PowerSchool Enrollment

[Maraiya League]

We are reviewing PowerSchool Enrollment and looking at possibly implementing it for next school year.

Does anyone use this product? If so, can you tell me about your experience?

Thank you for your help!

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Maraiya League

Lead SIS Data Technician

Teaching and Learning Support

Juneau School District

maraiya...@juneauschools.org

(907) 796-5771

[Gunderson, Megan]

Also interested and seriously considering migrating to their flagship enrollment product. We are currently using PS Ecollect/Forms for enrollment, and it's not ideal. 

Megan Gunderson, M.S., M.Ed. Director of Technology, Valdez City Schools 907-834-4716  |  www.valdezcityschools.org mgund...@valdezcityschools.org PO Box 398, 1112 West Klutina Drive  |  Valdez, Alaska

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[Kyle Schneider]

I’ve got 5 years or so of experience with it. It has its pain points, but overall I’ve been happy with it. Support is India based, which makes time zones a factor, especially because they do most of the work for you. There are several other districts that use it on the list, including one that implemented really recently. I’ll let them self-identify if they’re willing to answer questions.

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Kyle Schneider
GSD Educational Services
Phone: 907-917-4149
ky...@gsded.com

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[Jamie Burgess]

Nome has used it for 4-5 years now.  We do like it; however, there are some considerations.  If you are collecting JOM/506 forms, we have seen a dramatic drop in those because families have to print them out, complete them, scan them, and then upload.  The Feds won't allow any other forms, so that's been a struggle.  We do our enrollment survey this way, but it means a regular data pull to transfer the information into PS (we are CEP and don't do free/reduced lunch forms).

Feel free to reach out individually to me if you wish.

On Mon, Sep 29, 2025 at 11:11 AM 'Maraiya League' via AK PSUG <ak-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

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Thanks.

Jamie S. Burgess

Superintendent, Nome Public Schools
907-443-6191

Excellence, Kindness, Joy

[Robin Gage]

We have it, and I am not a fan. I was not here when it was implemented and have no formal training. I’ve figured out how to use it by trial and error, and just when I think I have it figured out, there is a whole other part that I didn’t know about. Some of my frustration with the program is related to how we use it, but I’ve seen enough of how the program works to feel comfortable passing judgment. It requires a significant amount of overhead to keep it running, and it creates more friction than necessary.

 

Our support is not based in India, we have a dedicated tech on Pacific time who gets all our cases, and he has been good to work with.

 

We do not use PS Enrollment the same way as other districts might; we do a manual data delivery from the program and import students. It is capable of automatically creating students, but we don’t use that feature.

 

My primary complaints,

 

• It is essentially a whole other SIS to manage. Learning all aspects of how to manage Enrollment is like learning another PowerSchool.
• A large amount of overhead is required to make it work; it creates its own friction, and it feels like the tail wagging the dog.
• You have limited access to the data it stores, and there are things that only support can see or change.
• I am not a fan of the user interface and how things are worded and organized. A whole vocabulary has been created to accommodate how the system works.
• There has been some glitchy behavior we’ve documented and reported to development. The answer I’ve repeatedly been given is to clear your cache and cookies.

 

On my long-term project list, I am going to find or create a replacement for Enrollment. Enrollment Express appears to be a good option. I would suggest doing a demo of Enrollment Express before making a decision. I want an enrollment solution that has no middleman, where the data collected through the parent portal is entered directly into PowerSchool.

 

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Robin Gage

907-318-6586

PowerSchool Admin
Galena City School District

 

From: 'Kyle Schneider' via AK PSUG <ak-...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Monday, September 29, 2025 at 11:28 AM
To: ak-...@googlegroups.com <ak-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [AKPSUG] PowerSchool Enrollment

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[League, Maraiya]

Robin,

Do you have these two backwards? We have used Enrollment Express before and it was awful. We actually ended the contract early and would never recommend or use that product again.

Enrollment appears to be a parent entering information for all the fields we would fill out in the SIS and then it appears for administration to review, finalize, and then import directly into PowerSchool.

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Maraiya League

Lead SIS Data Technician

Teaching and Learning Support

Juneau School District

maraiya...@juneauschools.org

(907) 796-5771

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[Robin Gage]

Well, that isn’t good news 😬😆

 

My information on Enrollment Express is based on conversations with Marcia Brenner. I talked to a gal who used Enrollment Express in the same way I want to, and her description of how it worked ticked most of the boxes. I have not done a demo of the product for myself, and I’m not ready for that yet.

 

Whatever we do, I want it to be directly integrated with PowerSchool and not a separate system.

 

Enrollment works as you described, but you’re creating a separate database to store that data, and then it is translated into PowerSchool fields when you import. There is an API that allows for data to be delivered directly into PS, but I haven’t seen that in action.

 

Enrollment very well may meet your needs, but it adds to the overall workload.

 

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Robin Gage

907-318-6586

PowerSchool Admin
Galena City School District

 

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[Brandon Shilson]

I have been using PowerSchool Enrollment since 2019. Overall I would recommend the product. 

Pros:

- Able to update PowerSchool data and custom database fields from enrollment forms.

- Digital Collection of 506 forms which we got approval by the federal government. 

- You can make changes annually as your enrollment processes need to be updated

Cons:

- Cannot automatically move Attachments into PowerSchool.

- ReRegistration login process is not very intuitive for families.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ak-psug/BL1PR01MB7649176D94DB16CBA4927B6F981BA%40BL1PR01MB7649.prod.exchangelabs.com.

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Sincerely,

Brandon Shilson
Student Information System Consultant
Lower Yukon School District
cell: 613-451-7700

zoom: 907-531-2515

Submit LYSD Record Requests to: https://lysdak.scriborder.com/ 

[League, Maraiya]

Brandon,

Can you say more about the digital collection of 506 forms? How was that set up? Jamie may be interested in that as well.

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Maraiya League

Lead SIS Data Technician

Teaching and Learning Support

Juneau School District

maraiya...@juneauschools.org

(907) 796-5771

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ak-psug/CAMU%2B3Orgp9g_uT%2BEuDv8JryWH1%2Bx_jK8rKStSov9%3Dwi7di88PA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Brandon Shilson]

The 506 form data is collected during the enrollment process. The form is only presented if the student identifies as belonging to a State or federally- recognized tribe. There are several questions and some automated address information we use to simplify the data collection. We then use a print template to recreate the 506 form in the registration system. We had this form approved by a person from:

Education Program Specialist – Formula Team, Office of Indian Education

Office of Elementary & Secondary Education | U.S. Department of Education

The form is downloaded as a PDF during enrollment and we store the form in PowerSchool Attachments. This process is time consuming but it only has to be completed one time. Ideally (next) we push the information into PowerSchool and are able to produce the form as an Object Template which would be less time consuming. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ak-psug/CAEhhdNREw1Sh4ATYMbcavDA4_yp_GQfq1BPb49zHzR5twQ83LA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Kyle Schneider]

I actually disagree about your re-registration process. If you use SSO instead of SnapCodes, I’ve found parents are quite easily able to login to their parent portal and get into registration.

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Kyle Schneider
GSD Educational Services
Phone: 907-917-4149
ky...@gsded.com

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[Brandon Shilson]

It would be great if we had more parents with powerschool portal accounts. Using Snapcodes from a printed document has been a challenge for parents to complete without support. 

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