What happens at year-end

You ended the year with 4 extra hours — do they count toward next year? Or 3 hours short — does that follow you? The answer is your school’s rollover policy, and Lumicura applies whichever one your school chose.

The rollover styles

When the school year turns over, schools handle balances in one of a few ways:

• Fresh start — everyone begins the new year at zero, regardless of last year’s finish. Simple and forgiving.
• Surplus carries — extra hours you earned carry into the new year; shortfalls are forgiven. Rewards the families who over-delivered.
• Everything carries — both surpluses and shortfalls roll forward. Last year’s gap is this year’s head start to make up.
• Carries with caps — like the above, but limited: e.g., carry at most 5 surplus hours or at most 5 deficit hours. Keeps one heroic auction year from covering a half-decade.

What you’ll see in the app

After rollover, your dashboard shows the new year: the new target, and — if your school carries balances — a “Carry-forward” entry as the first line of the new year’s activity, marked Credited, so you can see exactly what came forward.

Last year doesn’t disappear: pick it from the year selector on your dashboard and it opens read-only. One thing not to worry about there — a closed year’s entries show a Removed status chip. That’s the bookkeeping of closing the year, not the school taking your hours away; each entry’s history says “Year-end rollover” as the reason.

Some schools also settle shortfalls in dollars at year-end. If yours does and your family ended short, the outstanding amount appears on your dashboard marked as a year-end charge — with any waiver the school granted already applied.

A practical note for June

If you’re a few hours short and the year is ending, don’t wait for the rollover to sort you out — late-year opportunities go fast. Check Volunteering for what’s left, or ask the coordinator what still counts before the books close.