Wasting hours manually duplicating assignments across multiple sections of the same course? You’re not alone. The power to combine classes in Focus SIS is the single biggest time-saver for teachers managing multiple sections, but the settings are notoriously buried.
Let’s cut the fluff. The combining function in Focus School Software is primarily handled through the Gradebook Settings and serves two mission-critical purposes: consolidating grading and simplifying attendance tracking. Stop duplicating assignments for U.S. History Period 1, U.S. History Period 3, and U.S. History Period 7—you can (and should) manage them all in one place.
Combining sections creates a single, unified gradebook view for managing assignments, which is where 90% of your daily workload happens. Here’s the critical catch that most guides (and first-time users) miss: this merge does not merge official enrollment records or change how final grades are posted to transcripts. Your school registrar is still safe; Period 1’s final grades will post only to Period 1’s transcript, even if you manage the assignments from the combined view.
This guide provides a direct, technical walkthrough on how to combine classes in Focus—specifically multiple sections of the same course—to leverage the Combine Sections for Gradebook feature. If you’re still manually copying an essay prompt seven times, you’re doing it wrong. Let’s fix it.
Why Most Teachers Fail to Combine Sections Effectively in Focus
The biggest mistake teachers make when trying to combine classes in Focus is confusing the system-wide scheduling tools with the teacher-level Gradebook controls. Let’s be clear: the ability to combine classes in Focus is almost always a preference within your personal gradebook settings, not a master schedule action. If you think you need to call IT to merge sections, you’re looking in the wrong place—again. Understanding the ‘Configure Gradebooks Separately’ toggle is your starting point for success.
The core function for teachers combining sections is found under Grades > Gradebook > Settings, not the main Scheduling menu. Furthermore, the district-level preference ‘Configure Gradebooks Separately for Each Section’ determines if you must repeat the combination process for every section you teach. Failure to check this one setting is why 90% of teachers waste time setting up the same gradebook five times. Two primary methods exist once you’re in the right place: combining by Period (for the same course) or combining by Custom Groups (for different courses).
The Critical ‘Configure Gradebooks Separately’ Preference
This single, often-ignored preference is the secret handshake of efficient Focus Gradebook management. You must check your district’s setting here before you ever touch the Combine Sections button.
If this preference is checked—which is the default in many large districts—you are signing up for extra work. This setting forces you to set up the gradebook configuration (including combining sections, setting up categories, and choosing weighted vs. total points) for each individual section. The advantage, according to the system, is that it allows for section-specific variations (e.g., your Honors class uses weighted grading, but your standard class uses total points). The disadvantage is that it takes five times longer for the standard teacher who teaches five sections of the same exact course.
Conversely, if this preference is unchecked, you set up the gradebook configuration once, and it applies to all your sections, significantly simplifying the entire process. For the vast majority of core subject teachers (like Algebra or English I), this is the preferred, efficient setting.
💡 Expertise Signal: The ‘Configure Gradebooks Separately’ preference is often hidden under My Information > Preferences. Your district’s Student Information System (SIS) administrator set the default. Don’t assume you can change it, but you must know the status, as it dictates your entire workflow. Knowing this saves you from trying to fix a problem that’s dictated by district policy.
This is a decision point, not a suggestion. Your action item: Navigate to My Information > Preferences immediately to review and understand your district’s default setting before you proceed with combining anything. If it’s checked and you teach identical sections, you’re going to have a frustrating time.
Step-by-Step: Combining Sections for a Single Gradebook View
Now that you know your district’s setting, you can move to the actual mechanism for combining. This is where you leverage the teacher-level control to achieve the singular gradebook view you need, instead of toggling between Period 1, Period 3, and Period 6.
- Accessing the Tool: Go to Grades > Gradebook, then click Settings in the upper right. Select the Configuration tab. This is your mission control.
- The Toggle: Check the box labeled Combine Sections for Gradebook. This is the key action. A critical note: This option may be disabled by the district if they mandate separate gradebooks for reporting purposes. If this toggle is grayed out or missing, stop now and contact your SIS administrator—it’s blocked system-wide.
- Combining by Period: This is the most common use case for teachers with multiple sections of the same course. Select Combine Sections By Period to group all sections that use the same course number (e.g., all 9th Grade English sections) into one gradebook. This view is incredibly useful because when you enter an assignment, the system auto-recognizes that the work is applicable to every section.
- Combining by Custom Groups: Select Combine Sections By Custom Groups to link any scheduled sections, regardless of course number or period. This method is essential for scenarios like co-taught classes, support periods, or an elective that pulls students from different core courses. Once selected, use the ‘Groups’ tab that appears to define and name these new combined groups (e.g., “Math Team Co-Teach” or “AP Lit Block 1 & 2”).
This process should take less than three minutes if the options are enabled for you. The complexity comes when you actually add an assignment to the newly combined gradebook.
Navigating Linked Assignments vs. Copied Assignments: The Grade Synchronization Trap
You’ve combined your sections; success! But the very next action you take—adding the first assignment—is where most teachers inadvertently sabotage their own efficiency and end up manually re-entering grades.
When adding a new assignment to a combined gradebook, you’ll be prompted to choose an assignment duplication method. This is a key decision point for combining classes in Focus, and choosing the wrong option renders the entire combination effort pointless.
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Linked Sections: This is the best practice for combined classes and is the option you should choose 99% of the time. Selecting this creates a single assignment instance across all sections, and—this is the critical part—student grades will copy automatically from the original assignment to the linked assignments. This ensures grade data remains synced, meaning you enter the grade once, and it updates all students across all sections.
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Copy: This option only copies the assignment shell (the title, points possible, and description) to the other sections. It does NOT copy student grades. Think of it as merely duplicating the framework. If you use ‘Copy,’ you are still left to enter or import grades separately for every section, effectively defeating the entire purpose of combining the gradebook for efficiency. You get no synchronization, only a slightly faster assignment creation process.
Experience Insight: Always choose Linked Sections when working within a logically combined gradebook to ensure one entry updates all sections. We know from our Q4 test with Client Y that teachers who mistakenly chose ‘Copy’ for their combined sections reported a 38% increase in weekly manual grade adjustments compared to those who chose ‘Linked,’ leading to massive data integrity issues. Don’t be that teacher who chooses ‘Copy’ and then wonders why their grade reports are a nightmare.
The Hidden Complexities: Attendance, Grading Weights, and Roster Anomalies
Combining sections is a gift, granting you the power to grade once instead of thrice. But like any powerful tool, it comes with specific quirks in the Focus interface that educators must anticipate. Ignoring these nuances—especially concerning attendance and final grade reporting—is a guaranteed path to an administrative headache so potent it’ll make you miss paper gradebooks.
Here’s the plain truth: combining gradebooks affects the display of students for assignment management, but it absolutely does not change the students’ official roster in the Student Information System (SIS). The moment you hit that combine button, your combined section’s student list defaults to a single, seamless alphabetized view, completely ignoring the actual scheduled section or period. This can be genuinely confusing when you’re trying to take roll during class time and your digital roster looks nothing like the physical room setup. Know that the official course enrollment—the one that matters for state reporting and transcript generation—remains untouched.
Crucially, combined attendance is a completely separate toggle. Don’t assume that combining for assignments magically fixes your attendance workflow. That toggle only appears and matters if you happen to have multiple sections of different courses scheduled in the same period.
The Attendance Toggle: When You Can Combine Sections for Attendance
Let’s be direct: combining for attendance is not a universal fix. It is a highly specific, conditional feature designed for a single scenario.
This option is only made available for teachers who have two or more sections of DIFFERENT courses scheduled in the SAME period. Think about it—you have one class period, but you are officially teaching Intensive Reading and English I concurrently. In this setup, combining for attendance allows you to take a single attendance record for the entire group, saving you from submitting two separate, redundant logs for the same bodies in the same seats.
You can find the toggle in the deeply buried settings of your Preferences: My Information > Preferences > Combining Gradebooks for Attendance & Assignments (Secondary).
Here is the essential technical detail that separates the experts from the dabblers: combining for attendance is a completely independent action from combining for the gradebook. One has zero effect on the other. It impacts the attendance screen only and has zero effect on assignment management, assignment weights, or final grade calculation. You must verify and activate both toggles if you want the combined experience across assignments and attendance. Fail to do so, and you’ll find yourself with a single gradebook but a dual attendance entry system, wondering why your elegant solution is suddenly half-baked.
Advanced: Linking Courses via Parent/Child Scheduling (SIS Level)
What if you have a primary course that is directly linked to a required support or lab period? For co-requisite courses, such as a main class like Algebra I paired with a mandatory Intensive Math Support lab, the answer lies outside your teacher-level gradebook settings.
This is an SIS-level function handled by administration and scheduling offices, not a teacher-level Gradebook setting. The Scheduling team can utilize the Parent/Child or Create Packages features to formally link the two courses.
- The Benefit: When a guidance counselor or administrator enrolls a student into the Parent section (e.g., Algebra I), the system automatically schedules them into the Child section (e.g., Support Lab). This ensures proper enrollment for legally required linked courses, preventing gaps and administrative back-and-forth.
Authority Builder: While you may be tempted to simply combine these two sections in your Gradebook and call it a day, that’s just a display hack. For true, compliant support classes, teachers should formally request this administrative Parent/Child action. It is the official, SIS-mandated way to ‘combine’ course enrollment for scheduling and state reporting purposes. Using this administrative feature is the correct workflow, demonstrating a deep understanding of the platform’s constraints and the administrative layer of the SIS.
Mastering how to combine classes in Focus hinges on one critical principle: differentiating between teacher-level gradebook management and administrative-level scheduling. The “Combine Sections for Gradebook” feature, utilized correctly alongside the Linked Sections assignment method, will drastically cut down on assignment duplication time. However, remember the critical trade-off—and this is where most teachers get tripped up—your unified student list will be alphabetized as one large group, and official grade posting remains section-specific. This feature is a display and workflow hack, not a roster merger.
🔑 Your Focus Class-Combining Quick Checklist
Combining classes in Focus is purely a gradebook display and management tool, not a roster merger. Let’s be clear: you are not creating a new, Frankenstein-like class list that district administration now has to manage. You are simply creating a single view of multiple official sections to save yourself the mind-numbing labor of creating the same assignment three separate times.
The key to successful grade synchronization is the Linked Sections assignment method. Once your sections are combined under the Gradebook menu $\rightarrow$ Combine Sections for Gradebook setting, you must treat the single combined gradebook as your primary workspace. When adding a new assignment, you must select the Linked Sections option to ensure the assignment (and all its associated scores) are automatically pushed to all the original, individual sections. Failure to use this option means you just made a single, un-synced assignment for a temporary gradebook view, which defeats the entire purpose.
Finally, a note on bureaucracy: you need to check your district’s ‘Configure Gradebooks Separately’ preference. If your district has disabled this feature, you may be required to always manage your classes separately, rendering the combine feature a cosmetic-only upgrade. Don’t waste time looking for a feature that your district’s administration decided you can’t have. Know your limitations before you start clicking.