Alerts for Parents Index  

Parents can receive automatic alerts for grades and attendance based on custom conditions for each student. This may include anyone else you list as a contact, like caseworkers or tutors. Alerts are sent as email, and optionally as text messages too.

(Alerts are available only if the school or teacher has a paid license; teachers using the Free version are not included in the alerts.)

Attendance Alerts

Sent when the student is absent that day, or optionally tardy. Any absence counts, even if excused, for any period.

Grade Alerts

Sent weekly (you choose which day) or daily (excluding weekends). They can be sent every time, or only when the following conditions exist:

Missing Assignments — if any assignment is missing in any class. (Only the Special Marks for "missing" and optionally zero trigger an alert; blanks are not considered missing.) Parents will continue to receive alerts as long as the assignment is still marked "missing", so teachers may want to use a different mark after it is too late to turn in.

Low Grades — if the total grade is below a cutoff in any class. This looks at the total grade only, not grades on specific assignments. (The grade scale is defined on the screen in Admin Mode.)

Discipline Alerts

Sent when a staff member adds an incident to the discipline log. Unlike Attendance and Grade alerts, parents do not configure this option. Staff select which specific incidents to send. See Discipline.

Settings

Parents can login and go to the "Settings" screen to customize their own alerts (but students cannot). Both parents share the same settings and receive the same alerts. This applies to other contacts too, like caseworkers, so if one parent changes the alert settings, it applies to the other contacts too, and vice versa.

Admins can also set the alert conditions on the screen for individuals, or select any student and click the "Apply to all" link to set alerts for the whole school. Teachers can set alerts on the screen, and click the "Apply to all" link for the whole class.

Note: This applies to all teachers, not just your classes, and it overwrites any preferences that the parents may have already set, so avoid using "Apply to all".

Alerts are sent between 4:00 and 5:00 PM local time. (See your time zone on the screen.) All classes are included in the same alert.

Alerts may be generated in Spanish for Spanish-speaking parents. See Bilingual

Troubleshooting

Alerts are not sent in the following cases:

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Grade alerts are not sent for teachers who have their gradebooks set Offline, or if you do not allow teachers to post grades online.

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Attendance alerts are not sent if the school has unchecked Attendance on the screen.

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Attendance alerts are sent for the current day only, so if teachers enter their attendance after 4 PM, no alert is sent.

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Missing assignments must be marked with the Special Mark for "missing". Blanks do not trigger alerts.

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If the school Time Zone is blank on the screen, no alerts are sent.

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If "Allow login" is unchecked for a parent/contact, they will not receive alerts. See the or screen.

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Make sure the parent's email address and cell phone number is valid.

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Grades are sent only for the current term, and up to 3 days after the term ends. Grades are not sent for a new term until the 4th day of the term. Check your start and end dates on the screen in Admin Mode.

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Check and use the Year menu to ensure every year has correct dates. If any years overlap, it doesn't know which year is current, so it may pick the wrong year.