How do I send messages to guardians?

There are a few ways to send messages to guardians, and this article will go over their general workflows (more details in the following article: What are the finer points of messaging guardians?). But first, familiarize yourself with a few general facts:

• First, make sure that messaging is turned on. There is a setting (Setup>Settings>Culture>"Mobile App - Messaging") that determines whether your school or district makes messaging available to staff. This setting is on by default.
• Messaging is entirely app-based. Make sure you have the latest version of Schoolrunner 2.0 on your iPhone or Android.
• Messages can only be delivered to guardians that use the Schoolrunner 2.0 app. Learn about how your students' guardians can create a Schoolrunner account here.
• Messages can only contain text and emojis at the moment. Attaching images or files is not currently supported.

The first way to send a message to student guardians is from the app menu (accessed via the "hamburger" icon in the upper left of your home screen, or pull out from the left side of any screen). Tap on "Guardian Messages".

You'll see a list of your existing threads, which you can continue using, or you can tap the green button in the bottom right to send a new message to the guardians of students in a dynamic group, in an academic section, or to the guardians of a specific student.

The second way to send a message to student guardians is from a student profile screen. Tap the blue + button the bottom right and then tap the message icon. This will send your message to all guardians of the student.

The third way to send messages is via the "Groups" or "Sections" tabs that you see once you tap on the "Students" tile on your home screen. Once you tap into a group or section, you'll see the same blue + button that shows up on individual student screens. Tap this to send a message to guardians of the students in that group or section.

To learn more about the finer points of sending messages, like translation and determining whether your message will accept replies or not, see this article.