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# What should I do with my classes at the end of the school year?

Preparing for the end of the school year or term ensures a smooth transition for both educators and students. This article outlines the essential steps to organize your dashboard, preserve student work, and maintain account access for the upcoming academic year.

###### 3 Steps to Prepare for Next Year

Follow this checklist to finalize your current classes and prepare for the next term:

* [ ] **Review Space Visibility Settings:** Ensure Spaces containing work you want students to access are set to **Visible** or **Active**. Posts in **Hidden** Spaces will not sync to the student's permanent record.
* [ ] **Update Student Emails:** Encourage graduating students or those leaving the district to add a personal email address to their **Account Settings**. This ensures continued access if their school email is deactivated.
* [ ] **Archive Your Classes:** Move completed classes to the archive to organize your dashboard and stay within the 20-class limit.

| 💡 Tip: Set a calendar reminder for the last week of June to review your Space Visibility settings. This ensures students can reflect on their growth over the summer via their All Class Posts feed.
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###### Managing Student Access and Data Retention

SpacesEDU provides different levels of access to past work based on your organization's licensing tier.
| License Type | Access to Past Work |
| ---- |
| **SpacesEDU Free** | Students can only access content from **Active** classes. Archiving a class or removing a student immediately terminates their access to that content. |
| **SpacesEDU Pro** | Students retain permanent access to all posts from past years and archived classes via the **All Class Posts** feed. |

###### Data Retention Policy

To align with privacy and security protocols, SpacesEDU stores inactive student accounts for **24 months**. A student simply needs to log in once within this 24-month window to restart the timer. If an account remains inactive for longer than 24 months, it and all associated data will be permanently deleted.
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###### Archiving and Unarchiving Classes

Archiving is the primary tool for end-of-year organization. It hides classes from teacher, student, and family dashboards while preserving all data.

* **Manual Archiving:** From your Class Dashboard, click the **three dots** on a class card and select **Archive Class**. For detailed instructions, consult our guide on [How Can I Archive a Class?](https://help.spacesedu.com/en-ca/article/how-can-i-archive-a-class-nkdckb/).
* **Automatic Archiving (Pro):** Most Pro districts have classes automatically archived in **late August**. District leads are surveyed in June to confirm this schedule.
* **Unarchiving:** You can restore a class at any time by navigating to the **Archived** section of your dashboard and selecting **Unarchive Class**.
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###### Frequently Asked Questions

**Will students have access to their work if they change schools?**
Yes, provided they are using **SpacesEDU Pro**. Students can access their **All Class Posts** feed from year-to-year and school-to-school. They should add a personal email to their account to ensure they can log in even if their district credentials expire.

**Will teachers maintain access to their activities?**
Yes. All activities created in SpacesEDU are synced to your **Activity Portal**. When you start a new class next year, click **Create Activity** to view and reuse your entire library of past assignments.

**Will family members maintain access to their accounts?**
Yes. Family usernames and passwords remain valid. However, access is controlled at the class level. A student's new teacher will need to send a fresh invitation from the **People** tab for the new academic year.