Bell Schedules in Minga

Note: The Bell Schedule feature is available to customers with Plus or Premium subscription plans.

Bell Schedule associates class schedules with periods in the school day using data pulled from your school’s Student Information System (SIS). You’ll learn how to map SIS short codes to named periods, apply schedules to specific days (including early dismissals, late starts, and grade-specific variations), and control where schedules appear in Minga. This feature is especially useful for district and school leaders who want clearer student visibility and less manual schedule and tardy admin work.

Permission Level Required: Owner | District Manager

How Bell Schedules Work in Minga

A Bell Schedule is a digital framework that mirrors your school's daily timetable. It defines the start and end times for every instructional period and passing period.

Below are some of the features of Bell Schedule, who they affect, and how they benefit your school.

Features and Benefits of Bell Schedule

Feature	Role	Benefit
Student's current class is always displayed on the Student ID.	Student, Teacher, Staff, Managers, and Owners	Students always know where they should be, and Teachers/Staff know where a Student has come from or where they should be going.
Current class available in the Hall Pass Dashboard and reporting details.	Teacher, Staff, Managers, and Owners	Know in real time where a Student should be and notice trends on hall pass usage per class.
View daily/weekly schedule on their profile.	Student, Teacher, Staff, Managers, and Owners	Get a quick view of a Student or Teacher's day with their schedule in Today's Schedule. Or, get an in-depth view by selecting Full Schedule on their profile to see their schedule for each day of the week.
Clear visibility into period timing, Teacher names, and room numbers.	Student, Teacher, Staff, Managers, and Owners	The class location, start and end time, and the instructor's name will be clearly visible on the Student and Teacher's schedules in their profile, giving clarity on where students should be throughout their day.
Robust reporting features to identify trends.	Managers and Owners	Hall Pass, Check In, and Behavior reports can show you which class an action was assigned, making identifying trends across multiple teachers simple.
Specific fields in the Behavior History Report to reconcile tardy data in your SIS.	Managers and Owners	The Behavior History Report contains specific fields that make uploading tardy data into your SIS a breeze, with little manual intervention: Class Section ID Period ID Term ID Section Number School ID SIS ID

Essentials for Bell Schedule Success in Minga

Minga requires specific data from your Student Information System (SIS) to build accurate schedules.

Enable automatic rostering.
- Bell scheduling does not support manual file uploads.
Share section, period, and term data.
- Minga uses this data to map what class a student has and when it occurs.

Supported Bell Schedules

Minga supports most standard school calendars but has specific requirements for SIS data formatting. Here are some examples of common supported schedules:

A and B Days
Odd and Even
Exam Days
Early Release
Rotating Bell Schedules (as long as all grades are on the same schedule)

Limitations and Incompatible Bell Schedules

While Minga can accommodate a variety of schedule structures, some schedules are not compatible with our infrastructure at this time:

Data Limitations and Incompatible Schedules

SIS Limitations:

Short codes for more than one period value: If the short code is mapped for more than one period, Minga cannot populate a bell schedule, as we can only support one period per short code. Short codes that have more than one period value typically look like this: 5.1.1.5.2
No period data shared: If period data is not being shared with Minga from your SIS, or partner like Clever or ClassLink, we cannot retrieve the short codes needed to map your bell schedule.
Terms do not have a start or end date: Distinct start and end dates for each term are needed for the terms to populate in the Terms section of Bell Schedule when creating your schedules in Minga,

Incompatible Schedules:

Multiple schedules in one day: Minga does not support when students have different or multiple class schedules set for the same time period.
Multiple periods in one time frame: At this time, Minga can only map to one period for one time frame.
Different schedules for different grade levels: Minga cannot support this type of schedule unless the grades have distinct short codes to differentiate which period is for which grade.
*Different schedules for Jr and Sr: If the short codes are the same for the periods, then Minga cannot differentiate between the schedules; if the periods for Sr have distinct short codes from the periods for Jr, Minga can support this.

How to Enable and Set Up Bell Scheduling in your Minga

Configuring your Bell Schedule in Minga is quick and easy. For a detailed walkthrough, view our full guide here:

Set Up Your Bell Schedule in Minga

Additional Features or Settings

What bell schedule visibility settings can I control?

You can control bell schedule visibility by using Show bell schedule for staff and students and Show schedule on student profile in Settings under Scheduling.

Setting	What it does	Where to find it	Available to
Show bell schedule for owners and managers	Makes Bell Schedule configuration available so you can build Terms, Schedules, and Calendar assignments.	Settings > Scheduling	Owner, District Manager
Show bell schedule for staff and students	Makes Bell Schedule details visible across your school’s Minga.	Settings > Scheduling	Owner, District Manager
Show schedule on student profile	Displays a student’s entire daily schedule on the student profile.	Settings > Scheduling	Owner, District Manager

Troubleshooting

Problem: Staff cannot see their schedule on the dashboard

Solution: If staff cannot see their schedule, navigate to Settings > Scheduling and verify the Show bell schedule for staff and students toggle is enabled. If this toggle is disabled, teachers will not see their daily class list in My Tools.

Problem: Students are missing class data after a schedule change.

Solution: If students are missing class data after a schedule change in your SIS, check to ensure the correct terms are selected for the specific bell schedule.

Additionally, there may be a delay in the changes made in your SIS and the changes being reflected in Minga. These changes should appear after the next automatic sync.

Problem: No schedules are populating on the teacher or student profiles.

Solution: If you have enabled the setting Show bell schedule for owners and managers but have not created a bell schedule yet, no schedule will appear on the student or teacher profiles.

Double-check that the correct term is selected for the bell schedule. If your term has recently changed or updated, you may need to re-select terms on your bell schedules.

FAQs

What information does Minga need for Bell Schedule?

Minga pulls period, section, and term data directly from your SIS during your nightly sync.

How do you schedule lunch times or multiple lunch times?

Since lunch is rarely a designated SIS period, it usually isn't included in the schedule. However, if your lunch has a specific SIS short code, you can map it like any other period.

What would make our setup incompatible with Bell Scheduling in Minga?

Your setup may be incompatible if your SIS data includes:

Missing Term Dates: Terms must have specific start and end dates.
Overlapping Sections: We do not currently support multiple sections assigned to a single period.
Multiple Daily Schedules: Minga currently supports only one schedule per student per day.

Can I see a teacher's schedule as an admin?

Yes! You can view a teacher's schedule by searching for their profile and locating the Today's Schedule section.

Resources

Set Up Your Bell Schedule in Minga

Customize Your School Settings

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