Create and Manage Custom Parent Letter Templates

🔐 Account type(s) with default permissions to manage this: Admin; Specialist (the ability to view, generate, save, create, edit, or delete Parent Letters varies by account type)

💻 Tier(s) this is available for: Foundation, Essential, Pro

Customizing your Parent Letter templates lets you tailor each letter to the information your families need and the data your district requires. Use the Report & Parent Letter Gallery to add, remove, or reorder sections and save reusable personal or district-wide templates.

You can configure which Student Information fields appear at the top of the Parent Letter, add custom text sections, and determine what information appears in the Meetings, Notes, and Standardized Tests sections by date.

When building a custom template, consider what your team actively tracks in Ellevation. For example, you may want to remove the Services or Monitoring sections if you don't track that information in Ellevation, and add Language Programs or Meetings/LPACs sections if you do.

💡 Quick Tip: Prepare Your Parent Letter Templates for the New School Year

Before generating Parent Letters at the start of each school year, take a few minutes to confirm your District Templates are current. Two areas need attention:

• Exit and Graduation rates: Districts receiving Title III funding are required to notify families of Exit and Graduation rates. Update these in Reports & Parent Letter Configuration. Get started with Exit and Graduation rates.
• Date ranges for data sections: Review and update date ranges for ELP Tests, Standardized Tests, Goals, EL Services, Language Programs, Classroom Modifications/Instructional Supports, and Designated Supports/Testing Accommodations in any District Templates that include those sections. Get started with date ranges.

⚠️ Warning

All of Ellevation's predefined Parent Letter templates include student information from defined time periods by default:

• Data other than test scores is from the current school year, based on the School Year Start and End dates in your district's Ellevation Account Settings.
• The ELP Tests section contains all ELP Test results stored in Ellevation (including both Ellevation-defined and custom Test Types). You can configure this section to show results before or after selected dates, or to show the last [x] ELP Tests.
• The Standardized Tests section contains all Standardized Test results stored in Ellevation. You can configure this section to show results before or after selected dates.

See Edit Configurable Sections in the Builder below to learn how to adjust date ranges.

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Ellevation Administrators can also configure settings such as Measures of Proficiency, Exit and Graduation Rates, Exit Criteria, and the list of Services and Programs Offered, which will populate Parent Letters. To learn more, see Configure Reports and Parent Letters. To learn more about Parent Letters and Ellevation's predefined templates, see Learn about Parent Letters.

Jump to a section:

• Create and Save Customized Parent Letters as Personal Templates
• Edit Your Saved Custom Parent Letters
• Create and Save Customized Parent Letters as District Templates
• Edit Your District Templates
• Hide Ellevation's Predefined Templates
• Edit Configurable Sections in the Builder

Create and Save Customized Parent Letters as Personal Templates

To create and save a custom Parent Letter as a personal template:

1. Navigate to Reports in the navigation bar, then select Report & Parent Letter Gallery.

📝 Select Report & Parent Letter Gallery from the Reports menu to access templates.

2. Hover over the Parent Letter template you want to customize in the Templates Gallery. You may see up to three sections:
   • Ellevation Templates: Ellevation's predefined default Parent Letter templates.
   • District Templates: customized templates set as district-wide templates (if any).
   • Custom Templates: personal templates you have created (if any).

💡 Quick Tip

All Parent Letter templates include student data from the current school year by default (based on the School Year Start and End dates in your district's Ellevation Account Settings). The ELP Tests and Standardized Tests sections include all results stored in Ellevation. See Learn about Parent Letters for a full breakdown of each predefined template.

3. Click the More icon (⋮) on the template you want to use.
4. Select Edit to open the Builder in a new tab.
5. Configure your Parent Letter. Under Sections in the left panel, you can:
   • Remove sections by clicking the ✕ to the right of each section name.
   • Reorder sections by clicking and dragging the Drag icon (⠿) to the left of each section name.
   • Add sections by clicking + Add and selecting from the list.
     • You can add multiple instances of the same section type.
     • To add a custom text section, select Custom Text Field from the bottom of the + Add dropdown. In the Add Custom Text Field popup, enter a Section Title and Section Text. All text must use the Latin (Roman) alphabet and Arabic or Roman numerals to display correctly. Once added, a Custom Section can be reordered like any other section, for example, placed as a footer at the bottom of the Parent Letter. Click the Edit icon (✏) to modify it. Note: Custom Text Fields are not translatable.
     • You can add Contact (Placement) and/or Contact (Decision) sections from the + Add dropdown. Contact (Rights) is available in select states.

📝 Use the + Add dropdown to add sections, including Contact and Custom Text Field sections.

⚠️ Warning

Contact sections are only editable at the time of generation, from the Parent Letter template's Preview window. If you generate a Parent Letter that includes a Contact section but do not enter the Contact Name and Phone information in the Preview window, those fields will appear as blank lines in the generated letter.

📝 Enter Contact Name and Phone information in the Preview window each time you generate a Parent Letter that includes a Contact section.

6. Edit configurable sections by clicking the Edit icon (✏) next to the section name. See Edit Configurable Sections in the Builder below.
7. As you adjust sections, a live preview of the Parent Letter appears in the center of the page. The preview reflects only the first student selected from the Student List.

📝 The Sections panel on the left lets you add, remove, and reorder sections. The center panel shows a live preview updating in real time.

8. Click the grey Save as new button at the top right of the page.
9. In the Save Custom Parent Letter popup, enter a name for your Parent Letter template.
10. Click the blue Save button.
11. A green confirmation popup will appear: Your [Parent Letter Name] has been saved! Go to the gallery.
12. Click Go to the gallery to return to your Templates Gallery tab.

Your saved template will appear in the Templates Gallery under Custom Templates and will be available to select when generating Parent Letters. To learn how to generate Parent Letters, see Generate Parent Letters.

Edit Your Saved Custom Parent Letters

Custom templates you created appear in the Templates Gallery under Custom Templates. You can edit and save changes to, rename, or delete any template you own.

To edit and save changes to an existing Custom Parent Letter template:

1. In the Templates Gallery under Custom Templates, click the More icon (⋮) on the template you want to update.
2. Select Edit to open the Builder in a new tab.
3. Configure your Parent Letter following Steps 5 and 8 in Create and Save Customized Parent Letters as Personal Templates above.
4. Click the grey Save changes button at the top right of the page.
5. A green confirmation popup will appear: Your changes to [Parent Letter Name] saved! Go to the gallery.
6. Click Go to the gallery to return to your Templates Gallery tab.

📝 Use Save changes (not Save as new) to update an existing template without creating a duplicate.

Create and Save Customized Parent Letters as District Templates

After saving a custom Parent Letter as a personal template, you can promote it to a District Template so everyone on your EL team can access and generate from it. Complete the steps in Create and Save Customized Parent Letters as Personal Templates first, then follow the steps below.

1. In the Templates Gallery, click the Expand icon (›) to expand the Custom Templates section.
2. Select the Custom Parent Letter template you want to promote.
3. Click the More icon (⋮) on that template.
4. Select Promote to district.
5. In the Edit parent letter sharing popup, select District parent letter.
   • You can only edit report sharing on templates you created.
6. Click the blue Save button. A green confirmation popup will appear.
7. Your template is now saved as a District Template and will appear under District Templates in the gallery.
   • Promoted templates no longer appear under your personal Custom Templates section.
   • District Templates display the template creator's name below the title. Only the template owner can rename, delete, edit, or promote/unpromote it.

📝 Select Promote to district from the More menu on any Custom Template you own.

📝 Once promoted, the template appears under District Templates with the creator's name. All users in your district can generate from it.

Edit Your District Templates

You can edit and save changes to, rename, delete, or unpromote any District Templates you created. To manage a District Template:

1. In the Templates Gallery, click the Expand icon (›) to expand the District Templates section.
2. Select the Parent Letter template you want to modify.
3. Click the More icon (⋮) on that template, then choose one of the following:
   • Edit: Make and save changes to the template.
   • Rename: Update the template's display name.
   • Delete: Permanently remove the template.
   • Unpromote to district: Remove the template from the District Templates section and return it to your personal Custom Templates section.
     • In the Edit parent letter sharing popup, select District Report to confirm. You can only edit report sharing on templates you created.
     • Click the blue Save button. A green confirmation popup will appear.

⚠️ Warning

Deleting a District Template is permanent and cannot be undone. All users in your district will immediately lose access to that template. Consider unpromoting rather than deleting if you may need the template again.

Hide Ellevation's Predefined Templates

Once your district has custom Parent Letter templates in place, you can optionally hide Ellevation's predefined templates. This reduces confusion for your EL team by surfacing only the templates your district uses. This setting is managed through Ellevation's Permissions page and requires Admin access.

To hide Ellevation's predefined Parent Letter templates:

1. Navigate to the Manage Permissions page:
   1. Click the Admin menu icon (⚙) at the top right of the navigation bar.
   2. Click User Management.
   3. Select Permissions.

📝 Navigate to Admin menu > User Management > Permissions to manage Parent Letter template visibility.

2. Find the Parent Letters permissions group by scrolling or using the Jump To list on the left.
3. Click Edit Permissions to the right of the Parent Letters permissions group.

📝 Click Edit Permissions next to the Parent Letters group to manage template visibility by account type.

4. In the Edit Parent Letters Permissions window, under the Ellevation Parent Letter Templates column, uncheck the appropriate checkboxes for each account type to hide Ellevation's predefined templates for that account type.
5. Click Save.

📝 Uncheck boxes under Ellevation Parent Letter Templates for each account type that should only see custom or district templates.

Edit Configurable Sections in the Builder

Several sections in the Parent Letter Builder can be individually configured, for example, to filter data by date range or academic period. To edit a configurable section, click the Edit icon (✏) next to the section name in the Builder. Select a section below to learn what can be configured:

• Header, Including Address Labels
• Student Information
• Title
• Standardized Tests
• Language Programs
• Notes
• Meetings
• EL Services
• Test Accommodations
• Goals
• Course Grades
• ELP Tests

Header and Student Information Sections

You can remove, reorder, and add fields in both the Header and Student Information sections.

📝 Drag fields to reorder them or click the ✕ to remove them from the Parent Letter header.

In the Header section, you can optionally check Include Address Labels to add the student's mailing address (if stored in Ellevation). Then select from the Address To dropdown:

• Contact 1
• Contact 2
• Guardian
• Emergency Contact

📝 Enable Include Address Labels to add a mailing address block to the Parent Letter header.

Address labels appear in the Parent Letter header and are formatted for mailing in a standard left-window #10 business envelope.

📝 The address label is positioned to align with a standard left-window #10 business envelope.

Title Section

⚠️ Warning

Parent Letter Titles and Subtitles are not editable in order to ensure accurate translation.

To include your official district logo, check Include District Logo. The logo must first be uploaded in the Reports & Parent Letters Configuration page by your district's Ellevation Administrator. See Upload a District Logo to learn how.

📝 Check Include District Logo to add your logo to the Parent Letter title page.

The district logo will appear alongside the Parent Letter title on the first page of all generated letters.

📝 The district logo appears next to the Parent Letter title on page one of every generated letter.

Standardized Tests, Language Programs, Notes, and Meetings Sections

For these sections, you can display data stored in Ellevation for all dates, or filter to show data before or after a specific date. In the Edit popup, click the Calendar icon to select your date.

📝 Use the Calendar icon to select a date filter. The same filter pattern applies to Language Programs, Notes, and Meetings.

EL Services, Test Accommodations, Goals, and Course Grades Sections

For these sections, you can display data for all academic periods, or limit data to one or more specific academic periods. In the Edit popup, select Include only and then choose one or more academic periods from the dropdown list.

📝 Select Include only and choose one or more academic periods to filter data in these sections.

ELP Tests Section

For the ELP Tests section, you can display data for all dates, or filter to show tests before or after a specific date. Click the Calendar icon to select your date, then click the blue Update button to save your changes.

You can also select Last X ELP Tests to display only the most recent tests. Use the More/Less buttons to enter a number. For example, entering 2 will show the two most recent ELP Test results stored in Ellevation in that section of the Parent Letter.

📝 Use the Calendar filter or the Last X ELP Tests option to control which ELP Test results appear in the Parent Letter.