Delete our schoology accounts?

[lagreca]

We moved states and school districts and need to delete our old schoology accounts so we can use our email address to setup new accounts with the new district.  However, there is no clear method on how to delete our accounts.  Please advise.  

[CindyOp]

Hi @lagreca,

Thank you for posting your question on the PowerSchool Community!

Has your new school provided you with a Parent Access Code? This is a 12-digit code in an xxxx-xxxx-xxxx format that you receive from one of your child's instructors.  When you use a Parent Access Code to create an account, you are automatically associated with your child. You can add additional children, within the same district, to your account using the Add Child option. 

If you need additional assistance for the new school, you can reach out to the Support Contact at your child's school for further assistance. You can reach them by clicking the Support link at the bottom of the Schoology page.

[lagreca]

I do have a new code, and when I try to use it, I get this message:  

If I try to register with my same email address, I get this error message:

This is why I was asking for someone from PowerSchool to delete my existing account, so I can start over and use my same email address.  

[CindyOp]

Hi @lagreca,

Thank you for the quick response.

Prior to creating the new account with the same email address, you will need to reach out to your previous district to get your parent account deleted, and then after that, you can create a new parent account using the Parent Access code from your child's new district.

Please let me know if this helps or in case of further questions.

[lagreca]

This seems like a MAJOR flaw in the powerschool system.  This really needs to be address by powerschool.  I have reached out to our point of contact for Lakeside Unified powerschool account, but in case they don't get back to me in a timely fashion, I would really appreciate powerschool correcting this.  Thank you.  

[CindyOp]

Hi @lagreca,

Thank you for your follow-up and feedback.

At this time, another option is to create a new personal email address to use for the new school's Schoology accounts.

I appreciate you sharing your frustration with the process and you have suggestions for improvement. PowerSchool has an Idea's Portal for collecting enhancement requests from school staff and parents who use PowerSchool products, such as Schoology.  Product teams typically review these enhancements in 30 business days. 

When you have a Schoology parent account set up with your new school, select Support at the bottom of the page. You will see several options in the pop-up dialog box, click on Community & Support. This will give you access to PowerSchool Community and all of our Schoology Learning Content. 

Once you are then into the PowerSchool Community, navigate to the article Getting Started Guide for Schoology Learning Customers. It will be located on the Welcome and Getting Started > Getting Started site. That article should walk you through the process of utilizing the Community for Schoology resources and sharing a product enhancement request.

[mhladio]

I am running into this issue as a local support contact. Familles who move into the district are facing significant roadblocks, as this user is. PowerSchool/Schoology support has shifted all responsibility to the family member, and now they are unwilling to help me as a local support contact to have accounts deactivated in previous districts. This user has even taken the step to contact the previous administrator. Most families will not do that, or simply don't know how. Please address this! 

[CindyOp]

While we understand this scenario is frustrating, our support team is not able to make changes within a user’s account. Since the original district “owns” that account, they determine what permissions they allow for their parent accounts, including the ability to change or remove an email address from the original account. If the district allows parents to change their email address, we would recommend that the parent logs in to their original account, removes the email address, and saves. This will not inactivate the account but will free the email address for use with their new account. Alternatively, it is also possible for parents to create a new Schoology account without an email address at the new school while waiting on the original school to free up their account if that district has these permissions limited. 

We will be looking into options to update our documentation regarding this permission so that districts are empowered to make the best choice regarding how they manage parent accounts. 

[mhladio]

While we understand this scenario is frustrating, our support team is not able to make changes within a user’s account. Since the original district “owns” that account, they determine what permissions they allow for their parent accounts, including the ability to change or remove an email address from the original account.

Completely understood. However, that is not what I'm asking support to do. I enter a PowerSchool support ticket with the parent email address and the previous district's domain. All I'm asking is that PS Support connect me with the previous district's Schoology local support contacts. PS Support has either emailed the local support contact from the previous district directly, or they share that information with me so that I can do so. Most local support contacts are happy to help (because we understand how frustrating this can be.) So no one at support is changing anyone's account. the local support contact is. 

That was happening for most of this year. Then suddenly, protocol changed. And now we have parents outside of the system, who rather than experiencing all that Schoology has to offer, are frustrated with a system they can't access. 

If the district allows parents to change their email address, we would recommend that the parent logs in to their original account, removes the email address, and saves.

I would ask PowerSchool to step back and consider what they are asking of a parent who is moving to a new school district. Many of the parents we are working with are coming from organizations that may not have supported Schoology the way we are trying to. They may not know how to do any of this! Some of them aren't even aware of the fact that they had a Schoology account in their previous district. All I'm asking is that PS Support connect me with the previous district's Schoology local support contacts.

Alternatively, it is also possible for parents to create a new Schoology account without an email address at the new school while waiting on the original school to free up their account if that district has these permissions limited. 

In an effort to take advantage of the interconnected nature of PowerSchool SIS and Schoology, we are provisioning our accounts through the SIS. So parents don't really have this option.  

[KritiS]

Hi @mhladio 

Support will connect with the previous district in some cases, but the best path for parents is to work with the previous district before connecting with PowerSchool as districts own their accounts.

[mhladio]

Thank you, @KritiS. 

If this is the case, that is welcome news. I understand that making those connections in every single case would be difficult for PS Support. Presently, my first response when I find that a parent has an account in a previous district is to ask the parent to reach out to that district's tech staff or to change the account themselves.

However, when parents respond that they can't do so, or that they have reached a dead end, I would like to offer to them that we as a district and PowerSchool as a company will take steps to help. 

[lagreca]

This should serve as a warning to schools and districts that they should choose wisely when choosing a vendor.  I have seen many problems with powerschool their support has been less than stellar.  As such, I would NOT recommend them.  

With that being said, the solution to my problem, and probably most of your families would be to log into their OLD powerschool account, and change the email address to another or junk email address.  This would free up their real address to sign up under the new school district.  

[mhladio]

I just had another parent reach out to us about connecting her account. Since we are in our first year of K-12 implementation, requests like this have been coming in throughout the year. We provision parent accounts through PowerSchool SIS. This was my response: 

I see that this email address is currently connected to YYYY Public Schools. Since emails can only be connected to one district at a time in Schoology, this is preventing us from creating your Schoology account. 

The most expedient way to get this account connected is to log into the old Schoology account and remove/change the email address. This will free your email address for use in our system. Another option is to reach out to support staff from the previous district. If you are able to successfully remove your email address, please let me know, and we will set you up! 

If you are presented with any challenges in taking any of those steps, please let me know. Connecting parents to Schoology is one of our most important priorities!