Family Opt-In and Consent
Before anyone receives an SMS, they have to opt in themselves from their Family Hub settings: save a mobile number, grant SMS consent, then turn on the categories they want. Parents can opt in, and so can adult students
Who Can Receive SMS
Two kinds of recipient are eligible:
- Parents linked to a student in your school, with a valid mobile number, who have opted in
- Students who manage their own billing — an adult student whose account has billing access — with a valid mobile number, who have opted in
Students who do not manage their own billing are not offered SMS. For those students, communication routes to their parents instead.
Where a student manages their own billing and is eligible, they are treated as the primary recipient for their own lessons, and their parents are not also texted about the same thing. This keeps a single, clear recipient per lesson rather than doubling up.
How a Family Opts In
Opting in happens in the family's own Family Hub settings, not in your teacher app. The steps a family follows are:
- Save a mobile number for SMS, in full international format if they include a country code.
- Turn on master SMS consent — a single switch that says "yes, this account can receive SMS from the school." It cannot be turned on until a mobile number is saved.
- Choose categories — once consent is on, they turn on the specific notifications they want, such as weekly lesson reminders or news announcements. Only the categories your school has enabled appear here.
Consent is explicit and separate from everything else — having Hub access, an email invite, or a phone number on file does not opt a family in. Families can also reply STOP to opt out of messages at any time, or HELP for assistance.
Seeing a Family's SMS Status
On a parent's details you'll find an SMS notifications status card. It is for reference only — you can see it, but you set nothing from here. It shows:
- The mobile number on file (shown as the last four digits when an SMS number has been saved), or "No mobile number saved"
- Whether master consent has been granted
- The state of each enabled category — Opted in, Opted out, Waiting for consent, or Enabled
- Any flags on the number, such as Provider opt-out or Not SMS capable
If school-level SMS is switched off, the card notes that these preferences will not send messages yet.
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