What Guardians See: Notifications by Email, SMS, Push, and Phone Call

SchoolStatus Connect can notify guardians via Email, SMS, push notification (mobile app), and phone call. This article describes what a notification looks like and how it behaves in each channel.

• To learn how guardians get added and how contact methods are set up, see Adding Guardians and Their Contact Info to SchoolStatus Connect.
• To learn what happens when a channel can't be reached, see How SchoolStatus Connect Handles Delivery Failures.

Click here to learn how to manage your notification preferences in account settings.

Email notifications

• Announcements: The announcement title is used as the email subject line, and the body of the announcement is included in the body of the email. You'll be able to see a preview of the email after creating the announcement.
• Images and other files will be shown as small thumbnails in the email. These thumbnails aren't meant for full viewing; recipients will need to click through to Connect to see them properly.
• When replying to an announcement email, only the announcement creator receives the response.
• Conversations: Messages are delivered in full by email if the recipient hasn't viewed them online or in the app shortly after they're sent.
• When replying to a conversation email, all participants in the conversation receive the response.
• Recipients can reply to these email notifications directly from their email client. The sender receives the reply both in their email and in Conversations on SchoolStatus Connect (the conversation icon at the top right).

SMS notifications

• Announcements: The announcement title and message are sent as the SMS text. If they are longer than a single SMS allows, the recipient may receive up to 2 texts. Text also includes a link to view more; clicking it opens the full announcement, with attachments, in the Home tab of the website or app. As with email, you can preview the SMS version of the announcement before sending it.
• Conversations: Messages are delivered by text if the recipient hasn't viewed them online or in the app shortly after they're sent. Messages longer than 2 texts can be viewed in full on the website or in the app. The SMS states who sent the new message and the message itself.
• On most plans, recipients can reply directly to a conversation SMS, and their replies post to the Conversation. Some customer plans don't include replyable texts; for those, replying to the SMS returns an automated message with a link to Conversations instead. This is the exception rather than the rule.
• SMS notifications are only delivered to the mobile phone number on file in Account Settings, or, if added via sync, the number in the SMS field of a User's File. The Home Phone number is not used for communications or login.
• When multiple guardians share the same phone number, an identifier (e.g., "For [Recipient Name]") now appears at the beginning of the SMS so it's clear who the message is intended for.

Push notifications

• Push notifications in the mobile app are sent shortly after an Announcement, a comment on an Announcement, or a direct message is sent.

Phone call & Voice Broadcast notifications

SchoolStatus Connect also offers 1:1 phone calls. When an email or text message won’t cut it, you can call a guardian directly from SchoolStatus Connect from a private and secure phone number. All calls are recorded for your documentation in SchoolStatus Connect.

Not seeing Phone Calling in your account yet? Have your school or district administrator reach out to our Support Team to have it enabled.

Connect can also deliver announcement notifications by automated phone call. For more information, see this help article.