Release Notes: Form Grants

Published October 22, 2026

Overview

Which organizations can use a form is now set one organization at a time, on a new Form Grants tab. Form sets get their own Forms tab for the forms they contain, and every form gets Archive and Activate controls.

Two changes reach observers as well as administrators. Required questions are now checked on every form when an observation is submitted, and some older observations that showed an empty form area now show their forms again. The Heads-up for support notes below cover both.

At a glance

• New Form Grants tab on each organization, replacing the organization’s Forms tab.
• Grants belong to one organization. A district’s grant no longer reaches its schools, and a new organization starts with no forms.
• The Member organizations list in the Grant Form Access window grants a form to a district and its schools in one step. Select all above the list chooses every school at once. On the account’s top-level organization, the list offers every organization in the account.
• Grant to Members passes the forms a district or group already lists down to the member organizations you choose.
• The form set Forms tab is rebuilt: Attach, Edit, Weighted Values, and Archive or Activate for each form in the set.
• Weighted Values on a form set now saves.
• Forms have Archive and Activate in their row menu and on their page, replacing the Active? switch.
• Form archived and Form unpublished labels show when a form’s own status is why it cannot be used.
• The form set Preview shows only forms that a new observation would offer.
• Required questions are enforced at submit on every form.
• Older observations show every form they have answers on.
• Each grant shows its Availability: its start and end dates, if any. Top-level system administrators can set them.
• Nothing already recorded changes, and nothing recorded is deleted.

What changed: granting forms to organizations

Each organization’s page has a Form Grants tab listing the forms it can use. From there you can:

• Grant a form to the organization
• Archive a grant, so staff there can no longer start new observations on the form
• Activate an archived grant
• Delete a grant the organization has recorded nothing on, for example one made by mistake
• Edit Dates to set when a grant opens and closes (system administrators at the top level of the account)

A grant covers the organization it was made on, and no other. To cover a district’s schools, choose them in the Member organizations list when granting. A school that already holds a grant for the form, active or archived, is skipped, so an archived grant is never reactivated by accident.

Grant offers only forms the organization does not already hold, so it cannot pass on a form already granted here. Grant to Members covers that case. It takes the forms the tab is showing, filter included, and grants them to the member organizations you choose. Use it when a school joins a district or a group that already has its forms. The same skip rule applies, an archived grant is passed on as archived, and each grant keeps its availability dates.

A new organization starts with no forms, and its page lists An active observation form set with a granted, published form under Requirements to enable observations until it has one.

A grant can carry a start date, an end date, or both. The tab’s Availability column shows them, for example Available until 06/30/2027 or Expired on 06/30/2026, and the Any Availability dropdown filters to Available Now, Available in the Future, or Expired. A grant offers its form for new observations only while it is Active and inside its dates. When an end date passes, the grant stays Active and shows as expired.

A system administrator who belongs to the account’s top-level organization can set dates in the Grant Form Access window, or change them later with Edit Dates in the grant’s row menu. Edit Dates can apply the same dates to the member organizations’ grants for that form, so a district can renew a form for all its schools in one step. Changing dates never changes a grant’s status. Other administrators see the dates but cannot change them.

See Managing Form Access for Organizations.

What changed: the form set Forms tab

A form set’s Forms tab now opens first and manages the forms the set contains:

• Attach adds an active form, with its display order and Include score? setting
• Edit changes the display order or scoring
• Weighted Values sets each scored form’s share of the overall score. The previous weighted values window did not save; this one does.
• Archive takes a form out of new observations built from this form set only. Other form sets and organization grants are not affected.
• Remove from set is offered only until the form set has recorded observations

See Adding Forms to Form Sets.

What changed: archiving a form

The Active? switch in a form’s edit window is gone. Instead, a form has Archive and Activate in its row menu and as buttons on its page. Archiving a form stops new observations on it in every form set and organization. Observations already started keep it.

Wherever an archived form still appears, on a Form Grants tab or a form set’s Forms tab, it carries a Form archived label.

See Building Forms and Sections.

What changed: what observers see

• Starting an observation offers only forms that are active in the form set, active as forms, and granted to the organization with the grant inside its availability dates.
• Older observations that showed an empty form area, for example because a form had been swapped out of the form set after the observation was recorded, now show every form they have answers on.
• An unfinished observation with nothing left to fill in now says This form set is no longer available instead of showing an empty page, with a delete button for those allowed to delete it.
• The form set preview no longer shows archived forms. When nothing is left, it says There is nothing to preview.

What changed: required questions

Required questions were always marked on the form, but submit checked them on only some forms. They are now checked on every form.

When a required question is unanswered, the observation is not submitted and the page shows Required questions must be answered. Drafts can still be saved with required questions unanswered. Observations already submitted or closed are not affected.

What did not change

• Every observation and performance review already recorded displays and scores as before.
• Archiving a grant, a form in a form set, or a form never deletes anything, and each can be undone with Activate.
• A grant with recorded work cannot be deleted. Only archiving is offered for it.
• eLearn licenses and assignments work as before.

Heads-up for support

“I can’t submit my observation.” A draft in progress may now stop at submit with Required questions must be answered. This is the check working as intended. The questions were always marked required. Answer them and submit again.

“The new school can’t see any forms.” New organizations start with no forms. Open the district or group the school belongs to, filter its Form Grants tab to the forms the school should have, and use Grant to Members. For a single form, grant it on the school’s own tab.

“We granted it to the district, but the schools can’t use it.” Grants are not inherited. Each school needs its own grant.

“A form disappeared.” Work through the checklist in How Form Access Works. It covers the grant, the form set, and the form itself.

“The grant is Active, but the form isn’t offered.” Check the grant’s Availability column. A grant showing Expired on a date, or Available on a future date, does not offer the form whatever its status. Archiving and activating it changes nothing. Contact Master Teacher about the date.