Overview
Click to return to
the home page 
STIHome+ provides parents and students with a means of accessing school information from a remote computer, via the Internet. This information may include:
Student Schedule
School Calendar *
Student Demographics*
Discipline History*
Attendance Record*
Grades*
Course Requests (for Scheduling)*
Graduation Requirements*
Test Scores*
*These features may be restricted from view by the school, if desired. See below for details.
Internet Explorer Requirements
The followings versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer are required for STIHome+:
PC Users (Windows): Version 6.0 with latest service packs and updates
Macintosh users
Mac OS 9: Version 5.1 with latest service packs and updates
Mac OS X: Version 5.2 with latest service packs and updates
Many schools allow users to access STIHome+ via the school home page on the Web. The exact circumstances may vary from school to school.
Signing In
The above screen shot should be regarded as a generic template. The school home page may be set up to include a link to STIHome, which is accessible via Student Services in this example. When users click this link, the sign-in view will appear, as shown below.
Enter the student’s User ID (Student ID Number) and Password (the PIN number generated for each student in STIOffice) and click OK to proceed.
The User ID will be retained from session to session. In other words, after a valid ID and password have been entered and the sign-in process is successfully completed, the ID will automatically reappear in the STIHome+ sign-in screen in future. However, the user must re-enter the password for each sign-in.
Signing Out
To sign out, simply click Signout in the upper right corner of the screen or close the
browser window by clicking the 
just
above the Signout field.
Time-Out Feature
As a security measure, STIHome+ user sessions can be set to automatically time out after a specified number of idle minutes have passed. After the system times out, the user will need to sign in again to continue.
After the user has signed in, the Student Services desktop will appear, as shown below.
Options available within Student Services are listed in the upper left side of the screen. Click on any option and a corresponding view will appear in the main area of the screen to the right.
By default, the Schedule view will appear upon sign-in.
Static Information
Basic student information is displayed onscreen throughout the session. This includes the following:
Identifying Information and Shortcut Buttons
|
Button/Field |
Description |
|
Student
ID Number/Name |
This
information is located in the upper right corner of the screen. |
|
Home
button |
While
in the Student Services view, click Home
in the upper right corner to return to the original page that links the user
to Student Services. |
|
Signout
button |
Click
Signout in the upper right corner
to close out of STIHome+. |
|
School
Name |
The
school name should be listed in the upper left corner of the screen. |
|
STI
Link |
Click
Software Technology, Inc. in the
upper left corner to follow a link to the STI home page. |
|
About
STIHome+ |
Click
STIHome+ in the upper left corner
to view technical information about the current version of the application.
This information is provided for technical support purposes. |
Status
On the left side of the screen, the Status box lists all classes in the student’s schedule, along with the student’s current average in each class. The Missing column displays the number of grade book activities that are missing scores.
Note: Grades displayed in the Avg column are current as of the most recent calculation of grades in STIOffice or STIClassroom.
Click to return to the home page
Statistics
The Statistics box, located directly below the Status box, displays the following details:
|
Field |
Description |
|
GPA |
Student’s
grade point average, as of the most recent report card. |
|
Grad
Credits |
Number
of credits the student has accrued toward graduation, as of the most recent
report card. |
|
Absent |
Lists
the total number of days absent during the current school year, as of the
most recent attendance posting. May include decimals to indicate partial days
absent. |
|
Tardy |
Lists
the total number of tardies during the current school year, as of the most
recent attendance posting. |
|
Counselor |
The
guidance counselor assigned to the student is listed here, where applicable. |
|
Homeroom |
Student’s
homeroom number is listed here. |
|
Teacher |
Student’s
homeroom teacher is listed here. |
Schedule 
The student’s full schedule for a selected grading period will be displayed at the top of the Schedule view. The current grading period is selected by default; however, the user may click the Grading Period drop-down arrow to select another grading period as desired.
Select a Class in the Schedule
Any highlighted class in the schedule is considered to be the currently selected class. Only one class may be selected at a time.
Homework assignments, the teacher’s Grade Book details and Attendance information for the selected class are displayed below the schedule as menu tabs. Click a tab to view corresponding information for the selected class.
To select a different class, click in either the Period, Course or Description columns for that class.
Homework
The Homework tab is displayed by default when the user first accesses the Schedule view, as shown in the screen shot above. Any homework assignments that have been entered by the teacher of the selected class will be displayed here.
Note to Teachers: This homework information is drawn directly from data entered in the Homework tab of the Lesson Planner in STIClassroom.
Lesson Plan
The Lesson Plan tab will display any information entered into the teacher’s lesson plans regarding classroom activities that relate to the plan (for example, Quizzes).
Note to Teachers: This homework information is drawn directly from data entered in the Activity tab of the Lesson Planner in STIClassroom.
Grade Book
Click the Grade Book tab to view Grade Book activity information for the selected class.
Items listed under the Category column reflect course categories – generally, types of assignments – as created by teachers in STIClassroom. Typical categories include quizzes, reading assignments, homework or term papers.
Teachers may choose to make each category count for a specified percentage of the overall grade for the course. Various Activities comprise each category; for example, Read pp. 56-78 could be an activity for the Homework category.
Attendance Information
Click the Attendance tab and the student’s attendance history for any selected class will be displayed below the schedule. This attendance information is current as of the school’s most recent attendance posting.
Daily Attendance reflects whether or not a student is counted as present or absent for the full school day. The criteria for this determination is set up according to standards set by the school, district, county or state.
Period Attendance is used to track a student’s presence in each class during the school day. In some cases, daily attendance is determined based on period attendance; that is, the number of periods (or minutes, in some cases) for which a student is present at school can be used to establish the student’s status as present or absent for the full day.
All tardies and/or absences are listed by date, with the most recent date at the top of the list. Use the scroll bar to the right of the list to move up and down the list, if applicable.
E-Mailing Teachers
STIHome+ allows remote users to e-mail any teacher who has a valid e-mail address by simply clicking on that teacher’s name in the student’s schedule.
E-Mail Form
When the user clicks on a teacher’s name, a standard message form will appear, with the teacher’s e-mail address automatically populating the To: field. The following fields are displayed:
From: The student who is currently signed on to STIHome+ will automatically be selected here.
CC: If the user wishes to send a copy of this message to another individual, enter the appropriate e-mail address here.
BCC: If the user wishes to send a blind copy of this message to another individual, enter the appropriate e-mail address here. Recipients listed in the To: and CC: fields will be unable to view any contact information from the BCC: field.
Subject: Enter a description of the topic or reason for the message.
School Calendar
The previous and subsequent months will be displayed onscreen, to the left and right of the current month’s name at the top of the calendar. Click on a month to view it onscreen or to scroll to an earlier or later month.
Note: Only months that have been set up in the school calendar in STIOffice will be displayed; in the calendar screen shot shown above, the month of May is available for viewing as the previous month, but the month of July is not displayed.
Demographics
Click Demographics to view the student’s demographic information. A view will appear with two tabs: Student Information and Contacts.
Student Information
This tab is shown by default.
Personal Details
At the top of the Student Information view, personal data such as the student’s full name, nickname, address and telephone number will be listed.
Administrative Details
This section includes school information such as race, gender, birth date, locker number and combination, home room teacher, bus number and parking sticker number.
Contacts
Click the Contacts tab to view a list of student contact information (phone number and mailing address). This list may include parent/guardian and doctors or other emergency numbers.
Discipline
Click Discipline to view the student’s discipline history.
By default, the most recent discipline entries are listed at the bottom of the view. Use the scroll bar to navigate through the records as necessary.
Discipline Details
The type of discipline infraction (such as Absence Letter, Skipping School, Fighting, etc.) is listed in boldface to the left of each entry.
The Date of the original incident is listed at the top of entry, along with the school employee who reported the incident.
All Actions taken are listed below. This might include actions such as Phone Call or Letter Sent.
Any Notes entered regarding the action will be listed to the right.
Attendance
Click Attendance to view the student’s detailed attendance history. This will provide a more detailed attendance record than that displayed in the Schedule view.
The record will include daily and period attendance information for the current school year, as of the most recent posting of attendance at the school.
Use the scroll bar to navigate up or down the Attendance view to browse the various types of attendance information.
Attendance Details
Attendance information is listed in the following order:
Daily Absences
This included all regular daily absences. The date, day of the week, type of absence, excused or un-excused status and a description are displayed onscreen, with the most recent absences at the top of the list.
Period Absences
Period absences are listed below daily absences. Period attendance refers to a student’s presence in or absence from any particular period; a student who misses multiple periods during a single day may still be considered presence in terms of daily attendance, depending on the attendance criteria set up by the school.
Details displayed onscreen include: date, day of the week, each period missed, class number and course description, excused or un-excused status and an absence description.
Check In / Out
Check-ins and check-outs are used to track students who leave and/or return to school during the day for legitimate purposes, such as visits to the doctor. Students are generally checked out by the office when they leave school, and checked in when they return.
Note: Check-In/Out should not be confused with Entry/Withdrawal. The latter procedure is used to determine the student’s registration status for the current year, as either a currently enrolled student (for whom an Entry record has been created) or a withdrawn student (for whom a Withdrawal record is created).
A list of all check-ins and check-outs is displayed at the bottom of the Attendance view, as shown in the screen shot below.
Check In/ Check Out details include the date, day of the week, period, time and description.
Grades
Click Grades to view the student’s most recent report card grades for all applicable classes.
The current Grading Period is selected by default. To view grades from a grading period that has passed, click the drop-down arrow and select any available term.
Report card grades are listed for grading periods that have already been completed. The grades listed for the current grading period reflect the student’s average as of the most recent posting of grades.
Grade Details
All classes with grades are listed onscreen in schedule format. Information displayed may include the following: Course number, course name, teacher name, exam grades, one or two comments and a final grade if available.
Requests 
This utility is provided to allow parents or students to make course requests from a remote computer – either at home or on a PC provided by the school.
Click Requests to view or add course requests.
Course Request Overview
After a course has been requested, that course record is stored in a “holding area” outside the school database. Requests are always kept separate from actual school data; the request records remain in the holding area until the actual scheduling is performed.
School administrative staff will either approve or deny each course request. This step is performed prior to actual scheduling.
Note: When a course request is approved, the student is not automatically enrolled in the course. Scheduling must still be performed by the school; time conflicts and restrictions on class sizes may prevent some students from successfully enrolling in all requested courses.
Viewing Course Requests
The Requests view will appear in table format, as shown in the following screen shot.
Information displayed for each requested course includes: Course ID, course description, number of terms for which the course lasts, starting term, any course instances if applicable, required course status (Yes or No), request priority, preferred section of the course, preferred teacher and request status (New, Existing, Changed or Deleted).
The Linkage column is used to indicate whether a requested course is automatically linked to another course – as an alternate request – in the master schedule. When courses are linked, the top course will receive scheduling priority.
Click to return to the home page
Requesting a Course
To request a new course, click Insert. A Web Page Dialog will appear.
Click the Ellipsis button to the right of the Course Number field in the upper left corner of the view.
An alternate method: If the course number is known, the user may type it directly into the Course Number field and press the Tab key on the keyboard.
A list of all available courses will appear.
Click on any course to highlight it. If the desired course is not displayed onscreen, click the Pg. buttons at the bottom of the view to scroll through the course list.
When the desired course has been highlighted in the list, click the Select button.
Information for the requested course will populate the Web Page Dialog screen. If multiple options are available for any fields, the user may make changes here. These fields are described below.
Course Request Fields
|
Field |
Description |
|
Course
Number |
This
field will be populated after the course is selected via the Ellipsis button. |
|
Description |
The
course description will be displayed here. |
|
Number
of Terms |
The
length of the course, in terms, is shown here. |
|
Starting
Term |
Certain
courses may only begin in a single specific term. If the selected course
begins in multiple terms, the user may select a preference here. Choose Any to allow the scheduler to pick the
starting term that best fits with the full range of course requests. |
|
Priority
|
This
field refers to the priority given to scheduling this course, with 1 the highest priority and 9 the lowest. IMPORTANT
– Users should leave this field set at the default value of 9 unless otherwise instructed, to
ensure maximum efficiency of scheduling. Changing this value to a lower
number will force the STIOffice scheduling utility to schedule this course
prior to others. |
|
Instances |
If
this field has a value greater than 1, the schedule utility will schedule the
request the specified number of times. Multiple instances will not be
scheduled in the same term. |
|
Linked |
This
box will be selected automatically if this request is linked to another
course request. Courses are said to be linked when students are required to
take both courses. |
|
Required |
This
box will be selected automatically when applicable, to indicate that the
course is required for the student. |
|
Alternate |
Check
this box to have the scheduling utility assign an alternate course to
students whose schedules do not permit this course to be added. Potential
alternate courses may be selected from the list below. |
|
Prescheduling
Information |
If
desired, users may specify either a course Section or a specific Teacher to
which the student would prefer to be assigned. Leave the Prescheduling
Information box unchecked if no specific section or teacher is to be
requested. |
|
Teacher |
The
teacher attached to the requested course will be listed here. |
After all applicable data has been entered, click OK to save the course request.
About Course Request Insert
Once a course request has been inserted, the request will have NEW status and will await approval by the school administration.
If approved, the status will change from NEW to EXIST.
If not approved, the request will be removed from the Requests list.
Course Request: Change, Delete or un-Delete
Any course listed in the Requests view that is highlighted is considered to be the currently selected course. Only one course may be selected at a time.
The particular course record may be modified via the Change button at any time prior to scheduling. To do this, simply select the course and click Change. Make any desired modifications in the Web Page Dialog and click OK to save.
If the course