Lottery Preparation Checklist (Step 1 of 3): Review Settings and Configurations

Learn how to confirm your lottery settings and configurations

What's included in this article?

• Confirm your Lottery Priorities
• Confirm your Lottery Design
• Confirm Lottery Groups and Lottery Group Designs (if using these options)
• Confirm that your Lottery Cutoff Numbers are entered 
• Confirm that your desired Lottery Settings are enabled
• Confirm Lottery Settings for Programs
• Confirm User Permissions

Recommendation: Mock lotteries should be run in your sandbox site at least one month in advance of your lottery date to ensure a smooth and accurate lottery. Sandbox sites are scheduled to be updated from production every two weeks, but can be refreshed with live site data at any time for testing. Please contact Technical Support to request a refresh of your sandbox site.

Run a Lottery Readiness Check!

• Found at the top of the Lottery Dashboard page, the Lottery Readiness Check allows you to confirm that key elements of a lottery are configured prior to running the lottery. 

Review Lottery Settings and Configurations

• Confirm your Lottery Priorities
  • Settings > Lotteries > Lottery Priorities
    • Confirm each lottery priority is saved to the correct record (student annual or application)
    • Check that your automatic priorities (those using the rules engine) are triggering properly from the desired form field
    • Confirm if admin should be able to override and change the automatic assignment

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• Confirm your Lottery Designs
  • Settings > Lotteries > Designs
    • Confirm correct usage of entries vs weights
    • Confirm the proper priority groupings are being used for each sub-lottery
    • If entires, confirm number of entries is correct for each priority
    • If weighted, confirm weight is correct for each priority
    • If using quotas, confirm set correctly
    • If using a score based sub-lottery, confirm set correctly
    • Confirm usage of guaranteed placements
• Confirm Lottery Groups and Lottery Group Designs (if using these options)
  • Settings > Lotteries > Lottery Groups
  • Settings > Lotteries > Lottery Group Designs
• Confirm that your Lottery Cutoff Numbers are entered for each program, each grade
  • Settings > Lotteries > Cutoff Numbers
• Confirm that your desired Lottery Settings are enabled
  • Settings > Lotteries > Settings > Global
    • Show/hide results and show/hide waiting list number on Guardian Dashboard
    • Allow Guardians to accept/decline seats from Guardian Dashboard
    • Auto-decline a student’s other applications on Offered Lists once a seat is accepted
    • Offer Expiration / Auto-Decline: if using, confirm that the date and time fields are set, including for the reminder notification 
      • Confirm the content of your offer expiration email templates, including translations
    • Waiting List: Auto-roll up applications from waiting list to offered list (when another application on offered list is declined)
    • Post Lottery: Auto-add eligible applications to lottery list after initial lottery is run* (See below for dependencies to be consider when using this setting)
    • Place Multiples Together: should Multiples be placed sequentially during the lottery? If so, confirm the setup
  • Always Keep Lottery Lists Grouped by Lottery Design
• Review Lottery Settings by Form Process
  • Settings > Lotteries > Settings > By Form Process

• If using Auto-Decline for a Form Process, ranking must be in use
• Confirm if Offered status or Accepted status is configured as the trigger for auto-decline
• Confirm if higher and/or lower ranked applications should be auto-declined
• Confirm Lottery Settings for Programs
  • Settings > Schools/Programs > Edit > Lottery Settings Tab

• A lottery design is assigned
• A lottery group design is assigned, if using (default is "General Lottery" if not using Lottery Groups)
• Lottery notification templates are assigned
  • Are you using the Consolidated email for all lottery results (across programs) in one email?
  • Or are you using one email per program? If so, confirm that your desired content is updated for your assigned email/text templates
  • Confirm translations for your assigned email/text templates
• Do you want to notify an admin(s) when a seat is accepted or declined for a program? Enter one or several separate emails (separate multiple emails with commas in text box)
• Confirm if your Program level lottery settings should follow the Global settings, or are unique lottery settings needed for a program(s)?
• User Permissions: do the individuals running the lottery have the proper permissions configured for their program(s) and for the actions they are permitted to take?
  • Settings > Manage Users

* If you would like to enable the Internal (available to SchoolMint staff only) setting: "Always Keep Lottery Lists Grouped by Lottery Design" for lottery season or confirm that it is already enabled in your site, please contact Technical Support or your Customer Experience Manager to understand the expected outcomes and to run test scenarios in sandbox.

Continue to next article: Lottery Preparation Checklist (Step 2 of 3): Run A Mock Lottery