What this covers
Second Application lets a parent submit new or changed school preferences after an address change, before offers are made, without disturbing their original submitted application. This article assumes you're already familiar with round configuration and EDEM imports, and covers only what's new for managing this phase.
Configuring the Second Application phase
Second Application is a standalone phase type, configured against a round in the same way as On Time, Late, or Continuing Interest phases.
Give the phase its own start and end dates this defines the window parents can use to resubmit.
The phase cannot be saved with dates that overlap Offer, Response, or Continuing Interest phases, since it's intended to run pre-offer only. Overlapping dates are rejected with a validation error.
Second Application isn't intended for In-Year rounds, since In-Year already has its own reapplication process.
Please note: round configuration does not currently stop you adding a Second Application phase to an In-Year round. If one is added anyway, parents will not see it offered on the account management screen, and it will not appear as a downloadable option in EDEM both are enforced independently, regardless of what's configured here. We'd still recommend not configuring the phase on In-Year rounds, to avoid confusion.
Continuing Interest address unfreeze
Continuing Interest phases have historically frozen the address on the cloned application. A checkbox on the phase configuration screen lets you unfreeze it instead, so parents on Continuing Interest can update their address the same way Second Application allows.
Checkbox off (default): current behaviour address stays frozen to the original submission, and the review screen tells the parent it's locked.
Checkbox on: address is unfrozen the parent's current address is used and the locked message is suppressed.
This is a per-round decision, not a global one confirm which behaviour is wanted before go-live.
Downloading Second Applications via EDEM
The Second Application phase appears as a selectable option in the EDEM AOT import wizard, using its configured friendly name (up to 35 characters), wherever the round has submitted second applications.
Standard On Time, Late, and Continuing Interest downloads are unaffected.
The phase is filtered out of the wizard automatically for In-Year rounds.
Entrance Test AOT downloads never offer Second Application it's Admissions-only.
Import behaviour: lateness and address matching
Two things happen automatically on import, so no manual intervention is needed:
Lateness is inherited from the original. If the original application was On Time, the second application imports as On Time even if it's downloaded after the original On Time window has closed. The same applies if the original was Late.
Address matching no longer blocks the import. If EDEM's "Use address when matching" option is switched on, a second application's changed address will not cause a matching failure for Second Application phases, or for Continuing Interest phases with address unfreeze enabled. Standard On Time imports are unaffected.
Before your first import: check Preference Auto Archiving
If Preference Auto Archiving is not configured for the round, importing a second application for a child who already has a submitted preference will fail as a duplicate the record is rejected and no new preferences are inserted. You'll see this confirmed in the Failed Record Editor.
With Preference Auto Archiving configured, the import works as expected: the original preferences are archived and the second application's preferences become the active record.
Confirm Preference Auto Archiving is switched on for any round using Second Application before running your first import.
Common questions
Can I stop Second Application being added to an In-Year round?
Not automatically at the configuration screen see the note under Configuring the Second Application phase above. It won't be offered to parents or appear in EDEM for In-Year regardless.
What happens if I forget to configure Preference Auto Archiving?
Imports will fail as duplicates for any child who already has a submitted preference. Configure it before running imports for a round using Second Application.
Does this apply to Entrance Test rounds?
No. Second Application is Admissions-only and won't appear in Entrance Test AOT downloads.