|  | | Please use this link to register for after school programs, grades, check and change your profile information and view your invoices, back-to-school information and division handbooks. (New families will receive their login information in late June.) |
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| Veracross Frequently Asked Questions | Q. | ATTENDANCE
How do I find out how many days of school my child has missed or been late? | | A. | Follow these steps:
1. On the home page, locate the Attendance label about halfway down the page. (If you have more than one child at DA, be sure you've clicked the tab for that child.)
2. Beneath that label you'll see abbreviations such as Fall or Quarter 1 that represent each school term. Click the appropriate term.
A new window opens showing attendance information, including absences and tardies. Attendance information is listed beneath the heading Master Attendance.
Please note the following:
- The Veracross portal accounts for two types of tardies: tardy excused (TE) and tardy unexcused (TU). At Durham Academy, we use only the tardy excused option (that is, all tardies are considered to be "excused").
- Please remember that all children who are tardy should check in at their division’s front desk.
- While after school activities (extended day, aftercare and enrichments) appear on the child’s record, attendance is not tracked in Veracross for these specific activities.
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| Q. | CALENDARS
What calendars are available in Veracross? | | A. | The calendar at the top of the portal shows events for your household. There are more calendars available by clicking the calendar link. There is a general school calendar as well as calendars for each division. |
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| Q. | Is the Veracross calendar the same as the calendar on the Durham Academy website? | | A. | No. We will sync the calendars as changes are made, but the Veracross software does not automatically update to the da.org website. Please use the calendar available on your Veracross Parent portal as your main calendar. It will have the most up-to-date information. If you need to export or subscribe to a calendar feed, please use the list of feeds and instructions that are available at www.da.org/feeds. |
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| Q. | DIRECTORY
How can I update my Veracross profile, including contact information and relationships? | | A. | The My Family / Update Profile screen shows contact information for all the people living at your street address. (In Veracross, families are organized by Household). You'll see the address, telephones, emails, and employment information for all adults in your household along with the names and birthdays of enrolled children.
You may change any information that you see if it is incorrect. (Please do not delete information unless it is no longer valid.) When you make a change to the Update Profile screen, you must save those changes as follows:
- To save changes in the portal, scroll to the bottom of the screen
- Check the box labeled "I confirm..."
- Click the Update button.
- Verify that your changes were saved by making sure you see "thank you" message in green at the top of the screen.
- To return to the home page, close the window. (There is no Back button.)
Each child's information includes a button labeled Relationships & Permissions. The information in this screen was populated by the Permissions and Emergency form you returned with your contract. If this should change, you may update it in your Profile Change form, but please also contact your child’s teacher so that they may update their hard copy of the form. |
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| Q. | What happens if there is a divorce or separation in my family? | | A. | If your family is divorced or separated, the children generally appear in the household designated as primary custody. The Veracross database forces us to list children in a single household even when they might live in two households. In any case, please be assured that all parents will have full information about their children including grade reports, attendance and schedule, and all other correspondence from DA unless we have been requested to do otherwise.
If there is a new separation of your household, please contact Margie Billinger (Margie.billinger@da.org) to make any necessary corrections in the database. Parental access is denied only if the Head of School receives written notification of legal restraints that prohibit access. |
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| Q. | Where can I find other DA families? | | A. | To view the family directory, click the Directory link at the top of each page of the portal. You can view the directory one grade level or one division (e.g., middle school) at a time or search the directory for a particular child, parent, or address. There is a separate tab for Faculty and Staff listings. |
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| Q. | Can I find other DA families who live near me? | | A. | Yes. To see families who live close to you, click the “Nearby Families” link. This will open up a directory sorted by distance to your home. You may even find someone to carpool with. |
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| Q. | How do I find out which students are in my child’s class? | | A. | To view a list of other children in the same class with your child, go to your home page. Then click the class you're interested in. When the class page opens, click Directory at the lower right. |
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| Q. | Where can I find information about DA faculty? | | A. | To view the faculty directory, click the desired division level under Faculty & Staff towards the top of the directory page. |
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| Q. | Can I change the options available or the way pages look? | | A. | No. Unfortunately, the design of the Veracross Parent Portal cannot be modified very much.. We can only change the contents of the portal (for example, the items you see in the list of classes, the addresses in the family directory, and so on). |
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| Q. | GLOSSARY
Glossary of Veracross Terms | | A. |
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Abbreviation
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Explanation
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A
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Absences
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Absent (E)
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Excused absence
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Absent (U)
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Unexcused absence
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AU
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Unexcused absence
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AE
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Excused absence
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AT
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Total absences
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F
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The F feature is not used, so all entries show 0.
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INC
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The INC feature is not used, so all entries show 0.
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LS1, LS2
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Lower School term 1 (fall), term 2 (winter), term 3 (spring)
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LTE
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The LTE feature is not used, so all entries show 0.
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NTI
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The NTI feature is not used, so all entries show 0.
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T
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Tardies
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Tardy (U)
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Tardy unexcused
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Tardy (E)
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Tardy excused
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TE
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Tardy excused
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TU
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Tardy unexcused
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TT
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Total tardies
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Quarter 1, 2, 3, 4
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Upper and Middle School terms
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| Q. | Glossary of Veracross screens | | A. |
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Screen
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Purpose
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Home page
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Lists your child's classes, and also provides links to attendance, schedule, grade reports, and updating your personal information.
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Activity
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Not used at this time.
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Homework
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Not used at this time.
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My Family
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Allows you to change or update your contact information.
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Relationships & Permissions
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Allows you to update people who may pick up your child.
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Class page
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Appears when you click the name of a class on your home page. Currently, Preschool and Lower School are using this page. the Directory link displays a list of the children in the class, along with their addresses and telephone numbers.
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Calendars
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Displays events for your household. There are division specific calendars available as well.
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Directory
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Lists contact information for all families at Durham Academy as well as faculty and staff. You can view the directory one grade level or one division (e.g., middle school) at a time or search the directory for a particular child, parent, or address. You can print the directory to keep a copy handy at all times.
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| Q. | HOMEWORK
Can I find out about my child's homework assignments using Veracross? | | A. | No. The homework feature of the Veracross portal is not being used. However, there are other places to find this information. Some Lower School teachers post homework to their Veracross class website. This information for Middle and Upper School students would be available on Moodle (moodle.da.org). |
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| Q. | MOBILE ACCESS
Can I use my handheld device to access the portal? | | A. | The Veracross Parent Portal works in the mobile browser on your handheld device. |
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| Q. | PRIVACY AND SECURITY
Who can log into Veracross? | | A. | All parents of currently-enrolled Durham Academy students and, in cases of remarriage, their current spouses, automatically receive logins to the Veracross parent portal if they have provided DA with an email address. Parental access is denied only if the Head of School receives written notification of legal restraints that prohibit access.
In addition, all current faculty and staff of Durham Academy can access information in Veracross.
The information that each parent/guardian sees after logging in is private and visible only to the person who is logged in, others in the family, or to DA faculty and staff. |
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| Q. | What security measures have been put in place to protect our data? | | A. |
- The information for each student is visible only to the parents or guardians with whom DA has been authorized to share it. Other DA families, and people outside DA, cannot see your child's schedule, attendance, or grades.
- Directory information is visible only to members of the Durham Academy community (current parents, faculty, and staff). It is not visible to the public.
- Veracross includes a full audit log that shows all changes made to the data. We view the log every day to see all changes that have occurred on the previous days(s).
- The Veracross website is housed in a secure location outside Durham Academy and maintained 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. You can find more information on this hosting location at https://ids.breuer.com/ds/1172.
- Finally, there are no financially sensitive data in Veracross. We do not keep bank numbers, credit cards, or social security numbers in Veracross.
- Your password plays a big part in our security. Please choose a password that is hard to guess. A good password contains lowercase and uppercase letters and numbers in what seems like a random pattern. One trick for choosing a good password involves thinking of a phrase such as "Go to the DA Parent Portal!" and then using an abbreviation for the first letter of each word, like this: G2tDAPP.
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| Q. | PROBLEMS WITH VERACROSS
Where can I report problems or ask additional questions? | | A. | If your question isn't answered in the User Guides or Frequently-Asked Questions, you are welcome to contact: Anne Benson (anne.benson@da.org). |
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| Q. | What are the known bugs associated with Veracross? | | A. | The following problems have been reported to Veracross:
- Back buttons fail to work when new windows are opened to show Report Cards and Progress Reports. (Workaround: If you close the new window, you'll return to the previous screen.)
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| Q. | REPORT CARDS
Where can I find report cards? | | A. | Report cards will become available on a date established by each division head. At that time, the labels for each term beneath the Report Cards heading will become links that you can click. After you click a link, a new window will open showing your child's report card. |
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| Q. | Can I print a copy of my child’s report card? | | A. | Yes. We recommend that you do so and retain a copy for your records. Report cards for fall, winter, and spring end terms will no longer be mailed to you in hard copy. To print a report card, click Print to PDF at the top right of the page. This will open a copy of the grade report in PDF format which you may then save to your laptop or desktop computer. |
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| Q. | Can I save a copy of my child’s report card? | | A. | Yes, and we recommend that you do so. Click the Print to PDF link at the top right of the report card to save a copy to your computer. Reports are available in Veracross only during the current year. Since reports will no longer be mailed to parents, the PDF provides your only means to have a permanent record available easily. |
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| Q. | Does Veracross archive old report cards? | | A. | No. Veracross does not provide access to grade reports for previous years. Since report cards for fall, winter, and spring end terms will no longer be mailed to you in hard copy, we recommend that you print a copy and retain it for your files. Please use the Print to PDF button to ensure that you retain printed copy of your children's reports. |
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| Q. | SCHEDULE
Where can I find my child’s schedule? | | A. | Locate the Schedule label about halfway down the page. (If you have more than one child at DA, be sure you've clicked the tab for that child.) Beneath that label click Current Schedule. A new window opens showing your child's schedule. Please note:
- For Preschool and Lower School, children are shown in Classrooom whenever they are in their class. As schedules for these children are complex, not every moment in the day is accounted for. Please use the schedules as an approximation to help you understand what your child has experienced that day rather than a minute-by-minute map.
- In all divisions, some periods are shown as unscheduled or they appear blank. Unscheduled/blank periods indicate lunch, recess, advisor group, or other times when non-academic activities occur.
- The schedule page opens in a new window. To leave the schedule page and return to the previous page, close the Schedule window. (The Back arrow does not work.)
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| Q. | How do I find out where my child is at a given time of day? | | A. | On the home page, Current Location shows your child's location at the moment you are viewing. To update, simply refresh the page. Also on the home page, orange squares indicate which of your child’s classes are meeting on the current day. |
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| Q. | WHY VERACROSS
Why does DA use two websites instead of combining information in one location? | | A. | The Veracross Portal and the DA web site are hosted by different companies, and each site serves different functions. Veracross handles student-specific functions like grades, attendance, and billing. It is available only to current students, parents, faculty, and staff at DA. On the other hand, the DA web site is available to the general public and includes announcements about student athletics events, performances, and other school functions open to the general public. |
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