Student Display Names
Display Names In Saint Paul Public Schools
Saint Paul Public Schools is committed to ensuring all students experience a positive school and district culture. Respecting all students’ names across traditional in-person classrooms and digital, personalized learning environments is important to communicating to students that their identities are recognized and valued.
History
When SPPS implemented digital learning tools and spaces such as Google Suite and Schoology, students’ legal “first name” as recorded in the student record system was used as the display name across systems. This was different from the common practice in classrooms where educators and students often refer to each other by a nickname, common name, or other preferred and asserted name. Asking everyone in a traditional learning space to use a different name for a student was simple and changes could be made quickly.
However, changing a student’s name in the digital learning tools proved to be more difficult and made it challenging for students, families and/or staff to respect the names students wanted to be called in their learning spaces.
Display Name Updates
Students in SPPS will now be able to have their preferred name reflected in digital, personalized learning spaces in a similar manner to what has been common practice in traditional in-person classrooms. For instance, a student whose legal name is “Jordan” but goes by the name “Danny” will be able to be identified as “Danny” in Schoology and Google Meets.
FAQ
- What is a student Display Name in SPPS?
- Who determines the student Display Name?
- When may a student’s Display Name be updated?
- Does changing a student’s Display Name change their Legal First Name?
- How do I update a student's Legal First Name?
- What if a student does not have a Nickname or does not want a different Display Name?
- Who will see the student Display Name?
- Can student Display Name be different for different people?
- Will the student’s legal First Name ever be visible?