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Communicate with Families in an Emergency Situation
Communicate with Families in an Emergency Situation

[For Admins + Managers] Communicate effectively with families in cases of school closings, natural disasters, or any urgent situation

Vee Avenir avatar
Written by Vee Avenir
Updated over 4 months ago

There may be times where you need to communicate with your families immediately due to an emergency, natural disaster, or even just a simple snow day. We want to make sure you have the tools necessary to effectively communicate critical information to your families. 

Our Mass Messaging feature can be utilized from the web or mobile apps and is the best way to quickly communicate with all of your families using the Alert function. 

💡Providers looking to print a list of emergency & parent contacts alongside key student profile information in the case of an emergency, consider printing brightwheel's Student emergency information Report.


Mass Messaging on the App

Message all of your parents at once with our Message All Parents feature. 

  1. Open the brightwheel app to the Administrator Home page

  2. Click the Messages tile

  3. Tap the message bubble in the top-right corner

  4. Select Parents

  5. Select Entire Rooms

  6. Select the appropriate rooms by tapping them or click Select All in the top-right corner

  7. Tap Send Message To Room

  8. Select the message type you wish to send
    💡We recommend sending an Alert with the Send SMS Message option checked so parents receive the message in their brightwheel inbox and also receive a text message advising them to check their brightwheel messages!

  9. Type the message and then tap Send Message
    Please Note: There is a 300 maximum character limit

  10. To monitor incoming messages from parents on the app, click into Rooms and click into the Messages for each classroom or view all messages the at the program on the Messages page


Mass Messaging on the Web

The Announcement feature enables administrators to send messages to all of the parents in a room or many rooms from the web, just like the Message All Parents feature in the brightwheel mobile app. To send a new announcement:

  1. Go to the Messaging page on the web

  2. Go to the Announcement tab and click +New Parent Announcement

  3. Select the appropriate rooms by tapping them or click Select All in the top-right corner

  4. Click Next

  5. Select the message type you wish to send
    💡We recommend sending an Alert with the Send SMS Message option checked so parents receive the message in their brightwheel inbox and also receive a text message advising them to check their brightwheel messages!

  6. Compose your message in the text box and click Send Announcement
    Please Note: There is a 300 maximum character limit

  7. To monitor incoming messages from parents on the web, watch the 'Parents' tab on the Messaging page


Important Notes

  • The Mass messaging feature is available to Administrators and Managers only

  • Even parents that have not activated their brightwheel account will receive a text alert advising they have a message to view in their brightwheel account, so this is a great way to send a personalized message inviting your parents to the brightwheel platform!

  • Only parents whom you've added with cell phone numbers will receive text messages (US & Canada)

  • Messages and Announcements sent via the web will be visible in the app and website for parents

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