International Site Support

Overview

For schools that accept international students, it's best practice to ensure your site is set up for a positive parent experience that shows you value diversity and promote cross-cultural understanding. In addition, it's beneficial to have the same seamless process for reporting and admission/enrollment requirements as you have for domestic students.  Let's explore some best practices to consider during and after your implementation so that all families have the same online experience. 

PRO TIP: As you review this process,  you may think of ways to support other groups of students where something is unique to them such as boarding/day, IEP/504, etc. 

Forms

• Translation:

  • Weglot: Weglot is a translation software that can be used within your site. It integrates seamlessly into your parent portal and will allow the parents/guardians to translate their view of the portal, checklists, and forms. Please check out our Language Translation with Weglot article for more insight.
  • Google Translate: We can add the Google Translate plugin with desired languages to any of the online forms in Finalsite Enrollment. We do caution against its use, however, as Google has sunset its support for the free Google Translate for Websites widget, resulting in concerns about long-term functionality.
  • Additional Note: If your school provides pre-translated forms, we can build the forms using the translations you provide.

• International Forms: Identify international-specific forms that need to be created within Finalsite Enrollment or linked to checklist items from other sites for families to fill out and complete. Some examples include the I-20 form, health forms, transcripts, relocation forms, additional recommendations, etc.

• Custom international fields: Think about specific questions you need to ask on forms, and internal-facing fields you manage within the record to collect international data for reporting.  Use yes/no or single select fields as much as possible for optimal reporting, as open text fields don't allow you to group your data for accuracy or silo data on a specific field value.  To provide flexibility in a response, you can include an 'other' option that populates a text field to support answers outside of your drop-down list.  Some examples of custom fields include language program, citizenship country, number of language-specific years of study, language-specific proficiency levels, language test scores, etc.

Checklist Items

• International Forms: Tie international forms as explained above to checklist items.  Some examples include the I-20 form, health forms, transcripts, relocation forms, additional recommendations, etc.

• International Testing: Create checklist items for all international testing requirements such as TOEFL test results or other language test scores if applicable, placement tests, proficiency tests, language testing, etc.  

Consultants

• Create consultants within your site that are working with international families via the quick action menu (+).  Click here to learn how. If a consultant did not fill out the application form, you can tie them to their respective contacts in your site and email them an authentication code so they can manage their consultee's checklist to ensure all requirements are turned in on time and understood.  Click here to learn how. 

• Communications can be sent directly to consultants via the recipient options when sending communications individually and in bulk. 

Communications

• Include international contact information in email signatures as needed.

• Automate communications with the 'is international' field set to 'yes' to invite families to international events, provide information about international student organizations and/or special services.  This will develop a sense of community, school spirit and a feeling of belonging.

• Include any international specific deadlines in communications or in the 'contact communication area' of the Parent Portal that can be shown/hidden based on business rules for an international field.

Parent Portal Customization

• Include any international specific admission/enrollment contacts information if applicable.  Click here to update. 

• Include international specific information or translation in your form thank you pages, and/or contact communication area as appropriate.  Click here to update. 

Financial Support

• Set up any international-specific tuition amounts, discounts, fees grants, and/or scholarships.

• Include options to support international pay.  

Note about custom payment options

You can set up a custom payment option (such as Flywire) in order to allow international families to pay. Please note that you may only set up one custom payment option. IMPORTANT: This custom payment method will be visible to all students, not just international ones, and cannot be restricted by business rules. 

International Custom Payment Example

If you choose Flywire as the custom payment method, a link to it can be provided on the fee page for parents or guardians who select this option.

Reporting

• Customize filter options in list pages with international specific fields as needed for daily reporting.  

• Create saved searches on international data.