Bell Schedule Domain - Overview

Owned by Stephen Fuqua
Mar 24, 2023
2 min read

Key Entities

This domain contains:

  • A BellSchedule entity, which defines the meeting times and dates for each logical class period. 
  • A ClassPeriod entity, which allows Sections and Bell Schedules to change independently.
  • A Section entity, which is related to a ClassPeriod entity that represents the basic unit for scheduling a section.

Key Concepts

The key concepts include the following:

  • The model accommodates a wide variety of bell schedules, including block schedules.
  • A fully realized bell schedule will include the dates of all the class period meeting times for a particular school throughout a school year.
  • A class period does not have to meet every day. Specific meeting days are defined in the Date element on the BellSchedule entity. This allows a school to have a bell schedule that is special for a specific day, such as for a testing day or a late-start day.
  • A school may have multiple bell schedules defined and may have different bell schedules on the same calendar time period (e.g., for different grades).
  • The BellSchedule entity connects to a Section entity through a ClassPeriod reference. For example, a Section might be assigned to a class period named Block A. The BellSchedule entity contains the information about what time Block A starts and ends on a given date.
  • StartTime, EndTime, and TotalInstructionalTime can be defined for a BellSchedule to aid in state and federal reporting requirements.

Key Entity Connections

The following diagram uses data to illustrate the connections between the key entities in the Bell Schedule domain: