📋 Manual Account Creation & SIS Sync Considerations: Manual account creation and profile updates apply to schools using manual roster imports or those needing to manually manage specific roles (such as staff, community members, or volunteers) rather than pulling them from an automated sync. If your school uses an automated Student Information System (SIS) sync, manual edits can be overwritten during nightly sync runs. For large populations or automated rosters, we strongly recommend bulk uploading accounts using an XLSX spreadsheet rather than individual record creation, or utilizing Sync Protection to safeguard manual entries.
End-of-year promotion is the most common reason to bulk update grades — moving every 5th-grader to 6th, every senior to "Graduated", and so on. The Update Grades action in Manage People applies one new grade value to every selected person in one save.
Looking for more than grades? Use Bulk edit accounts (identities, account types, and roles) when you need to change identity, account type, app access, or role in the same pass.
Before you start
You need Manage People access. Standard users with the right permissions can perform this action; if you can see the Update Grades button in the bulk-action bar, you can use it.
Grades are a free-text field — the same value you enter will replace whatever each selected person currently has. Decide on the value format your district uses (e.g.,
6vs6th GradevsGrade 6) and keep it consistent across runs.There is no preview or undo. Double-check your selected count before clicking Update.
Step-by-step
Step 1. Go to People → Manage People.
Step 2. Filter the list to the people whose grade you want to change. Two common ways:
By current grade: open Advanced Filters, scroll to the Grade dropdown, and pick the current grade (for example, 5 to find all 5th-graders before promoting them to 6).
By identity: use the identity chips (Family, Staff, Community) and the Students Only / Family View toggles to narrow to students.
Step 3. Select the people you want to update. You can:
Check individual row checkboxes, or
Use the header checkbox to select everyone visible on the page.
Watch the N Selected counter above the table — that's exactly how many records will be updated.
Step 4. In the bulk-action bar at the top of the table, click Update Grades.
Step 5. In the Update Grades modal:
Select a site — choose the site where these people are enrolled. (Single-site districts will only see one option.)
New Grade — type the value to apply to all selected people. Use the same format as your existing grade data (e.g.,
6if you currently store grades as numbers, or6th Gradeif you spell them out).
Step 6. Click Update. The new grade is applied immediately to every selected person.
End-of-year promotion (worked example)
To promote every 5th-grader to 6th grade at the end of the school year:
Go to People → Manage People → Students Only.
Open Advanced Filters → Grade → select 5. The list now shows only 5th-graders.
Click the header checkbox to select all visible students. If the list spans multiple pages, you'll need to repeat the selection on each page, or filter further to narrow the batch.
Click Update Grades → choose the site → enter
6→ click Update.Repeat for each grade level: 6th → 7th, 7th → 8th, and so on, working from the highest grade down. (Promoting top-down avoids accidentally double-promoting a cohort.)
Tip — promote from the top down. Promote 12th graders to "Graduated" (or whatever your label is) first, then 11→12, 10→11, and so on. If you start from 5→6, you risk re-running the filter and accidentally promoting your new 6th-graders to 7th in the same session.
Troubleshooting
I don't see the Update Grades button
The bulk-action bar only appears when you have at least one person selected. Check that you've ticked at least one row checkbox. If the button is still missing after selecting, your account may not have the required Manage People permissions — contact your district admin.
The grade I entered didn't appear on the student records
Refresh the Manage People page. If the change still isn't reflected, double-check the spelling of the grade value (capitalization and spacing matter — 6, 6th, and 6th Grade are stored as three different values).
Can I update different students to different grades in the same batch?
No. The Update Grades action applies one value to all selected people. To set different grades, run separate batches — for example, filter to 5th-graders → set to 6, then filter to 6th-graders → set to 7, and so on.
How do I undo a bulk grade update?
There's no built-in undo. If you applied the wrong value, re-run Update Grades with the corrected value on the same selection. If you can't reconstruct the original grades (because you no longer know which students had which grade), you may need help from your SIS sync or a data restore — submit a ticket via the Edlio Help widget.
Related articles
Bulk edit accounts (identities, account types, and roles) — for changing identity, account type, app access, or role in the same workflow