Configure School Locator

School Locator can be used to inventory educational facilities and relevant districts, communicate neighborhood schools, and promote educational resources available in a community.

In this topic, you'll learn how to configure the School Locator solution to meet specific needs in your organization.

Load data

The School Data Management ArcGIS Pro project includes a series of tasks that can be used to load your existing school data, and manage key characteristics, in the layers provided with the solution.

1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the School Data Management Desktop Application Template.
2. From the item page, click Download.
3. Unzip and open the School Data Management project.
4. On the View tab, in the Window group, click Catalog Pane.
5. In the Catalog pane, expand the Tasks folder, and double-click the School Data Management task.
6. In the Tasks pane, click the Getting Started task group to expand the collection of tasks.

School Data Management is used to load and create foundational school data used in the School Locator solution such as My Neighborhood School and School Locator apps. The solution uses three foundational datasets:

• Schools
• Bus Stops
• Attendance Zones

Schools contains locations of educational facilities (elementary and secondary schools).

Bus Stops contains the locations of bus stops. A unique ID is used to relate to schools.

Attendance Zones contains geographies that define where students will attend elementary and secondary schools. A unique ID is used to relate to schools.

Before proceeding to subsequent tasks, follow the instructions in the Add school geography layer task to add the Schools feature layer deployed with the solution.

Load existing school data

Your school district may have existing schools, bus stops, and attendance zone data, which can be loaded into the Schools feature layer.

Schools use a standard for operational days and hours in the School Locator app included with the School Locator solution. To load existing school location data, designate the type, assign school ID, format the operation days and hours, and edit attributes follow the instructions in the Schools task.

The attendance zones relationship with a schools is defined by populating the School ID field. Establishing this relationship allows the My Neighborhood School app and the School Locator solution to display the appropriate school attendance zone when a user searches by address or defines a location on the map. Follow the instructions in the Attendance zones task to load existing data, designate the type, and establish the relationship.

The bus stops relationship with a schools is defined by populating the School ID field. Follow the instructions in the Bus stop task to load existing data, establish the relationship, format the operation days and hours, and edit attributes.

Create new school data

You may need to create new school data if existing data is not available. Follow the instructions in the Create new school data task group to create new schools, attendance zones, or bus stops.

Note:

Map layers must be visible to create new data.

Configure the Find Your School site

The School Locator solution includes the Find Your School ArcGIS Hub site. This site can be configured with your organization's branding and used to share school information with the public.

Update with organizational information

After deploying the School Locator solution, the Find Your School Hub site layout requires a few updates to fit your local context.

To update the site with your organizational information, complete the following steps:

1. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Find Your School site.
2. From the item page, click Configure.
3. Scroll to any sections that you want to update, hover over the card, and click the edit pencil that appears in the horizontal toolbar, and then edit the content with information specific to your organization.
4. In the side panel, click Footer.

   A custom footer is provided. In most cases, you will need to update it with your organization's branding, contact information, and social media references.

5. Click the HTML box.

   The HTML window appears.

6. Make the necessary changes and click Apply.
7. Click Save.
8. Click the Save drop-down arrow and click Publish Draft.

Share items with the public

Several layer views, maps, and apps included in the School Locator solution must be shared with everyone so they can be accessed by the public on the Find Your School site.

To share items with the public, complete the following steps:

1. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the School Locator folder.
2. Next to each of the following items, check the check box:

   Name	Item type
   Schools_public	Feature Layer (hosted, view)
   Schools_zones	Feature Layer (hosted, view)
   Schools_stops	Feature Layer (hosted, view)
   My Neighborhood School	Web Map
   School Locator	Web Map
   My Neighborhood School	Web Mapping Application
   School Locator	Web Mapping Application
   Find Your School	Site Application

3. Click Share.

Configure directions

Note:

This workflow is optional and doesn't need to be completed in order to work with the solution.

The School Locator app can be used by the general public to locate elementary and secondary school alternatives. Directions to the nearest school can be enabled so users can quickly find the school they are looking for.

Follow the steps below to enable directions.

1. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the School Locator app.
2. From the item page, click Configure.

   Close the Welcome to the App Setup Page splash page, if necessary.

3. Click Nearby > Options and turn on the Show directions toggle button.
4. Check the check box next to the Schools layer.
5. Click Publish.
6. Click Confirm.

   The Authorize premium content window appears with information related to authorization.

7. Click Authorize.
8. Click Launch.

Populate operational hours

Note:

This workflow is optional and doesn't need to be completed in order to work with the solution.

This solution leverages the Opening Hours Specification to display operating hours for a place or service. When you populate the data fully, Arcade expressions interpret the data and display the operating hours in a human-readable format in the map pop-up. Understanding the data specification and options in the Arcade expressions will help you populate your data and display it in the maps and apps provided with the ArcGIS Solution.

Operating Hours specification

The Operating Hours Specification allows you to store a combination of operating hours in a single field but relies on a series of data standards to render the information correctly. To ensure operating hours are displayed correctly, follow the standards below:

• Enter all times using a 24-hour clock without a leading 0—for example, Tu (7:00-19:00).
• Use a two-letter abbreviation for each day, with the first letter capitalized—for example, Mo, Tu, We, Th, Fr, Sa, Su.
• When a location is open 24 hours a day, use 24 Hours—for example, Mo (24 Hours).
• When a location is closed on a specific day, use Closed—for example, Sa-Sun (Closed).
• Enclose all times and closed statuses in parentheses—for example, Tu (7:00-19:00); We-Mo (Closed).
• Separate days and ranges with a semicolon to denote the two (or more) groups—for example, Th-Fr (7:00-19:00); Sa (24 Hours).

Using the standards above, a diverse set of operating hours can be populated for your places and services. Some common examples include the following:

• To specify the place is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. seven days a week, populate the operating hours field with the following: Mo-Su (9:00-17:00).
• To specify the place is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. during the week and closed on weekends, populate the operating hours field with the following: Mo-Fr (9:00-17:00); Sa-Su (Closed).
• To specify the place is open one day (Tuesday) a week, populate the operating hours field with the following: Tu (7:00-19:00); We-Mo (Closed).
• To specify the place has operating hours that vary by day, populate the operating hours field with the following: Mo-Tu (9:00-17:00); We (Closed); Th-Fr (7:00-19:00); Sa (24 Hours); Su (Closed).

Operating hours data can be populated all at once for many places and services using Calculate field values or uniquely entered for each place or service using an application provided with the solution.

Arcade expressions

Note:

This workflow is optional and doesn't need to be completed in order to work with the solution.

The Arcade expressions include several settings that allow you configure the look and feel of what is displayed in the web map pop-up. The expressions work with the operating hours data and web map pop-up configurations to display current information in your map and app.

This solution includes Arcade expressions. To modify one of these expressions, complete the following steps:

1. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the School Locator map.
2. Open the item page and click Open in Map Viewer.
3. Click More and click Configure Pop-ups on the Schools layer.
4. Click Manage, double-click the Arcade expression you want to modify.

   Each Arcade expression has a set of variables that can be configured according to your organization’s needs. Review the expression notes and modify the variables as needed. Do not change anything else in the expressions.

5. Click OK.