Import parent accounts

System administrators can bulk-create parent accounts by importing a CSV or XLS file, and then importing a second file to associate each parent with their child. This method is appropriate when you have parent data in a local directory or export file but are not using student information system (SIS) sync for automatic provisioning.

Use this method if you have parent data in a file and want to bulk-create accounts.

Set up and distribute Parent Access Codes if you don't have centralized parent data and want families to self-register.
Manually associate parent and student accounts if parents and students already have Schoology accounts and you only need to link them.
Create parent accounts via a SIS sync if your SIS supports automatic provisioning.

Prepare the parent import file

Before importing, create a CSV or XLS file containing your parent data. The file must include at least the following required fields.

Field	Requirement	Description
First Name	Required	User's given name.
Last Name	Required	User's family name.
Username	Required if not including Email	Unique username for the user account.
Email	Required if not including Username	Unique email address for the user account. Emails must be unique across all of Schoology, including accounts outside your account.
User Unique ID	Required	A value created by your organization outside of Schoology, usually tied to your Student Information System (SIS) and used to match and update existing records on subsequent imports. Must be unique across the entire institution, including across roles. If IDs are not unique across roles, prepend 1_ for students, 2_ for instructors, and so on.
Role	Optional	Should correlate to values in your SIS. Include this field if the file contains users with different roles, such as student, teacher, or admin. Otherwise, you can select a single role during import.
School	Optional	Determine the school the user is associated with. Include this field if the file contains users from multiple schools. Otherwise, you can select a single school during import.
Schoology User ID	Optional	The internal Schoology-assigned user ID. Can be used as an alternative to User Unique ID when updating existing records. This field is generally only used in special cases to update users exported and reimported to Schoology.
First Name (Preferred)	Optional	User's preferred first name, if different from their legal first name. You can choose to display the preferred name in place of, or in addition to, the first name.
Middle Name	Optional	User's middle name.
Name Prefix	Optional	Name prefix, such as Mr., Mrs., Dr.
Position/Job Title	Optional	User's position or job title within the organization.
Password	Optional	Account password. If you do not include passwords in the file, Schoology will automatically generate a password for the user. System Admins can review the generated password in the Edit Users area after import.
Gender	Optional	User's gender. Acceptable values: M, Male, F, Female
Additional Schools	Optional	Additional schools the user is associated with beyond their primary school assignment. Additional schools should be separated with pipes(\|).
SIS User ID	Optional	May be used for organizations importing PowerSchool Learning content only.

Select Tools and choose School Management.
Select Import.
From Users, upload your CSV or XLS file.
From Roles, select an option from the list.
- - Select Parent if all users share the same role.
  - Select Use Import File if the file contains multiple roles.
From Schools, select an option from the list.
- - Select a school if all users belong to the same school.
  - Select Use Import File if users belong to different schools. Then enter the values from your import file that represent each school in the fields in the CSV Value column.
If your file includes preferred names, configure Preferred Name Display.
From Updating, select Don't update existing records.
From Email Conflicts, select Don’t allow duplicates.
Optionally, select Send activation email to notify parents that their account has been created.
Select Continue.
From Match Columns, select First row contains headers if your file contains headers. Match each Schoology field to the corresponding column in your file to ensure that the parents' Unique IDs and students' Unique IDs are mapped correctly.
Select Preview to review the associations before running the import.
When you are ready to import, Select Confirm.

After the import is complete, the parent accounts are created. Next, create an association between the parent accounts and their respective children.

Import parent-child associations

A two-column CSV or XLS file is required to create parent-child associations. Each row in the file represents one parent-child pair, matching the Unique ID of the parent to the Unique ID of their child.

Select Tools and choose User Management.
From Manage Users, select Parents/Advisors.
Select Options and choose Import.
From Select type of import, select Parent and click Continue.
If Clear parent associations for specified students is selected, the current parent-child associations designated in the file will be cleared and replaced by those in your import file. This option is useful for updating multiple parent-child associations at the beginning of the school year.
From Match Columns, select First row contains headers if your file contains headers. Match each Schoology field to the corresponding column in your file to ensure that the parents' Unique IDs and students' Unique IDs are mapped correctly.
Select Preview to review the associations before running the import.
When you are ready to import, Select Confirm.