Home → Admin Portal → Student Records → Tools for Searching Student Records
1.2. Tools for Searching Student Records
PowerSchool provides powerful tools to search the database of students at your school.
On the PowerSchool start page, use the box between the dropdown "Students" and the magnifying glass icon to find students by last name. For example, enter MA to find all students whose last names begin with MA.
Field / Value Searching
PowerSchool stores student information in fields. For example, the "first_name" field stores the students' first names. The "DOB" filed stores the students' date-of-birth. Search the various student fields based on the information you are looking for.
The following is an example of how to search student records.
Suppose you would like to find all of the students in your school whose first name is Jenny. Type the following into the search box:
PowerSchool displays the search results for all students named Jenny. This is a search command line; a line of text that is commanding PowerSchool to perform a search.
Every search command line is broken into three parts: a field name (such as first_name or grade_level or DOB); a comparator (such as =); and the search argument itself (in the example, jenny is the search argument).
The general format is:
[field name] [comparator] [search argument]
On the PowerSchool start page, select the View Field List link below the Search Students box to view a list of available field names.
The following table lists the comparators you can use:.
| Comparator | Meaning |
| = | equals |
| < | is less than |
| > | is greater than |
| <= | is less than or equal to |
| >= | is greater than or equal to |
| # | does not equal |
| in | is [field] present in the search argument? |
| contains | is the search argument contained in [field]? |
| !contain | is the search argument not contained in [field]? |
| @ | wildcard |
Comparator: IN
The comparator "in" is a powerful tool that allows you to verify if the value of the field matches any search argument in a list you provide. For example, to obtain a single list of all 9th, 10th, and 11th graders in your school, enter the following search command line:
PowerSchool displays all students whose grade level is contained in the list 9, 10, and 11. In this example, the field is "grade_level", the comparator is "in", and the search argument is "9,10,11". The search function looks at the specified field for every student and checks to see if that field matches anything in the search argument specified. When entering a search command line, separate a list of items in a search argument with commas.
Comparator: Contains
The comparator "contains" is another powerful search tool. For example, you want to find all of the students in your school who live on Cherry Lane. Enter the following search command line:
PowerSchool displays all students with Cherry Lane appearing in the mailing_street field. It does not matter if the mailing_street field is 194 Cherry Lane, or 24230 Cherry Lane Parkway; anything that contains Cherry Lane is considered a match.
Comparator: !Contain (Not Contain)
The comparator "!contain" provides another search function. For example, you wanted to find all of the students in your school who do not live on Cherry Lane. Enter the following search command line:
mailing_street !contain Cherry Lane
PowerSchool displays all students with Cherry Lane not appearing anywhere in the mailing_street field. It does not matter if the mailing_street field is 194 Cherry Lane, or 24230 Cherry Lane Parkway; anything that contains Cherry Lane is not considered a match.
Comparator: @ (Wildcard)
The wildcard "@" provides additional search flexibility. For example, you want to find all of the students whose first names started with jen. Enter the following search command line:
PowerSchool displays all students with the first name that begins with jen.
Combining Multiple Searches
To search for multiple comparators at once (considered an "AND" search), use a semi-colon.
first_name = jen@ ; last_name = sm@
PowerSchool displays all students with the first name that begins with jen AND last name that begins with sm.
Alternatively, you can perform a search and then another search to "stack" searches.
Special Groups
In addition to simple field/value searching, you may search for special groups, such as "transferred-in". With a single command in the search field, you can select a set of students using criteria which would be impossible to reproduce using simple field/value searching, and which would take a significant amount of effort to produce using the "search in results" functionality.
| Search | Who is Selected |
| transferred‑in | All students who have been transferred into this school, but not yet re-enrolled. In database terms, this means that the "SchoolID" is for the current school, but the "Enrollment_SchoolID" is for some other school, AND that the "Enroll_Status" field is "2" ("Transferred Out"). The "/" prefix is implied on this search. This is the equivalent of searching "/Enroll_Status=2", "&/Enrollment_SchoolID#[my school number]". |
Search Prefixes
There are three search prefixes you may wish to use. A search prefix adjusts how the search is carried out. Note that you will always follow the prefix by a search term; a prefix is never valid all by itself on the search line.
| Prefix | Effect on Search Line |
| / | Include non-active students. Normal searches are restricted to the actively enrolled student body of the school. However, especially when transferring students in from another school, you may sometimes wish to locate students who are no longer or not yet active. Use this prefix to search across ALL students (ie, active and inactive). Note that this may be placed AFTER (not before) a "+" or "&" prefix. |
| & | Search within results. For example, to find all students transferred in after 4/10/2006, search first for "transferred-in", then search for "&/ExitDate>4/10/2006". Note that the "&" must come BEFORE any "/" prefix. |
| + | Add results of new search. For example, to find all tenth graders and all ninth graders with the field "InstrLevel" set to "Advanced" you might search for "Grade_Level=9" and then "&InstrLevel=Advanced", and finally for "+Grade_Level=10". Note that the "+" must come BEFORE any "/" prefix. |