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Changes to Detentions

Several changes have been made to the PARS detentions system. These changes will make scheduling easier and more flexible for staff, and will change the setup required for detentions. If you have configured any types of detentions prior to this update, you will need to make some changes to the configuration in PARS.

Changes to Configuration

The changes to the setup of detentions are all applied to the time types, and therefore can be accessed via:
PARS main menu > Detentions > Configure > Configure time types

Schedule only timeslot

This option has been removed. Detention slots must always be scheduled (calenderised) in advance. For the vast majority of schools this will not require any additional setup.
Either of the following two methods can be used to check if a detention has been scheduled:

• A tick in the Scheduled column means the detention has been scheduled
• Click the arrow to the left of the detention's name; if any dates are shown, the detention is scheduled

Requires printed slip

The Requires Printed Slip options has been renamed to Print Slip On Save, to more accurately reflect its function.

Now when enabling the Print Slip On Save option you must also select a detention slip. This slip will be downloaded to the user's computer upon saving a detention, ready to be printed.

This option should only be used if Detention Slips need to be printed immediately when a detention is given (most commonly by teachers). If detention slips are to be printed centrally by admin staff, do not enable this option. Detention Slips can be printed in bulk via the Edit scheduled detentions page regardless of whether the Print Slip On Save option is enabled or not.

Default to / Optionally / Never ... personal

Each type of detention is now always Personal or Central (central means non-personal). Users will not be able to change this when they are giving the detentions to students. As such, the permission "Default users detentions to personal" has been retired.

The previous options available, when configuring a time type, were:

• Default to personal
• Optionally personal
• Never personal
  
  

Detentions that were previously set to Default to personal will now become Personal. Detentions that were either Optionally personal or Never personal will become Central (non-personal). These settings can be changed if required.

Advance days & Same day cut-off

These settings were previously defined in Preferences and therefore the same settings applied to all detentions. This meant that, when auto-scheduling, all detentions would take place the same number of days in advance. Many schools needed more flexibility than this e.g. a lunchtime detention should happen on the same day, but an after school detention needs 24 hours' delay in order to inform parents.

Each detention type now has an Advance Days setting. This is the minimum number of days in advance that this detention can be booked. If the Advance Days is set to "1 day" then a detention given on Thursday cannot be scheduled to take place until Friday, or later.

If the Advance Days option has been set to "Same day" then the detention is allowed to be scheduled on the same day it is given. In this case you will also see a Same Day Cutoff option. Detentions issued before this time are allowed to be scheduled on the same day, detentions given after this time can only be scheduled the day after or later. If this option is set to 00:00, it is ignored and this detention type can always take place on the same day.