information, please contact your child's school. If you have already created a single sign on account, please follow the prompts on the login screen to retrieve your password or refer to the FAQs below.
Power School: Frequently Asked Questions
- Updating Forms and Consent Authorizations
- Attendance and Grades
- I'm having trouble logging on. Do you have some suggestions?
- I forgot my login information. What do I do?
- Can other people see my child’s grades and information?
- May I view my child's grades online at any time or is it limited to just certain times of day?
- May the non-custodial parent see the child's grades?
- What is the proper procedure to follow if I have questions regarding my child's grades in a class?
- Why does it bring up the logon screen every so often when I'm in PowerSchool?
- I replied to the PowerSchool auto-email with a question, but have not received a response. Why?
- What does the assignment "due date" mean?
- Why does my student have a 0 (zero) in a class, but PowerSchool does not show a letter grade?
- I've added up the total number of points my student has accumulated in a class and divided it by the total points possible and come up with a different grade than what's showing in PowerSchool. Will you explain?
Updating Forms and Consent Authorizations
As a Primary Parent or Legal Guardian of a student, you update contact information and submit consent and authorizations forms online through the PowerSchool Parent portal. Change requests will ONLY be accepted if they are submitted by the Primary Parent or Legal Guardian. You must have a Parent Account created and make sure your parent account reflects your first and last name in the account.
If you have questions about an existing Parent Portal account, please contact your student’s school. If you have not yet created an account you may obtain access codes and instructions from your child's school.
Once logged in, you may need to click on the Grades and Attendance menu option to get to the Home page. From there you will have the following menu options on the left side of the window.
- Select Student Info Update from the menu options on the left to review or update your Student’s demographic and guardian information
- Select Emergency Update on the menu to update your student(s) Emergency Medical information.
- Select Consent Forms on the menu to review and accept the consent and authorizations. You will need to complete this information for ALL students you have enrolled at Vandalia-Butler City Schools. All student handbooks, code of conduct and policies are available on the District website at www.vbcsd.com
Please be sure to read and review all of the policies with your child before updating the consents and authorizations.
IMPORTANT: Any change in student custody status, primary guardianship or address MUST be processed with copies of custody documents or proof of residency documents in the Central Registration Office at the Vandalia Board of Education at 306 South Dixie Drive. You may requests these changes online, but they will not be accepted until you have provided the proper documentation. If you have any questions regarding the required documentation please refer to our District website or call the enrollment office at 937-415-6410
Attendance and Grades
The first thing you will see upon logging in to our system is the “Attendance and Grades” at-a-glance page. This provides easy access to recent grades, and classroom attendance. At BHS and MMS, attendance is taken for each period, and this class-by-class attendance is available for parents to see.
The “current” grade, or standing in the class, are listed under the appropriate semester (Q1=quarter 1, S1=semester 1), and clicking on this link will bring up a detail page for grades in that class. Clicking on the teacher name will activate a link so you can easily e-mail the teacher.
Along the top of the page are icons to lead you to different areas of the Parent Access.
Attendance Detail
The detail for attendance will show a reasonable span of time around the current date. You will be able to see absences, tardy’s and other codes. A “dot” in the table indicates the child is not scheduled on that day. A clear space indicates the student was present.
A legend for this screen is available at the bottom of the page.
Class Score Detail
If you click on the score for a class, you will then see the Class Score Detail screen, outlining assignments. Different teachers will provide different levels of detail for each assignment and category.
Teacher Detail
The Teacher Comments screen provides information via each teacher and course. Teachers have the optional ability to provide a comment, but comments will most likely be added at interim and at the end of marking periods. If a teacher does have a comment for your child, it can be accessed by clicking the “Teacher Comments” icon along the top toolbar within the Parent Access.
E-Mail Notification
You can ask PowerSchool to send you a periodic e-mail detailing information about your child’s progress in school.
This screen requests what you want to know in each e-mail, and how frequently you wish to receive the e-mails. We recommend a weekly report over a daily report, but the frequency of when you receive e-mails is up to you. If you ever need to change the address where e-mails are sent, you can change it from this screen at a future date.
I'm having trouble logging on. Do you have some suggestions?
Please check the following options first:
The most frequent problem parents have is the system not accepting the username/password combination. Please enter your password exactly as it was in the letter from your child's school.
Try logging on from another computer. Computer settings may be different from one computer to another.
I forgot my login information. What do I do?
On the login page click on Having Trouble Logging in?
If you forgot your Password:
Fill in Your Username
Fill in your Email Address
Click Enter
The system will authenticate your information and send you a Security Token, to the Email address listed, with instructions on how to re-set your Password.
It is important to note that the Security Token sent is only good for 30 minutes. If the Parent/Guardian fails to re-set the Password in that allotted time, you will need to repeat the process.
If you forgot your Username:
Click on the Forgot Username? Tab
Enter you Email Address
Click Enter
The system will authenticate your information and send you an Email listing your Username.
If you are still unable to login, please contact your child's school secretary.
Can other people see my child’s grades and information?
As long as you protect your password, others will not be able to see your child’s information. Each child/parent is issued a unique identification login and password.
May I view my child's grades online at any time or is it limited to just certain times of day?
Parent access to PowerSchool is available 24/7 (24 hrs/day, 7 days/week). At some times throughout the school year, PowerSchool may be unavailable for short periods of time due to routine maintenance and periods of high volume usage.
May the non-custodial parent see the child's grades?
Yes, the ability to create a single sign on account is available to any parent/guardian of each student.
What is the proper procedure to follow if I have questions regarding my child's grades in a class?
It is best that you contact your child's teacher directly, either by email or voicemail. This will result in the quickest resolution to your question.
Why does it bring up the logon screen every so often when I'm in PowerSchool?
PowerSchool requires parents to re-logon after 10 minutes of inactivity. Simply logging back on returns parents to the active screen they were on.
I replied to the PowerSchool auto-email with a question, but have not received a response. Why?
The PowerSchool auto-generated email is created and sent by the PowerSchool server, not by an individual. The server will not reply to your email sent to that address. If you have questions about your child's progress, please direct those questions directly to the faculty member.
What does the assignment "due date" mean?
The way in which teachers enter scores and due dates of an assignment varies and is somewhat based on individual preference. As shown in PowerSchool, due dates could mean any of the following:
1. The date the assignment was given
2. The date the assignment was recorded in the grade book
3. A future date when the assignment will be due and/or recorded.
Why does my student have a 0 (zero) in a class, but PowerSchool does not show a letter grade?
There is a chance that the class may not have met yet or simply a matter of timing between your access and the teacher's update. The other option is that the teacher has opened the grade book and entered an assignment, but has yet to record any scores for that assignment.
I've added up the total number of points my student has accumulated in a class and divided it by the total points possible and come up with a different grade than what's showing in PowerSchool. Will you explain?
This difference is probably related to the weighting applied according to the weighted grading scale in place. Tests and quizzes may be weighted differently than homework and projects. You will need to check with your child’s teacher on their grading setup.
Disclaimer
This system is provided as a convenience. Grades and other information provided by this system are not official records and may or may not be accurate due to human or technical error. Neither this institution nor Pearson School Systems accepts any responsibility for information provided by this system and/or for any damages resulting from information provided by this system. For official grades and student records, contact the school directly.
