Getting Started & Setting Up Contacts FAQ

Each district/college will have one primary CTE contact who is that district/college’s ‘power user.’ They are able to set up all of their colleagues’ log-ins and determine what type of access/permissions they should have. The power user will have access to all modules within the Gateway: https://ColoradoCTE.com. The district/college’s power user is able to provide most permissions as needed.  Please reach out to this user at your district/institution for access.

New users should access the Gateway, and  click the Forgot Your Password? button and type in your work email.  You should receive a link in your email with a reset link.  Reset your password and login.  You will see a screen with a QR code to setup Two-Factor Authentication, you’ll follow the steps listed below to add that to a device.   You may reach a page with a message that says, “Nothing to See Here, Go Home,” click Go Home.  It may ask you to log in again, but do this a few times and it should go through.  The first time you log-in might be a little wonky, so please don’t give up.

What is Two-Factor Authentication?
Two-factor authentication verifies your identity by using two or three factors: something you know, like a passcode, something you have, like a password or key, and something you are, like a fingerprint or facial scanning. Think of your garage code (from knowledge or memory) and your garage clicker (something physical). This process helps with compromised passwords.

DO NOT SHARE YOUR LOG-IN PASSWORD. Do you realize that if you share your log-in you are liable for any actions taken by your user account? Think about it, once we have all of the modules housed in the system–if you can access program approvals, Perkins grant funding, CTA funding, etc. through your log-in, then whoever you share the password with will be able to, too!

  • Make sure the url shows the ‘s’ in https : as in, https://coloradocte.com .
  • We’ve also noticed that if your browser has a setting on to “Block third party cookies” then you will have issues with your log-in attempts. So, for initial troubleshooting, do check this setting to make sure it is off. We’ve noticed the site works better in Chrome and Firefox, not as well in Safari.
  • If you need instructions on how to clear your browser cache, we have a brief video here.
  • When you log on (especially for the first time), sometimes you might be directed to a 404 error page with a message that says, “Nothing to See Here, Go Home,” click Go Home.  It may ask you to log in again, but do this a few times and it should go through.
  • (Mac Users Only)- Specific Review your cookies configuration:
    • Menu > Options  (screenshot 1)
    • Privacy & Security > Custom > Cookies > Cookies from unvisited websites (screenshot 2)

           

How do I reset my account to see the QR code again?

Please click here to submit an issue ticket to reset your account. We have also created a step-by-step process when we have our programmers reset your MFA in the Gateway to see the QR code again.

If you are still having issues, you can submit a technical assistance request via this form.

  • Primary Program Managers
    • Submit programs for review to Colorado CTE
    • Create new programs for the schools they are associated with in universal contacts
    • Edit all program steps within the application process
  • Limited Program Managers
    • Edit existing programs for the schools they are associated with in universal contacts
    • Edit most program steps within the application process
      • They cannot create a Program of Study
  • Program Read only
    • View programs, no edit capabilities

Only the district/college power user can assign Data Collection permissions to themselves or colleagues.

There are three permissions available to add to a user’s profile, so you can select whether you would like a user to have access to just teacher records, just student records, or both.

  • DC Local – Submission Approver – Only one person at a district/institution should have this permission. It is most likely that you as the power user would want to be the only person to have this permission at your district/college. It allows you to finalize and sign off on Enrollment, Follow-up, and Active Teachers submissions before the collection period closes.
  • DC Local – Teacher Record – This allows access/editing capabilities in Active Teachers.
  • DC Local – Student Record – This allows access/editing capabilities in Enrollment and Follow-up.

If you toggle this on the user will automatically appear on every program approval associated with the district/school/college/department that you toggled it ‘on’ for. This feature is independent from assigning user permissions.

Check out a brief video here. In case there’s a specific topic you are interested in, the topics are addressed in this order:

  • How to search existing contacts
  • How to create an account for someone to be able to log into the CTE Gateway
  • How to associate that person to a district/school/BOCES/college/department
  • How to assign the person permissions
  • How the Perkins grant consortium fiscal agents can support member districts in setting up users with the appropriate permissions.

When you created the user, did you toggle ‘This user requires a login’ to green?

When you created the user, did you attach them to your district/college? If you forgot to, let us know and we will link them up–then you’ll be able to edit their information/permissions at any time.

Did you assign them a permission? If you weren’t sure what permissions they should be assigned, check out the question above.

Still having issues? Check out some of the log-in fixes above. If all else fails, you can submit issues via this form.

The process will be the same as it has been historically for designating your primary Perkins contact.

Send a letter via e-mail to Cynthia.Hoeppner@cccs.edu , on District or College letterhead, with the following contact information:

  • Name of the previous primary contact (this is currently the Perkins contact)
  • Name of the new primary CTE contact
  • Title of the new primary CTE contact
  • School mailing address for the new primary CTE contact
  • School e-mail address for the new primary CTE contact
  • Business phone number and fax number for the new primary CTE contact.
  • What permissions does the new primary CTE contact require?

The letter must be signed by someone at least one supervisory level above the new primary CTE contact or by the superintendent if the superintendent is taking over as the primary CTE contact. E-mails will continue to go to the old primary contact until this letter is received.

Program Approvals FAQ

Visit our Pathways page for tutorials for both Secondary and Postsecondary!

Secondary and postsecondary programs are now able to request to link up to a counterpart’s program to demonstrate that there are potential opportunities for students to progress through a related sequence of content across levels. With the old program approval process, you used to email Program of Study templates back and forth between entities–so long as both programs are part of Colorado CTE, you no longer need to do so!

If you are the contact for a program approval, you should receive an automated email whenever another program selects your program to ‘friend.’ You’ll be able to review the program by logging into ColoradoCTE.com, going to your program approval, and then the Program of Study step. You will be able to:

Review details of the partner program (click on the program name hyperlink)

Review a combined Program of Study page that you can save to pdf or print (click on the blank page icon to the right of the program status)

Accept or reject the partner program (click on the icon at the top right of the Program of Study step)

When you click on the icon at the top right of this step, you’ll be taken to the next page where you will have ‘approve’ and ‘deny’ buttons for the Program of Study ‘friend’ request.

There is a ‘Refresh’ button at the top right of the screen—this will be your friend if you encounter caching issues. If there are bugs, you can submit issues via this form.

With the new system, you’ll be receiving auto-generated emails from noreply@cccs.edu. Sometimes a noreply address may drop into your junk folder, so if you aren’t seeing any workflow emails, please whitelist this address.

Data Collection (Active Teachers, Enrollment, Follow-up) FAQ

Only the district/college power user can assign Data Collection permissions to themselves or colleagues.

There are three data collection-related permissions available to add to a user’s profile, so you can select whether you would like a user to have access to just teacher records, just student records, or both.

  • DC Local – Submission Approver – Only one person at a district/institution should have this permission. It is most likely that you as the power user would want to be the only person to have this permission at your district/college. It allows you to finalize and sign off on Enrollment, Follow-up, and Active Teachers submissions before the collection period closes.
  • DC Local – Teacher Record – This allows access/editing capabilities in Active Teachers.
  • DC Local – Student Record – This allows access/editing capabilities in Enrollment and Follow-up.

The site has upload and individual record entry features.

  • If you have a ton of teachers, you’ll probably find the spreadsheet upload the easiest. File format guidance and an Excel template are available directly on the Active Teachers page. The data import overnight, so you will not immediately be able to see the list of teachers appear on that page. Most of the fields are the same so you could use spreadsheets from prior years, just make sure you have all of the headers included and labeled.
  • If you have 1 to ~20 teachers, it’s probably easier to just add teachers individually. When you scroll down the page below the upload section, you can either search for teachers who are already in Universal Contacts or you can add a new record. If all of your teachers are already in Universal Contacts or if you are not comfortable with spreadsheets, it might also be easiest just to add them one-by-one.

There is now a submission approval final step on this page—this allows you to notate to yourself that you have done a final review of your submission and lets us know you are done. When you click the button and hit save, it freezes your data and you will not be able to edit again for this academic year. DO NOT DO THIS NOW. 🙂 Wait until summer after the current academic year has completed.  Active Teachers will close August 31st.

The site has upload and individual record entry features.

  • If you have a ton of teachers, you’ll probably find the spreadsheet upload the easiest. File format guidance and an Excel template are available directly on the Follow-up page. The data import overnight, so you will not immediately be able to see the data appear on that page.
  • If you have 1 to ~20 teachers, it’s probably easier to just add teachers individually. When you scroll down the page below the upload section, you can go into individual programs and then select students individually to update.

Please submit bugs here. We hope the process is smooth, but we thank you for your patience if we need to work through any issues.

Perkins FAQ

  1. Standalone Primary Contact or Consortium Fiscal Agent Contact (depending on participation status)
    1. Edit and submit sections of the local application
    2. Receive emails (i.e. status updates)
  2. Grants Support (Note this functionality will be available in a future release)
    1. Edit most sections of the local application, but not submit

In Universal Contacts, your organization’s power user should designate ONE ‘primary Perkins contact’ per entity by toggling the flag on the permissions page (next to primary program user).  This indicates the ONE person who has overall responsibility for Perkins in your organization.

Join or watch an overview webinar.  Recordings as well as upcoming dates and times will be regularly updated and posted at: https://coloradostateplan.com/administrator/coloradocte-com-trainings/

Start by completing the 4-year strategic plan section of the local application.  This section should be completed prior to the 2-year section because having the big picture in place will help focus your responses in the two-year section.  Within the next week, the annual spending plan portion of the application will also be opened and you may begin working there once you’ve completed the 4-year and 2-year sections.

Live webinars with Q&A will be held on the dates and times posted at: https://coloradostateplan.com/administrator/coloradocte-com-trainings/.  Additionally, recordings from previous sessions will be posted there.

No.  It is important to save your work regularly as you go along, especially before navigating away from the page you are on.  However, it should not time you out as quickly as the old site did.

Yes!  The 4-year strategic plan should be completed first and may be submitted so that Victoria may begin reviewing and you can then move on to the 2-year strategic plan questions.

To edit, click the pencil icon toward the right hand side of the page.  The Grants section of the site defaults to the overview summary of the application questions (and responses if they’ve been entered) as you navigate from page to page, so you will always want to look for the pencil icon to edit before submission.

The first question in the 2-year strategic plan is not required this year since Perkins V data is not yet available.

That said, you may either write n/a or provide a very brief explanation as to whether you think your institution is on track or not since many of the indicators are similar to what they were in Perkins IV.

The 2-year strategic plan section is designed to identify any programs that are identified (by CIP) as being related to occupations that are non-traditional for a particular gender.  Under the Non-Traditional Programs Checklist sub-header is an area that may or may not have a list of CTE programs below it.

If there is no list of programs, that means that currently your organization doesn’t have any non-traditional programs approved, so this question would not apply (at this time).

If there is a list of programs, when you click the button to select those non-traditional programs that will be included in activities to prepare students for careers in those occupations, the program(s) selected will have a blue indicator next to them.

There is a ‘Refresh’ button at the top right of the screen—this will be your friend if you encounter caching issues. If there are bugs, you can submit issues via this form.

First take a deep breath.  Then email Victoria.Crownover@cccs.edu and request that your local application be reopened so that you can complete it – just as you would have done in the old site.  We’ll get you taken care of as soon as we can, but you might need to switch gears to another project while you’re waiting.

Initial award estimates will be sent to the primary Perkins contact on file with CCCS for each grant recipient by the middle of June.   Initial award estimates and the Annual Spending Plan portion of the Grants module in the new site are expected to be available at the same time.   While you may be able to see that the Annual Spending Plan is visible in the navigation bar, it might initially show as locked because the four-year and two-year portions of the local application should be submitted first.

In the meantime, you should continue to plan projects for next year based on the current year’s grant award amount as a ballpark figure, knowing what you would add or cut as needed.  Additionally, refer to the local application questions provided in February, which are also available in our State Plan starting on page 67 https://coloradostateplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Colorado-Perkins-Plan-Narrative-3-30-2020-final-for-submission.pdf.

Use this FAQ and all the ones that follow from https://coloradostateplan.com/administrator/coloradocte-com-faq/

Yes.  By law, Perkins spending must link to CTE programs and to the regional needs assessment results.  That does not mean that every CTE program should be given Perkins funds in a given year, however.

Work with your districts, schools/campuses, departments, and teachers to prioritize submission of CTE program approvals (especially at the secondary level) so that those programs critical to a Perkins application project are submitted first.  Keep in mind that to the extent possible, you should be flexible with the submission date of the local application as it is not due until September 30.  HOWEVER, costs may not be obligated (i.e. paying personnel) until the later of July 1 OR when all required sections of the local application have been submitted. This year may be a little easier since CACTE is virtual and that is often the first big thing in local applications.

For assistance with program approval, please visit the FAQs above

We are sorry for the inconvenience.  If you receive an email unrelated to work you did in the site (i.e. submitting part of the application),  please know any data changes indicated in the text should only apply to our test environment, not to your actual grant application or consortium membership. Our development team is having some struggles keeping emails from going out as they test functionality prior to releasing new stuff to the CO CTE Gateway.  If you are very concerned that there is an issue because something that was working no longer is in the site, please complete the bug form on our FAQ page.  Otherwise, please disregard unexpected grant related CO CTE Gateway emails for the time being.

This 7 minute video link below provides a very clear overview of the local application sections that are required for a local application to be considered ‘substantially approvable’ for FY21 given the current challenges we are all facing in making sure CTE programs are accurate, approved, and that local applications are thoughtfully developed in the short time frame available at this point.   The Word document referenced in the video with the local application questions is attached.  To answer 4-year questions, even if you ultimately submit using Word instead of the site, please reference the Colorado CTE Gateway site and your local application to see the Needs Assessment priorities for your region.

Substantially Approvable/How to submit local application video (no password needed): https://www.loom.com/share/e4bee95c034c430f9d75cf1e5498f9d8

The Annual Spending Plan portion of the site will open soon.  Please watch this 8 minute video (no password needed) for an overview of how to create a project and an expense, regardless of whether CTE programs are accurately populating or not.

Link to video: https://www.loom.com/share/16e1ac95d3fd47a39f609bd095dedadb .  More information and a slightly deeper dive into Annual Spending Plan is also available in the last 15-20 minutes of the recorded overviews of the grants site, which you can access on our FAQ page.

Note that because additional permissions are coming in a future release, I don’t actually know if giving someone permissions will work, or if it might mess up your ability as the primary contact to still edit/submit portions of the application.  We’ll all find out together.  If you still desperately want someone else to have grant permissions:

  1. Make sure the person who needs permissions exists in Universal Contacts and hopefully that they are associated to your institution. If they exist, but are not affiliated to your institution, that’s ok, don’t create them again.
  2. Send an email to Victoria.Crownover@cccs.edu with the name of the individual who needs permissions and note whether they should be able to edit the application or edit AND submit the application and for which grant recipient.  If the request comes from the Primary Perkins contact, we will set up the permission for that additional individual and hope for the best.

We have to prioritize issues right now, so if you can’t use one of the workarounds described in this email, do the bug form.  If you can wait, or work around it, please do so.  We need your help with that.

If, however, you are at a standstill and are stressed about it, please complete this form (https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=MEAN1be8sUGF3vdDzL0q6H2L4zbswgBDkv6RxjYEwBZUM1JDQktSOFc5RFNVNzZGNFc4SktFNlU1Qi4u)  and please be very clear about what the issue is that you are experiencing (frequency, how much it impacts your current work, etc.).  It may still take 1-4 days for a response given the backlog we are currently experiencing across the site as a whole.  Thank you for your patience and kindness to our troubleshooting team.

Here is a quick video overview (no password needed) of the assurances and signatures portion of the site: https://www.loom.com/share/220ef91e4aac490daff53d936f2a83a9