Sibling Discounts & Family-Based Fees – Finalsite Enrollment

Overview

Finalsite Enrollment calculates siblings who are enrolling or enrolled in your school by assigning each sibling a number, starting with the student in the highest grade and working down. This is known as Sibling Order (sibling_order), which is a magical field that can be used to give sibling discounts or to apply a certain fee to only the first student in a family. Please note that sibling order only applies for students in an active enrollment status. A sibling order number will not be assigned to siblings in inactive enrollment statuses (e.g. Not Enrolling) or in admissions.

Here is an example where a family has three students - one in 11th grade, one in 9th grade, and one in 3rd grade - all enrolling in the school:

11th-grade sibling will be sibling_order = 1
9th-grade sibling will be sibling_order = 2
3rd-grade sibling will be sibling_order = 3

Siblings in the same grade, such as twins, are assigned two different numbers with the sibling who was created first (based on timestamp) in the Finalsite Enrollment system assigned a sibling order first.

Sibling order will be recalculated any time a new sibling enters enrollment. This means if an older sibling enrolls at a later date, all siblings will have their sibling order number rest.

How-To: Use Sibling Order to Assign Discounts/Fees

Sibling order can be used in a contract fee rule to assign tuition discounts or fees based on which sibling order number a student has assigned to them. To get these fee rules set up, please contact our Support Team and include information about your fees and how you want them to be assessed to siblings.

Example sibling discount structure:

if sibling_order = 1 - full tuition amount - apply no discount
if sibling_order = 2 - apply a 5% tuition discount
if sibling_order = 3 - apply a 10% tuition discount

Example family-based fee structure:

if sibling_order = 1 - apply the family registration fee
if sibling_order = 1 - do not apply the family registration fee

This means that the registration fee would only apply to the contract for the first sibling (sibling_order = 1), and not any younger siblings. This is useful when you have fees that should be applied per family instead of per student. For families with only a single student attending, the fee will still be charged.

Use case not supported via the sibling order feature:

If there are multiple students attending the school, give a discount to all students including the first sibling. This cannot be accomplished via the sibling_order functionally. A flat field could be created if either set by the school or filled out by the family.

How-To: Use Family Type to Assign Fees

Because Finalsite Enrollment is a student-centric system, contracts are signed on a student-by-student basis, rather than a single contract that encompasses all siblings that are attending the school. If your school has a fee that is only charged once for the entire family, this can be accomplished by creating a fee that only applies to the first sibling (i.e. sibling_order = 1), as detailed in the section above.

You can also assess fees and discounts based on whether a family is new or returning, using the magical field Family Type (family_type). Returning families are those who have at least one student who is returning to enroll in your school (i.e. enrollment_type = Returning), even if there are siblings who are new to the school (i.e. enrollment_type = New). New families do not have any students who have previously attended the school.

Examples:

if family_type = new - apply the new family fee of $500
if family_type = returning - apply the returning family fee of $200

Additional Resources