News Items and Responses in the Hub
When you publish a news item targeted at a student, a notification appears in that family's Hub feed. If the news item requires a response — RSVP, consent, dietary notes — the notification stays active until the family s
How News Appears in the Feed
When a news item is published and targeted to a student, it shows up in the hub feed of every parent and student linked to that student. The feed item includes the title of the news item and, if a due date was set, when the response is needed by.
For informational news items (no response blocks), the notification is there to be read. Once the family has seen it, it serves as a record of what was communicated.
For news items requiring a response, the notification stays marked as requiring action until the response is submitted. If a due date has passed and no response has been given, the item remains active and visible — overdue items don't disappear automatically.
Responding to a News Item
The family opens the news item from the feed to see the full content — the title, body text, any attached files, and any response fields. They fill in what's asked (RSVP, consent, dietary requirements, or an acknowledgement) and submit.
The system records a single canonical response per student. Whether the parent submits it or the student submits it (if the student also has Hub access), only one response is stored. If updates are allowed on the news item, whichever response was submitted most recently is the current one.
Once a response is submitted, the hub feed notification for that news item is cleared — it's no longer marked as requiring action for that family.
Attachments
If a news item has files attached, they appear in an Attachments section on the news item detail page. Images and PDFs open right there in the Hub — no download needed, and PDFs can be viewed full screen. Word documents and any other attached file type show a Download button instead.
Access to an attachment always requires the same permission as the news item itself — a family member who can see the news item can see its attachments, and nobody else can, whether they're viewing the Hub directly, opening a link sent by email, or using an invite link that doesn't require logging in.
Updating a Response
If the news item allows response updates, a family can return to the news item and change their answers. The most recent submission replaces the previous one, and the original response timestamp is preserved alongside the update timestamp.
If the news item does not allow updates, the response is locked once submitted. The family can view what they submitted but cannot change it.
Due Dates
If you set a due date on a news item, families see the deadline displayed on the feed item and on the news item detail. The system does not block families from responding after the due date — the due date is informational and used for your planning purposes. You can see from your reporting panel who hasn't responded after the deadline has passed.
What You See
From your news item reporting panel, you can see in real time who has responded, what they said, and who still needs to act. This is covered in Viewing and Exporting Responses.
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