Advanced student search

You can search for a specific set of students based on the information stored in many of the fields found in a student record, such as Age, Birth date, Gender, names, telephone numbers, geocodes, Ethnic Category, grade level, Student Number, and SSN/SIN. To perform an advanced student search you configure search criteria and then run the search. You also have the option of viewing all students for which your role [>>] has permission.

To set up and run a search for student records using basic criteria:

On the home page [>>], click Advanced Search. The Advanced Student Search page appears.

The Quick Search page serves as the home page for all roles except that of Teacher.

[Optional for District Administrator] Set the Search in option to search for students in a specific school or across the entire district.

Under the Basic tab, PowerSchool SMS displays a default search setup. This consists of the following three search criteria [Figure 30]:

First criterion:
"Last name starts with "Enter a value...".

Second criterion:
"Student number starts with Enter a value...".

Third criterion:
"District or Student saved lists equals Enter a value...".

Configure each search criterion as follows:

If you do not enter a value for a criterion, PowerSchool SMS ignores that criterion when you run the search.

Enter the value to find: click "Enter a value...", type a value, and click OK.

For text fields, the case of the search value does not matter; for example, "lancaster" finds "Lancaster".

Spaces are relevant; for example, "delos santos" will not find "de los santos".

You can enter a maximum of 100 characters in a text field, 25 in a numeric, and 10 in a date field.

[Optional] Change the operator: click "Operator: starts with" and click an item in the list.

The field on which you are searching determines which operators are available. Typical operators include: contains, starts with, ends with, equals, does not equal, is empty, is not empty, is in list.

The operator "is in list" enables you to enter several values at once (separate each with a comma).

[Optional] Change the field name: click "Field:..." and click an item in the list.

Only a limited set of fields are available here. More fields are available in a Detail search [>>].

[Optional] Add another search criterion:

Click Add. A new search criterion appears as follows [Figure 30]:
"Select a field... Operator... Enter a value...".

Click each part of the criterion to configure it.

[Optional] Click OR to set the search to find records that match any of the criteria [Figure 30].

AND sets the search to find records that match all of the criteria.

Click Search. PowerSchool SMS runs the search and displays matching student records (if any) under Search Results.

You can changed the sorting of these results or adjust the columns displayed [>>].

PowerSchool SMSsaves the search criteria. Should you want to conduct this same search again, click Most recent searches [>>].

When you run a recent or favorite search, PowerSchool SMS displays the criteria under Basic.

To save the search criteria, click Add to favorites [>>].

More...

Restart: Resets the search criteria to one incomplete search criterion as follows: "Select a field... Operator... Enter a value..." [Figure 31].

Add to favorites: Saves the search criteria you have configured [>>].

AND: Sets the search to find students who match all of the criteria in the list. In general, this generates fewer results.

OR: Sets the search to find students who match any of the criteria in the list. In general, this generates more results.

Criterion

Field: Click it to choose a field.

Operator: Click it to choose an operator.

Value: Click it to enter a value.

Search: Runs the search using the criteria as you have configured them.

Detail: Enables you to build a search using a larger range and combination of fields [>>], including custom fields.