Rostering via spreadsheet

For schools and districts that do not use an automated service like Clever or ClassLink, FL4K provides a straightforward spreadsheet-based rostering system. This guide will walk you through the process of setting up your initial roster.

Receiving a spreadsheet template

To begin the spreadsheet rostering process, please contact your FL4K representative. As part of your request, you’ll need to provide the full list of administrators and instructors who require access to view and edit the roster spreadsheet.

This spreadsheet will contain personally identifiable student information. Please ensure your list of authorized users is accurate and that you take all necessary security precautions to prevent unauthorized access.

Once we receive your list of authorized users, we’ll create and share your school’s unique rostering spreadsheet directly with that group.

This option is only available for schools with an active FL4K subscription. Spreadsheet rostering is not supported for automated free trials.

Filling out the spreadsheet for the first time

Alright, let's dive in. Your spreadsheet can have up to four tabs to fill out. Don't worry if you don't see all of them — it just means we've already given you a head start by pre-filling some information for you. Here are the tabs you'll be working with:

• schools
• teachers
• classes
• students

The schools tab

First up, the schools tab! On this tab, list the full name of every school in your district that will be using FL4K. Each school needs its own row in the NAME column.

No schools tab visible? You can skip this step! It just means we’ve already handled it for you.

What if schools are already listed?

You might see that we’ve given you a head start by pre-filling some schools. Here’s how to handle that:

• For new FL4K schools: We’ve pre-filled this list based on our conversations. Feel free to add new schools, remove any that won't be using FL4K, or change the names to your preference.
• For returning FL4K schools: Welcome back! The schools listed are based on what's in our system from the previous year. You can add new schools or remove any that are no longer participating.

Heads up for returning schools: To avoid creating duplicate schools in our system, please do not simply edit the name of an existing school in the spreadsheet. If a school’s name needs to be updated, please make a note and tell us when you return the file. We’ll happily update it on our end!

If present, make sure to remove the placeholder row that contains the text (DELETE THIS ROW)!

🎉 Good news: no per-school fees! Feel free to add as many schools as you need. Unless specified otherwise in your quote, our subscriptions aren't priced per-school, so you won't see any extra charges.

The teachers tab

Next up, the teachers tab. This is where you’ll list your whole crew: any instructors, school staff, or administrators who need access to FL4K.

What if teachers are already listed?

You might see that we’ve given you a head start by pre-filling some users. Here’s how to handle that:

• For new FL4K schools: We've pre-filled this based on our conversations. Please double-check that the information is correct, make any necessary changes, and add the rest of your team.
• For returning FL4K schools: Welcome back! These are your users from last year. Feel free to add new staff or remove those who no longer need access.

Heads up for returning schools! To avoid creating duplicate accounts, please do not change an existing user's information directly in the spreadsheet. If a returning user's details need an update, please make a note and tell us when you send the file back. We'll take care of it for you!

If present, make sure to remove the placeholder row that contains the text (DELETE THIS ROW)!

🎉 More good news! Just like with schools, we don't charge per-teacher or per-admin unless specified in your quote. Add everyone who needs access!

Column: FIRST (first / given name)

This one's easy! Just enter the first name for each instructor, staff member, or admin.

• This isn't required, but it's highly recommended so you can easily identify users.
• If you provide a first name, that’s what will appear next to the user's avatar inside the FL4K platform.

Column: LAST (last / family name)

Enter the last name for each user here.

• This is also recommended but not required.
• If you leave the FIRST name blank but fill this in, the user's last name will be what shows up next to their avatar.

Column: EMAIL

This is an important column! It serves as the unique email and username for each teacher or admin.

• Required. Every user needs a unique email to log in.
• Max length: 255 characters.

Please enter the values for this column in all-lowercase. (This isn't a hard requirement, but a way to help keep things organized and detect duplicate entries!)

Column: SCHOOL NAMES (semicolon-separated)

This is where you tell us which school(s) an instructor belongs to. If you only have one school, this is easy! If your district has multiple schools, pay close attention here.

The school name(s) you enter here must exactly match the names you listed on the schools tab. Copy and paste (or, even better, absolute references) are your friend!

• Got a teacher in multiple schools? Just separate the school names with a semicolon and a space ; like this: Sample Elementary School; Sample Middle School.
• What about district admins? You can usually leave this column blank for district-level administrators. They automatically get access to see everything!
  • The only exception: If a district admin is also the main teacher for a specific class, you should list that class's school here for them.

A note on school-level admins

Need to create an admin for just one or some schools (but not the whole district)? Our spreadsheet system doesn't support this directly yet.
Workaround: Roster them as a regular teacher and assign them to the correct school(s) in this column. Then, just make a note or send us an email when you return the spreadsheet, letting us know which user needs school-admin privileges. We’ll handle the rest!

Column: IS DISTRICT ADMIN

☑️ Check this box for a user who should be able to oversee student progress and rosters across all schools.

Reminder: If a district admin also teaches a class, make sure their school is listed in the SCHOOL NAMES column for them.

See above regarding the workaround for creating school-level admins.

💡 How is a teacher's default curriculum assigned?

When a new teacher's account is created, the system looks at the list on the classes tab to see which class appears first for that teacher. The curriculum associated with that first class becomes the teacher's default view when they log in. However, teachers can easily change their own curriculum view at any time from their dashboard or overview page.

The classes tab

Time to set up your classes! Every class that will use FL4K should be listed here.

What if classes are already listed?

We may have pre-filled some classes for you based on our previous conversations or last year's roster. Please review the list to make sure it's accurate, adding or removing classes as needed.

🎉 No per-class fees! Unless specified in your quote, feel free to add as many classes as you need without extra charges.

A note on teacher access: As long as a teacher is on the teachers tab, they will have FL4K access. They only need to be listed here if they are an instructor for a specific class.

If present, make sure to remove the placeholder row that contains the text (DELETE THIS ROW)!

Column: NAME

Enter the official name for the class.

• To avoid confusion, class names must be unique across the whole district.
  • This means that Spanish Grade 4 at school A and Spanish Grade 4 at school B should have different names (e.g., 4th Grade Spanish - Elm St and 4th Grade Spanish - Oak Ave).
• Max length: 255 characters.

Column: TEACHER EMAILS (semicolon-separated)

List the email address of every instructor for the class.

• Every class must have at least one teacher listed.
• If the class has multiple instructors, just separate their emails with a semicolon and a space ; . For instance: ajawilson@sample.edu; breannastewart@sample.edu.

Column: SCHOOL NAME

Most of the time, you can leave this column completely blank. We only need you to fill this in if any instructor listed for the class (in the TEACHER EMAILS column) is a member of more than one school. This tells us exactly which school this specific class belongs to.

Remember to match the name from the schools tab exactly, and make sure that all listed instructors (both teachers and district admins) are members of the school.

Column: CURRICULUM

You might not see this column, and that's perfectly okay! We only make this column visible for schools that are using multiple FL4K curriculums and have already discussed the different options with our team to make sure you're comfortable choosing the right one for each class.

If the column is visible, you can use it to assign a specific curriculum to this class. Here’s how it works:

• ➡️ If you enter a curriculum name here: New students in this class will automatically be assigned this curriculum when their accounts are created.
• ➡️ If you leave this blank: Students will simply be assigned your school's / district's default curriculum. You can always change this for individual students later on.

The students tab

We’re getting to the end! This is the sheet where you’ll list each student who will have access to FL4K.

If present, make sure to remove the placeholder row that contains the text (DELETE THIS ROW)!

Column: FIRST (first / given name)

Enter each student’s first name in this column.

• Recommended, but not required.
• If given, will be shown by the student’s avatar when logged into the platform.
• Max length: 255 characters.
• Whether to include students’ middle names is up to you.

Column: LAST (last / family name)

Enter each student’s last name in this column.

• Optional. You may choose to omit students’ last names as an added layer of student privacy protection.
  • You may also choose to enter only the last initial for each student in the LAST column. This allows for disambiguation of students with the same first name in most cases.
• If given, but FIRST name is not, the user’s LAST name will be shown next to their avatar.
• Max length: 255 characters.

Column: USERNAME

In this column, you can enter the username you’d like the student to be assigned for logging into FL4K.

• Optional.
• If given, we will try to assign the specified username to the student.
  • As usernames are unique across the FL4K platform, we cannot guarantee that the username you specify is available.
    • If it is not, we will automatically assign a similar username (e.g., by replacing the final character or appending an additional one) to the student.
• If not given, students will be auto-assigned a unique username based on their name.
• Max length: 255 characters.

Please enter the values for this column in all-lowercase. (This isn’t a hard requirement, but a way to help keep things organized and detect duplicate entries!)

Most schools choose not to enter values into the USERNAME column and instead have students use either the username auto-generated by FL4K or their email address for logging in.

Column: EMAIL

Enter the school email address for each student in this column.

• Not required, but strongly recommended.
  • We use email addresses as a secondary identifier for students so that we can easily tell that, for example, a student whose name is changed or who changes classes in the middle of the school year is the same student and we don’t want to make a new account for them.
• Students with an EMAIL value can log into FL4K using either their username or email in the username field.
• Max length: 255 characters.

Please enter the values for this column in all-lowercase. (This isn’t a hard requirement, but a way to help keep things organized and detect duplicate entries!)

We never attempt to contact student emails for any reason. They are used for sign-on and rostering purposes only.

Column: CLASS NAMES (semicolon-separated)

This column should contain the NAME of each class to which the student belongs.

• Strongly recommended. Like teachers and administrators, students do not strictly need a class listed in order to gain FL4K access.
  • However, without being enrolled in a class, there will be no way for teachers or administrators to check the student’s progress or configure their settings.
• Multiple classes for the same student should be separated by a semicolon and a space ; . For instance, if you’d like for the student to be listed in both Grade 4 and Grade 4 – Advanced, please enter: Grade 4; Grade 4 – Advanced.
• Students will automatically be added to the school associated with each of their classes (i.e., they will be enrolled in multiple schools if necessary).

Column: TEACHER EMAIL

This column is only necessary if class names across the district are not unique. However, as it is now required that all class names be unique, you should not need to enter values into this column.

Column: CURRICULUM

• If you provide a value for this column, the student will be assigned to it when their account is first created, regardless of the value of the CURRICULUM column on the classes sheet for the student’s classes.
• If this column is left blank for a student, they will be assigned the curriculum listed in the CURRICULUM column for the first class the student has listed in their CLASS NAMES column (or, if not specified, the district- or school-wide default curriculum).