More Than It Seems
Emergency notification systems have become indispensable tools for school communication. When used effectively, they do more than simply keep families informed and alert about emergencies—they help foster a sense of community and set the stage for increased engagement.
That is, with proper setup, usage, and maintenance, the system can be an asset. Without it, your system can become a constant thorn in your side. So, it’s important to invest some time into considering issues around your system and how to get it working more smoothly for your school district.
The Big Picture
Generally, a mass notification system pulls contact data from your student information system into a platform that gives you options to communicate with families via phone, text, email, social media, or your school website or app. This is accomplished by a regularly-scheduled (usually nightly) automated data export/import process. As a result, your emergency notification system should have the most up-to-date contact information at all times (at least, as up-to-date as families have provided).
So, what can go wrong? From my actual experience, quite a bit can go wrong. You might have seen one of the following instances:
- Families not receiving messages
- People who don’t have a child at your school receiving messages
- Massive influx of calls after you send a call
- Messages playing in the wrong language
- Messages going to the wrong student
We won’t be solving all of those issues in this post, but we will help you better implement a system that will lead to fewer of these issues.
One note—many systems now accommodate classroom-to-home communication. This has many wonderful benefits and should be considered as a possible practice for your school engagement plans. However, in this post we’re going to focus on the best practices for usage by school and district leadership.
Message Types
In a general sense, there are three types of messages from these systems: Automated, Engagement, and Emergency.
Automated Messages include things like:
- Attendance calls
- Low lunch balance alert texts
- Overdue library book emails reminders
You set these messages once, and the system sends messaging on a regular basis without any action on your part. When a student meets certain criteria, such as being absent from school or having a low lunch balance, that student’s information will be picked up in an automated report, and the contact will receive the automated message.
Engagement Messages include things like:
- Reminders about an upcoming performance or game
- Weekly principal’s message about the school calendar
- Information about when to send back that fundraiser
These are messages created by the district or school administration, possibly in collaboration with staff members or partners such as the PTA. They can usually be pre-set to send at an optimal time, and they are intended to keep families informed about what’s happening in the school community.
Emergency Messages include things like:
- School closure calls
- Security update texts
- Imminent issues such as late buses
These messages are always created by district or school leadership and sent immediately. Because of their emergency nature, they are often sent to a wider range of the contacts on file for each student.
Know How to Go With the Flow
The most important first step in actually using an emergency system is understanding how it is setup. Most people focus on learning the interface that allows you to send the messages. Beyond that, you also need to understand how the data flows so you can avoid issues and align your messaging tactics. Connect with your registration and IT teams to ensure that everyone is on the same page about what data fields in your student information system track to which places in your notification system.
Make sure there is a process for getting student contact data into the student information system—and for making changes to it. It’s great that a student’s mom has updated her number on the clinic card, but unless we get that information into the student information system, it won’t be in the notification system—which means she won’t be called in a schoolwide emergency situation.
Tracking this data flow is important to communication strategy as well. Did your setup bring Emergency Contacts into the system? If so, be leery about calling ALL, even in an emergency. Grandma two states over doesn’t need a call at 5:30 a.m. to say school is closed.