Lottery

Lottery
Once a Lottery is run, Smart Choice™ produces lists of randomly ordered students based on the programs’ specific selection criteria and also generates waiting lists for each group, grade and program.

Upon selection parents are notified of their students placement or their wait list status. The system allows for the applicant to log into their dashboard to accept or decline their seat. Upon accepting the seat, the student’s placement is locked in and is notated in the administrators running list for reference. If the parent declines the seat, the student’s name is scratched from the list and the next student on the wait list is moved up and notified of their placement via e-mail. This allows administrators to access one central real time wait list rather than dealing with updating multiple documents and inevitable error. Reports are also available within the Lottery component for lotteries run. These reports track all test and true lotteries run by date, time and user for auditing purposes when necessary providing the highest degree of integrity, security and accountability.

Manage Cut Off Numbers
This link will bring the administrator to a location to manage the amount of available seats within a program by grade.

Upon clicking the “Manage Cut Off Numbers” link, the administrator is presented with a series of text boxes for each grade of the programs that they have access to. These boxes are made to have numbers put into them, which represent the amount of open seats in that specific program and grade. These numbers tie in directly to the lottery logic when the actual lottery is executed.

If no number or 0 is entered the system will simply create a wait list for the specific program and grade.

Anytime a change to the cutoff numbers is made, you must remember to click the “Save Cut Off Numbers” at the bottom of the screen to make sure that your changes are saved and effective.

For example if we place 12 in the text field for Kindergarten for a specific program/grade, when the lottery for that program is run and reviewed in the “Lottery Audit Report”, the system will “place” 12 students and wait list all other students that are eligible for the program and grade.

The image below is a view from within the “Lottery Audit Report” for Bear Valley Elementary. You will see a notation of how many seats are open for the specific grade directly below the grade heading. In this instance Kindergarten has 0 seats open, so if a lottery were run today, only a wait list would be generated for the specific program and grade.
 * NOTE: It is important to note that if the central office will be using the merge lottery feature that the cut off numbers not be lowered before the beginning of a new year.  This would results in previously “placed” students being wait-listed after acceptance.

Execute/Run a Lottery
After establishing the number of available seats by program and grade described in the steps below, the administrator can run a lottery.

Run Lottery

 * Begin Date – The start date of applications for the specific pool at hand.  For example if you allow applications to be submitted from August 1. 2012-March 1, 2013 your begin date would be August 1, 2012 meaning that will only include applications submitted and eligible that were submitted on or after this date.


 * Cut off Date - The cut off date of applications for the specific pool at hand.  For example if you allow applications to be submitted from August 1. 2012-March 1, 2013 your cut off date would be March 1, 2013 meaning that will only include applications submitted and eligible that were submitted on or before this date.
 * Mode
 * Live Run – By checking this box, a real lottery will be run which will showcase results on the parent dashboards and also send out email notifications (ONLY IF THIS SETTING IS TURNED ON IN THE SETTINGS MODULE) as well as allow parents to accept/decline placement on their dashboard (ONLY IF THIS SETTING IS TURNED ON IN THE SETTINGS MODULE) When live lotteries are run each application that has been placed or wait listed will also have options for the admin to accept/decline placement from the wait list.
 * Test Run – By checking this box,  a test lottery will be run which will showcase results that are true based on selection criteria but NO results are shown on parent dashboards, NO email notifications get sent out and parents DO NOT see the option to accept/decline placement on their dashboard.  If a test lottery has been run there will be a notation within the lottery audit report (described below) that will make it clear which lotteries were in TEST MODE.  When test lotteries are run, each application that has been placed/wait listed WILL NOT have options for the admin to accept/decline placement as it is not a true placement.
 * Merge – By checking this box, new lottery results will be appended to a previously run lottery for the selected programs.  This will be used to include a new applicant pool to a rolled over wait list. If unchecked the applicants within the date ranges will be run through a lottery that is independent from any other list.
 * Password –To ensure that lotteries are not executed by fault, the administrator must input their specific password prior to running the lottery.

Programs to Include
Here the administrator has the option to choose which programs to execute a lottery for. Lotteries can be executed independently from each other, in groups or all programs can be run together.

Programs are organized by type based on the PROGRAM set up. If programs appear un categorized its because these programs do not have a Program type assigned to them within the PROGRAM MODULE.

The administrator can double click the program name to bring it from the Available (right side) section to the Selected (left side) section. If they want to bring all programs over in one step the “Select all programs” check box can be checked to do so. If multiple programs are selected for a lottery run, the order that the programs are lotteried is in randomized order.

Grades to Include
Here the administrator has the option to choose which grades to execute a lottery for. These grades will be run for all programs selected in the above step. .

The administrator can check off whichever grades they choose for the specific programs selected and only these grades will be run when the lottery is run through the system.

When all settings within the 3 sections discussed above have been set the administrator will click on the “Run Lottery for Selected Programs” button. Upon doing so the administrator will be warned with a message or series of messages if live mode has been selected.If multiple programs are selected for a lottery run, the order that the programs are lotteried is in randomized order.

Reviewing a Lottery List
Upon executing a lottery, the administrator is forwarded to the lottery list for the specific programs/grades selected.

The results are listed by program and grade. Shown first for each grade is a list of students accepted into the program and immediately below is a waiting list based on the cut off numbers entered for the program. If 0 was put in the MANAGE CUT OFF NUMBERS area for the specific program/grade reviewing, there will be no placed list, only a wait list will be shown.

For each program there is a jump to menu making it easier to locate the grade in question for review and management of lottery lists and wait lists.

Lottery lists are broken down by the following criteria for simple review and reference.
 * ORG# - Original placement number
 * ADJ# - Adjusted Placement number after movements by declines have been made.
 * STU# - Unique number generated by the Smart Choice system for reference.
 * STUDENT NAME – full student name
 * MAIL ICON – If this icon is present, the parent has been notified via email of this placement.
 * GEN - Gender
 * ACPT – Shows an icon based on if the parent or admin has accepted
 * Green Check
 * Red X
 * PRI - Priority
 * S – Sibling Priority
 * A – Attendance Priority
 * POOL – Notation of which lottery the student was included in
 * R/O – Rolled Over Wait List
 * 1, 2, 3, etc – Shows the Actual Pool for merged lotteries.  For example if I run a lottery today for the first time for a program those students will be POOL 1, if I run another lottery next week and merge those results with the original pool, the new students will be POOL 2 within the same lottery list.
 * M – Manual Addition
 * For applications that have not been placed in a program that a lottery has already been run, the administrator has the option to manually add them to the active lottery list.  To do so the administrator would click on “Edit” for the application in question from the main APPLICATIONS MODULE.  In the bottom portion of the application edit screen there is a notation of “Not Placed.
 * Once the “Add to Lottery List” link is clicked a warning message will show up for the administrator which explains the consequences of this manual movement.
 * Once the administrator agrees to this warning message, the user is forwarded to the active lottery list for the program in question and the student will be added to the bottom of the list for the program with an M noted in the POOL column for reference.

Downloading Lists by Program and Grade
In the lottery component this buttons exists.
 * This button will prompt the user to download a file.  This file will contain the entire placed and wait list for the program and grade in question.  This list will contain information for students/parents regardless of their wait list directory status.

Accepting/Declining Seats or Confirming/Denying Wait List Placement
Once a live lottery has been run the administrators can view and manage wait lists from one real time list.
 * Accept a Seat – If the student has been placed above the waiting list the administrator can “accept” the student’s seat by clicking on the icon directly to the right of the student’s name on the lottery list.  This will open up the student’s application where the student’s placement status and rank will be noted at the bottom of the application.  The admin will simply check the “Accept” radio button and click “Save”.  This will forward the administrator back to the Lottery List where the student’s name will have a green check next to their name noting their accepted status.
 * Decline a Seat – If the student has been placed above the waiting list the administrator can “decline” the student’s seat by clicking on the icon directly to the right of the student’s name on the lottery list.  This will open up the student’s application where the student’s placement status and rank will be noted at the bottom of the application.  The admin will simply check the “Decline” radio button and click “Save”.  This will forward the administrator back to the Lottery List where the student’s name will be scratched and greyed out and there will be a red X next to their name noting their declined status.  IF A STUDENT OR ADMIN DECLINES A SEAT THE NEXT AVAILABLE STUDENT ON THE WAIT LIST WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY MOVED UP ONTO THE ACCEPTED LIST AND BE NOTIFIED VIA EMAIL IF EMAIL SETTINGS HAVE BEEN TURNED ON BY THE SUPER ADMINS.
 * Confirm Wait List Placement - If the student has been wait listed below the accepted list the administrator can “confirm” the student’s wait list placement by clicking on the icon directly to the right of the student’s name on the lottery list.  This will open up the student’s application where the student’s wait list status and rank will be noted at the bottom of the application.  The admin will simply check the “Confirm” radio button and click “Save”.  This will forward the administrator back to the Lottery List where the student’s name will have a green check next to their name noting their confirmed status. If a student confirms their placement on a wait list and the program in question rolls over wait lists, upon archiving this year’s application that student will automatically be rolled up to the next grade level’s wait list for the program until they have aged out of the program or failed to confirm their wait list status in future years.
 * Remove Wait List Placement - If the student has been wait listed below the accepted list the administrator can “decline” the student’s wait list placement by clicking on the icon directly to the right of the student’s name on the lottery list.  This will open up the student’s application where the student’s wait list status and rank will be noted at the bottom of the application.  The admin will simply check the “Remove” radio button, upon doing so the administrator is prompted with a text box in order to note a reason for the removal from the wait list.  This information is saved within the student’s placement history for future reference.  Next the administrator will click “Save”.  This will forward the administrator back to the Lottery List where the student’s name will have a green check next to their name noting their confirmed status. If a student is removed from a wait list and the program in question rolls over wait lists, upon archiving this year’s application that student will automatically be purged from the next grade level’s wait list for the program.
 * Manual_Movement.pngl Movements – In special circumstances students can be manually moved within lists if necessary or even be added to an existing list without running another lottery. To make manual movements, the administrator can click on the number directly to the left of the student’s name.  This will open up a light box where the administrator will see a series of options noted below.
 * Move From Wait List to Accepted List – A student that is currently on a wait list can be moved directly onto the accepted list by clicking on the radio button within the light box that says “Move {Student Name} onto the accepted list.  The administrator MUST type in notes or a reason for such a manual move before saving. This reason and movement will be tracked in the placement history by date/time/admin/ip address.
 * Move Up or Down on Wait List - A student that is currently on a wait list can be moved up or down in rank on that wait list.   by clicking on the radio button within the light box that says “Move {Student Name} to{Drop down with rank} on the wait list.  The administrator will be able to choose a specific rank number from the drop down in order to replace the student.  The administrator MUST type in notes or a reason for such a manual move before saving. This reason and movement will be tracked in the placement history by date/time/admin/ip address.
 * Application_Placement_History.pngwing Placement History – All changes to placements are tracked within the students Placement History.  To view this information the administrator can click onto the number directly to the left of the student’s name, which will open a light box.  At the top right of this light box there is a button for “View Placement History” once clicked this will show all placement changes by date/time/admin/ip address and it will also show the reason that was manually typed in by the administrator before saving the placement change.

View Lottery Runs & Manage Wait Lists
This link will bring the administrator to a list of all previously run lotteries broken down by program.
 * Date Run – date and time stamp of lottery execution
 * Program – name of program run, administrators will only be able to see / manage accepted/wait lists for programs they have access to
 * Pool – If central office opts to use the lottery merge feature this field while showcase which application/lottery pool the applicants came from
 * Mode – When central office executes lotteries they have the option to run test or live lotteries.  This field allows administrators to quickly see which mode the lottery was run in.
 * Test Mode – No lottery result emails are sent out and administrators and or parents do not have the accept to accept/decline placement or confirm/decline wait list placement
 * Live Mode – Students are notified via email (IF super administrators have turned on the email notifications within the settings area) parents can access accept/decline features from their dashboard (IF super administrators have turned on the dashboard features in the settings area)
 * User – Administrative User that executed the lottery in question.
 * View – This button brings the administrator to the REAL TIME accepted/wait list for the program in question.  Here is where the administrator will manage acceptances/declines for placed students as well as confirm/deny wait list position described above if the parent has opted not to do so from their dashboard.

Movement Audit Reports
This link will bring the administrator to a list of all previously moved students and can be broken down by program.
 * Date - Date and time student was moved
 * User - Name is administrative user who manually moved the student.
 * Movement - The name of the student, where the student was placed, for what grade and what group.
 * Reason - What the reason was for the move.
 * Box with Arrow - Gives administrators the opportunity to return to the edit screen of that student's application.