Aspen Help Center updated

The Aspen SIS Help Center has a fresh new look. It's easier than ever to search online Help, view training videos, print Quick Reference Cards (job aides) for your desk, and check out infographics and other new materials.

From any tab (except Pages), select Help > Help Center, and check it out!

New feature: Interactive Analytics

The exciting new Interactive Analytics feature lets you create and view data sets using real-time information in your Aspen system. Use these data sets to quickly gather and review multiple categories of information simultaneously. This way, you can identify and assess situations that require prompt attention or future planning.

Notes: Click the Interactive Analytics toggle in the menu bar to turn it on (down position). Interactive Analytics is available in the District (Root Organization), Intermediate Organization, School, Staff, Build, Health, Special Education, and Personnel views.

When creating an Interactive Analytics data set, you can choose up to three sets of data. Each data set appears in a pie chart. Refine the data display by clicking a graphic – the page refreshes based on your selections.

Consider an administrator who wants to know the number (and percent) of 9th grade male students who speak Spanish at home. On the Student List page, they would create three data sets: Grade level, Gender, and Home Language:

Then, the administrator could click the 9 slice in the Grade level pie chart, the M (male) slice in the Gender chart, and Spanish in the Home Language chart. With each click, the Student List page refreshes to display the names of the qualifying students who meet those criteria. At the end, the administrator can view the 19 students who meet all three criteria:

See "Use Interactive Analytics" in online Help for more information.

'Save and Run' report option

When users run a report, they select printing parameters (such as the file format) on a pop-up. The new 'Save and Run' button lets users save these parameters so they default each time a specific report is run.

New Student (Online) Registration: New column displays registration status

Depending on a district's settings, parents can register their students online and check the registration's status in Aspen Go. As the registrar processes the registration, a column will display one of the following statuses: Awaiting review, Under review, Attention required!, or Awaiting final approval. Once the review is complete, the column will display Denied or Accepted.

Enhancements to Aspen Go Family portal

• The My To Do Tasks tab now has a Name column to indicate which student the task is for. In addition, the Received column indicates the date Active tasks were received.

• Two new fields, Locker Number and Locker Code, now appear on the Family tab (Demographics screen):

  

Enhancements to Aspen Go Student portal

• Two tabs were added to the Student portal: My To Do Tasks and Forms. On the Forms tab, students can complete, submit, and review school forms, such as a guidance counselor meeting request form. Then, after the counselor receives the form and adds comments, the student can view it on the My To Do Tasks tab.

• Two new fields, Locker Number and Locker Code, now appear on the My Info tab (Demographics screen).

Introducing the Aspen Go Staff portal

Staff members can now use Aspen Go on their mobile devices. This streamlined interface lets teachers receive district and school notifications, view announcements, see their Active and Closed Tasks, and initiate and submit forms (such as conduct referrals) for their students.

(Shown: Forms screen)

Note: For teachers to access Aspen Go, the system administrator should do the following: Log on to the District [Root Organization] view. Select Admin > Security > Roles > select Instructor > Details. Enable Access New Mobile from Family Portal full site. At Default Portal, select New Mobile. Click Save.

See "Using Aspen Go in the Staff portal" in online Help for more information about using Aspen Go.

New Student (Online) Registration: Status displayed in Aspen Go Family portal

A registration's status now appears in Aspen Go's Family portal, keeping parents in the loop. The status is updated as the registrar completes the phases on the New Student Registration Checklist in the District (Root Organization) or School view (as shown in the following table).

 

New Student (Online) Registration Checklist Phase (District and School views)	Status in Aspen Go Family portal
Portal Registration (registration submitted by parent)	Awaiting review
Duplicate Student Verification	Under review
Review	Under review
Attention required!	Attention required!
Registration Approval	Awaiting final approval
Registration Approval - Deny	Denied
Registration Approval - Accept	Accepted

 

(Shown: New Student Registration Checklist in District [Root Organization] view and registration's Status in Aspen Go Family portal)

Enhancements to Aspen Go Family portal

• The My To Do Tasks tab now has a Name column to indicate which student the task is for. In addition, the Received column indicates the date Active tasks were received.

• Two new fields, Locker Number and Locker Code, now appear on the Family tab (Demographics screen).

Enhancements to Aspen Go Student portal

• Two tabs were added to the Student portal: My To Do Tasks and Forms. On the Forms tab, students can complete, submit, and review school forms, such as a guidance counselor meeting request form. Then, after the counselor receives the form and adds comments, the student can view it on the My To Do Tasks tab.

• Two new fields, Locker Number and Locker Code, now appear on the My Info tab (Demographics screen).

Aspen Go: User-defined validations supported

Aspen Go now supports user-defined validations that run on save. Entries that don’t meet validation rules are not saved, and an error message alerts the user.

Administrators can configure these rules in Aspen desktop in the Extended Data Dictionary (District [Root Organization] view, Admin > Data Dictionary > Extensions > select an extension > select a table). In Aspen Go, when a user saves a record, the configured rules are evaluated on the server. If a rule fails, the save is blocked and the corresponding user-defined error message appears in Aspen Go, allowing the user to correct the data before continuing.

A common use case is enforcing unique values within a logical grouping.

Example: A district requires each student contact to have a unique contact priority (for example, only one parent/guardian can have a priority of 1, and one can have a priority of 2). If a user tries to save two contacts with a priority of “1” for the same student, the custom validation rule will trigger on save, and Aspen Go will display the configured error message. This prompts the user to adjust the priorities before the record can be saved.

See "Create user-defined validations for Aspen Go" in online Help for more information.

OneRoster API: Non-numeric score values allowed

Aspen now allows non-numeric score values to be PUT when there is a matching code in the teacher's Special Codes table (Staff view, Tools > Special Codes).

New STF_ONEROSTER_ROLE column and reference table

The new column is on the Staff table. The reference table has the following possible role values:

• Administrator

• Aide

• Proctor

• Teacher

This column is not required and allows NULL values.

See "Aspen 2026.1 OneRoster API updates" in Pando for more information.

Aspen creates accounts for users with existing email addresses on Person table

Previously, when a user entered their email address while creating an account, Aspen searched the Person system table and, if a matching email address was found, Aspen would not create the account. Now, Aspen will create the account – as long as the new user's email address does not match the login name of an existing user.

Unified Login account creation enhancements

The account creation form for Unified Login now lets users select their country, which Aspen adds to the user's address when they create their user account. In addition, the form displays cities, states, and countries sorted first by sequence number, and then alphabetically, for easier selection.

Note: If Country codes do not appear, add the Country reference table to the Country data field on the Address table. (District [Root Organization] view, Admin > Data Dictionary > Tables > select Address table > Fields > select Country field > at Reference Table > User Name field, select Country Codes.)

TinyMCE replaces CKEditor

TinyMCE, a rich text editor application, has replaced CKEditor in Aspen. Rich text edit fields in Aspen desktop appear primarily in pop-up windows, such as Mass Email and Quick Letters.

Note: At this time, TinyMCE does not support spell check functionality.

Inclusion counts by course section

Two new fields, 'Inclusion control type' and 'Inclusion value', let schedulers set a percentage or count of inclusion students in individual course sections (Build view, Workspace > Sections). Values entered here supersede the build scenario preference inclusion value.

See "Define specific information for sections before you build" in online Help for more information.

Inclusion counts by class grouping

The same new fields available by course section (above), 'Inclusion control type' and 'Inclusion value', are also available for class groupings (Build view, Workspace > Classes). Values entered here supersede both the build scenario preference and any course section settings.

See "Schedule a multi-section class manually" in online Help for more information.

Note: If no inclusion percentage or ratio is entered for course sections or class groupings, Aspen uses the values from the build scenario preferences (Build view, Scenario > Preferences).

Introducing the Aspen Go Staff portal

Staff members can now use Aspen Go on their mobile devices. This streamlined interface lets teachers receive district and school notifications, view announcements, see their Active and Closed tasks, and initiate and submit forms (such as conduct referrals) for their students.

(Shown: Forms screen)

See "Using Aspen Go in the Staff portal" in online Help for more information.

Gradebook: Special codes must be unique, regardless of letter case

Aspen now prevents users from creating special codes that are identical except for their letter case. For example, a teacher cannot create the codes MSG and msg, Msg, or MsG. (Staff view, Tools > Special Codes)

Aspen Go: Parents can now review and electronically sign IEPs (Massachusetts only)

There is a new 'Prepare for parent signatures' outcome in the 'Submit IEP for approval' phase for Initial, IEP review, Reevaluation, and Amendment workflows.

Parents see the request for an electronic signature on their My To Do Tasks tab in Aspen Go. They can view the IEP document and accept it, accept parts of it, or reject it. Then, the parent adds their signature and sends the document back to the school.

Note: This special education feature will be deployed in a separate bundle.

New or updated preference	Where to access	Description
New District (Root Organization) General preference: Enable Parsed Addresses	District (Root Organization) view, District (Root Organization) > Setup > Preferences > select General at Category > select Advanced sub-tab	This field affects how Aspen parses the data users enter in Address line 3 when using New Student (Online) Registration and Returning Student Registration. (Address line 1 and Address line 2 are not affected.) When disabled (the default), the third line of the address is broken out into individual fields (for example, City, State, Postal code). When enabled, users enter data in a single field, Address line 3.
New District (Root Organization) Security preference: Account creation fields (address and person)	District (Root Organization) view, District (Root Organization) > Setup > Preferences > select Security at Category	This preference is helpful for new Aspen users who are moving and know their city but do not have a street address yet. To display specific Address and Person Data Dictionary fields on the account creation page, the system administrator types their OIDs in this field. Use a comma to separate each OID entered. Example: To require a user to enter only their first name, last name, and state on the account creation screen, type: psnNameFirst,psnNameLast,adrState Notes: To make a field required on the login page and set the field length, see "Define District (Root Organization) and Intermediate Organization Security preferences" in online Help. To flag these fields as required on the account creation page but not elsewhere in Aspen, use the Account Creation extended Data Dictionary as described in "Define District (Root Organization) and Intermediate Organization Security preferences" in online Help.

Review your user roles to ensure the settings are appropriate for the default user roles used in your district (root organization) and any customized roles you've created from Aspen's default roles. The following table lists new and updated system tables and user role security privileges in Aspen:

New or updated system table or privilege	Default roles affected	Description	Where to access
Change to the Reference Code - Common system table		The 'Database field length' for RCD_CODE_STATE was increased from 20 to 50 characters.	District (Root Organization) view, Admin > Data Dictionary > select Reference Code - Common > Fields > select State code
New system table: User Report Default		USER_REPORT_DEFAULT populates with a user's 'Save and Run' report settings, and uses them as the default the next time the report is run.	District (Root Organization) view, Admin > Data Dictionary > Tables > select User Report Default
New system table: Interactive Analytics		Supports the Interactive Analytics feature	District (Root Organization) view, Admin > Data Dictionary > Tables > select Interactive Analytics
New system table: Interactive Analytics Chart List		Supports the Interactive Analytics feature	District (Root Organization) view, Admin > Data Dictionary > Tables > select Interactive Analytics Chart List