Generating parent guardian welcome letters

Chapter 8 Generating parent/guardian welcome letters Identity and Access Management

User Guide for School Staff

Contents

Introduction 2

Registration 2

Instructions for logging into the Delegated Administrator application 3

Delegated Administrator application 4

Generate and print parent/guardian welcome letters task 6

Background 6

Instructions for generating and printing parent/guardian welcome letters 8

What next? 14

Parents/guardians who have received their welcome letters 14

Schools 14

Helpful resources 14

Summary of tasks and steps 14

Appendix A: Search tips for parent/guardian welcome letters 15

Chapter 8 Generating parent/guardian welcome letters 2

Introduction

This chapter provides step-by-step instructions for IDAM administrators with Password Admin entitlements to generate and print parent/guardian welcome letters.

Before you begin, have you:

Read Chapter 1: Introduction, which gives important background information about identity and access management?

Attended an IDAM administration briefing session, or worked through the IDAM administration PowerPoint presentation which Ultranet coaches are providing to their networks?

Confirmed with your principal which IDAM administrative tasks you are responsible for and that you have been granted the appropriate entitlements in the system?

Provided welcome letters to all students in your school and encouraged them to log on?

IDAM administrators with Password Admin entitlements

If you hold these entitlements, you can perform the following parent/guardian welcome tasks:

generate and print parent/guardian welcome letters

replace a lost welcome letter.

Registration

If you have not yet registered as an IDAM administrator, do it now. See: Chapter 2: Registration

for eligible staff, and then return to this chapter.


Instructions for logging into the Delegated Administrator application

All school administrative tasks are performed from the Task tab of the Delegated Administrator

application. To access the online Delegated Administrator application:

1. Click on the URL in your Ultranet notice from the Department or open a browser and key in

https://idam.education.vic.gov.au/da

The application will display in your browser (figure 8.1).

Figure 8.1 Delegated Administrator application – log-in screen

2. Log on with your EduMail username and password.

3. Click on the checkbox to confirm you agree with the Ultranet Terms of Service.

4. Click on Log on.

5. Once authenticated, the application will check whether your browser has the required Flash

plug-in installed (Adobe Flash 10.0.45 or later):

a. If not, you will see the Delegated Administrator application requires the Adobe Flash Player Get Flash message.

b. Click on the Get Flash link, which takes you to the Adobe Flash download site.

c. Download and install the Flash plug-in, which takes less than two minutes1.

6. Once the Flash plug-in is installed, you will see the Delegated Administrator application.

If you don’t see the application and your screen is blank, contact your principal to make

sure you have been granted delegated administrator rights.

1 Talk to your local or TSSP specialist technician about Flash requirements if you have difficulties.



Delegated Administrator application

When the Delegated Administrator application opens (figure 8.2), you will see that there are three sections on the screen:

1. On the left of the screen are the main function tabs. These tabs are for first-level navigation and include Task, My Organisation, Report and My Approvals/Requests (1 in figure 8.2).

2. Next across are the roles and tasks tabs (2 in figure 8.2). These tabs are for second-level navigation and list all roles and tasks that you can perform (based on the entitlements you hold) for the chosen first-level tab.

3. The right side of the screen is the task pane (3 in figure 8.2). This is where data will appear when you select a task.

Figure 8.2 Administrator application – main functions, tasks and task pane

4. Click on the Task tab to choose it (if it isn’t already selected). All IDAM administrative tasks

are performed from this menu. Depending on the entitlements you hold, a number of roles

and tasks will appear on the Select a Task pane (as shown in figure 8.3).

Figure 8.3 IDAM administrative roles and tasks


Delegate Authority entitlements allow the holder to perform all administrative tasks. Staff with these entitlements are the only ones who can grant (delegate) or revoke administrative entitlements for other staff.

Password Admin entitlements enable staff to perform the Password Admin tasks.

Account Admin entitlements allow staff to perform the Account Admin tasks.

For more information on entitlements, see: Chapter 3: Getting started for principals and staff with Delegate Authority entitlements.

Staff with Password Admin entitlements will see the tasks in figure 8.4 listed under Select a

Task.

Figure 8.4 IDAM administrator Password Admin tasks

If you don’t see these tasks, click on the Task menu. If they still don’t appear, ask your principal to grant you Password Admin entitlements.


Generate and print parent/guardian welcome letters task

Background

Your first major task for parents/guardians is to generate and print their welcome letters. It is recommended that this be done once all student welcome letters have been sent. Parents/guardians will not be able to use the Ultranet until they have received their welcome letter and registered through the Identity and Access Management system (IDAM).

The parent/guardian welcome letter contains one or two unique keys (or temporary passwords) that allow each parent/guardian to link to a student in their care.

The system allows you to generate and print a unique parent/guardian key for each appropriate parent/guardian, regardless of living arrangements. To make this easier, there are three different forms of parent/guardian welcome letters to choose from:

One letter, two keys: this is the default option and generates a single letter with two unique keys. Used where two parents/guardians share the same home.

Two letters, one key: this generates two separate letters, each with a single unique key. Used where two parents/guardians live in different homes.

One letter, one key: this generates one single letter with a single unique key. Used for a single parent/guardian.

Up to six parent/guardian keys can be active for each student. Any required combination of these welcome letters can be generated as appropriate to the student’s family and living circumstances.

The standard IDAM default for parent/guardian letters is one letter, two keys. You will have to make any required changes manually.

Make sure all access and living arrangements data (including out of home care, access alerts and court orders) are recorded and up-to-date in CASES21. If you are unsure about any student, do not print or distribute welcome letters until you speak to your principal.

Pay particular attention to the alert flags for part-time students. This data must match what is recorded for that student in CASES21 at any other school they attend. Any conflicts in part-time student records across different schools may result in unauthorised parent/guardian access to the student’s information in the Ultranet.

Examples

Most commonly, a student will fall into one of the following categories:

Scenario 1: A student lives with two parents/guardians – use the default ‘one letter, two keys’ option.

Scenario 2: A student lives with one parent/guardian most of the time and stays with another parent/guardian sometimes – manually change to the ‘two letters, one key’ option.

Scenario 3: A student lives with one parent/guardian only – use the ‘one letter, one key’ option.

For students with different or complex parent/guardian arrangements, you may need to manually select a combination of welcome letter options, as illustrated in this example:

Scenario 4: A student lives with a foster carer and has court-ordered access with both parents, who don’t live together – select ‘two letters, one key’ to generate separate letters for the parents. Once printed, return and select the ‘one letter, one key’ option for the carer.

If you aren’t sure which letter option to choose, speak to your principal.


Parent/guardian welcome letter tips

Before you print and generate parent/guardian welcome letters, here are a few points to consider.

Parenting arrangements

Make sure all custody and access data in CASES21 is up to date for all students before generating parent/guardian welcome letters.

If in doubt, speak to your principal.

Generating

Generate and print initial parent/guardian welcome letters in batches (such as by home group) rather than for the whole school at once, so you don’t need to sort them before distribut ion.

Generating letters in batches also minimises confusion if your print job is interrupted by a printer error, power cut etc.

Printing

Make sure you choose double-sided printing for this task.

Before distribution, keep letters in a secure location such as a locked cupboard.

Remember the keys expire if not activated within 30 days of being generated, so make sure there is not too much time between printing and distribution.

Distribution

Your school should decide the best way to distribute the welcome letters to make sure they are kept secure and only delivered to the appropriate person.

For security reasons, you should instruct the parent/guardian to register as soon as possible and inform them of the risk of delay. If they don’t register within 30 days, a new welcome letter will need to be generated.

Parents should be encouraged to keep their letters in a secure place until they have registered and used their key/s.

Keep a log of letters you generate and distribute to parents/guardians.


Instructions for generating and printing parent/guardian welcome letters

1. Log into the Delegated Administrator application https://idam.education.vic.gov.au/da with

your EduMail username and password.

2. Click on the Task tab if it isn’t already selected (1 in figure 8.5).

3. Click on the Parent Welcome Letters task (2 in figure 8.5) and its task pane appears in the

right-hand column (boxed in figure 8.5).

Figure 8.5 Parent Welcome Letters task selected

4. Most IDAM administrative tasks require you to choose either the school or school and

campus from the School/Campus drop-down field (1 and 2 in figure 8.6).

Figure 8.6 shows the School/Campus drop-down field for Silverton Primary School, which

has just one campus. The first line is the school; the second line is the school and campus

(2). Clicking on the arrow (1 in figure 8.6) enables you to choose one or the other.

Figure 8.6 School/Campus drop-down field

5. Click on the arrow for the School/Campus drop-down field (1 in figure 8.6) and choose the

students’ school and campus (2 in figure 8.6).

Remember, you search for student accounts by the school and campus.

6. Click on the Search type drop-down field (1 in figure 8.7) and select the type of search, such as

Homegroup. For search tips, refer to Appendix A.

7. Click on the Search text field (2 in figure 8.7) and type the name of the home group. For search

tips, refer to Appendix A.

8. Click on the Search Execution button (3 in figure 8.7). After a moment, the search results

show all students in that home group who have already registered and activated their

accounts.

Figure 8.7 Parent Welcome Letters – searching by home group 4H

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9. If your search criteria return no students, the No matching accounts found message will

appear (figure 8.8). Click on OK to go back to change your search criterion and search

again.

Figure 8.8 No matching user account found

10. If your search criteria return students, these will be displayed in a search results table

(figure 8.9). The letter type checked for each student will be the default based on CASES21

data for that student (see Search Results box below for further explanation).

Figure 8.9 Parent Welcome Letters search results table


Search results

The search results table in this task contains some unique fields you should familiarise yourself with:

1 Letter 2 Keys checkbox

When ticked, the student will receive one parent/guardian letter that contains two different parent/guardian keys.

1 Letter 1 Key checkbox

When ticked, the student will receive one parent/guardian letter that contains one parent/guardian key.

2 Letters 1 Key checkbox

When ticked, the student will receive two parent/guardian letters, each containing a different parent/guardian key.

Keys Already Generated

This column displays the total number of parent/guardian keys that have been generated to date for that student. The total will include all keys issued, regardless of their status (expired, used, valid or invalidated).

Access Alert

This column display a student’s access alert status as entered in CASES21.

Living Arrangement

This column display a student’s living arrangement status as entered in CASES21.

11. If you wish to change the default letter type for a student, click on the checkbox of the

required option. The following scenarios illustrate how this was done in figure 8.10.

Scenario 1: Judy shares a home with both of her parents, so needs one letter with two

keys. Do nothing as this is the default letter type.

Scenario 2: Thomas lives with his mum most of the time and his dad some of the time, so

needs two letters with one key on each letter. Click on the checkbox in the 2 Letters 1 Key

column to select this letter type.

Scenario 3: You are not sure of Olivia’s living arrangements so decide to wait for further

information before generating her parent/guardian welcome letter/s. Click on the checked

option to remove the tick and leave this entry blank. Because a letter type has not been

chosen, no letters will be printed for Olivia.

Figure 8.10 Manually choosing a letter type

12. Once you have chosen the appropriate letter type for each student, you are ready to print.

To print letters for the entire home group, click on the Print Parent/Guardian Welcome

Letters button (1 in figure 8.11).


If you do not wish to include a letter for a particular student, deselect that student account. Click

on the ticked box (2 in figure 8.11) and then click on the Print Parent/Guardian Welcome

Letters button.

To print one or two letters only, click on the Select All box (3 in figure 8.11) to deselect all the names, and then select the appropriate letter type for the required student/s. Click on the Print Parent/Guardian Welcome Letters button.

Figure 8.11 Search results by home group – letter type selected manually

13. After a moment, a printing dialogue box appears with options depending on your operating

system and printers. In general, the default printer will be chosen.

Make sure your printer is set to double-sided printing. Check this in your printer settings/properties.

14. Click on Print Parent/Guardian Welcome Letters and the appropriate letter/s will print for each

student selected. Note: each parent/guardian welcome letter will have a unique key/s (circled in

figure 8:12).

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Figure 8.12 Sample parent/guardian welcome letter (one letter, two keys type)


Figure 8.13 Sample parent/guardian welcome letter (page two)


What next?

Parents/guardians who have received their welcome letters

Parents and guardians should register as soon as possible after receiving their welcome letter,

and then the letters should be destroyed. If they do not register within 30 days, you will need to

generate a new welcome letter for them.

Schools

Principals, IDAM administrators and other relevant staff should make sure they have appropriate

policies for:

Generating and printing parent/guardian Welcome Letters (including identifying the type of

letter most suitable in each situation)

Delivering Welcome Letters to parents/guardians in a secure manner

Helpful resources

Summary of tasks and steps

You will soon be able to download the Fast Card for Parent Administration, which will be available

from the Identity and Access Management online training pages

(https://edugate.eduweb.vic.gov.au/olt/idam/default). The fast cards provide a quick and easy

guide to the steps described in this user guide.

https://edugate.eduweb.vic.gov.au/olt/idam/default.aspx


Appendix A: Search tips for parent/guardian welcome letters

The following tips may help you when generating parent/guardian welcome letters.

Parent/guardian welcome letters are generated from student information in CASES21 so

it’s important that CASES21 entries are both accurate and up to date.

Search for students by school/campus (rather than school).

You can find students by using the search function. Search criteria included on the drop-

down menu are Year Level, Home Group, First name, Surname, Username, Access Alert

and Living Arrangement. To search through all students in the school, leave this field

blank.

Search results will only show students who have registered with IDAM.

Clicking on the Select All checkbox will toggle between choosing all or none of the search

results.

Sort your search results by clicking on a column heading – such as Surname.

The up and down arrows to the right of a column indicate whether the column is sorted in

ascending (e.g. a to z, or 0 to 9) or descending order respectively.

Click on the column heading to reverse the sort order (i.e. it toggles up and down).

Type a letter on your keyboard to jump to a word in that column starting with that letter

(e.g. typing a J in the Surname column takes you to the surnames starting with J).

Documents

Generating parent guardian welcome letters