PLEASE NOTE: This feature is available only to those with Administrative access as it is typically used for school-wide announcements and/or emergencies.
Before we begin, it's important to note that text messages do not support attachments and are limited to no more than 150 characters. Your School must also have a subscription to SmartSend Pro. Contact your support rep to add a subscription.
1. Go to SmartSend Pro which is located in the Communicate tab.
2. Decide who you are sending the message to. There are two ways to do this: selecting from available groups, and adding individuals manually.
If you’re only sending a message to a few people, you can add individuals manually by searching for their last name using the Quick Add field on the far right. Don’t forget to hit “Enter” on your keyboard if you add an address manually.
3. When you select a Group, you will also enable an additional field called “Excludes” that allows you to exclude individuals from the group they are a part of. For example, if you want to send a Text to all of your staff but one is on leave, you could ‘exclude’ that individual from the “All Active Staff” group and only send your message to the remaining members. Whenever you add a recipient, you’ll see a small label appear further down on the page to help visually represent who the message is being sent to.
4. You can remove recipients by hitting the “x” on the right side of their respective labels.
5. Once you’ve finished composing your message, hit “Send Now” in the bottom right corner.
SmartSend Pro gives users the ability to schedule a message, which allows messages to be planned in advance. Selecting “Schedule” introduces three new fields:
“Current School Time” displays what time it is at your school. The “Calendar” is a dropdown menu that allows you to select what day you’d like your message to be sent on, and the “Time” menu lets you select the time of day your message will be sent.
Once you’re done, hit “Schedule Now” to schedule the message.
SmartSend Pro also gives users the ability to review sent or scheduled messages in the “History” and “Scheduled” tabs, respectively.
Message History is listed in descending order with the most recently sent message at the top of the page. Selecting a particular entry will allow you to view details about the email as well as the actual message that was sent. The table of entries can also be sorted by clicking on any of the column headings, or by entering text in the search fields directly below them.
The list of Scheduled Messages uses a similar interface but does not include a search field below the column headers.
Receiving Text Messages
Parents/Students must be opted-in to receive Text & Voice alerts. Opt in can be set from the parent login via (Account icon/photo) > My Profile > SMS/Voice Alerts for each respective recipient. A valid US/Canada number must be entered in the Mobile field. If using the mobile app, go to Account Icon > Settings.
The opt in can be optionally set or changed from the Administrator login from Students > (student name) > Family 1 > Bell checkbox near parent or student mobile number field.
Staff will receive messages at valid numbers entered into one of the phone fields in the following priority: 1. Mobile; 2. Home; 3. School. If no valid number exists in the mobile field, SmartSend will try the Home number, then finally School as a last option.
Network Opt-Out
Any recipient has the ability to opt-out of messages independently from Gradelink. By replying to a text message with the word "Stop" their mobile provider will suppress any messages sent to them from your school's SmartSend Pro, regardless of opt-in settings in Gradelink. If a parent, student or staff member has done this inadvertently and wishes to resume receipt of message, they can send the word "Start" to your school's SmartSend Pro number. They will still need to be opted in with valid numbers in Gradelink as the network opt in/out is a wholly separate process.
