How do I sync my roster with Freckle? – Freckle

Who can do this with default user permissions?

District Administrators

Getting Started

Log into the Administrator Dashboard.
Select Import Roster at the top of your Dashboard:
Download the Freckle Roster Template files. This zip file contains templates for:
- classes.csv
- enrollments.csv
- students.csv
- teachers.csv

Preparing Your Roster Files

All four .csvs are required, every time you upload data.
All fields within each .csv are required.
For every school you wish to update, the data set must be complete and include all students, teachers, and classes that should have access to Freckle.
You can create your own .csv files by exporting from your Student Information System, or you can update our template files.

Step 1—Prepare the classes.csv file

This file contains a single row for each class that will use Freckle.

Teachers can own more than one class.
If a class has a co-teacher, duplicate columns A and B (class_sis_id and name) in a new row and input the co-teacher's email in Column C (teacher_email).

Header	Required	Description
class_sis_id	YES	Unique identifier for this class. If your SIS uses the same Class ID for multiple classes, add a tag to distinguish each class from the rest.
name	YES	Name for the class that will appear on the teacher's roster
teacher_email	YES	Email address of one of the teachers associated with this class.

Example:

An example spreadsheet, showing three columns of data: class_sis_id, name, and teacher_email.

Step 2—Prepare the enrollments.csv file

This file ties students to the classes in which they are enrolled.

Students can belong to multiple classes.
Students who belong to a class will be shared across ALL teachers who have access to that class.
All students in students.csv must be assigned to at least one class in enrollments.csv.

Header	Required	Description
student_sis_id	YES	Must match a student SIS ID that appears in the students.csv file.
class_sis_id	YES	Must match a class SIS ID that appears in the classes.csv file.

Example:

An example spreadsheet, showing two columns of data: student_sis_id and class_sis_id.

Step 3—Prepare the students.csv file

This file contains exactly one row for each student who needs access to Freckle.

Header	Required	Description
student_sis_id	YES	Unique identifier assigned by the district to each student.
first_name	YES	First name of the student associated with this SIS ID.
last_name	YES	Last name of the student associated with this SIS ID.
grade	YES	Grade level of the student associated with this SIS ID. Use CEDS format: [KG, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 10, 11, 12].
language	NO	Language set for the student: en (American English), en-GB (British English), or es (Spanish). Note: If you are using an older template without a language column, or if you do not want to change the language of any of your students, you can remove this column. If language data is not included for a student, the student's language will be set to the same language as their teacher.

Example:

An example spreadsheet, showing five columns of data: student_sis_id, first_name, last_name, grade, and language.

Step 4—Prepare the teachers.csv file

This file contains exactly one row for each teacher who needs access to Freckle.

Header	Required	Description
school_id	YES	Unique identifier for the primary school this teacher belongs to. If the teacher belongs to multiple schools, pick just one for this file.
first_name	YES	First name of the teacher associated with this email address.
last_name	YES	Last name of the teacher associated with this email address.
teacher_email	YES	Email address this teacher will use to log into Freckle.

Example:

An example spreadsheet, showing four columns of data: school_id, first_name, last_name, and teacher_email.

Uploading Your Roster Files

Make sure your files are saved as .csvs, and formatted as UTF-8. If you are using Excel with Windows, follow these instructions to export your files in the correct format: https://www.webtoffee.com/how-to-save-csv-excel-file-as-utf-8-encoded/#save-csv-microsoft-excel

Review your roster. To avoid common errors, check that:

You have created all four .csvs.
For every school you wish to update, the data set is complete and includes all students, teachers, and classes that should have access to Freckle.
First names and last names are listed in the correct columns.
The grade field in the Students tab follows the CEDS format: KG, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
Every student is enrolled in at least one class.
In the Students tab, you have exactly one row for each student.
In the Teachers tab, you have exactly one row for each teacher.
The Courses tab excludes classes that will not use Freckle (e.g. P.E.).
The School SIS IDs in the teachers.csv file refer to schools that you have permission to update.

Upload all four .csvs into Freckle.

The Import Your Roster screen, with 'Choose File' buttons for each of the four CSV files. The 'Start Import' button is in the lower-right corner.

Merging Duplicates (recommended)

Your teachers may have already created Freckle accounts for some of your students. To maintain student data while removing duplicates from your roster, we recommend that you check the Merge Duplicates option in Roster Sync:

The Merge Duplicate Student Records message, which reads: 'When student records are uploaded by admin upload, there may already be versions of that student that teachers uploaded in the past. This action scans and merges those duplicates.' There is a Learn More link below the message; the 'Merge Duplicates and Start Import' button is in the lower-right corner.

Two student records will be merged into one record if ALL of the following are true:

They both have the same first and last names.
They both belong to the same school.
They are within one grade level of each other.
One of the records is "trusted." In other words, one of the students must have been created during an admin-led roster sync in Freckle, Clever, or Classlink.

After the merge:

Course memberships are retained.
Practice data is retained.
In cases where information conflicts between the two records (i.e. name or grade level), we trust the admin-created record.

Resolving Errors

To import your roster files, select Start Import. First, the system will merge duplicate student records in your schools (if selected). Then, the system will perform a dry run of the roster sync so you can review your updated roster before confirming the changes.

You may have errors in your .csv files that prevent you from reaching the Summary screen. For example:

The system might not have School SIS IDs for all of your schools. If this is the case, you will have the opportunity to match your schools to the SIS IDs in your .csv.
Your .csvs may have formatting issues. If this is the case, Freckle will identify the changes you need to make before you can proceed.

Error Message/Type	Action Step
Student not enrolled	All students must belong to at least one class. Add the student ID in question to enrollments.csv, or remove the student ID from students.csv.
Duplicate email	A teacher appears multiple times in teachers.csv. Teacher emails can only appear once. If the teacher appears twice because they belong to multiple schools, pick one and remove the other entry.
Enrollment Student Not Found	Add the student ID to students.csv, or remove the student ID from enrollments.csv, because they are out of sync.
Enrollment Class Not Found	Add an entry for this class ID to classes.csv, or remove the entry for this class ID from enrollments.csv.
Class Teacher Not Found	Add an entry for this teacher email to teachers.csv, or remove the entry for this teacher email from classes.csv.
ID Duplicated in Row	This unique identifier for students appears twice in the students.csv file. Remove one entry.
Email Duplicated in Row	This unique identifier for teachers appears twice in the teachers.csv file. Remove one entry.
School Not Found	Remove this School ID from teachers.csv.
Missing District	Contact your Renaissance Implementation Coordinator so that your school can be affiliated with a District ID.
Missing Header	Check to make sure all headers are present in your .csvs, and they match the template headers (the system is case-sensitive!) If this does not work, make sure you have saved your files in UTF-8 format.

Once you have fixed all .csv errors, you will reach the Roster Sync summary. If applicable, you can see how many duplicate students were found and merged, and confirm that the Roster Sync summary is updating the number of records you expect.

Confirming your Roster

Use the drop-down list to confirm that the schools you are about to update are the correct ones.
Confirm that the Roster Sync is updating, adding, and archiving the right number of student, teacher, and class records.
Select Sync Roster & Finish to finalize the sync. You must select this button to finish loading your data.

After the Sync

New teachers (teachers who appeared in your .csv files but did not already have a Freckle account) will receive an email prompting them to log-in and choose a password.
Teachers can continue to edit their rosters and add new students manually after you have synced rosters with Freckle.
Teacher rosters may have a combination of students that came from an admin sync, and old students that were teacher-created. If you want to get rid of outdated records in bulk, visit this support link.
Otherwise, teachers will be able to merge admin and non-admin student records when they log in for the first time.