FOCUS-51327- Postsecondary Modify Programs Enhancements

This update enhances the Postsecondary Modify Programs report with additional functionality and usability improvements. The Program Title column has been expanded, making program names easier to view without being cut off. Export options have been added, allowing users to generate a spreadsheet or print version of the report directly. A new Mass Update feature is also available, enabling users to efficiently apply updates across multiple records at once.

See Modify Programs for more information.

FOCUS-51239- Form Builder | Add Accounting Strip Widget to Form Builder Component

System enhancement to FormBuilder adding the Accounting Strip Widget to the FormBuilder Component Presets.

See Form Builder > Setting Up an Accounting Strip Widget for more information.

FOCUS-51203- Accounts Payable | Add Data Columns to Invoice Batch Review Tables

System enhancement to Purchasing/Accounts Payable > Accounts Payable > Invoices > Batches - Review/Post > Batch Review adding two new columns

1. Invoice Date
2. Payment type

This new feature also adds Toggle Column options to both Invoices and Open Purchase Orders tables.

See Purchasing/Accounts Payable > Invoices and Purchasing/Accounts Payable > Internal Account Invoices for more details.

FOCUS-50720- Work Orders | Improve Error Notification When Account Strip is Invalid

System improvement to Work Orders > Work Orders > Work Order Requests to clearly define the error message triggered when an invalid account strip is used.

FOCUS-51275- Payroll | Misc Pay Insurance Dropdown Labels

System improvement to Payroll > Run Payroll > Misc Pay  to clarify the titles of the existing Insurance drop down options.

The functionality of the options did not change, but we have provided descriptions of what each option does, along with its new title:

• Yes: Insurance deductions and contributions will be calculated on the miscellaneous pay amount, and the insurance cost will be spread across the miscellaneous pay account strip.
• No (Doesn't Apply to Insurance): This amount will not be used in insurance calculations, and the insurance cost will not be spread across the miscellaneous pay account strip.
• Don't Take Insurance (Same as Suspending Deduction for the Run): If this option is selected, no insurance deductions or contributions will be processed for the employee during this payroll run, even if they have other wages. This provides the same result as marking an employee's insurance deductions/contributions as "suspended" on the Employee > Deduction page.

FOCUS-51149- Payroll | Overtime Indicator on Misc Pay

System enhancement adding an 'Overtime' indicator to "Payroll > Run Payroll > Misc" and "Payroll > School/Department Payroll Entry > Misc" page in the employee detail level to track misc pay that is considered as overtime pay.

See Run Payroll > Misc Pay and School/Department Payroll Entry > Adding Misc Pay for more details.

FOCUS-51069- Applicant Tracking | Add Setting to Exclude Certain Profiles from Viewing the Internal Job Postings

System enhancement to Applicant Tracking/Employee Self Service system setting allowing a restriction to be applied to prevent viewing internal job postings. To enable, Setup > Settings > Employee Self Service - Hide Internal Postings from Profiles.

See Setup > Settings > Employee Self Service and Applicant Tracking > Applicant Process for more details.

FOCUS-51363- New Student Schedule: Rotation Day Scheduling Conflict Resolved

An issue in scheduling has been resolved where students could not be scheduled into the same period and marking period with different rotation days without receiving a conflict warning. The update ensures that courses assigned to different rotation days in the same period no longer trigger unnecessary conflict messages, allowing accurate scheduling for rotating day setups.

FOCUS-51345- Communication Platform: Improve Student Course Tags for Teachers in Compose

This update improves the Communication Platform so that when a teacher is scheduled with the same student in multiple courses, the student will now appear under each relevant course tag in the teacher's Students dropdown in Compose. Previously, the student would only appear under the first course tag alphabetically. With this change, teachers can more accurately select students by course context, ensuring all course associations are represented when composing messages.

FOCUS-51339- Custom Fields: Display Computed Field SQL Errors In-line Instead of Modal

This update improves how SQL errors are handled for computed custom fields in both Student and User records. Previously, if a computed field's query failed, a global error popup would appear, blocking all fields in the category from loading until the page was refreshed. With this change, SQL errors are now caught and displayed inline within the affected field's value.

FOCUS-51322 - Communication Platform: Enable Allow Replies By Default for Most Messages

This update expands the reply options within the Communication Platform. Previously, if a student or parent initiated a message to a teacher, the teacher was not able to reply. Those conversations were effectively one-way unless the teacher started a new message thread. With this enhancement:

• Teachers can now reply directly to messages sent by students or parents.
• The “Allow Replies” setting continues to control reply availability in admin-initiated messages. For example, if an admin checks “Allow Replies,” recipients can respond; if it’s left unchecked, replies remain disabled.

In short, the scenarios that have changed are:

• Student → Teacher messages now allow replies.
• Parent → Teacher messages now allow replies.

All other message flows (admin → student, admin → parent, teacher → admin, etc.) continue to respect the “Allow Replies” setting exactly as before.

FOCUS-51310- Communication: Allow Teachers to Message Future Students in the Default School Year

Teachers can now send messages to students scheduled for future start dates, even if the school year has already begun. This mirrors prior enhancements for students and parents, ensuring two-way communication is available before classes officially start.

See Communication (Teachers) > Did You Know? for more information.

FOCUS-51285- EWS Student List Remembers User Settings (Florida)

This update improves Florida Reports > Early Warning System by saving user-specific table preferences. Column selections and page size set in the student list are now retained when refreshing the page, switching between summary and student list views, navigating to other pages, or logging out and back in. Filters and report options are not saved, but the student list display settings now remain consistent across sessions.

FOCUS-51279- Student Search: Hide Inactive Grade Levels unless Include Inactive/Previous Years Checked

Inactive grade levels with end years before the current year will no longer display by default. They will only appear when both Include Inactive and Previous Years are selected.

FOCUS-51276- Student Address: Zip Code + 4 Limits to 4 Characters

Address Zip + 4 now prevents users from entering more than four digits. This improvement eliminates unnecessary data ensuring proper validation.

FOCUS-51266- Course Catalog: Include Marked PK in High/Low Grade Levels

The Course Catalog now includes all grade levels marked as PK in the High and Low Grade Level columns, rather than only displaying PK. This ensures that additional PK grade levels, such as P2 or P3, are available for selection and scheduling. Students scheduled into sections with PK-designated grade levels will continue to display appropriate warnings if their grade level does not match, while still allowing valid scheduling.

FOCUS-51237- Attendance: Seating Chart Deletion Improvement

An issue in the Teacher Seating Charts within the Attendance module has been resolved. Previously, deleting a seating chart could cause an error. With this update, seating charts can be created and deleted smoothly.

FOCUS-51230- Attendance: Absences by Course and Student Days Possible Update

The Days Possible calculation in Absences by Course and Student has been updated to handle both double-booked and double-blocked scheduling. The system now calculates based on distinct school dates and period combinations, ensuring accurate attendance totals for students regardless of schedule structure.

 FOCUS-51228 - Form Builder | File Upload

System enhancement to Form Builder adding the File Upload Component to the list of available components in the form builder.

See Form Builder > Setting Up File Upload for more information.

FOCUS-51227- Managed Integrations Default Output Location Update "/tmp"

The default Output Location for Managed Integrations has been updated to /tmp. This ensures that new integrations created from the Reports method execute successfully without requiring manual adjustments. Users may still update the Output Location to any valid path, and changes will persist after saving.

See Manage Integrations for more information.

FOCUS-51221- School Choice Translations for Parent Portal Alerts

This update enhances the School Choice module by adding API-based translations for portal alert messages shown to parents. Messages are now logged into the Translations table and translated according to the parent's selected language preference. Auto-Translate and scheduled translation jobs populate these entries automatically, and custom translations still take precedence. This ensures parents consistently view School Choice alerts in their preferred language.

FOCUS-51212- Final Grades: Validation Exception Added for Grade Title 'W'

This update expands the grade title validation rules on the Final Grades screen by adding "W" to the list of exceptions. Along with "NG," "NC," "T," and "P," the new exception ensures that "W" can be entered without requiring validation against the assigned grade scale. All other manually entered grade titles continue to be validated, maintaining consistency while allowing added flexibility in grading.

See Final Grades, GPA, & Class Rank for more details.

FOCUS-51135- Communication Platform: Disable Translating Call Intro on Recorded Calls

This update improves the Call Out system in the Communication Platform by standardizing recorded call introductions to always play in English. Text-to-speech calls remain translated according to the recipient's language preference, ensuring consistent introductions while maintaining multilingual support for automated speech.

See Communication (Admin) > Settings for additional information.

FOCUS-51131- Student Audit Trail Enhancement for Legacy Schedule

This update extends Audit Trail functionality to the legacy Student Schedule program. Schedule changes are now logged in the audit schema when using the legacy scheduling process, ensuring that both legacy and new scheduling methods consistently record modifications for better transparency and tracking.

FOCUS-51124- Online Application Preference for Current-Year Enrollment

This update adds a new system preference, "Allow Enrolling in Current Year," under Default School Preferences > Online Applications. When enabled, the current school year appears in the application year dropdown for parents completing online applications. When disabled, the current year option is hidden. This preference mirrors the existing "Allow Enrolling in Future Year" option, giving districts greater control over when to allow current-year enrollment through the legacy online application.

See System Preferences > Online Application for more information.

FOCUS-51105- Mobile App: Show Time Announcements Were Posted

This update corrects the announcement timestamp displayed on the mobile app news page. Announcements now show the same posting time as they do in the web portal, instead of defaulting to 12:00 a.m. This ensures consistency across platforms for parents, students, teachers, and administrators.

FOCUS-51098- Custom Fields: Remove Default Behavior of 'Requires Authentication' for New Signature Fields

This update changes the behavior of new signature custom fields so that "Requires Authentication" is no longer enabled by default.

FOCUS-51092- Attendance: "Students Absent Yesterday" Portal Alert Logic Updated for Enrollment End Date

The portal alert for "students absent yesterday" now includes students whose enrollment ends on the current day, aligning the alert count with the Attendance Administration view. This resolves undercounting and ensures accurate daily absence totals.

FOCUS-51082- Communication: Disable System Preference "Use Original Text Editor for Communications" if it's Been Disabled in any School Year

The system preference "Use Original Text Editor for Communications" will now remain disabled across all school years once it is unchecked. Previously, the option could reappear in future years, causing inconsistency. With this update, a migration ensures the preference is permanently removed district-wide once disabled, while districts still using the original editor retain the option until it is turned off.

See System Preferences > General for more details.

FOCUS-51042- New Total Clock Hours CTE Field in Insert Fields

A new calculated field has been added to Insert Fields for Postsecondary customers to display Total Clock Hours Earned toward award. This new option can be added to transcript letterhead templates--allowing CTE customers to generate transcripts reflecting the hours earned across all programs a student has participated in. The calculation properly combines hours across multiple enrollments, including adult and dual enrollment programs, and displays them per program on transcripts.

FOCUS-50936- Delete a Student: Unset Deleted Student ID in Session

This update resolves an issue where a deleted student would remain selected in the top navigation after being merged into another student. Previously, the deleted student continued to appear as the active selection, which could cause errors when attempting to restore the student.

FOCUS-50794- Parent Portal: Positive Behavior Badges Display Correct Totals

This update resolves an issue where deleted positive behavior awards continued to appear in the Parent and Student Portals. Badge icons and totals now reflect current records, ensuring Total Earned, Spent, and Available Balance are accurate after deletions or spending.

FOCUS-50709- Legacy Assessment Reports Removed

This update removes four outdated reports from the Assessments tab. The At Risk Students, Leading Indicator Report, State Performance Report, and Test History Breakdown reports are no longer supported and have been retired from the interface.

FOCUS-50438 - Communication Platform: Enable SMS Replies from the Inbox

This update enhances the Communication Platform by adding dedicated Email and SMS tabs in the inbox and sent box for users with SMS permissions. Teachers and administrators can now reply directly via SMS from within Focus, instead of being limited to email responses.

The selected tab in a message thread will default based on the most recent type of reply: SMS if the last response came from a phone or SMS reply, or Email if the last response was through the email tab. When both SMS and Email are used in a single message, the Email tab will open by default. All messages sent from the inbox or sent box will now automatically allow replies, providing a more seamless messaging experience.

See Communication (Admin ) > Inbox, Sent, Archive and Communication (Teachers) > Inbox, Sent, Archive for more details.

FOCUS-50238- Teacher Certification Code Conversion in Course Catalog Improvement (Florida)

This update improves the Teacher Certifications Licensure Status automation for Florida districts. When the system preferences to automatically convert teacher certification codes and display converted codes are enabled, the Course Catalog now calculates and shows converted certification codes correctly. Certification codes entered in the CCD field are automatically converted to their HR equivalents using the state crosswalk and displayed without duplication. Multiple codes are handled properly, and invalid codes are preserved as entered. This ensures accurate and consistent certification requirements in the Course Catalog for scheduling and compliance.

FOCUS-49923- Grad Req Report: Improve Scholar Designation Requirements Prioritization of Completed/In-Progress

This update improves the Florida Graduation Requirements Report by refining how credits are prioritized when meeting scholar designation requirements. Previously, if a student had partial credits completed alongside credits in progress, the system could select the lesser value instead of the best available option. With this update, the report now prioritizes the highest applicable credit option, ensuring accurate representation of progress toward requirements such as earning one credit in Statistics or an equally rigorous course. This enhancement provides more reliable results for students and administrators reviewing credit completion and designation eligibility.

FOCUS-49755- Add Student Restrictions to Hall Passes

This update enhances the Hall Pass module by adding a dedicated Student Restrictions tab within Student Info. Restrictions can now include locations where the student cannot be, other students they cannot be scheduled near, comments, and an end date for when the restriction should expire. A read-only "Last Modified" field shows when the restriction was last updated and by whom.

The Student Restrictions tab mirrors the setup found under Hall Pass Setup but automatically assumes the selected student, eliminating the need to reselect them. Import and export options are supported, and validation ensures required fields are present when importing. Location, Teacher, and Student restrictions all function as expected, providing admins with more flexible and efficient tools for managing hall pass restrictions.

See Hall Pass Setup > Setting Up Restrictions, Student Info: Hall Passes (Admin) and Student Info: Hall Passes (Teacher) for more information.

FOCUS-49448- Loading Reports: Dual Enrollment Student Improvement on Students with Incomplete Schedules Report

This update resolves an issue in the Students with Incomplete Schedules loading report where dual enrolled students were incorrectly flagged. Previously, if a student's second school had no scheduled classes, the report would show scheduling holes--even if the student had valid semester classes at their primary school. With this fix, the report no longer displays holes in these scenarios, ensuring accurate reporting for dual enrolled students.

FOCUS-45979- Attendance Letters Pulldown in Absence Summary and Chart Enhancement

This enhancement adds a pulldown menu for printing Attendance Letters directly from the Absence Summary, Chart, and Calendar screens. The pulldown functions like those in Student Info and Referrals, allowing users to select and print templates created in Communication or migrated from Print Letters & Send Email.

See Attendance Chart (Admin), Absence Summary (Admin), Absence Summary (Teachers), and Attendance Chart (Teachers) for more information.

FOCUS-40451- Late Check In/Early Release Attendance Updates

This update improves Late Check In/Early Release functionality when the "Check-Out Between Periods" system preference is enabled. Previously, if a check-out record was created between periods and the time was later updated to fall within a scheduled period, the attendance record was not updated with the correct course and section.

With this enhancement, when the check-out time is changed from a gap period to within an active class period, the system now updates the associated course, section, and attendance records accordingly. This ensures accuracy in student attendance tracking and prevents mismatches between kiosk entries and period attendance.

If the record is originally created during a valid period, the course period is immediately assigned and cannot be moved outside that period. If created between periods or after the last period, no course period is initially assigned, but updating the time into a valid period will now correctly assign the matching class and update attendance.

See Late Check In/Early Release > Did You Know? for more information.

FOCUS-51236- Request Grade Changes- Issues

FOCUS-51274- SSS: Gifted Goal Bank Date Requirement Corrected

This update resolves an error in the SSS module where the Gifted Goal Bank step of a Gifted EP event incorrectly required Goal Start/End Date fields, even though those fields were no longer displayed. With this change, users can now save the step without error when the date fields are not present.

FOCUS-51150- August 2025 Missouri Snapshot

This update delivers the August 2025 SSS snapshot, applying key updates to master forms and setup for districts in Missouri. These updates ensure compliance with state reporting requirements and keep district configurations aligned with the latest specifications. For full details on the changes included in this release, please see the Focus University article: August 2025 Updates to MO Master Forms & Setup

FOCUS-50893- Implement New Student Search Additional Areas (V)

This update introduces the New Student Search experience to Bulk PMP Triggers, FA Worksheet, Return to Title IV, Standard Grades Summary, and Student Academic Report, providing faster, more consistent filtering and selection across these workflows.

FOCUS-48061- SSS Settings Versioning for Locked Events

This update enhances the SSS module by introducing version control for SSS settings. Each time SSS configuration settings are updated, a copy of the previous state is stored. When an event is locked, it will continue to use the version of settings that were active at the time of locking, ensuring consistency even if settings are changed later.

The versioning applies to key areas including Program Preferences, Instructional Accommodations, Schedule of Service settings, and Progress Monitoring Plan settings. This improvement preserves the integrity of locked events while still allowing districts to update configurations for future events.

See General for more information.