What Does it Mean to Close the School Year?

As you are wrapping up a school year, it is important to preserve and keep data from the current year. Whether your program is continuing with the same students and staff next year or if your program is making structural changes, closing your school year properly allows you to save a record of all student and assessment data from the year and start a fresh, new school year! 

Table of Contents

1. Accessing the School Year 
2. Why Should You Close the Year
3. Prepare to Close the Year
4. How to Close the Year 
5. How to Set up a New Year

Accessing the School Year 

Users with COR Advantage can access the School Year by going to Menu > Settings > Period Settings. The Assessment Periods page allows users to view their period dates, their current school year, and any previous years for their account. Although any user can see their periods, not all users can edit them due to user levels and account setup. To learn more about Period Settings, click here.

Why Should You Close the Year

Closing your school year is an important way to organize your data. Simply changing your period dates without closing your school year can lead to completely replacing your data from the previous year. By closing the school year properly, you are taking the recommended method to set up your new school year and dates without affecting past data. Properly closing the school year allows users to refer back to previous data, when needed, knowing that the information is accurate. 

Prepare to Close the Year

The first thing to do in preparing to close your year is to ensure you know who on your administrative team will be closing the year as it is a one-person job. Only the highest level user will be able to close the year. If you have several users at the same, highest level, you will need to determine which user will be actually closing the year.

Secondly, we highly recommend scheduling the year-closing process and communicating the date with your team as the system will be unavailable while it processes the school year closure request. You should expect that you will not be able to access your Kaymbu account for up to 24 hours after the year-closing process, so you will want to be sure to let your team know so they can plan accordingly.

Next, you’ll want to make sure all your data is finalized and accurate. There are a few things you’ll want to check.

1. First, encourage teachers and users to ensure all the observations they want to be included in the year are published. They can scan the Assessment Dashboard to ensure the scores are accurate, and check the Moments page to see which observations have been published.
2. Second, confirm that your period dates are accurate and final for the entire year. You may not need to make any changes, but if there are any adjustments, be sure to make them now.
3. Third, using the Classroom or Student Completion Reports, confirm that your assessment completion rates are where you expect them to be. In COR Advantage, a child’s assessment is considered complete when there is at least one scored observation per item. While your program may not require 100% completion for all children, be sure to use the Classroom Completion Report or the Student Completion Report to check.
4. Confirm your student rosters accurately reflect how the year ended. When you close your year, the system captures a snapshot of your account as it is when the year is closed. Any students that you want to be included in the year close must be active in the Roster in their correct classroom. PLEASE DO NOT MAKE ANY UPDATES TO YOUR ROSTER FOR SUMMER PROGRAMMING OR THE UPCOMING SCHOOL YEAR UNTIL AFTER THE YEAR IS CLOSED. THIS MEANS THAT YOU SHOULD NOT ADD NEW STUDENTS OR MOVE EXISTING STUDENTS TO THEIR NEW ROOMS UNTIL AFTER THE SCHOOL YEAR HAS BEEN CLOSED. 
5. Finally, while you will be able to access reports after the year closes, we recommend administrators, directors, or teachers export key reports for their records. This will ensure that you can access the data while the year closing process is going on. Users can download students’ assessment data from the COR Advantage Assessment Dashboard, the Export Data Report, or the Export Family Report. Please ensure that you select the appropriate school year to filter your results when downloading data.

Additionally, it is important to note the following in regards to closing your school year:

1. First, understand that the year closing process is permanent and irreversible once completed. After this process is finished, any data from your previous year cannot be altered anymore, and any decision you made during this process regarding your data cannot be reversed once it’s been completed.
2. This process is going to affect everybody in your account. It is important that you check in with ALL of your users (administrators, directors, and teachers) to see if they are ready for the account to be closed.
3. Finally, due to the reasons above, please make sure that you are authorized by your program to initiate the year closing process. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our support team at help@kaymbu.com. 

How to Close the Year

To get started, log into your account and navigate to Menu > Settings > Period Settings. You will need to lock all periods by clicking on the lock icon under each period. 

In locking your periods, this will preserve and keep your data organized for the school year you are about to close. 

All Moments that fall under your period dates will appear as “locked” on the Moments page. This means that the observations can no longer be edited, but users will still be able to access the data. Any Moments that are still pending director approval will be automatically approved. 

Once all periods have been locked, click on the three dots located next to the current school year, and select “Close School Year”. Please note that you will not be able to close your year without locking all periods first.

The "Close School Year" button is only visible to users in your program with the highest account-level access. As a reminder, only the highest-level users will be able to close the year. If you have several users at the same, highest level, make sure to determine which user will actually be closing the year. If you do not see the button from your end, there is most likely a higher-level user in your account. If you need additional assistance with closing your school year, you can reach out to our support team at help@kaymbu.com. 

Step 1

You will be prompted to acknowledge that the year-closing process is permanent and irreversible and that you are the authorized staff member initiating the year-closing process for your account. Once confirmed, select “Next”.

Step 2

You will then need to confirm that you are locking your assessment data for your entire account. In doing so, you acknowledge that your Assessment Dashboard will be reset for the new school year, your data from the previous year will be preserved, and that data can no longer be edited. Again, once this action is completed, it cannot be reversed.

To confirm, you must type “LOCK ASSESSMENT DATA” exactly as it appears in the prompt. Then, select “Next”.

Step 3

Lastly, as the authorized staff member who is closing the school year for your account, you will need to type out your name to complete the data-locking process. This is to confirm that you are authorizing the closing of your school year. Once your name has been entered, select “Close School Year and Permanently Lock Data”.

Depending on the size of your account, it may take up to 24 hours for the school year closing process to complete. During this time, all users will not be able to access their accounts until the system has closed your year. 

How to Set up a New Year

Once the school year has been closed, or if you are starting for the first time, you will need to set up a new year. 

1. Update the current school year name: Navigate to Settings > select Period Settings > under School Year, select the pencil icon to rename the current school year
2. Add assessment periods: Navigate to Settings > Period Settings > click the green plus button next to Add New Periods
3. Update classroom rosters:
   1. Rename classrooms by navigating to Settings > selecting the classroom > selecting the pencil icon. Please note: If you need to remove or delete classrooms, please reach out to our team at help@kaymbu.com.
   2. Move students to their new classrooms by locating their profiles in the Roster > select the box next to the child(ren)’s name and click the three dots from the black bar that appears on the top of the screen. Select Move and their destination or Archive to deactivate the profile.
   3. Add new students by navigating into the classroom > selecting the three dots on the right-hand side and select "Edit Periods". 
4. Move and remove users: Delete or move teachers by navigating to the Roster > selecting the teacher’s classroom > selecting the Teachers tab > and opening the teacher’s profile.