If your school uses the Communications module, you can configure alert settings (e.g., who receives each type of alert via which communication method) that should be used by default for contacts, students and/or employees. If you configure default alert settings, these settings will be applied to everyone in your system who has no alert preferences set up, as well as automatically to new profiles.

NOTE: If the selected type of contact information is not available for a person (e.g., if a specific contact does not have a phone number set up), the alert preferences will not be set up for him or her.

  1. Click on the Communication module
  2. Under setup, click Communication Defaults.
    Please select whether you are setting default preferences for contacts, students or employees. If you want to set default preferences for all these groups, you must set them up separately for each.
    For any contacts/students who are set to inherit contact information from the household, student alert preferences will also be updated when the related contact(s) are updated due to the connected contact information.
  3. In the "Overwrite Existing Preferences" section, select whether you want to apply these default settings to profiles in your system that already have alert preferences set up.
    !! IMPORTANT:
    - If you choose to overwrite existing options, each person’s alert preferences will be changed to be exactly the same as those you set here. This means if you do not select a checkbox on this page, it will be de-selected for everyone who these default preferences are applied to (e.g., if one employee already set his or her alert preferences to receive school closing notices via both phone and email, and you apply default settings to notify employees via phone but do not select the email option, that employee’s setting for receiving email will be deleted and replaced by the default setting of phone only).
  4. Setting default alert preferences applies all of the preferences on the page, so if you select an option for only one type of alert (e.g., emergency alerts), any values that individuals had selected for other types of alerts (e.g., school closings or general messages) will be de-selected to match the default options.
  5. For each contact method, select what type of communication should be sent out.
    To send an alert via an SMS, text or email message, select the Envelope icon for the appropriate category and contact preference. To send an alert via voice message, select the Phone icon for the desired category and contact preference.
    If the selected type of contact information is not available for a person (e.g., if a specific contact does not have a phone number set up), the alert preferences will not be set up for him or her and so notifications will not be sent to that person.
  6. When finished, click Save.
  7. Repeat steps 3–7 to set up contact preferences for another group as needed.