In SchooLinks, select Colleges → College Applications.

The first time you enter College Applications, SchooLinks will guide you through setup, including:

• Personal Details
• Fee Waiver Eligibility
• FERPA Waiver

Personal Details and Fee Waiver Eligibility can be updated later. The FERPA selection cannot be edited after completing setup.

No. You still complete and submit your actual college applications through Common App, directly through a college’s website, or another application platform.

SchooLinks is used to manage your college list, request school-provided documents and recommendations, and track your application process.

If a college requires something from your school—such as a transcript or recommendation—make sure the college is included in your College Applications list in SchooLinks.

Teachers and counselors cannot complete required application documents until the college is listed in SchooLinks.

Yes, if you are applying to a college through Common App.

You will continue to complete and submit your application on the Common App website. At schools using College Application Manager (CAM), you will also connect your Common App account to SchooLinks so your school can help manage required application documents.

Before connecting the accounts, you should generally:

1. Create your Common App account.
2. Enter your high school information.
3. Add at least one college.
4. Complete the Common App FERPA Release Authorization.

In SchooLinks:

1. Confirm that you see the green Connected indicator.
2. Go to Colleges → College Applications.
3. Complete the required College Applications setup.
4. Select Connect and then Link Common App Account.
5. Sign in to Common App and authorize the connection.
6. Select Review and Import.
7. Import the available information.
8. Return to SchooLinks and refresh the page.

No. Once SchooLinks shows your Common App account as Connected, the connection step is complete.

At schools using CAM, connect your Common App account to SchooLinks and make sure the college appears in your SchooLinks College Applications list.

SchooLinks then allows your school counseling team to coordinate required school documents, including transcripts.

If the college needs a transcript or another school-provided document, you should still add the college to SchooLinks.

In College Applications:

1. Select Add Application.
2. Search for and select the college.
3. Select the appropriate application type.
4. Review the application deadline. If it is missing, verify the deadline on the college’s website and enter it.
5. Save the application.

Your school can then see the application and coordinate the required transcript or other school documents.

You should add every college that requires school-provided application documents, even if you are submitting the application directly through the college’s website rather than Common App.

SchooLinks also provides the Record Center for transcript requests outside the college application process, such as scholarships or NCAA eligibility.

Follow your school’s existing process for college-application transcript requests. Your school counseling team can tell you which process your school is using.

First, talk with the teacher before sending the request in SchooLinks.

When you are ready to make the request:

1. Make sure the college is listed in your SchooLinks College Applications list.
2. Select the pencil/edit icon next to the college.
3. Select Add Teacher Recommendations or Add Recommender.
4. Search for and select your teacher.
5. Submit the request.

The SPS college application guide recommends giving teachers 3–4 weeks’ notice before your application deadline.

If you previously requested the recommendation through Common App and the teacher has not submitted it yet, request the recommendation again through SchooLinks.

SchooLinks allows you to track the status of recommendation requests. Depending on the status, you may see indicators such as Fulfilled, Pending, or Declined.

No. Students cannot view the recommendation letter in SchooLinks.

Not every college requires a counselor recommendation. Check the requirements for each college carefully.

If a counselor recommendation is required, follow your school counseling team’s process. The SPS college application guide advises students to contact their counselor for the Counselor Letter of Recommendation Form and make the request 3–4 weeks before the application deadline.

A Brag Sheet gives you an opportunity to provide information that may help a teacher or counselor prepare a recommendation letter.

If a Brag Sheet is available to you in SchooLinks, follow the instructions provided by your school. The student college application materials identify completing the Brag Sheet as an optional part of the recommendation process.

Use the College Applications area in SchooLinks to see the colleges you have added and track application-related requirements and progress.

Always verify the application deadline directly on the college’s admissions website.

If a deadline is not available in SchooLinks, the SPS guide instructs students to verify it with the college and manually enter the deadline when adding the application.

Yes. SchooLinks allows students to track required college application materials and their status. School staff use CAM to fulfill and send documents such as transcripts, recommendations, and other required school materials.

SchooLinks can be used to track application results and enrollment decisions. Continue following your school counseling team’s instructions for updating your college results and final enrollment plans.

Historical High School & Beyond Plan (HSBP) task-completion and response records for students active during the 2025–26 school year were transferred to SchooLinks. These records will be available in the student’s Document Center and will remain associated with their record after graduation.

Historical HSBP task-completion and response records for former students from the prior five years are maintained in the district’s Archives repository. These records can be retrieved by contacting the School Counseling Team, or ccr@seattleschools.org.

Naviance résumés and other student-created files were not transferred to SchooLinks. Naviance does not support bulk export of student-created résumés or other documents.

Students can access Naviance through Clever from Sept. 1 through Oct. 31 to individually download and save materials created or uploaded in previous years that they want to keep. These materials may include résumés, essays, career and college planning documents, journal entries, and other student-uploaded files.

Please download and save any materials you would like to keep by Oct. 31.

Student access to Clever and applications in Clever is unavailable during the district’s annual back-to-school systems refresh through Aug. 31.

Beginning Sept. 1, students who previously used Naviance can again access Naviance through Clever. Naviance will remain available through Oct. 31 so students can retrieve and save materials created or uploaded in previous years that they want to keep.

Naviance should be used only to retrieve existing materials. Changes, new uploads, or completed activities will not be retained. After Oct. 31, documents stored in Naviance will no longer be accessible.

Beginning Sept. 2, students should use SchooLinks for all current and future High School and Beyond Plan activities.

Seattle Public Schools requires SchooLinks to follow strict student data privacy and security rules.

Student data remains owned and controlled by the district, is used only for educational purposes, and cannot be sold or used for advertising.

SchooLinks must limit access to authorized users, maintain strong security safeguards, promptly report any data breach, and securely delete or return data when it is no longer needed.

Parent and student rights under privacy laws are fully protected.

Seattle Public Schools (SPS) takes student data privacy seriously. When student information is shared with SchooLinks, strict safeguards are in place to protect it at every step.

All student information shared with SchooLinks remains the property of Seattle Public Schools. SchooLinks may only use student data to provide services approved by the district and must follow district direction at all times.

Only authorized individuals who need student data to support educational services are allowed access. SchooLinks is required to limit access, monitor for unauthorized use, and immediately notify the district if suspicious activity is detected.

SchooLinks must follow industry‑recognized cybersecurity standards and maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect student data from unauthorized access, misuse, or disclosure.

Student data may never be sold or used for targeted advertising. Information shared with SchooLinks cannot be used to market products or services to students.

If there were ever a data breach, SchooLinks is required to notify Seattle Public Schools within 72 hours of confirming the incident and to cooperate fully with investigation and response efforts. The district would then notify affected families as required by law.

When the district’s agreement with SchooLinks ends or if the district requests it, student data must be securely deleted or returned according to agreed‑upon timelines and procedures.

Families continue to have rights under state and federal privacy laws. Requests to review or correct student records are handled through Seattle Public Schools using established procedures.

Seattle Public Schools requires SchooLinks to:

• Use student data only for educational purposes
• Follow strict security and privacy standards
• Prevent unauthorized access or misuse
• Never sell or advertise using student data
• Respond quickly and transparently to any security incident

These requirements are legally binding and designed to keep student information safe while supporting college and career planning.

The High School and Beyond Plan (HSBP) is a state graduation requirement designed to help students explore careers or college pathways starting in 6th grade in Seattle Public Schools. It centers on students reflecting on three guiding questions: Who am I?, What can I Become? and How do I Become That? Throughout the year, students update their HSBP goals to reflect their changing interests and goals, connecting what they learn and the skills they develop to future career pathways.

With the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 5243 in 2023, OSPI began moving to transition all public schools serving students in grades 7-12 to one statewide platform for HSBP. In May 2024, SchooLinks was introduced as the new statewide platform for Washington State.

On this page, you’ll find a short video explaining the “why” behind this exciting transition, along with key information about student pathways, the implementation timeline, and training and support for educators, families, and school staff. 

Prior to the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 5243, districts varied in what tools they used for HSBP, meaning not all students had access to the same resources. Switching to the universal platform from SchooLinks ensures every student in Washington will have equal access to high-quality career and college readiness tools.

Allows students to adapt and customize their pathway that feels like the best match for them. Examples of these pathways include: 

• 2-year college: associate degrees and workforce credentials
• 4-year college: bachelor’s degree programs and further university preparation
• Apprenticeship programs: hands-on training in skilled trades and technical careers
• Direct workforce entry: immediate employment opportunities, and career training
• Military service: armed forces career preparation

SchooLinks gives students an easy-to-use space to explore careers, plan for career and college pathways, and map out steps toward their goals. Through the platform, students can:

• Discover career pathways that match their interests and strengths
• Explore career and college opportunities
• Track their goals and progress from 7th through 12th grade
• Choose school courses to build on skills needed for their career(s)of interest

With SchooLinks, every student has access to the same high-quality tools to plan a future that fits them.

Using one statewide online HSBP platform gives students and families across Washington access to helpful services, including:

• Assistance for students and families to better understand and navigate the college application, financial aid, and scholarship processes. 
• Ensuring access to the universal online HSBP platform for another year empowers students and families across Washington to access beneficial services the platform provides, including but not limited to: 
• Ability for parents, guardians, and families to learn about how their students’ interests and skills connect to potential career and college opportunities as a means of helping them make informed course decisions and stay engaged in school; 
• Capability for a student’s HSBP to move more seamlessly from district to district, which is especially important for highly mobile populations; 
• Opportunities for students and families to directly connect with school counselors and educators; 
• Capability for students and families to access the platform in more than 100 languages; 
• Options to explore trade, apprenticeship, and military career opportunities; 
• Ability for students to connect with local employers, internships, job shadowing offerings, and career-connected opportunities based on their career interests; 
• Access to essential career and college preparation events, such as career, college, and financial aid fairs; and 

The requirements of the High School and Beyond Plan are described in RCW 28A.230.212 and in WAC 180-51-220. Decisions about whether a student has met the requirements for the High School and Beyond Plan are made locally per RCW 28A.230.212. The HSBP helps to bridge the other two components of the Washington diploma: it helps to guide selection of the individual student’s courses and graduation pathway option, based on the career and education goals identified in the individual student’s plan.

• Identification of career goals aided by a skills and interest assessment.
• Identification of educational goals.
• A four-year plan for courses taken in high school that satisfies state and local graduation requirements and aligns with students’ secondary and postsecondary goals that may include education, training, and careers.
• Options for satisfying state and local graduation requirements, taking into account academic acceleration (RCW 28A.320.195), dual credit courses, Career and Technical Education programs, and graduation pathway options.
• Resume or activity log, that includes the student’s education, work experience, community service, including how districts recognize community service (RCW 28A.320.193)
• Evidence that the student has received information on federal and state financial aid programs that help pay for postsecondary programs, including evidence that the student has received the following information:
  • Documentation necessary for completing financial aid applications, information provided on the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) website about the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and WASFA (Washington Application for State Financial Aid)
  • Application timeliness and submission deadlines, and the importance of submitting applications early
  • Information specific to students: 1.) who have been in foster care, 2.) who are, or are at risk of, being homeless, or 3.) whose family member or guardians will be required to provide financial and tax information necessary to complete application
  • Opportunities to participate in sessions that assist students and, when necessary, their family members or guardians, in filling out financial aid applications.
  • Information on the College Bound Scholarship application and eligibility

Districts and schools must create processes for High School and Beyond Planning that support the following:

Middle School

Inform 7th and 8th grade students of the college bound scholarship program established in chapter 28B.118 RCW.

• By seventh grade, each student must be administered a career interest and skills inventory that will help inform the student’s eighth grade course taking and initial identification of their education and career goals.
• By eighth grade, each student must have begun development of a high school and beyond plan that includes a proposed plan for first-year high school courses aligned with graduation requirements and secondary and postsecondary goals.
• Involve parents and guardians in the process of developing and updating the high school and beyond plan. The plan must be provided to the student’s parents or guardians in their native language if that language is one of the two most frequently spoken non-English languages of students in the district. Districts are also encouraged to provide plans to parents and guardians in additional languages as needed, to the extent feasible.

High School

• Update the plan annually, at minimum to address:
  • High school assessment results informing course-taking in junior and senior year
  • A student’s changing interests, goals, and needs, including identifying the graduation pathway option or options the student will pursue.
  • Interventions, academic supports, and courses that will enable the student to graduate high school.
• Students in foster care, students who are dependents of the state and ninth grade students who may be eligible must also be provided with information on the program. Students in the college bound scholarship program should be reminded about program requirements to remain eligible and provided with information about filling out a financial aid application in their senior year.
• The student’s High School and Beyond Plan should be used to guide the choice of a third credit of both math and science, based on the student’s individual goals.
• For students who have not earned a score of level 3 or level 4 on the middle school math state assessment, the plan must include taking math courses in ninth and tenth grade. The math courses may include career and technical education equivalencies in math, established in RCW 28A.230.097. For students who have not earned a level 3 or level 4 on their middle school English language arts exam or their middle school science exam, districts are encouraged to inform students of supports and courses that will address the students’ learning needs and be considered in the students’ course-taking plans.
• For a student with an individualized education program (IEP), the student’s IEP and high school and beyond plans must align. Students with an IEP transition plan, which begins during the school year in which they turn sixteen, may use their transition plan in support of, but not as a replacement for, their high school and beyond plan. The process for developing and updating the student’s HSBP must be similar to and conducted with similar school personnel as for all other students. The student’s HSBP must be updated in alignment with the student’s school to post school transition plan.

RCW 28A.230.212 establishes the core requirements for every student’s HSBP. Plans must include career and college goals, a personalized four-year course plan, activities that support exploration and planning, and, when applicable, alignment with a student’s IEP transition plan.

RCW 28A.230.215 requires OSPI to provide one online platform that supports the development and management of HSBPs. The platform ensures equitable access, consistency across districts, and portability of plans as students move. OSPI has selected SchooLinks as the statewide platform, with phased implementation beginning in 2025.

No, there is not a specific opt out process for SchooLinks. SPS does have a process to opt out of general internet access.

The SPS Network Use Agreement outlines the standards for appropriate use of SPS computers and internet network. All students with individual network accounts are required to accept the SPS Network Use Agreement when they first log on to the district network and when there are changes to the agreement. Read more about the SPS Network Use Agreement.

Specifically, for parents that wish to opt “out” of general internet access by enrolling their child into a restricted-internet configuration, please email cybersecurity@seattleschools.org.