Keeping families in the loop: email, texts, and secure messages

TeachHero gives you four ways to reach families. The secret to low-effort communication isn't writing faster — it's picking the right channel and doing a little one-time setup so every future message is mostly done before you start.

Pick the channel first

A note on cost: email has no monthly limit on any plan, and Text Alerts is an add-on — $15/month. See Plans & Pricing.

One-time setup (about 30 minutes)

1. Set your signature so it's appended automatically — see Email Signatures.
2. Save your recurring messages as templates — the weekly update, the payment reminder, the welcome email. See Email Templates.
3. Build your audiences once — "Current parents", "Teachers & staff", "Alumni families". While composing, build an audience in the To field and turn on Save this group for next time. Saved groups keep themselves up to date, so "parents of enrolled students" is never stale.
4. Fix missing contact info now. Emails skip contacts without an email address and texts skip contacts without a mobile number — TeachHero warns you how many will be missed, but the real fix is filling the gaps under Enrollment → Families.

Sending an email, start to finish

1. Communication → Emails → New email — blank, or from a template.
2. Add recipients: type names, or + Add audience to pick Saved groups — or Build an audience to describe the group in place ("parents & guardians of students in 3rd Grade"), narrowed by grade level, class, program, term, or event. The counter under the field shows roughly how many people it reaches.
3. Send test to yourself first — always.
4. Send now, or Send later to schedule it. Audience lists are worked out at send time, so families who enroll between scheduling and sending are included automatically.
5. Afterwards, open the email from the Sent list to see delivered/failed counts per recipient. Problems? See Troubleshooting Email.

Deep dive: Creating an Email and Sending an Email

Texts and secure messages, briefly

• Text alerts work like email — draft, pick saved groups or contacts (or build an audience), test to your own phone, send or schedule. Keep messages under 160 characters when you can — longer texts are delivered in multiple segments. Families can opt out by replying STOP. See Text Alerts.
• Secure messages are threads parents read and answer in their portal — start one from Communication → Secure Messages. Parents can't start conversations, so if a topic needs a private channel, open the thread from your side. See Secure Messages.

Let the routine messages send themselves

The best message is one you never send by hand:

• Enrollment welcome emails on terms, classes, and programs — see Automatic Enrollment Email.
• Invoice reminders and auto-pay — see Invoices.
• Application decisions — acceptance and denial emails send automatically once configured; see Customizing the Student Application.

Recommended reading, in order

1. Email Templates
2. Creating an Email
3. Choosing Email Recipients
4. Text Alerts
5. Secure Messages