Once your families are in TeachHero, they still need to know the portal exists and how to sign in. The Family onboarding page builds a short letter from your own portal settings. Download it as a PDF to print or hand out, or open it as an email draft to all your parents and guardians.
Admins can find it under Website & Portal → Family onboarding. (Colleges see it as Student onboarding.)
Personalize the letter
The page shows a live preview of the letter, with two fields under Letter details:
- Intro note. Shown at the top of the letter, such as a welcome from your head of school. Leave it blank to use a short standard welcome. Up to 1,000 characters.
- Questions contact. Shown at the end of the letter. Leave it blank and the letter uses your school's email address, or your account owner's email if the school has none. Up to 255 characters.
Click Save after you change either one. The preview and both versions of the letter pick up what you saved.
Which steps the letter includes
Every letter starts with Sign in. It gives your portal's address, explains that families enter the email address the school has on file, and says TeachHero emails a 6-digit code that works for 30 minutes. There's no password. The PDF also carries a QR code that opens the sign-in page.
The steps after that follow your settings, so families are never told to do something your school hasn't turned on.
| Step in the letter | Included when |
|---|---|
| Sign in | Always. Mentions getting the code by text if Text Alerts is on and set up. |
| Check your family's details | The Family link is on in your parent portal menu. |
| Add your mobile number | Text Alerts is on and set up, and the Family link is on. |
| Complete your forms | The Forms link is on. |
| Add a payment method | Billing is available to your school, the Billing link is on, and Stripe is connected. The letter says "card," "bank account," or "card or bank account" to match the payment methods you accept. |
| Sign up to volunteer | Volunteers is available to your school and the Volunteer link is on. |
If your school has Classes, Messages, Files, or self-enrollment turned on, a closing line also tells families they'll find those in the portal.
To change which steps appear, change the portal links on the Design page. See Portal Navigation.
Check the warnings first
If something would leave families stuck, a warning appears above the letter. Warnings show on screen only, never in the PDF or email.
| Warning | What to do |
|---|---|
| Families can't sign in until you turn on your portal. | Click Enable portal in the header of the Family onboarding page or any other Website & Portal page. See Turn the Parent Portal On or Off. |
| The payment step is left out until you connect Stripe. | Connect Stripe so families can save a payment method. See Setting up Online Payments. |
| None of your families has an email address yet. Add or import families first. | Add parents with email addresses, or import your families, then come back. Families sign in with the email address you have on file. |
Download the PDF
Click Download PDF at the top of the page, below the Website & Portal tabs. The letter downloads to your computer as a PDF, ready to print or attach to your own message. It uses your school's logo (or name, if you haven't uploaded one) and the Primary color you picked on the Design page.
Email families
Click Email families at the top of the page, next to Download PDF. TeachHero opens a draft email in the composer, with the letter as the message and your parents and guardians as the recipients. Nothing is sent yet. Edit the subject, the message, or the recipients, then send it like any other email. See Sending Email Broadcasts.
- If you leave the draft unsent and click Email families again, you return to the same draft instead of starting a second one.
- Once you've sent it, Email families starts a fresh draft for the next time you need one.
- The email version of the letter leaves out the QR code and asks families to enter the email address the message was sent to.
On a starter trial? Email to all families turns on after a short call with our team, so Email families opens a message that says so instead of a draft. Click Book a call to pick a time. You can still download the PDF in the meantime. If your plan doesn't include email sending, the button is dimmed.
What families see in the portal
After they sign in, parents see a Get set up card at the top of Home. It lists the same steps as the letter, minus sign-in, with a progress bar and a count such as 2 of 4 done.
- Steps check off as the family finishes them. Complete your forms appears only while the family has forms to fill in, and Sign up to volunteer appears only when the family has required volunteer hours this school year.
- The Check your family's details step also has a Looks right button. A parent who's reviewed their children, parents, and emergency contacts clicks it to check the step off.
- Parents can click Dismiss to hide the card. When every step is done, the card closes itself and stays closed.
- A parent who registered on their own and isn't on a family yet doesn't see the card.
Track it on your setup checklist
The Get your school ready checklist on your admin Home page has an optional step, Welcome your families, that checks off once the welcome email has been sent. Downloading the PDF doesn't count, so if you hand out printed letters, click Mark as done to stop being nudged. See Your Dashboard.