Summer's been busy at Orah
Grant Dyer
•
July 31, 2026
Product Update · Summer 2026
37
Releases
10
Release Dates
Jun 17 – Jul 28
Window
While school was out, the team was heads-down shipping releases to get the platform ready for the new year: smarter attendance tools, smoother pass management, and deeper pastoral insight. Here's everything that landed, and what's coming next.
Most Requested
The six features you've been asking us for, now live.
Attendance
One Email for All Attendance Alerts
Scheduled Attendance Alerts can send one summarised email for all qualifying students instead of one per student, so it's easier to spot patterns and prioritise follow-ups.
Attendance
A Faster, Smarter Date Picker
Rebuilt date picker with arrow-stepping, single and range selection, saved custom ranges, and a persistent default view. No more resetting filters every time you switch dates.
Events
Take Attendance at School Events
Staff can run a roll check for events and trips separately from academic attendance, with present students auto-excused from overlapping classes.
Technology & Administration
Impersonation: See Orah Exactly as Your Staff and Students Do
Admins can view any active user's exact experience for troubleshooting, with a banner and full dual-attribution audit logging.
Attendance
Catch Every Student and Teacher Who Needs Follow-Up
A single Daily Reconciliation view surfaces absences, lates, overdue rolls, and passes, built for closing out the day before parent notifications fire.
Attendance
Scan to Check In: QR & Barcode Scanning for General Check-In/Out
Staff can scan a student QR code or ID barcode to check them in and out at any general check-in point.
Attendance
11 releases
Get a Full Snapshot of Any Student on their Profile
A new Schedule tab on student profiles shows classes, passes, and events, with inline editing and bulk attendance updates.
Catch Every Student and Teacher Who Needs Follow-Up
A single Daily Reconciliation view surfaces absences, lates, overdue rolls, and passes with student schedules and contacts alongside.
Give Parents Visibility into Attendance via Mobile App
Families app now shows attendance rate, daily and class breakdowns, and real-time alerts with quick actions.
See a Student's Concerns on Their Profile
A new Concerns tab on student profiles shows every concern tied to that student in one place.
A Smoother Attendance Experience on Android
My Schedule can be set as the Android default tab, with save confirmations and default-present rolls.
A Faster, Smarter Date Picker
Rebuilt date picker with arrow-stepping, range selection, saved ranges, and a persistent default view across Records, Insights, and Passes.
Handle Late Attendance Updates Your Way
Choose whether late-arriving attendance changes queue for next send, go out immediately, or just open a staff concern.
Open Automatic Roll Details From Group Records Page
Automatic Roll entries on the Group Records page are now clickable, opening details inline like manual rolls always did.
Scan to Check In: QR & Barcode Scanning for General Check-In/Out
Staff can scan a student QR code or ID barcode to check them in and out at any general check-in point.
Coming Soon
Map Late and Absent Codes Separately: Dual Codes
Late and absent states can be mapped to separate attendance codes, so each one syncs to your SIS as the right code.
Coming Soon
Set Your Own Late and Absent Rules using Class Attendance Policies
Schools set their own late and absent thresholds per year level, with a live drag-to-preview tool.
Attendance Alerts
3 releases
One Email for All Attendance Alerts
Scheduled Attendance Alerts can send one summarised email covering all qualifying students instead of one per student.
Set Attendance Alerts to the Minute
Alert timing can now be set in minutes rather than only hours, to match your duty-of-care response protocols.
See Class Records Directly in Alert Emails
Attendance alert emails now show the contributing class records right in the message body.
Passes
7 releases
Standardised Pass Type Settings
Five ready-made pass type templates simplify setup into just the relevant fields, with required fields locked in.
Always Know Which Rules a Pass Is Running On
Older passes now show an indicator and side-by-side comparison when running on pre-update settings.
Choose When Parent-Scheduled Passes Activate
Passes can activate automatically at scheduled time, or only once a student checks out in person.
Edit Pass Types on Submitted Requests
Staff can change the pass type on a submitted request directly from the pass modal, no resubmission needed.
Cleaner Pass Reasons in Families App
Parents now see only descriptive reason text, without internal Excused or Unexcused labels.
Full Pass History Now Visible to Families
Parents can see a child's complete pass history, declined, ended, requested, active, and upcoming, each clearly labelled.
Only See Pass Actions You Can Take
Approve and Decline buttons only appear for pass types a staff member actually has permission to act on.
Events
5 releases
Add a Waitlist to Any Capacity Limited Event
Capacity-limited events can queue students on a waitlist and auto-promote them when a spot opens.
Take Attendance at School Events
Staff can run a roll check for events and trips separately from academic attendance, with automatic excusal from overlapping classes.
Edit Events Any Time
Boarding events can be edited at any stage, with changes applying immediately to existing passes.
Export Your Event Details
Export filter-aware attendee lists and details straight from any event to a spreadsheet.
Coming Soon
See Every Change Made to an Event
A new Changelog tab on every event logs what changed, when, and by whom, a clean audit trail for staff handovers.
Behavior/Pastoral & Medications
4 releases
Behavior/Pastoral Summary for Houses
AI-generated behavior/pastoral summaries can now be produced for an entire house, editable and exportable to PDF.
Export Pastoral Reports as PDF or XLSX
Pastoral and behavior notes export as a polished summarised PDF or a detailed XLSX breakdown.
Filter Pastoral Notes by House, Tag or Category
Three new filters help you spot patterns within a specific group instead of the whole school.
Coming Soon
Administer Medication in Half Doses
Doses can be entered and administered in half-steps across the medication catalogue, prescriptions, and dispensary.
Technology & Administration
9 releases
Impersonation: See Orah Exactly as Your Staff and Students Do
Admins can view any active user's exact experience for troubleshooting, with full dual-attribution audit logging.
Open API: Read Improvements
Adds student list filters, single staff lookup, group and reason-code listing, and a daily attendance timeline endpoint, all additive with no breaking changes.
FACTS Student Field Mapping Improvement
Schools using FACTS can map a student's nickname as their displayed first name, with formal name as fallback.
Blackbaud: Sync Schedule Block Letter & Room Name into Orah
Blackbaud section names can now include the Block letter and room, with rooms syncing as their own field.
Sync Staff Photos from Blackbaud and Veracross
A new setting brings staff profile photos across during sync from either SIS.
Blackbaud: Sync Staff Preferred Names
Staff preferred names can now sync from Blackbaud instead of only legal first names.
Reorder User Roles with Drag and Drop
Drag-and-drop reordering of User Roles in Admin Console, or sort alphabetically with one click.
Manage Multiple Contacts with Bulk Actions
Select multiple contacts at once to send invitations, resend reminders, change login methods, or delete records in bulk.
Filter Contacts by House, Tag, or Status
New filters for house, tag, connection status, and relationship type on the Contacts page.
Questions about any of these releases?
Reach out to your CSM, or browse the full changelog at orah.featurebase.app/changelog.
Product Update
Download the 2026 State of Independent School Safety Report
In partnership with ATLIS and True North Research, we surveyed 85 independent schools across the US to create this 50-page report. Download your digital copy for free.
Grant Dyer
Grant Dyer is Head of Customer Success at Orah. He leads a team of CSMs responsible for onboarding, adoption, and long-term school success. Prior to Orah, he spent nearly twenty years at Beanfield, scaling the company from a small startup to a national telecom as SVP.
