Schools & Education2 October 20264 min read

Emergency SOS Alerts From School to Every Parent at Once

Flooding, a security scare, an early closure: when something urgent happens, a school needs every parent told immediately, not a WhatsApp chain that reaches half of them. SOS alerts send one message to every parent by SMS and in the app.

In an emergency, schools usually reach for the class WhatsApp groups. Some parents are not in them, some have muted them, and the message gets lost between other chats. An SOS alert goes to every parent phone the school has on file, as a text message, and also appears in the parent app.

How an SOS alert works

1A school admin opens Send Message on the school dashboard and chooses Emergency SOS.
2They write the message, up to 160 characters, so it fits one SMS. For example: "School closing at 12pm today due to flooding. Please pick up your child by 12:30pm."
3It is sent by SMS to every parent on file and shows in the Messages tab of the parent app.

Built to be used only when it matters

Each school can send up to five SOS alerts per term, and the count resets when a new term starts. That keeps SOS for real emergencies, so parents learn to take it seriously.

SOS alerts reach every parent

Unlike daily attendance texts, SOS alerts go to every parent phone on file, whether or not the student is on SMS alerts. In an emergency, nobody should be left out.

For routine reminders, use fee reminder broadcasts. See all school features.

Questions people ask

How can a school send an emergency message to all parents?

With mySmartAccessCard, a school admin opens Send Message on the dashboard and sends an Emergency SOS. It goes by SMS to every parent phone on file and appears in the parent app.