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Have questions about the Great Falls Public School District? Visit the GFPS website.
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Frequently Asked Questions:


1. "What kind of computer equipment do I need to view PowerSchool?"
 2. "I can't seem to access the site with the provided login and password."
 3. "What can I see on the PowerSchool site?"
 4. "I have a question about my student's grade. Whom should I call?"
 5. "Can other people see my child's information?"
 6. "I try to log on to the site, but I keep getting an error message, 'login has expired' or ' cannot access site'. What is wrong?"
 7. "My child's grades don't seem to add up right."
 8. "I'm not getting my E-Mail updates at all or on a regular basis."
 9. "When I go to the log on page, the password fills in with stars all the way across."
1. "What kind of computer equipment do I need to view PowerSchool?" Top
Almost any computer with an internet connection can access Powerschool. It is recommended that you use a newer internet browser. If you use a dialup modem, you are fine. Powerschool utilizes small graphics and should load quickly.

2. "I can't access the site with the provided login and password." Top
Make sure your caps lock key is set properly. Your login and password may be a combination of letters (upper and lower case) and numbers. If your student is new to the school, contact your child's school for a login and password.

3. "What can I see on the PowerSchool site?" Top
Parents and students can access the following information on the PowerSchool public site:
  • Grades for current classes, as well as the assignments that make up those grades
  • Attendance for the past two weeks or for the whole quarter, including a legend of attendance codes used by the school
  • Teacher comments
  • Reports via E-Mail, which allow parents to request daily, weekly, or monthly reports to be sent via E-Mail
  • School Bulletin
  • E-mail link to teacher

NOTE -- The entire school uses Powerschool. If you notice attendance Inconsistencies, please give us a couple days to make changes. With the amount of activity we sometimes are unable to fix things immediately.

4. "I have a question about my student's grade. Whom do I contact?" Top
You can contact the teacher directly using the handy E-Mail link in PowerSchool. The grading process takes time, please allow teachers a couple days to post it.

5. "Can other people see my child's information?" Top
Not unless they have your login and password. If you think it has been compromised, please call your school as soon as possible. As for general Internet intrusions, the system itself uses the latest and best security protocols available. Also, all access is logged, showing the source of all access attempts. Do not give out your user/password.

6. "I try to log on to the site, but I keep getting an error message 'login has expired' or ' cannot access site.' What is wrong?" Top
All browsers are not created equal, and some refuse to give up what they have in their cache. In Internet Explorer, make sure pages are set to update "always" (Under "Internet Options"). If that doesn't work, empty your cache.

7. "How are grades calculated?" Top
Each teacher is allowed to set up his or her own grading scale. The easiest way to find out what scale an individual teacher uses is to contact the teacher using the E-Mail link after logging into Powerschool.

8. "I'm not getting my E-Mail updates at all or on a regular basis."Top
Every day the PowerSchool server searches for those parents who asked for an update to be sent out via e-mail. There could be a few things holding up mail:
  • The E-Mailbox of the recipient is full
  • The E-Mail is being indentified as "junk" or "spam" by your mail client
  • The E-Mail address is entered wrong
  • The server is "off" or "down" at the time of send

9. "When I go to the log on page, the password fills in with stars all the way across."Top
What is happening is that the computer is "remembering the password" but not giving clues to how long it is. Apparently, someone clicked "yes" to remember password and Powerschool doesn't like it. So now we need to clear the passwords and forms.
Here's how for Internet Explorer users:

Internet Explorer for PC

  • Open Internet Explorer.
  • Pull down the 'tools' menu
  • Scroll down to 'internet options.'
  • Under the Content tab, click on Autocomplete.
  • Click on Clear Forms and then on Clear Passwords.
  • You may want to uncheck "user names and passwords on forms" and "prompt me to save passwords" to prevent this from happening again.

Internet Explorer for Mac

  • Open Internet Explorer
  • Go to 'edit'
  • Scroll down to 'preferences'
  • Scroll down on the left-hand side and click on 'site passwords'
  • Click on the one you want to delete and click on the 'delete' button
  • Click okay.
  • To be safe, also click on 'cookies' in the left-hand bar. Click anywhere in the list of cookies, hit command A to select all (or go to 'edit' to 'select all). Then click the 'delete' button.

Netscape Users

  • Open Netscape
  • Click 'tools'
  • Scroll down to password manager
  • Click on Manage stored Passwords
  • Click on the Passwords Saved tab
  • Find the Powerschool password, click on it
  • Click on Remove