Working with Family Portal Access Codes

What Information Can Parents Find on the Family Portal?

The Family Portal includes the following information:

• a student’s Individual Score Report (ISR) with interpretive guides that can be downloaded and printed;

• a glossary of assessment terms;

• a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) with answers;

• performance-level indicators and explanations of what they mean; and

• resources for families to use with their students.

How Can Parents Access the Family Portal?

Parents and guardians can access the Family Portal in one of three ways:

1. Visit the state assessment portal on the Texas Assessment website, and enter a unique Access Code along with their child’s date of birth and first name.

2. Clicking a time-limited link delivered to parents/guardians via email to retrieve a unique Access Code that can then be entered at Family Portal  as described above.

3. Click the auto-login link in the parent portal, supplied by the district’s Student Information System (SIS) provider.

 

Open

Family Portal Access Task

 

How to Retrieve Family Portal Access Codes in TIDE and Communicate Codes Them with Families

Authorized TIDE users can retrieve Family Portal Access Codes in TIDE and communicate those codes to families in several ways:

• Codes for individual students can be accessed from the View/Edit/Export Students page and then relayed to families using whichever secure means of communication their school or district already has in place.

• TIDE users can print Family Portal Access Codes for the students in a roster and then send a unique code home with each student.

• TIDE users can visit the Generate Access Code List page to create an Excel (.xlsx) file containing Family Portal Access Codes for multiple students; they can then add an email address for each student’s family and send emails the code to each family through TIDE.

How to View Access Codes for Individual Students and Send via Secure Communication

The process for viewing and securely communicating Access Codes involves the following steps:

1. From the Students task menu on the TIDE dashboard, authorized users can select the View/Edit/Export Students page.

2. Enter the search criteria.

3. Select Search to open the search results pop-up window.

4. Select View Results. The search results grid displays Access Codes for any student who matches the search criteria. (You may have to scroll to the right to view a student’s Access Code.)

5. To send an Access Code to a student’s family, use whatever secure means of communication the school or district already has in place.

How to Print Access Codes and Send Cards Home with Students

The process for printing Access Codes on cards to be sent home with students involves the following steps:

1. From the Rosters task menu on the TIDE dashboard, select View/Edit Rosters. The View/Edit Rosters page appears.

2. Enter your search criteria.

3. Select Search to open the search results pop-up window.

4. Select View Results. The search results grid appears, displaying rosters that match the search criteria.

5. Choose one of the following options:

• To print Access Codes for all rosters in the search results, select the checkbox at the top of the search results grid.

• To print Access Codes for particular rosters, select the checkboxes for those rosters only.

6. Click the dropdown arrow on the Print icon and select Access Codes.

7. In the browser window that opens, verify that Access Codes is selected in the Print Options section.

8. Select an Access Code Layout.

9. Select Print. Your browser will download the generated PDF.

10.  Print the PDF, in which each code is formatted as an individual card.

11.  Cut up the PDF into separate cards.

12.  Distribute the cards to students to take home to their families.

How to Email Access Code Links via TIDE

The process for emailing Access Code links via TIDE involves the following steps:

1. From the Family Portal Access task menu on the TIDE dashboard, select Generate Access Code List  to open the template page.

2. Enter your search criteria into the fields.

3. Select Search to open the search results pop-up window.

4. Select View Results. The search results grid will then display Access Codes for any student whose data in TIDE matches the search criteria.

5. Optional: If you want to create an Excel file that includes results only for selected students, select the checkboxes next to those students’ names.

6. Select Download Student Access Codes, and then choose one of the following options:

• To export data for all student records in the search results, select Export All to Excel.

• To export data for selected student records only, select Export Selected to Excel.

7. Once the template downloads to your computer, open it and, in the column labeled Send Access Code to This Email Address, enter the email address of the parent or guardian who should receive each student’s Access Code.

8. Optional: To send a student’s Access Code to more than one recipient, duplicate that student’s row in the template and enter another email address.

9. Save and close the template.

10. From the Family Portal Access task menu on the TIDE dashboard, select Student Access Codes via Email. Then select Choose File or drag and drop the file to upload it to TIDE. Select Next.

11. When the upload preview screen appears, verify that the information is correct and then select Next to open the Validate page.

12. Choose one of the following options:

• To copy yourself on emails sent to families, select Yes in the CC me on the access code emails field.

• If you do not want to receive copies of these emails, select No.

  • The CC option is available only when the upload file contains fewer than 50 records

13. Select Continue with Upload. The file will then be uploaded to TIDE and emails will be sent to the recipients listed in the Excel file.

14. Optional: To upload another file, select Upload New File.

 

Open

Access Code Template

 

 

 

Emails transmitted via TIDE will contain links to a website where families can retrieve their unique Access Codes. Each link will expire after a period of time determined by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). If a link expires, the family will need to request a new link, and a new email will need to be generated using the same process described above.

Family Portal Auto-Login Integration Instructions

Cambium Assessment, Inc. (CAI) has developed a new feature that allows a student’s parent or guardian to log in to the Family Portal directly from a district’s Student Information System (SIS). Once districts and SIS providers integrate this feature with their SIS, parents and guardians will be able to access their student’s reports with the click of a button, bypassing the Family Portal login screen where they would typically enter the student’s Access Code, date of birth, and first name.

Implementing the auto-login feature is easy and relies on an integration between the SIS and Family Portal that is simpler than that of the previously available SIS application programming interface (API). The following subsections contain instructions for setting up this new feature; district technology personnel can perform the necessary tasks themselves or in coordination with their SIS vendor:

Retrieving login data from TIDE

Importing login data into the SIS

Adding the auto-login feature to the SIS

Retrieving Login Data from TIDE

The Test Information Distribution Engine permits authorized users to export all the required Family Portal login data into a single spreadsheet. The process for retrieving login data from TIDE is as follows:

1. First, select the Generate Access Code List task on the TIDE dashboard.

2. On the Generate Access Code List page, conduct a search for the names of students whose login data should be exported. You can search for students by their institution, grade level, and other, more-specific criteria.

3. Select the relevant student records from the search results and download the Access Codes to Microsoft Excel. You can also choose to download the Access Codes for all names returned in the search results.

Importing Login Data into the SIS

The following student data elements must be imported into a district’s SIS to integrate with the Family Portal’s auto-login feature:

• the Student’s Access Code, a unique, six-character alphanumeric code generated for each student record in TIDE;

• the Student’s Date of Birth, an eight-character string in MMDDYYYY format; and

• the Student’s Legal First Name as recorded in TIDE, with a maximum character limit of 100.

Shown below is a sample Excel file exported from TIDE in which each of these data elements appears. The same elements should be imported into the SIS using whatever import process is customary for that system. The student’s last name, ID, and parent/guardian email address are also included in the export file, but these elements are not required to implement the auto-login feature.

Adding the Auto-Login Feature to the SIS

Once the required data has been imported, the auto-login button can be added to the SIS user interface. To implement the feature, technology personnel can add the form post reproduced below, which will send an HTTP post with the student’s login data to the Family Portal, requesting access to that student’s reports.

The accesscode, dateofbirth, and StudentFirstName values must be populated with valid data for each student, using the format outlined in the previous section.