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Getting Started

Thank you for your interest in Silent Dismissal. This page contains the information necessary to set up your school's program. Before working with the program, it is crucial to understand the structure of the application. Please take your time while reading, and feel free to contact our staff for assistance if you have any questions.

NOTE: This page applies to new clients. Existing clients should refer to the yearly conversion page for instructions about starting a new year with Silent Dismissal.

Overview

Using the wiki as your guide, the following information will have step-by-step instructions to assist in Silent Dismissal's initial configuration.

The Silent Dismissal system relies on five major user groups, the most important for setup and maintenance being the Administrator group. Once the initial invoice and payment have been processed, your school should receive the credentials for one administrative account. With this account, it will be possible to create user accounts for each faculty & staff member according to their role throughout the school day. For example, teachers with children in their classrooms would have Classroom user accounts and dismissal faculty would have Dismissal user accounts, etc.

Each user account type will have a unique view of Silent Dismissal that is tailored to the functions of their role. Administrators have the most access to data of all user account types, and it is recommended that office staff or the director(s) hold these accounts. However, our team is dedicated to providing a service that promotes integration of our service and our client's needs, so this can be decided at the school's discretion.

After the admin account has created the various user accounts to satisfy their school's demands, student lists can be loaded into the database either manually or by bulk. Groups, locations, and messages can then be added to the database so students may be assigned to them.

All of the data input into Silent Dismissal can be edited at a later date, with any exceptions being changed by contacting Silent Dismissal staff.

Purchase Services

The first step in acquiring the Silent Dismissal service is to obtain a quotation and the associated invoice.

One of these four items must be completed to obtain service:

  1. Receipt of payment by Silent Dismissal
  2. Receipt of payment for trial period
  3. A purchase order or binding letter of intent to purchase. (Must include the number of licenses by type and the total purchase amount)

Initial Data for Load Using Spreadsheets

Immediately upon obtaining a quotation, the next step is to compile the required information for loading into Silent Dismissal. While you will have the ability to create/edit individual entities through our user interface, this information is best delivered bulk in a spreadsheet.

The four categories of required information are:

  1. Staff Accounts
  2. Students
  3. Groups, Locations, and Messages (may be individually and manually created within the service, or loaded from a data file)
  4. Bus Stops (optional)

The exact fields of information required for your spreadsheet are described on the spreadsheet file format page. Please refer to this page before going further, as it will increase efficiency.

Student Bookbag Tag Holders

If your school will be scanning individual students as they leave the school, then you may want to order waterproof holders for each student. Here are links to some recommended products.

Signing In

You will receive from us the URL for your site along with information for signing in once your site has been configured and is available.

First Steps

After the data has been loaded the first set of steps will be to

  • Review the data
    • Reports / Data Review :: Set Up Check
    • Reports / Data Review :: Possible Errors
  • Print parent placards
    • Tools / Print Tags :: Classroom
  • Print student placards
    • Tools / Print Tags :: Student
    • Groups / List By Type :: Bus → <click on roster count> → <click on Student Tags>
  • Ensure staff are able to access their accounts

Testing and Training

You may want to test the operation of the service and allow dismissal and classroom staff the opportunity to experience their roles. Here are some additional instructions on performing a live simulation.

admin/getting_started.1562866581.txt.gz · Last modified: 2024/03/05 12:57 (external edit)