Multi-Select - Working with groups of Students

Owned by Pamela Wolfe
Oct 18, 2022
3 min read

So, you’ve got a group of students who you need to quickly make your selection.  How do you do this?

Use our trusty friend - MULTI SELECT

From the start page, its located under the “Other Options”

Click on it to get a dialog box to appear.

By default, it likes the student number (or its also the PS # when looking at an individual student.  However, you do have other options to search for students by either State ID #,  LastName FirstName or FirstName LastName.  You’ll never use the Student ID or Student DCID - as those numbers are somewhat hidden in PowerSchool by default.

  • Student Number = this is the student’s PowerSchool number, or also the Student Number on some other screens (or lunch ID).  This is also the safest way to make sure you have the students that you’d want by default (see name searching for more details)

  • State ID Number = this is their ISBE student number - 9 digits long and unless you’re doing anything with the state, you probably won’t use it.

  • LastName FirstName = takes the student’s last name then first name searches.  However, the spellings must be exact

    • Meaning, if you entered ‘Jack’ but the student’s first name in PowerSchool is “Jackson” it won’t find the student.

    • Be careful because if you wanted Jack Adam Smith, and you entered Smith Jack (commas don’t matter) in the box and searched.  You’ll get ALL the Jack Smith’s including the ones you may not have wanted if first name and last names are the same, such as

      • Smith, Jack Adam 

      • Smith, Jack Brian, etc.

  • FirstName LastName = takes the student’s first name then last name searches.  However, the spellings must be exact.

    • Meaning, if you entered ‘Smith’ for the student’s last name, but the student’s PS last name is ‘Smithson’, it won’t find the student.  

    • Be careful because if you wanted Jack Adam Smith, and you entered Smith Jack (commas don’t matter) in the box and searched.  You’ll get ALL the Jack Smith’s including the ones you may not have wanted if first name and last names are the same, such as

      • Smith, Jack Adam 

      • Smith, Jack Brian, etc.

At the bottom of the dialog box, you have some options: Case Insensitive (slow) and to include inactive students

By default the case insensitive is unchecked and the include inactive students is checked.

To not include inactive students in the search, uncheck the box.