School Year/Terms
What is a School Year and Why Do I Need One?
A School Year is any range of dates you specify for a period of learning, which can be used to generate reports on attendance, grades, and student progress. A School Year can be as long or as short as
you wish. Each School Year must have at least one Term. The recommended setting is 2 Terms, the maximum allowed is 4 Terms. Each Term must be assigned to either Semester 1 or Semester 2.
To access the School Years list, click or touch School Years under the 'Manage Lists' section of the HSTOnline menu.
You will create a new School Year for every year that you homeschool. Your School Years may overlap if you like. However, if there are graded assignments in the overlap period, those grades will be credited
to the Report Card and Transcript for both years.
The School Years list is sorted in descending order by the Start (date) field, so that the most current school year is always at the top of the list. You can group or sort
by any column.
School Years List Columns
Column Name |
Notes |
Default Visibility |
Name |
List is sorted by Name |
Visible |
Start |
The Start date for the School Year |
Visible |
End |
The End date for the School Year |
Visible |
Days Needed |
The number of required days in the School Year |
Visible |
Terms |
The number of Terms within the School Year |
Visible |
School Years List Controls
- Action Button:
- Add: Add one or more items to the School Years list. This action is always available.
- Edit: With one School Year selected, this action becomes available. Choose edit to change the details of the selected School Year.
- Delete: With one or more School Years selected, this action becomes available. Choose this option to permanently delete the selected School Year.
- Options Button:
- Choose Columns: Click or touch this option to select which fields will be displayed in the School Years list. You must select at least one column.
- Expand All: When the list is Grouped, click or touch this option to expand (open) all groupings.
- Collapse All: When the list is Grouped, click or touch this option to collapse (close) all groupings.
- Search Box and Go Button: Use the Search box to enter text and click the Go button to find School Years matching your entry. HSTOnline will do an exact search for
whatever text you enter. Leave the search box blank and click Go or click or touch the Search text badge to return to the full list of School Years.
School Years List Badges
- Viewing: Indicates the number of School Years being displayed based out of the total on the current settings.
- Select All: Click or touch this badge to quickly select all the School Years in the list.
- Selected: Shows the number items selected. Click or touch this badge to deselect all School Years.
- Search text: Shows the text entered into the Search box which is limiting which School Years are displayed. Click or touch this badge to clear the text from the search box and
remove that limitation.
Adding a School Year and Terms
- On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch School Years/Terms under the 'Manage Lists' section.
- On the School Years page, click or touch the Action button and choose Add.
- Name: Enter a name for your School Year, up to 15 characters. You can call the year anything you like: 2013-2014, Sophomore Year, etc.
- Start: Choose a Start date for the School Year. Type in a date using the mm/dd/yyyy format or click on the Calendar icon to choose a date.
- End: HSTOnline will automatically enter a date that is one year after the Start you have entered. For example, if your start date is July 1 the automatically
created End date will be June 30 of the following year.
- Edit the End date to be anything you like as long as it is equal to or greater than the selected Start date.
- Type in a date using the mm/dd/yyyy format or click on the Calendar icon to choose a date.
- If you enter an End date that precedes the Start date, the Start date will be changed to match the End date so that it remains a valid date range.
- Days Needed: If you have a minimum number of required school days, enter that value here.
- School Days: The days you selected as School Days in your School Profile will be listed here. School Days are the same
for all school years created. Changing your school days for a new school year will not disrupt your attendance records for prior years.
- Click or touch the edit hyperlink to change your School Day designations.
- Put a check next to any day you want to count as a school day; remove a check next to any day you do not want to count as a school day.
- Click or touch:
- Cancel to abandon the changes.
- Save to keep your changes.
- Number of Terms: Choose the number of terms you want to create within the school year, from 1 to 4 by. Click or touch the arrow buttons or click/touch the
slider and drag it where you want it.
- HSTOnline will create the number of terms indicated with suggested start/end dates.
- Term Start and End dates will be set so that the number of possible school days per term are spread as evenly as possible over the number of terms created.
- The Start date of a term will be the date immediately following the end date of the previous term, even if either of those dates fall on non-school days.
- Each Term will be auto-assigned to either S1 or S2 - which indicates the Semester used for the Transcript. You can change these as desired.
- While you may set your Term Start and End dates to whatever you would like, we recommend that you do not skip dates between terms since Assignments that fall on dates not covered by
one of your terms will be disregarded when grades, Time Spent or Sessions are calculated.
- If you change the start or end date of one or more of your terms, a 'Recalculate Possible' link will appear below the Term list. Click or touch the 'Recalculate Possible' hyperlink to
see the update of 'Possible' school days for each term. based on your new dates.
- HSTOnline will calculate and display the number of 'total possible days' for the year based on your School Year and Term start/end dates and the weekly school days selected.
- The 'total possible days' value does not take into account any Days Off you may have entered to this point. It is simply the number of school days that can possibly exist based on the
Start and End dates entered and the School Days of the week you have checked.
- The 'Free Days' number indicates the total number of Days Off that can be scheduled and still reach the desired minimum number of days of schooling for the year. To see how those days
affect your totals, see the Student record.
- If the 'total possible days' falls below the Number of Days entered, the background will be red and you will also see how many additional days are needed to meet the minimum
requirement you have set.
- Adjust your Start/End dates or select more days of the week as School Days to change the 'total possible days' to meet your needs.
- Click the Refresh button after your changes to update the Possible Days field.
- Changing the start/end dates of the School Year will automatically update the Start/End dates of your Terms.
- Click or touch:
- Cancel to abandon the new item without adding to your list.
- Save to add this item to your list of School Years.
- The 'Add Another' hyperlink in the top right corner to save this item and add another. You can click 'Add Another' each time until you have entered the last new
School Year and then click the Save button to end the Add process.
- Click or touch the green Added Items notification or refresh the page to see your updated School Years list.
Editing a School Year and Terms
You can edit any single School Year to change any aspect of the year, including adding or removing Terms to the School Year.
- On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch School Years/Terms under the 'Manage Lists' section.
- On the School Years page, double-click on the item you want to change to open the Edit School Year window.
- Alternatively, you can click once on the item you want to change and then click the Action button and choose Edit to open the Edit School Year window.
- On a touch device, touch the item you wish to edit and then touch the Action button and touch Edit to open the Edit School Year window.
- At the bottom of the edit view, you will see when and by whom the item was created as well as when and by whom it was last updated.
- Make whatever changes are needed to School Year.
- Click or touch:
- Cancel to abandon the changes and close the Edit School Year window.
- Save to commit the changes to your School Year and close the Edit School Year window.
- Click or touch the Previous or Next hyperlink in the top right corner to save your changes to this School Year and move to the previous or next School Year in the list. You can click or
touch Previous or Next until you have made all the changes you want to your School Years and then click the Save button to end the Edit process. If you reach the
beginning or end of the list when clicking or touching Previous or Next, the Edit window will close and you will be returned to the list view.
Deleting a School Year and Terms
Deleting a School Year or Term does not remove any Appointments, Assignments, Attendance, Chores or Days Off records in that time period. Deleting School Years and
Terms only affects your ability to view a Student's Attendance and Grading Overview and the creation of Report Cards, Transcripts and Skills Progress reports for that date range.
- On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch School Years/Terms under the 'Manage Lists' section.
- On the School Years page, select the items you want to change. You can use the Grouping and Sorting and Search features to
isolate the items you want to change.
- Click the checkbox for each Activity you want to change.
- You can use your mouse to click and drag over contiguous Activities in the list to select those items.
- On a touch device, you can touch and drag your finger over contiguous Activities in the list to select those items.
- Click or touch the 'Select All' badge to select all the Activities in the list.
- Click or touch the Action button and click or touch Delete to open the Confirm Delete window.
- The 'Confirm Delete' page will show you the number of items selected for deletion.
- Click or touch:
- Never Mind to return to the School Years list without deleting anything.
- Yes, I'm Sure to delete the selected items.
Selecting a School Year
You can select which school years to use when creating Report Cards and Transcripts. Additionally, you can
select a School Year in the Student List to view the Grade Level, Attendance, and Days Off information for each Student for the selected School Year. Use the
School Year selector on the Grading Overview and Skills Progress pages to view Grading or Skills
information for a selected Student in the selected year.