The Genesis Parent Access Module includes a facility to send email messages to parents.

Email can be sent for a variety of reasons, including:

• Initially creating a Parent Logon Id
• Changing a password for a Parent Logon Id
• General information emails
• Sending Notifications by Email to Text message to parents and students with Parent Access/Student Access (i.e. Parent Module) logins
  
  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Viewing the List of Existing Email Templates
• Creating an Email Template
•  Steps to Creating an Email Template
• Email Macros
• Modifying an Email Template
• Text Templates

Viewing the List of Existing Email Templates

Email Templates are located on the Parent Access>Setup>Email Templates screen.
  

The screen lists all templates, displays the subject of the attached email message, whether the template is to be used for password notifications for parents/guardians, password notifications for students, whether it has attachments.

The Parents->Setup->Email Templates screen with the list of templates is shown above.

Creating an Email Template

1. To create an Email Template, go to the screen and click the "Add Template" button.  
2. This brings up an "Add Template" popup:
   
3. To create the template, fill in the Code and the Description fields. The "Seq" field is simply a sequence number that places this new template at the bottom of the list of templates. You can adjust the numeric Sequence # to change the new template's location in the list. 
4. Then click Add Template to create the actual template:
   
5. This will then bring you to the Modify screen.
   

Each Template has five required fields:

• Code – a unique code that will identify this template internally
• Description – A description of the template that will make sense to administrative users (that is, those users who will have to send emails to parents).
• Sequence # - This number controls the position of this template in the list of templates.
• Subject Line – The Subject Line for the email that will be sent
• Body Text – The text of the email message to be sent.

There are four additional fields, all checkboxes:

• Password Notification for Parents – Check this checkbox if this is the message to send when a Parent Logon's password is changed. Only one email template can be designated as the "Password Notification for Parents" template.
• Password Notification for Students – Check this checkbox if this is the message to send when a Student Logon's password is changed. Only one email template can be designated as the "Password Notification for Students" template.
• Show letter in dropdown on Create/Modify User screen – This checkbox adds this letter to this list of letters that can be sent directly from the Create/Modify User screen in the parents module.
• Attach Documents – Check this button to attach documents to the template that will be sent when the email is sent.

 Steps to Creating an Email Template

1. Click the  button.
2. Enter a unique Code for this template.
3. Enter a Description of the template
4. Optionally update the defaulted Sequence number to position this template in the list of templates.
5. Click the Add Template button to bring up the "Modify Template" screen.
6. Enter a Subject for the email that will be sent. Subject lines can contain "email macros" that will be expanded when the template is used to send emails. See below "Email Macros".
7. Enter the text of the Body of the Email. The Body of the Email can also contain "email macros" that will be expanded when the template is used to send emails. See below "Email Macros".
8. If this email is to be the default "new password" Email template for Parents (users of the "Parent Resources" web access), check the "Password Notification (for Parents)" checkbox.
9. If this email is to be the default "new password" Email template for Students (users of the "Student Resources" web access), check the "Password Notification (for Students)" checkbox.
10. If this email is to have documents attached to it, check the "Attach Documents" checkbox.
11. Click SAVE to save your updates.  You can now attach documents (i.e. files) to this template.

Email Macros

Email Macros are fields which, if embedded in a Template, are expanded when the actual emails are generated using the Template.  Examples of Macros include:
PARENT_LAST_NAME – Parent's last name
PARENT_FIRST_NAME – Parent's first name
PARENT_PASSWORD – Password for the parent's Logon Id
Macros can be embedded in the text of the Email Template's Subject line or Body by surrounding the Macro with "<" and ">": <PARENT_LAST_NAME>

Reference Guide to Email Macros

Modifying an Email Template

To modify a template, select that template from the list of templates on the Parent Access>Setup>Email Templates screen and click the corresponding button.

You can then modify any of the fields and you can optionally remove and attach documents to the Template.

Example
The text of the standard "welcome" email message appears below. This is typically sent to parents when they sign up for Parent Access.

Welcome to the <DISTRICT_NAME> Parent Access Module. Please use the 
 following information to login to the system: 
 User Name: <PARENT_LOGON_ID> 
 Password: <PARENT_PASSWORD> 
 The Parent Access Module, provided by Genesis Educational Services, is a safe, 
 secure way of enabling parents to access their own student's records using the 
 internet. 
 If you have any questions or concerns, please email <PARENT_ADMIN_EMAIL>.

Text Templates

We added a new field - 'SMS Body Text' - to templates. This field should be used if the email template is tied to Notification Alert in 'Setup>Schools>Notifications' and your parents are allowed to sign up for SMS alerts on their mobile phones from Message Center in the portal (Parent Access>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Alerts).

'SMS Body' should be filled out for all of these templates as not all phones can process HTML texts and many accept no more than 160 characters. As a result they may not render correctly on a parents mobile phone.

In order to more easily identify templates used in this manner, we have added a Notification column on the 'Parent Access>Setup>Email Template' screen. All column on this screen are also now sortable.

If this email template is attached to a Notification (Setup>Schools>Notifications) as a Text Template, there is a new field for the text message text that will be sent if a parent opts to receive an alert as an SMS message.

Again, some phones are limited to 160 character texts, so that is the max characters that is allowed to be setup here: