Add and review supervision notes beside client programs

Supervision notes keep clinical guidance beside the client, program, or target it applies to.
They are available from the Programs page and during live data collection, alongside a readable
history of relevant program changes.

Guidance stays attached to the right level. Choose client, program, or target scope so the
team can tell where a note applies.

Unread indicators belong to each person. Opening a note marks it read only for you; it does
not clear another team member’s indicator.

The record shows who changed what. Notes show their author and edit history, and program
changes use readable before-and-after descriptions instead of raw data.

Who can use it

You can read supervision notes when all of these are true:

• your active organization has Supervision Notes turned on;

• your role has View Supervision Notes; and

• you already have access to that client’s record.

Reading or writing a supervision note does not widen which clients you can access. Parents and
caregivers do not see this feature because it contains staff clinical guidance.

Writing requires Edit Supervision Notes and clinical authority. Outside a session, the author
must have a supervisor credential: BCBA, BCaBA, QBA, QASP-S, or Student Analyst. During a 97155 or
97158 supervision session, the clinician running that session can write notes linked to it when
they hold the edit permission. An administrator without one of those clinical paths can read when
permitted, but cannot author clinical guidance.

Choose where the note belongs

Use the narrowest level that fits the guidance:

• Client notes are about the client as a whole and are not attached to one goal. Open
  Client notes from the Programs toolbar. Program changes are not shown in this view.

• Program notes apply across a program. Select a program, then open its Notes tab.
  This view combines program-level notes, notes from its targets, and relevant program changes.

• Target notes apply to one target. Open the target and find Notes below Target Details.
  During a session, use the notes action on the target card.

Program-level notes work well for teaching-procedure changes, prompting or reinforcement
strategies, generalization or maintenance guidance, barriers, and next steps for the team.

Add a note

1. Open Client notes, a program’s Notes tab, or a target’s Notes section.

2. Select Add note.

3. Add an optional title.

4. Enter the guidance in Note. The program-level composer reminds you to describe guidance
   that applies across the program.

5. Select Add note again to save it.

The note appears immediately in the feed. A note created during a supervision session carries a
Supervision session label and the session date.

Screenshot 3 goes here — Program Notes tab. Use
01b-program-notes-tab-guidance-clean-1280.png. Place it after the steps above so readers can
see the guidance banner, Add note, and the program-level feed.

Screenshot 4 goes here — Add note composer. Use
02-add-note-composer-program-placeholder-1060.png. The image shows Title (optional),
Note, the program-specific example text, and Add note.

Read new guidance during a session

Unread badges appear on the place where a note belongs: Client notes, the program’s
Program info button and Notes tab, or the target’s notes action. Counts are personal. If
one clinician opens the note, another clinician still sees their own unread count.

You will now see a new notes icon

For a target, the session panel provides these filters:

• All shows notes and program changes.

• Notes shows only supervision notes.

• Changes shows only program changes.

• Since session start limits the feed to entries added after the current session began.

If a supervisor adds guidance after the session starts, open the board’s more-actions menu and
select Refresh programs. This reloads program changes and unread note counts without clearing
open programs, running timers, or collected data. A successful refresh shows Programs updated.

Screenshot 6 goes here — Refresh programs. Capture 05-refresh-programs.png before
publication. Show the more-actions menu and the explanation beneath Refresh programs.

Understand the change history

The same feed can show relevant program and target updates. Each row names the program, who made
the change, and when. Changes read as Set to, Changed from … to …, or
Removed (previously …). Target criteria name the target and field, such as an accuracy
threshold, rather than showing a serialized criteria record.

Several program changes made in the same minute can appear as one expandable summary. Expand the
row to review each change. Bookkeeping-only fields are omitted from the customer-facing feed.

Manage a note you wrote

Open Note actions on your own note:

• Edit corrects the title or content. The card records that it was edited.

• Archive removes the note from the default feed and unread badges. Open Archived to read
  or restore it with Unarchive.

• Delete permanently removes the note. The confirmation explains that it cannot be recovered.

Only the original author can edit, archive, restore, or delete a note. Holding an administrator or
edit permission does not let someone change another clinician’s note.

What makes this safe

• Access stays organization- and client-scoped. A note cannot be used to discover or open a
  client record from another clinic.

• Authorship comes from the signed-in user. A request cannot choose another author or clinic.

• Read state is per user and per note. Opening one page marks only the notes returned on that
  page as read for that person. Notes added afterward remain unread.

• Clinical content reads are audited. Opening a feed that returns note text records the access.
  Badge checks return counts only and do not retrieve note bodies.

• Destructive actions leave an audit record. A permanent deletion records who attempted and
  completed it without copying the deleted clinical text into the audit row.

• Offline writing is refused clearly. Alpaca does not queue a clinical note that could appear
  saved and then disappear.

What it will not do

1. It will not show staff supervision guidance in the parent portal. This is a staff clinical
   record, not a caregiver-facing message.

2. It will not let a non-supervisor add a note from the Programs page. Viewing guidance is not the
   same authority as authoring it.

3. It will not let an administrator rewrite another clinician’s note. Corrections remain the
   author’s responsibility.

4. It will not save a note with no visible text or silently queue a note while offline. Both cases
   could create a false belief that guidance was recorded.

5. It will not make program changes editable from the note feed. Those rows describe changes made
   through the program workflow.

6. It will not poll continuously for notes added after a session starts. Use Refresh programs
   to check for new guidance without reloading the session.

Your data

A supervision note stores its scope, optional title, formatted note text, author, timestamps, and
the client, program, or target it belongs to. A note written during a supervision session also
stores a link to that session. Archive details and personal read receipts are stored separately.

The program-change feed reads the relevant program activity history and presents selected fields
in plain language. Note text remains inside Alpaca. This feature does not email, text, or otherwise
send the note to an external recipient.

Recover from common problems

Current limitations

• The feature must be enabled on both the page and the API for your environment.

• The visible unread badge is capped at 9+, although the underlying personal count is kept.

• The feed loads 50 entries at a time. Select Load more to retrieve older entries.

• New notes do not stream into an already-open session. Use Refresh programs.

• Program-change rows cover the changes captured by the program activity log; bookkeeping-only
  fields are intentionally hidden.

• Deleted notes cannot be restored. Use Archive when the note may need to be recovered.