Portal Forms
Per-student vs per-family forms
Quick answer: A per-student form is filled out once per child in the family. A per-family form is filled out once per family, regardless of how many children.
What changes between the two
| Per-student form | Per-family form | |
|---|---|---|
| What parents see | A "which child is this for?" selector at the top with each child listed as a button. Filling out the form for one child leaves it pending for the others. | No student selector. The form fields apply to the whole household. |
| Completion tracking | A family of three is "complete" only when all three children have a submission on file. | A single submission marks the family complete. |
| Pre-filling | Student name, date of birth, and health profile pre-fill based on the selected child. | Only family-level fields pre-fill (parent name, parent email). |
| Growth Suite writeback | Data writes to per-student fields on the parent's record using a slot pattern (e.g. student_1_cafe_permission, student_2_cafe_permission). | Data writes to family-level fields on the parent's record. |
The decision rule
Ask yourself: could the answer reasonably differ between siblings?
- Yes, the answer could differ → per-student
- No, the answer is the same for the whole family → per-family
Per-student examples
| Form | Why per-student |
|---|---|
| Photography Release | Many families want photos of one child but not another (custody, religion, online safety preferences). |
| OTC Medication Authorization | Each child has their own medical history and the medication, dosage, and parent preferences differ. |
| Field Trip Permission | A 3rd-grader and a 7th-grader might go on completely different trips on different dates. |
| Cafe Worker Permission | Only the kid old enough or interested needs to opt in. Younger siblings stay out. |
| Sports Participation | One sibling plays soccer, another plays nothing. |
Per-family examples
| Form | Why per-family |
|---|---|
| Parent / Student Handbook Acknowledgement | The parent signs once that they've read and agreed to the handbook — signing once covers all the household's kids. |
| Authorized Pickup List | The list of people allowed to pick up children belongs to the household, not to any one child. |
| Tuition Agreement | One household signs one agreement covering all enrolled children. |
| Volunteer Background-Check Acknowledgement | Adult parents are doing the volunteering, not the children — this attaches to the parent, not to a student. |
Edge cases
What about an Emergency Contact Form?
This is the most common edge case. Two schools do it two different ways:
- Per-family if your emergency contact list is the same for every child in the household (most schools).
- Per-student if you have custodial arrangements that mean each child has a different emergency contact list (less common, but real for some families).
If unsure, choose per-family.
What about an Annual Re-Enrollment Form?
Per-student. Parents make an enrollment decision for each child separately (returning, not returning, transferring schools, etc.).
Important
Once a form has submissions on file, switching its scope (per-student to per-family or back) gets messy — existing submissions don't move with the setting. Pick the right scope at creation time, and only change it if there are no real submissions yet.
Related articles
- Field types in the form builder
- Pre-filling parent and student data
- Connecting form data back to Growth Suite
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