Session Splits: Simplify Registration, Organize Classes

A Session Split allows families to register for one program while administrators organize students into smaller groups behind the scenes. This is perfect for school districts when they need to manage attendance, staffing, or classroom capacity for large enrollments.

Why Use a Session Split

Use a Session Split when you need to:

• Divide large enrollments into manageable class sizes
• Track attendance separately for multiple classrooms offering the same program
• Assign different instructors to smaller groups within one program
• Simplify family registration while maintaining operational flexibility
• Run an application process for a program

Essential: Planning

A Session Split requires coordination among district staff, site coordinators, 6crickets account managers, and 6cricket engineers. With so many people involved, planning is essential for success.

To execute successful, account managers and the district Expanded Learning team should meet to discuss the key details of a Session Split:

• Program and session creation
• Family registration process, including start and end dates
• Taking a “snapshot” of enrollments for the Session Split
• Determining the requirements for the split (i.e. grade level, student-teacher ratios)
• Assigning instructors (bulk by 6crickets or manual by district)
• Defining the roles and responsibilities for each phase

Set up Process

1. Program and Session Creation

One benefit of the Session Split is that it’s easy to set up. 

• Create a single program with a range of grade levels.
• Create a single session that will appear on multiple school portals or create a session for each location.

This setup makes it easy for parents to register for a program by reducing the number of tiles on the school portal.

💡 Important: Custom questions and payment and payment plans follow students to their new rosters/sessions.

2. Timing of the Session Split

The timing of the Session Split should be carefully considered based on the needs of the district.

A Firm end to Registration

When there is a clear registration start and end date, taking a “snapshot” of enrollments is straightforward. The roster used for the Session Split will be in place when registration ends on a specific date.

Open-ended Registration

In some cases, registration will be open all year—for example, registration for expanded care begins in the summer and may stay open until the end of the school year. In this case, the district and account managers need to decide on a date to take a “snapshot” of the enrollments for the split.

💡 Important: program can “flip over” to a waitlist which leaves registration open but allows you to close the roster for the Session Split.

3. Enrollment “Snapshot”

The enrollment “Snapshot” is simply downloading the students registered for the program. This becomes the roster to use in the split.

💡 Important: If registrations take place after this date, for example, with Open-Ended Registration, the roster will continue to grow and students will stay on this original roster after the split. These students can be easily transferred to the small rosters once they are created.

Complete the Split: Two Steps

To complete the Session Split, requires two steps: grouping students into smaller groups in a spreadsheet and the 6cricket engineers completing the split.

💡 Important: 6crickets engineers need 5 business days to complete a Session Split. Factor this into the timeline.

1. Determining the requirements for the split

There are two options for grouping the students in a spreadsheet:

1. Random grouping based on requirements that the district staff specify, such as grade level and teacher student ratios. This can be done by 6crickets.
2. District staff places students into groups.

💡 Important: If you want to ensure that certain students are grouped together—such as siblings or friends, or students grouped with specific instructors— then the district staff should group students together into rosters.

2. Group students into smaller groups

The 6crickets staff will create a spreadsheet that will look like this using the Power UI on the provider dashboard. Each tab will be a single session roster—this is the “snapshot” of enrollment. 

Add a unique name to a single column (column I)—like room number or instructor name, or a combination of both—to group students together.

If the district does not group the students, account managers will complete the spreadsheet, grouping students based on grade level, student-teacher ratios (10:1 for TK and Kindergarten; 20:1 for 1st–6th grade), and balanced class size. For example, if there are 30 second graders, we’ll create two classes of 15 students each, rather than one class of 20 and one class of 10.

💡 Remember: If the district groups students, plan for this in the timeline— 4-5 days for district staff to group students in the spreadsheet and 5 days for 6crickets engineers to complete the Session Split.

3. Bulk Instructor Assignment (optional)

If you have 20 or more instructors to assign to sessions, then this can be part of the process. It’s an additional process and will require further planning between the district and account manager staff. 

Another spreadsheet will be shared with the district to share the following information:

• Instructor's first and last name
• Email address
• Assigned session

Sample Timeline: Winter Intersession

Program Details

• Start and End date: Dec 22 - Jan 3
• Registration Start and End Date: Nov 1 - Dec 8

Ideal Timeline

• Dec 8: Enrollment snapshot created and shared
• Dec 8-13: District groups students in spreadsheet and shares instructor information
• Dec 13: Completed spreadsheet shared with 6crickets engineers
• Dec 13-20: 6crickets engineers complete split and assign instructors
• Dec 22: Session starts—instructors take attendance

Final Thoughts

When complete, 6crickets will share the results of the split and any errors that might have occurred (i.e. a student enrolls from a program after the session snapshot or a student is listed in multiple sessions).

Completing this work is emblematic of the close partnership between a district and the 6crickets team. It requires planning, lots of communication, and