With Playground's Paperwork feature, you can create, request, collect, and manage forms, documents, and file requests all in one place. This guide provides an overview of what you can do with this feature.
Paperwork Overview
You can access Paperwork by navigating to your Admin Dashboard and clicking the Paperwork tab on the left-hand side of your screen. Click Student Paperwork to see an overview of all student paperwork.
At a quick glance, you will be able to see students' names, classrooms, and the number of assigned/completed paperwork. If the student has completed all of their assigned paperwork, you will see a green text box that reads yes.
Click on a specific student to see the paperwork assigned to the student and the status of the file (Submitted, in Progress, or Not started).
At the top of the Paperwork screen, you can click on Forms, Fillable PDFs, File Requests, or Resources to view the documents and the students' submissions.
💡 Paperwork can only be created by administrators on the Administrator Dashboard. Guardians can fill out documents on the Parent App, in a web browser, or with an emailed link. It's best to complete paperwork on a computer.
Create and Share Paperwork
Click the links below to learn more about creating the four different types of paperwork.
Forms are a group of questions to be completed by guardians
Fillable PDFs are documents that should be completed by guardians in Playground.
File Requests are documents that should be uploaded by guardians to Playground (ex: health forms completed by a doctor)
Resources are documents that can be viewed by guardians but do not need to be filled out (ex: school handbook)
Hide Paperwork
Hiding paperwork can help keep your account organized by reducing the number of visible files. It's a good idea to hide documents that are not currently needed but still important to keep for your records.
🚨 If you hide paperwork on your admin dashboard, it will also disappear for any students with whom it was shared.
What types of files can be hidden?
Currently, only Fillable PDFs and File Requests can be hidden. Forms and Resources cannot be hidden.
Hiding Files
Navigate to the Paperwork tab and find the Fillable PDF or File Request that you would like to hide. Click the three dots to the right of the file name and click Hide.
View Hidden Files
You can view your currently hidden files by clicking on the "Filters" button, and selecting Hidden documents.
View, Print, and Download Completed Paperwork
There are two options for viewing, printing, and downloading paperwork.
Individual submissions: forms, fillable PDFs, and file requests can be viewed, printed, and downloaded from the Students tab or by clicking on a specific document from the Paperwork tab.
CSV files: The responses to forms and fillable PDFs can be downloaded as CSV files.
PDF files: All completed fillable PDFs can be downloaded in one ZIP folder.
Individual Submissions
Documents can be accessed from the Students tab or by clicking on a specific document from the Paperwork tab.
View, print, and download document submissions from the Student tab
Navigate to My School and then Students. Click on the student whose paperwork you would like to view.
Click Paperwork from the top bar.
Find the document that you would like to view and click view.
The document will open on your screen. You can view, download, and print it from here.
💡 You will only be able to view completed Fillable PDFs/forms. If the Fillable PDF or form is incomplete, the view button will not appear.
View, print, and download Form submissions from the Paperwork tab
From the Paperwork tab, find the form that you would like to view.
Click the form to view an overview of all students assigned to the document.
Click the three dots next to the student's name and then click view.
The document will open on your screen. You can view, download, and print it from here.
All Submissions
Download Form Responses as CSV Files
Navigate to Forms from your Paperwork dashboard.
Click on the form that you would like to download responses for.
Click the white Download Responses button in the top right corner of your screen.
💡 Form responses will download as a ZIP file. Double-click the ZIP file to open the folder, which will contain a CSV file containing all of the form responses. You will also see a folder containing CSV files with each student's responses.
Download Fillable PDF Responses as CSV or PDF Files
Navigate to Fillable PDFs from your Paperwork dashboard.
Click on the fillable PDF for which you would like to download responses.
Click the white Download Responses button in the top right corner of your screen.
Select whether you want to download the responses as a PDF or CSV.
If you select PDF, a ZIP file will download. The ZIP file will contain a PDF copy of the document for each student.
🚨 If the fields in the Fillable PDF do not have labels, the headers on the CSV file will be a string of random numbers and letters. You can edit your Fillable PDF to include labels for each field.
Paperwork Expiration Dates
Expiration dates can be added to forms, documents, and file requests. There are two types of expiration dates that you can set on paperwork:
Expiration after a certain number of months after submission
Expiration on a specific date
Add an Expiration Date for Forms or Fillable PDFs
On the Paperwork tab, navigate to Fillable PDFs or Forms.
Click on the three dots next to the form or fillable PDF that you would like to edit and select edit.
Navigate to the settings tab at the top of your screen.
Turn on the expiration date setting. Two options will appear: "expires a certain amount of time after submission" and "expires on specific date."
Select the date or amount of time after submission that the document should expire and click save changes.
Add an Expiration Date for File Requests
On the Paperwork tab, navigate to File Requests.
Click the three dots next to the File Request that you would like to edit and select edit.
Turn on the expiration date setting. Two options will appear: "expires a certain amount of time after submission" and "expires on specific date."
Select the date or amount of time after submission that the document should expire and click save.
View Expired Paperwork
When you have paperwork that includes an expiration date, you can view expired paperwork from the Paperwork tab.
From the Paperwork tab, navigate to the Overview.
All the way to the right of all the headings that show in the table, click on the gear icon to adjust table headers.
A list of Selected Columns and Unselected Columns will appear in the upper right of the screen. Ensure that "Expired" is included as a Selected Column. If it is not, find it from the list below Unselected Column and move the toggle so that it shows green.
"X out" of the "Adjust Table Headers" window and you will see that "Expired" has been added as a column to the table. You can view a count for expired paperwork within this column.
Overdue Paperwork Notifications
Notifying guardians of overdue paperwork is an effective way to encourage them to complete the required documents. Overdue paperwork notifications can be sent for Fillable PDFs or File Requests.
From the Paperwork tab, navigate to the Fillable PDF or File Request for which you would like to send a notification.
Select the check boxes next to the names of the students you would like to send reminders to.
When a check box is selected, a grey bar will appear at the top of the screen. Click send from this grey bar, and an email reminder will be sent to the primary guardian.