Programs & Cohort Rules

Programs represent the educational tracks offered by your school (e.g., Nursery, Reception, Primary, Secondary). Each program can have sub-programs, and cohort rules automatically determine which program a student belongs to based on their date of birth.

Programs & Cohort Setup

Coming soon — an interactive walkthrough will be added here.

Accessing Programs

1. Navigate to Configuration in the sidebar.
2. Select the Programs tab.

Managing Programs

Adding a Program

Programs are managed as an inline editable list:

1. Click Add Program at the bottom of the programs list.
2. Fill in the program fields:
   • Name (required) -- The program name (e.g., "Reception", "Year 1", "Kindergarten").
   • Code -- A short code for internal reference (e.g., "REC", "Y1", "KG").
   • Description -- Optional description of the program.
3. Click Save to save all changes.

Editing a Program

1. Modify any field directly in the program row.
2. Click the Save button in the section header to save all changes.
3. Unsaved changes are tracked -- the Save button is enabled only when changes exist.

Activating / Deactivating Programs

Each program has an Active toggle:

• Active programs appear in form dropdowns, filters, and assignment selectors.
• Inactive programs are hidden from selectors but existing leads in that program remain accessible.
• Inactive programs appear dimmed in the configuration list.

Sub-Programs

Each program can have sub-programs for finer categorization. For example, a "Primary" program might have sub-programs for "Year 1", "Year 2", "Year 3", etc.

Adding a Sub-Program

1. Expand a program row to see its sub-programs section.
2. Click Add Sub-Program.
3. Enter the sub-program name and code.
4. Save.

Sub-Program Ordering

Sub-programs have a sort order that affects how they are displayed and how automatic cohort assignment works. Drag to reorder sub-programs within a program.

Cohort Rules

Cohort rules automate student placement into programs based on their date of birth. Instead of manually selecting a program for each applicant, the system can determine the appropriate program automatically.

Cohort Rule Types

The system supports multiple cohort rule standards:

Rule Type	Description
UK System	September 1 cutoff date. Children born between Sep 1 of year N and Aug 31 of year N+1 are in the same cohort.
US System	Various cutoff dates depending on state (commonly September 1 or December 1).
Custom	Define your own date-of-birth ranges per program.

How Cohort Rules Work

1. A family submits a form and provides the child's date of birth.
2. The system evaluates the DOB against the configured cohort rules for the selected academic year.
3. It determines which program (and sub-program) the child belongs to based on the DOB ranges.
4. The program is automatically assigned to the lead.

Configuring DOB Ranges

For each program and academic year, you can define:

• DOB From -- The earliest birth date for this cohort.
• DOB To -- The latest birth date for this cohort.
• Sub-Program -- Which sub-program to assign within the date range.

TIP

DOB ranges should not overlap between programs. If they do, the system resolves conflicts using the sub-program sort order.

Year-Program Configurations

The relationship between programs and academic years can be configured with additional settings:

• Year-specific DOB ranges -- Different DOB ranges for the same program in different academic years.
• Capacity -- The number of available places for each program per year.
• Status -- Whether the program is open for admissions in a specific year.

How Programs Are Used

Feature	Program Usage
Leads	Each lead can be assigned to a program
Public Forms	Programs appear as selection options for families
Contracts	Contract types can be restricted to specific programs
Reports	Reports can be segmented by program
Auto-Placement	Cohort rules auto-assign programs from DOB
Filtering	Lead lists and kanban boards can be filtered by program

Best Practices

1. Define all programs before creating forms -- Programs must exist before they can be added to admissions forms.
2. Keep codes short and consistent -- Use 2-4 character codes (e.g., "NUR", "REC", "Y1") for clean data exports.
3. Set up cohort rules early -- Configure DOB ranges before the admissions cycle begins to enable automatic placement.
4. Review annually -- Update DOB ranges when setting up a new academic year.

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