Integrate Apple School Manager with your Student Information System (SIS)
Use Apple School Manager to securely integrate with your Student Information System (SIS). After you have authenticated and connected your SIS, instructors, students and classes are copied into Apple School Manager. You can then assign roles to staff, instructors and students and set their initial passwords. Apple School Manager periodically imports changes from your SIS. Data is never written back to your SIS from Apple School Manager.
When you integrate your district’s SIS to Apple School Manager, it provides a unique ID for everyone in your organisation (including school management, staff, instructors and students). Apple School Manager also tracks changes to classes and instructors throughout the year. So, for example, if a student joins 2 weeks into the year, a Managed Apple Account tied to the student's instructor is ready and waiting.
If you’re (1) integrating with an SIS or importing users with the Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), and (2) using federated authentication, users must have an email address. See Additional Managed Apple Account features for instructors and students. You should also decide how to create your Managed Apple Accounts. See Intro to federated authentication.
After you integrate your SIS with Apple School Manager, you’ll see the name of the SIS and what was imported in the appropriate place—for example, in Users you’ll see the number and type of users
Directory syncing
Apple School Manager uses Claris Connect and includes options to filter by schools and terms, and prevent duplicate entries during data import.
Note: When you use the Claris Connect integration to sync data, your organisation name, organisation ID and organisation address are shared with Claris.
Supported SISs
Apple School Manager currently supports integration with the following SISs:
Aeries
eSchoolData
Follet Aspen
Infinite Campus
Powerschool
PowerSchool SIS
eSchoolPlus SIS
Skyward
SMS
Qmlativ
Veracross
Note: Any SIS not listed above that supports the OneRoster version 1.1 specification can connect directly using the OneRoster option or through the uploading of the Apple-formatted or OneRoster-formatted .csv files using SFTP. (Claris Connect leverages the OneRoster specification that’s publicly available from IMS Global Learning Consortium.) See Upload Student Information System data.
SIS migration requirements
Organisations that are currently using one of the below direct SIS connections must migrate by 30 September 2024:
Powerschool
SunGARD
eSchoolPLUS
Infinite Campus
Important: After 30 September, nightly syncs between your SIS and Apple School Manager work only with Claris Connect. If you don’t want to migrate yet, you must perform a manual sync. See Perform a manual sync.
Download and configure plug-in settings
Make sure that your API Root URL, Client ID and Client Secret are correct. Consult your SIS documentation if you need help finding these values.
Merge data with Sync Assist
The Sync Assist feature patches common issues while it syncs data between your SIS and Apple School Manager. It also filters data imported during the sync. You can use two methods to accomplish this:
Use Patch Data to prevent data with errors and duplicate records from being imported.
Use Filter Data to choose the schools, user accounts (such as instructors and students), classes, courses and locations that you want to import data from.
See Filtering SIS import data and Patching data errors in Apple School Manager CSVs in Claris Connect Help.
Note: Patching and filtering are available only when syncing directly with your SIS.
SIS sync frequency
Apple School Manager syncs data from your SIS based on Sync Frequency settings. These settings are configured when:
Integrating with a new SIS
Reconfiguring an existing SIS integration
Use roster data from SIS
If you’re using roster data from your SIS in Apple School Manager, errors may appear during the summer break or near the beginning of the school year. This is likely due to the school year rollover in your SIS. To address these errors, change the Filter Data option for instructors, students, classes, courses and locations to “Active within next 30 days.”
Disconnecting from your SIS
Don’t disconnect the active connection to your SIS, change information in your SIS, then reconnect and sync with that changed information. For example, if you disconnect, then change 5th graders to 6th graders and reconnect. Doing so results in Apple School Manager having incorrect information for any changed accounts.
Integrate with your SIS for the first time
You must have a verified domain to integrate with your SIS. This task should be completed if you don’t have an existing connection to an SIS. If you’ve already integrated with your SIS, see Integrate with your existing SIS.
Important: Don’t edit user account information after you integrate your SIS with Apple School Manager. If you do, the account is considered a local account and is no longer associated with your SIS.
In Apple School Manager
, sign in with a user that has the role of Administrator, Site Manager or People Manager.Select your name at the bottom of the sidebar, select Preferences
, select Managed Apple Accounts 
, select Get Started, select "Create new accounts", then select Continue.Choose Connect to Student Information System, then agree to the Claris terms of service.
You need to agree to the Claris terms of service only once.
Note: When you use the Claris Connect integration to sync data, your organisation name, organisation ID and organisation address are shared with Claris.
Choose your SIS.
Some SISs (for example, PowerSchool) require that you download and install a plug-in before you can continue. Follow the instructions provided onscreen, then select Continue.
Enter any required information, then select Continue.
On the Sync Assist page, do one of the following:
To configure Sync Frequency settings, select Continue and go to step 11.
To configure Patch Data and Filter Data options, select Continue and go to the next step.
On the Patch Data page, turn off any of the following:
Prevent duplicate accounts: This prevents additional records from being created if incoming SIS data matches existing data based on first name, last name and email address.
Patch errors: This removes:
Any Instructor IDs from the classes.csv file if they don’t match any Person ID in the staff.csv file
Records in the rosters.csv file that have Class IDs that don’t match any Class ID in the classes.csv file
Records in the rosters.csv file that have Student IDs that don’t match any Person ID in the students.csv file
Select Continue.
On the Filter Data page, choose what you want to include in the sync:
Schools
Instructors, students, classes, courses and locations
Select Continue.
On the Sync Frequency page, choose the frequency, time of day and time zone of the sync, then select Save and Continue.
You can view the progress or you can close the window.
If the sync is successfully completed with no issues, you can close the window and continue to the SIS/SFTP Assistant.
Select “Review [name of SIS] data” to make sure the data being added is correct, then select Continue.
Select “Preview Accounts and Classes” to view the accounts and classes being created, then select Create Accounts and Classes.
After the process completes, select Close.
If necessary, do any of the following:
To download a summary of data that was patched during sync, select Patch Summary.
To download the resulting .csv files that were modified during the sync, select Modified CSVs.
Integrate with your existing SIS
You must have a verified domain to integrate with your SIS. This task should be completed if you already have an existing connection to an SIS. If you are using Claris Connect for the first time, see Integrate with your SIS for the first time.
Important: Don’t edit user account information after you integrate your SIS with Apple School Manager. If you do, the account is considered a local account and is no longer associated with your SIS.
In Apple School Manager
, sign in with a user that has the role of Administrator, Site Manager or People Manager.Select your name at the bottom of the sidebar, select Preferences
, select Managed Apple Accounts .Do one of the following to start the disconnect process:
Select Reconfigure Sync in the Directory Sync section.
Select the More button to the right of the Directory sync status, then choose Disconnect.
Note: After you disconnect, all accounts and classes change their source type from SIS to Manual. After the Claris Connect sync, the source type changes to SFTP. Records aren’t deleted and accounts are preserved.
Select Turn off to confirm you want to disconnect from your existing SIS, then wait for the disconnect process to complete before you continue.
Note: The amount of time it takes for a disconnect to complete varies. To view the disconnect status, select the Activity tab in the upper left corner.
Select Managed Apple Accounts
, select Get Started, select "Create new accounts", then select Continue.Choose Connect to Student Information System, then agree to the Claris terms of service.
You need to agree to the Claris terms of service only once.
Note: When you use the Claris Connect integration to sync data, your organisation name, organisation ID and organisation address are shared with Claris.
Choose your SIS.
Some SISs (for example, PowerSchool) require that you download and install a plug-in before you can continue. Follow the instructions provided onscreen, then select Continue.
Enter any required information, then select Continue.
On the Sync Assist page, do one of the following:
To configure Sync Frequency settings, select Continue and go to step 11.
To configure Patch Data and Filter Data options, select Continue and go to the next step.
On the Patch Data page, turn off any of the following:
Prevent duplicate accounts: This prevents additional records from being created if incoming SIS data matches existing data based on first name, last name and email address.
Patch errors: This removes:
Any Instructor IDs from the classes.csv file if they don’t match any Person ID in the staff.csv file
Records in the rosters.csv file that have Class IDs that don’t match any Class ID in the classes.csv file
Records in the rosters.csv file that have Student IDs that don’t match any Person ID in the students.csv file
Select Continue.
On the Filter Data page, choose what you want to include in the sync:
Schools
Instructors, students, classes, courses and locations
Select Continue.
On the Sync Frequency page, choose the frequency, time of day and time zone of the sync, then select Save and Continue.
You can view the progress or you can close the window.
If the sync is successfully completed with no issues, you can close the window and continue to the SIS/SFTP Assistant.
Select “Review [name of SIS] data” to make sure the data being added is correct, then select Continue.
Select “Preview Accounts and Classes” to view the accounts and classes being created, then select Create Accounts and Classes.
After the process completes, select Close.
If necessary, do any of the following:
To download a summary of data that was patched during sync, select Patch Summary.
To download the resulting .csv files that were modified during the sync, select Modified CSVs.
Perform a manual sync
In some cases, you may want to sync manually. For example, you may have had initial sync errors and you want to perform a manual sync to confirm you fixed the errors.
In Apple School Manager
, sign in with a user that has the role of Administrator, Site Manager or People Manager.Select your name at the bottom of the sidebar, select Preferences
, then select Managed Apple Accounts .Select the More button next to your SIS or OneRoster CSV, then select Sync Now.
View and edit SIS information and sync settings
In Apple School Manager
, sign in with a user that has the role of Administrator, Site Manager or People Manager.Select your name at the bottom of the sidebar, select Preferences
, then select Managed Apple Accounts .Select the More button next to your SIS, then do any of the following:
To edit the API Root URL, Client ID and Client Secret for the SIS you’re integrated with, select Sync Settings.
To edit sync settings like patching, filtering and sync frequency options, select Continue.
Important: For changes to take effect, you must complete the sync process.
View sync history
In Apple School Manager
, sign in with a user that has the role of Administrator, Site Manager or People Manager.Select your name at the bottom of the sidebar, select Preferences
, then select Managed Apple Accounts .Select the More button next to your SIS or .csv file, then select Sync History.