Overview

The Focus Parent Portal is a web-based tool for parents where you can setup your own parent account to monitor your students progress throughout the school year. The Parent Portal can provide the following information:

Attendance
Class Schedule
Current Year and Prior Year Final Grades
Current Class Assignments as Gradebook Grades
Discipline Information
Test Scores
Student Demographic and Address Information
School Calendar and current events

Options vary by school district; you may see some or all of the above information

Through the Portal you can also sign up for email notifications on a wide variety of information about your student and the school they attend. To be able to access the Parent Portal, custodial parents/guardians will be asked to create a new user account by self-registering. Once you have set up your account, there will be a verification approval process by your school before you will have viewing access to your students’ data. Every district’s policies on Parent accounts vary, but typically only custodial parents/guardians will be approved for access.

Registering

To self-register for Focus Parent Portal Access, visit the school website and click the Parent Portal Registration or go to <ENTER DISTRICT URL>/auth

You will need the following information to complete the registration:

Valid Parent Email address for notifications (this email address will also be your username)
Student’s Date of Birth
Student ID number

If you do not know your student’s ID number, please contact your child’s school. You may be asked to prove your identity by supplying your address, the student’s DOB and the last four digits of the student’s SSN. The ten digit Student ID number can also be found on your student’s report card.

Accessing the site will display the following panel to the right with options to create and register a parent account, add a student to an existing parent account and to reset the parent account’s password.

Clicking the “I DO NOT have an Account Registered on the Parent Portal but my child is Actively Enrolled” will display the following panel as seen below. NOTE: The email address entered will be used as the parent account holder’s username.

Once the above information has been entered and the submit button clicked the following panel will be displayed:

All required information must be entered correctly.

Note: The student information required is determined by each school district.

It will be matched to an ACTIVE student in the District’s FOCUS system, if not, you will receive an error: The student requested could not be found. Once the request to access student information for a specific student has been successfully matched, the following panel will be displayed.

From this same panel, additional students can be added using the link “I would like to ADD ANOTHER CHILD” then following the same process as above. Using this option will give you access to all your children under one parent account.

Clicking “I am FINISHED adding students take me back to the portal” will create the parent account. Once the parent account is created the following panel will be displayed and an email sent to the parent. PLEASE WRITE DOWN YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD BEFORE YOU CLICK: “Click here to LOGIN to the parent portal” THE EMAIL YOU RECEIVE DOES NOT CONTAIN THE PASSWORD

Changing Your Password

Once logged in, it is highly recommended that you change your password. You can do this by clicking on the top menu for My Information > Preferences then select the Password tab. Enter the password you were initially provided and then create a new one. Click the Save button the upper right hand corner.

If you don’t remember your password go to the same screen you went to when you signed up for your parent account.

<ENTER DISTRICT URL>/auth and click the Forgot Your Password link.

Enter your email address and click Submit.

You will receive an email with instructions on how to reset your password.

Verification and Approval Process

Once you log in you will notice you do not yet have access to your student’s data. For security reason, there is a verification process in place to verify and approve your request which may take up to 48 hours or longer. Please check back periodically. Once your account request has been approved you will then have access to your student’s data.

Using Your Portal Account

Once your portal account has been created and your students have been linked you will see additional options on the portal screen.

***Portal layout and options may vary

School Year – The year displayed here is the defaulted to the current school year. You can view prior year information by using the pull down to select a prior year.
Student Name- The students whose data you are viewing is displayed here. If you have multiple students, you can use this pull down to toggle between students.
School - The school your student is enrolled in will display here. If you have multiple students, the school name will change as you toggle between students.
Alerts- Account alerts from the school will display here.
Messages- Here you will see messages from your child’s school / district.
Upcoming Events- Here you will see the upcoming events and holidays for your child’s school / district.
Student Summary Panel: This area will display your student’s current gradebook grades for each of their classes and quick links to views your student’s attendance, posted grades, school calendar and class schedule. The options here are dependent upon the parent account set up at your child’s school. Note: some schools parents are also permitted to email the students teachers from this area as well.
Year to date Attendance Summary: This area will display a summary of your students attendance in each period that takes attendance.
Current Grades: This column displays the current grade(s) for your student for each class that is graded. You can click on the grade to view your students gradebook for the class selected.
Menus: Your students information can be accessed through the menus listed here.

For example, when opening the ‘Test History” menu you will see any tests your students has taken that have been loaded into Focus.

Setting Up Email Notifications

Parents can sign up for email notifications to ensure they are kept up to date on Attendance, Discipline, Billing Fees, Upcoming Assignments, Grades, Events and Messages.

To sign up for notifications click on Preferences > Notifications.

Next use the summary checkboxes to select the type of information you would like to receive.

Use the Frequency pull-down to indicate how often your would like to receive notifications.

The Daily Summary will enable Focus to send you a summary each day via email about your student(s) that includes the categories you have selected from the screen.

Selecting the Weekly Summary will enable Focus to send you a summary each week via email about your student(s) that includes the categories you have selected from the screen. Options can include Attendance, Discipline, Billing Fees, Upcoming Assignments, Grades, Events and Messages

Selecting Custom from the summary type will allow you to set specific rules relating to when you receive notifications.

For example, you can set a grade or assignment threshold. This means you will get an email notification if the grade drops below a certain percentage or letter grade.

No matter what type of notification you choose you must verify you email address by clicking the verify email link in the email you receive from your child’s school. The email should look like the example below, if you do not see the email right away it may appear in your Spam or Junk email folder.

If you register for email notifications and you do not receive the verification email please click the resend verification link found on the portal or try re-entering your email address.

After you have made your summary selections and verify your email address you will begin to receive email notifications.

Here is an email of an email notification including upcoming event, a weekly attendance summary and grades link.