Controlling Alerts Parents can Choose to Receive

Parents can choose to receive alerts - both emails and text messages - via the Message Center>Message Alert Setup screen of the Parent Module.

The capability to receive alerts is configured on the Parents>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Alerts screen in Genesis.

This page describes how to control whether and which Alerts parents can choose to receive.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Configuring Alerts
• Procedure to Set these Parameters
• New Option to Enable Alerts By Default
• New Tool to Enable Alerts for Guardians
• Contact Alert Notification Search

Configuring Alerts

The Alert Settings specify which Alerts parents can choose to receive.  

The controls within the Parent Module only enable the Alerts: Parents must still configure their accounts in order to actually receive them.

The Parent Access>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Alerts screen contains various parameters that control which Alert types are enabled for each School:

The Alert types include:

• Letters - If this is checked, an Alert is generated any time a student in the specified school receives a Letter that is displayed in the Parents module.  These include Attendance Letters, Student Data letters and Conduct Letters.
• Attendance - If this is checked, an Alert is generated any time a student in the specified school has an "Attendance Event" - gets an Attendance code other than present. (note: please visit this page to learn more about marking an attendance code to be available for use in parent alerts)
• Gradebook Grades - If this is checked, an Alert is generated any time a student in the specified school has a grade posted to their Gradebook screen.  Schools also need a notification template created for Gradebook alerts.  These can be setup from SETUP > SCHOOLS > NOTIFICATIONS
• Messages (Includes Forms, Documents, Conferences, Fines, etc.) - If this is checked, an Alert is generated any time a student in the specified school has a Form posted to their Parent Access accounts, or a Document is added to their parent access accounts or a Conference becomes available for signup. Or, if a Fine is posted to the student with the "For Parents module" option turned on.
• Discipline Incidents - If this is checked, an Alert is generated any time a student in the specified school receives a Discipline Incident that is posted to their Parent Access accounts.
• Course Posts - If this is checked, an Alert is generated every time there is a new course post for one of a student's classes.
• Contact Changes
• Conferences
• Lunch Application Status
• Configuring Alerts for Student Passes: On a different screen, there is a way to configure alerts upon login into the Parent/Student portal if a student has a pass available to view. This is found on the Parent Access>Setup>Settings>District Settings>General Settings screen - there is a yes/no check box that allows you to configure alerts for student passes:

Procedure to Set these Parameters

Procedure to Enable/Disable the Alerts

1. Go to the Parents>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Alerts screen.
2. Locate the entry for your school in the set of schools.
3. Set the flags as needed for your school(s)
   
4. Repeat for additional schools.
5. Click the "Save Settings" button to store your choices.

Additional info on setting this up can be found here.

New Option to Enable Alerts By Default

On Parent Access>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Alerts, there are new options:  Enable Letter Alerts by Default, Enable Message Alerts by Default, and Student Accounts Receive Alerts.

Enable Letter Alerts by Default - Whenever the relationship type for a student attached to a parent account is changed from blank to Guardian 1-4, the student's Guardian 1-4 contact record will have its first listed email address set to receive letter alerts.

Enable Message Alerts by Default  - Whenever the relationship type for a student attached to a parent account is changed from blank to Guardian 1-4, the student's Guardian 1-4 contact record will have its first listed email address set to receive message alerts.

Student Accounts Receive Alerts - By default, student accounts do not receive alert notifications. By checking this, students will receive alert notifications if they have elected to receive them.

If the relationship is changed from blank to a guardian, that guardian's contact record will have their first listed email address set to receive letter alerts.

New Tool to Enable Alerts for Guardians

On Parent Access>Maintenance, a new tool was added to enable letter and message alerts for guardians by school and by guardian type (1-4).

Warning: This will also enable notifications that may have been manually disabled on parent accounts.

Contact Alert Notification Search

We have added a screen that allows you to search for Students/Contacts so you can view/modify alert settings.

This is found via Parent Access>Setup>Users>Alerts.