A 'blocked date' means a date or time that is blocked from scheduling. Read the whole article to learn all about how blocked dates, or click one of the links to jump to a section to learn how to:
- View Blocked Dates
- Create a Blocked Date
- Creating a Blocked Series
- Adjust Blocked Staffers in a Department
- Create School-wide Blocked Dates
- Remove Blocked Dates
SECTION 1
View Blocked Dates
To see which dates you are currently blocked for, select Blocked Dates in the navigation. This page is divided into 3 tabs:
Blocked for Staff. This shows all dates that you are blocked for as an individual staffer. By default you will be viewing your own blocked dates, but in the Selected Staffer dropdown you can select a different staffer. By default you will also be viewing All Current and Future Dates. To view a specific month, choose that month from the Selected Month dropdown.
Blocked for Department. This tab shows you when certain departments are blocked. It will default to your department, but you can select another department to view in the Selected Department dropdown. You can select a different month here as well.
Blocked for School. This is where you will find school-wide blocked dates. This could include things like in-service days and school vacations. Again, you can choose to view by a specific month.
No matter which tab you view, each block will display with the Date, the Reason, the Period the block will occur during, and the Block Type (staff, department, or school). You will see an Actions button next to each blocked date on the Staff and Department tab. Admins will also see an Actions button next to each blocked date on the Blocked for School tab.
SECTION 2
Create a Blocked Date
Note: Some schools may not allow individual staffers to create blocked dates. If you do not have the ability to block a date, please contact an admin in your school to block the date for you.
On the Blocked Dates page, select the Create Blocked Date button.
On this page you have the option to Block For Staff, or Department. An admin will also have the ability to create a block for the school.
If you choose Staff, you will be selected by default. But you can choose another staffer in the Select a Staffer dropdown. Next you will need to add a Reason that briefly describes why this date is being blocked. This is what other users will see as the reason why they can't schedule to you.
Then set whether or not you want this block to repeat. By default it is set to Never, which means you are just blocking a single date. When you create a block over multiple dates this is called a Blocked Series, and is explained in the next section.
Choose the date you want to block, and then select a single period, multiple periods, or the All option if you are blocking an entire day. De-select a period by clicking it again.
If there are currently appointments scheduled for the date(s) and period(s) you’ve selected, you will see those appointments in the Currently Scheduled Appointments box. If you create a blocked date when the staffer already has a scheduled appointment, it will delete that appointment, and there is no way to reverse that action. So be sure to check take a look at this box. If you need to block dates but don't want to delete any appointments, uncheck the 'Include' box next to the appointment you want to keep. This means that specific date will not be blocked.
In addition, look out for the warning message you see below. This will let you know that there are appointments that will be deleted if you proceed.
When you're finished you can select Save & Close to go back to the Blocked Dates page, or Save & Continue to create another block.
If you choose to create a block for a Department, you will set it up much the same way you did for an individual staffer. But instead of selecting a staffer, you will need to Select a Department. See the image below for an example.
SECTION 3
Creating a Blocked Series
Create a blocked series the same way you would start to create a single blocked date. Select the Create Blocked Date button on the Blocked Dates page, and then choose the type of block you want to create. Make a selection and add your blocked date Reason, and then choose one of the options under Repeats. You could set up this series to repeat Daily, Every Other Day, Every Other Week, or Weekly. It will be set to Never by default.
If you select any option other than Never, you will need to create a date range by clicking in the label and choosing a Start Date and an End Date from the calendar. Next choose a day or days of the week for it to repeat on, or All. You can do this by clicking on on or more weekdays. To remove a weekday from your selection, click on it again. In the example below, there is a date range from April 4th to the 28th, and Wednesday is selected. Repeats is set to Weekly, so this means that within that date range the block will repeat every Wednesday.
The last step is to choose the period, or periods you want this block to occur during. Select one or more, or choose 'All' if you want to block the whole day. Click a period name again to de-select it.
When you are finished, select Save & Close to go back to the Block Date page, or Save & Continue to create another block.
Back on the Blocked Dates page you will be able to see the series you created. It will display with a separate listing for each individual period that you blocked.
SECTION 4
Adjust Blocked Staffers in a Department
When a Department is blocked, this means that all staffers in that department are blocked and students can't be scheduled to them. In some cases, a department may be blocked but certain staffers need to be available. You can remove staffers from the department block.
On the Blocked Dates page, find the department block on the date you want to adjust. Select Actions for that blocked date and then Adjust Blocked Staffers.
A section will slide out that shows you all of the staffers blocked in that department for that date/period. All staffers who are blocked have the box under Blocked checked by their name. To remove a staffer from being blocked, uncheck the box next to their name (see circled in the image below) and click Save. The staffer or staffers you uncheck will now be able to have students scheduled to them during this date/period. If you don't want to make any changes, select Cancel.
SECTION 5
Create School-wide Blocked Dates
To block dates for the entire school, you will need to be logged in as a site admin user. Any staffer can block dates for staffers or departments, but only admins can create blocks for the school. You may want to do this to block dates for school vacations or in-service days.
You would follow the same process as blocking a date for a staffer or department. Select Blocked Dates in the navigation, and on this page click the Create Blocked Date button.
On this page choose the option Block For School.
Add your blocked Reason. Users will see this on their schedule as to why they can't make appointments on those dates. When a staffer or department is blocked, users can still scheduled students to other staffers or a department that is not blocked. When the entire school is blocked, no appointments can be made by any user.
Next, select one of the Repeats options, or leave it as Never to create a block for a single date. See section 3 to learn about blocking multiple dates or periods.
Then choose the period or periods you want to block. If you are blocking the entire day select the All option. To de-select a period, click it again.
As noted previously, the Appointment Counts by Date & Period will help you to see if there are any existing appointments for the dates you are blocking. When blocking dates for the school, it is especially important to look at this box. Proceeding to block dates when appointments already exist for those dates will permanently delete those appointments. When there are existing appointments for the date and periods selected, you will also see a warning message before the Save buttons, as seen in the image below.
When you're finished select Save & Close to go back to the Blocked Dates page, or Save & Continue if you want to create more blocked dates.
SECTION 6
Remove Blocked Dates
You can delete a blocked date, but you cannot edit a blocked date. Deleting a blocked date will enable staffers and students to schedule to you again. To delete a blocked date select Actions next to its name.
If it's a single blocked date, you will see the option to remove the date. Depending on the type of block it is you will see Remove Block for Staffer, Remove Block for Department, or if you're an Admin, Remove Block for School. Select one of these options to remove a block for a single date.
If the date is part of a series, you will have the option to delete that specific date/period, or the entire series. Click the Actions button, and if you just want to delete a single date, select either Remove Block for Staffer, Remove Block for Department, or if you're an Admin, Remove Block for School, depending on the type. This will remove that single blocked date without deleting the entire series.
In the example below, there is a department block with 2 blocked dates.
- If you selected Actions and Remove Block for Department, it would remove the block for 5/26 during After School by appt.
- The other option is to Remove Blocked Date series. If you select this option, all dates in the series will be deleted.
Whichever option you choose to remove blocked dates, you will need to confirm that you want to do this. The confirmation message will show the blocked date reason, and, if it's a single blocked date, the date and period. See the image below for an example. Select Remove Block to confirm. If you don't want to remove the blocked date, select the 'X' in the top right corner of the screen.
Keywords: prevent staffers from scheduling to me, how to block a date, what is a blocked date, school calendar, how to block date for the school, blocking school vacations, unblock staffers in department, calendar
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