Schools often contract with a
service provider to contact parents when their child has not shown up for
school, or missed one or more classes in the day. This service provider is
typically a company that provided automated voice dialing, although they
may
recently have supplemented that with text message or email notifications.
Automated voice dialing eliminated the need to have school staff make
phone
calls themselves.
In recent years, there have
been
major changes that suggest a review of the technology used for this
purpose:
1)
Parents often no longer have a home
phone, and
they change cell phone numbers more frequently.
2)
The new generation of parents is
less likely to
check (or even have) voice mail, and prefer, and is more likely to respond
to,
text messages.
3)
Schools are communicating more and
more with
push notifications to a smartphone app.
4)
It is now much simpler and less
expensive to send
text messages and voice messages, due to a new generation of
cloud-based
services such as twilio.com.
The investment in banks of telephone equipment made by legacy voice
dialing
service providers is no longer necessary.
Now it is no longer necessary to have a separate system for notifying parents when their children have not shown up for school since that capability can be included in your school mobile apps. Parents who do not have iOS or Android devices can sign up for text message or email notifications.
The Absence Notifications feature is fully integrated
with
existing App/Digital Signage,
so school staff can use their familiar Data Import and Notifications
screens
and District Single Sign On.
|
Student Information System Compatibility |
The App Dashboard accepts uploads of an attendance file and an optional parent contacts file. |
|
Push/SMS Text/Email |
System will deliver
messages according to each parent’s preferred technology. |
|
Verified Phone Numbers |
Linking of
SIS parent phone numbers to app accounts will be done
with SMS-verification of phone numbers entered in app. |
|
Verified Email Addresses |
Linking of
SIS parent email addresses to app accounts will be done
with verification of email addresses entered in app. |
|
Multilingual Messaging |
Each parent will
receive each message according to their language preference. (A
message text template in each language is required.) |
|
Message Fields |
Each notification sent
will include: student name, date, periods absent. |
|
Scheduling |
Messages can be sent at
a scheduled time after the attendance file has been imported (e.g.
6:30pm). |
|
Scheduled Message Management |
Scheduled messages can
be cancelled, viewed, or modified. |
|
Do-Not-Call |
Phone numbers and email
addresses can be blocked by administrators or users. |
|
Reporting |
The App Dashboard
includes Absence Notification Reports that shows what
notifications were sent each day, by school, or parent/student. |
|
Parent Access |
Parents can use the app
to change their absence notification preferences and view current
and past notifications. |
If an email address in the SIS export matches
a
verified email address in the Appazur database, the notification will be
sent
to the Appazur user account according to the user’s preferences.
If a phone number in the SIS export matches a
verified mobile phone number in the Appazur database, the notification
will be
sent to the Appazur user account according to the user’s preferences.
If neither the email address nor the phone number in
the
SIS export matches a verified account in the Appazur database:
·
An account will be created,
·
By default, this account will not
receive other
app notifications,
·
Absence notification will be sent,
along with an
invitation to subscribe to app notifications or install the app. There
will
also be an option to block further notifications.
Our enterprise-quality messaging system, in concert
with
industry-leading cloud services, reliably delivers millions of scheduled
notifications.
Twilio is the leading global cloud communications platform
used
by companies like Netflix and Nordstrom, that allows developers like
Appazur to embed voice, messaging, video and authentication
capabilities
into their software, paying for infrastructure only as needed.
Mailgun is a high volume service for maximizing successful delivery of transactional email, used by major companies such as Lyft and Shopify.