Welcome to SchoolStatus Connect! Now that your school or classroom is set up, you’re ready to send your first Announcement to families. This guide will walk you through best practices to ensure your initial communication is clear, engaging, and sets the tone for future interactions.
Introduce SchoolStatus Connect
Whether you’re a teacher, school leader, or district administrator, introducing SchoolStatus Connect to families should be part of your initial Announcement. To make this easy, we’ve created a ready-to-use Announcement template (click here to learn how to use templates!) — or you can write your own. You may also want to share resources that help families understand Connect. Our editable Guardian Presentation and Guardian Handout are great tools for this.
What Number Will My Messages Come From?
- Non-reply-able SMS Announcements: Consistent shared number across your district.
- Voice Broadcasts (phone calls): Consistent phone number (different from SMS).
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Reply-able Announcements, Conversations, or 1:1 Calls: Unique provisioned number per interaction.
- A teacher or parent discussing the same child typically reports the same number all year.
- Different child or group conversation = new number.
Understanding Your Audience’s Access & Preferences
- Staff defaults: Email + App notifications.
- Guardians defaults: SMS + App or Email + App (district sets this).
- Users can change their preferences in the Settings section (requires a login).
- Staff can view a user’s preferences in the Directory profile.
💡 Knowing these defaults helps you decide whether to emphasize SMS, Email, Voice, or App delivery.
Key Announcement Settings to Consider
- Public Broadcast: Lets anyone view without logging in (browser version won’t auto-translate; emails still honor language preference).
- Priority Announcement: Sends through all communication methods linked to a recipient’s account.
- Replies & Comments: Enable Email/SMS replies or in-app comments if you want interaction.
- Voice Broadcast: Add a pre-recorded call for critical or urgent updates.
Quick Checklist
Preparation
- Decide on reply settings: If you want a consistent number, keep replies off.
- Use Public Broadcast if families may not log in regularly.
- Enable Priority Announcement to maximize delivery across channels.
- Add a Voice Broadcast if phone calls will help reach your audience.
- Preview your Announcement as both SMS and Email to ensure it looks good.
- Schedule delivery for the best time/day (when families are most likely to see it).
Sending
- Start a new Announcement, select your audience, and configure settings.
- Send right away or schedule for later.
After Sending
- Check your Delivery Data for up-to-date stats on delivery and engagement.
- Use insights from Delivery Data to refine your future Announcements.
Here are some additional resources that may help you!
- Creating and Sending an Announcement
- Announcement Settings
- Predictable & Accessible Announcements For Your Community
- Best Practices for Announcements When Recipient Login Access Is Limited
- Navigating Announcement Delivery Data
Click here to return to the main menu, or ask for help!