# Form Responses ## Table of Contents * [Overview](#overview) * [Who Uses Form Responses](#who-uses-form-responses) * [Form Versions and the School Year](#form-versions-and-the-school-year) * [Version Statuses](#version-statuses) * [How Version Status Affects Editing](#how-version-status-affects-editing) * [Accessing the Form Response Page](#accessing-the-form-response-page) * [Filling Out a Form](#filling-out-a-form) * [Saving Your Progress](#saving-your-progress) * [Submitting Your Response](#submitting-your-response) * [Response Statuses](#response-statuses) * [One Response Per Organization Per Version](#one-response-per-organization-per-version) * [Viewing a Response in Read-Only Mode](#viewing-a-response-in-read-only-mode) * [When a Form Becomes Read-Only](#when-a-form-becomes-read-only) * [What You See in Read-Only Mode](#what-you-see-in-read-only-mode) * [Response Viewer — Reviewing All Submissions](#response-viewer--reviewing-all-submissions) * [Selecting a Form Version](#selecting-a-form-version) * [Viewing an Individual Response](#viewing-an-individual-response) * [Exporting Responses to CSV](#exporting-responses-to-csv) * [Form Settings Administrators Configure](#form-settings-administrators-configure) * [School Year and Dates](#school-year-and-dates) * [Display Question Numbers](#display-question-numbers) * [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting) *** ## Overview The standalone Form Response system lets each organization fill out one response per form version. Responses live in their own dedicated records — separate from the dashboard and visualization tools — so submission history is preserved even as forms evolve across school years. Each form can have multiple versions, one per school year. An organization's response is always tied to a specific version. When a new school year begins, a new version is created and organizations start fresh, while prior-year responses remain intact and viewable. *** ## Who Uses Form Responses | Role | What they do | | -------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Agency User | Opens their organization's form, fills in answers, saves progress, and submits when complete | | State Administrator / Site Admin | Monitors submitted responses across all organizations, views individual responses in detail, exports response data to a spreadsheet | *** ## Form Versions and the School Year Every form is organized by version, and each version is tied to a specific school year (also called a term). When you open a form, you are always opening a particular version of it. ### Version Statuses | Status | What it means | | --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Draft | The form is being set up by an administrator. Agency users cannot fill out a Draft version | | Published | The form is ready but the collection window has not opened yet | | Active | The form is open for responses. Agency users can fill out and submit their response | | Closed | The collection window has ended. Responses can no longer be edited | ### How Version Status Affects Editing A response can only be edited when all of the following are true: * The form version is **Active** (not Draft, Published, or Closed) * The current date falls within the form's configured date window (on or after the start date, on or before the end date) * Your organization's response has not been **Finalized** If any of these conditions are not met, the form opens in read-only mode automatically. ### Organization Type Eligibility Each form version can be configured with **Organization Type Restrictions** that limit which types of organizations are allowed to respond. The three organization types are State, District, and School. When restrictions are set on a version, only organizations whose type matches one of the allowed types will see that form in the Form Viewer or be able to submit a response. If no restrictions are configured, all organization types are eligible. * If you are a district-level organization and a form is restricted to Schools only, that form will not appear in your form list. * New versions default to School-only until an administrator changes the restriction. Contact your administrator if you believe a form should be available to your organization but it is not appearing. The administrator can verify the **Respond by** setting on the form version. *** ## Accessing the Form Response Page The form response page is reached through the Submit Collection Data area. When you click the **Edit** icon on a form assigned to your organization, the system opens the form response page for your organization and the current version. The page URL includes two parameters that identify which form version and which organization are being viewed. You do not need to manage these parameters directly — the system handles them when you navigate from your forms list. When viewing or editing a form response, a **Back to Forms** link appears at the top of the page. Both the back arrow icon and the "Back to Forms" text are clickable — tapping or clicking either one returns you to your forms list. *** ## Filling Out a Form When the form opens in edit mode, all questions are displayed in order. Questions marked with a red asterisk are required. If **Display Question Numbers** is turned on for this form version, each question shows its number (for example, "1.", "2.", "3.") before the question text. This setting is configured by the administrator and cannot be changed by agency users. Work through each question and enter your answers. You can scroll through the form and answer questions in any order before saving. ### Saving Your Progress Click **Save** at any time to save your current answers without submitting. Saving moves your response status to **In Progress** if it was previously **Not Started**. You can return and continue editing as many times as needed while the form remains open. ### Submitting Your Response When all required questions are answered and your data is ready, click **Submit**. Submitting moves your response status to **Completed**. After submission, an administrator can review your response and finalize it. You can save without submitting as many times as needed. Submitting signals to the administrator that your response is ready for review. ### Response Statuses | Status | What it means | | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Not Started | Your organization has not yet entered any answers | | In Progress | Answers have been saved but the response has not been submitted | | Completed | You have submitted your response as complete | | Finalized | An administrator has reviewed and locked the response. No further changes can be made | ### One Response Per Organization Per Version Each organization has exactly one response per form version. If you save answers, leave, and return later, you are always editing the same response — not creating a new one. Previous answers are preserved until you change and save them. *** ## Viewing a Response in Read-Only Mode ### When a Form Becomes Read-Only The form opens automatically in read-only mode when any of the following apply: * The form version is **Draft**, **Published**, or **Closed** * The current date is outside the form's open date window * Your organization's response has been **Finalized** An administrator viewing another organization's response also sees the read-only view. ### What You See in Read-Only Mode In read-only mode, each question is displayed with the answer your organization provided. Questions that were not answered show **Not Answered** in place of an empty field. There are no input controls — the page is for review only. Rich text answers are displayed as formatted text. Any underlying formatting markup is stripped, so you see the clean, readable version of the content. *** ## Response Viewer — Reviewing All Submissions Administrators can review responses from all organizations through the Response Viewer. This view is accessible from the form administration area. ### Selecting a Form Version At the top of the Response Viewer, a version selector lets you choose which school year's version you want to review. Changing the version refreshes the list to show only responses for that version. This allows you to compare submission progress across years without leaving the page. ### Viewing an Individual Response The response list shows one row per organization, with columns for the organization name, response status, and submission date. Click on a row (or use the detail action) to open the **Response Detail** view for that organization. The detail view shows each question paired with the answer provided by that organization. Choice questions show the selected option's display label. For "Other" answers, the detail view shows the text as "Other: \[what the respondent typed]". Questions with no answer show **Not Answered**. Rich text answers are displayed as clean readable text — formatting markup is removed so the content is easy to read in the detail panel. ### Exporting Responses to CSV Use the **Export CSV** button above the response list to download all responses for the selected version as a spreadsheet file. The exported file includes: * An **Organization** column identifying each responding organization. * A **Status** column showing the response status for each organization. * A **Submitted At** column showing when the response was submitted (empty if not yet submitted). * One column per question, using the question's **Display Text** as the column header. * One row per organization. For choice questions, the exported value is the display label of the selected option. For "Other" answers, the export writes "Other: \[text]". For unanswered questions, the cell is empty. Rich text answers are exported as plain text with HTML formatting removed. The export includes all organizations assigned to the form version, regardless of their current response status. *** ## Form Settings Administrators Configure Administrators configure form settings directly on the form version record. These settings appear on the form editing screen and do not require a separate settings panel. ### School Year and Dates | Setting | What it controls | | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | School Year | The term this version belongs to. Determines which academic year the response is attributed to | | Start Date | The first date agency users can edit their response. Before this date, the form is read-only | | End Date | The last date agency users can edit their response. The end date is inclusive — editing remains available through the end of that day | If no start or end date is set, the form version relies entirely on its **Active** or **Closed** status to control editing access. ### Display Question Numbers When **Display Question Numbers** is turned on for a form version, questions are prefixed with their sequence number when the form is displayed to agency users. This is helpful for longer forms where question references in communications or training materials use numbers. *** ## Troubleshooting **The Edit button is not visible for a form.** The form version may be in Draft, Published, or Closed status, or the current date may be outside the configured date window. Check the form's status badge and date settings. Contact your administrator if you believe the form should be open for editing. **I can open the form but all fields are disabled and I cannot type.** The form is in read-only mode. This happens when the version is Closed, when the end date has passed, or when your response has been Finalized. If you believe this is an error, contact your state administrator. **My answers disappeared after I navigated away.** Answers are only preserved when you click **Save** or **Submit**. If you closed the browser or navigated away before saving, any unsaved changes are lost. Return to the form and re-enter any missing answers, then save. **I submitted my response but the status still shows In Progress.** Try refreshing the page. The status updates immediately on save, but a stale browser view may not reflect the latest state. If the status does not update after refreshing, contact your administrator. **The Response Viewer shows no rows for a form version.** No organization has submitted a response for that version yet, or the version selector may be set to a version with no activity. Confirm the correct version is selected in the version dropdown. If responses were recently submitted, try refreshing the page. **The CSV export file does not open correctly in Excel.** The file is a standard comma-separated values file. If Excel does not parse it automatically, use the **Data > From Text/CSV** import option in Excel and confirm that the delimiter is set to comma. **A question in the detail view shows "Not Answered" but I know the agency filled it in.** This can occur if the question was answered under a different form version. Confirm that the correct version is selected in the Response Viewer. If the version is correct and the answer is still missing, the agency may not have saved their response after entering that answer. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://nimble.docs.otised.com/guides/form-responses.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.