1. Engaging families. Creating communities.

2. Welcome to SchoolCNXT Data is imported from your SIS
SchoolCNXT is a family engagement platform that brings equity to your family engagement efforts by overcoming the barriers of language, adult literacy, and access, thereby allowing all families the opportunity to engage.
Data is imported from your SIS
Post information to families of any group
Track views
Collect RSVP and check-in information
Participate in two-way messaging with any individual or group
We import data from your SIS, including family structure (which students are connected to which parents/guardians), parent contact information, and class structure. This means that you do not need to set up your own class group – that is done for you!
You can post news and events to any group(s). These can be the class, grade, or school groups we have imported for you, or any other groups (academic-level, extracurricular, etc) that you create on your own.
Typically when you send out an or send home fliers, you have no idea who gets them! Here, you’ll be able to see who has viewed and liked your posts!
If you post an event, parents will be able to RSVP ahead of time and can digitally check-in to the event when they arrive! This is great for large events where you may not have face time with every parent, but still want to know who attends!
Two-way messaging can be initiated by any user and provides an opportunity for deep and meaningful communication and relationship building.

3. Invitation Process
Staff will receive invitations via (as pictured)
Guardians will receive text and/or invitations
Printed invitations can be sent to any user
Staff will receive invitations via to your DOE-issued address. Just click the “Click to Activate” button! Your school may also print out invitations for you.
Guardians will be invited digitally, and SchoolCNXT will send out the first round of invites to all users. They will receive invitations via (just like staff!) and/or by text message, depending on what contact information you have in your SIS. Typically, most parents receive text invites.
We also recommend printing invitation letters to send home to parents. You can print these out for an individual parent, a class, or a SchoolCNXT administrator can print them for the entire school.
The first round of digital invitations are sent out by SchoolCNXT; however, you can re-invite another staff member or the guardian of a student in your class – either digitally or by printed invitation letter – at any point in time! We’ll look at how to do that later.

4. Posts v. Messages Posts (News, Events, Alerts): Messages:
Replace fliers, mass s
Send to groups
Include images, attachments, audio recordings
Embed a video
Parents read and “like”
Messages:
Replace notes and s
Send to individual users or groups
Two-way communication
Initiated by any user
Include an image
Most of your communication in SchoolCNXT will fall in one of these two categories: posts, or messages. Let’s take a look at the main differences between the two.
Posts
Posts are meant to replace mass s, fliers, and other mass communications you may currently use. It also gives you the platform to share information you’ve always wanted to share, like strategies and skills you are working on in the classroom. They are one-way communication and are an opportunity for you to share information with your groups. You can send them to any existing group or groups (classes, extracurricular groups, targeted academic groups, etc). You can include a cover image and additional images, PDF attachments, or audio recordings. Please note that while the body of the post can be translated and read aloud, the content of an attachment cannot. You can also embed a video into your post. Parents can read and ”like” your posts but cannot comment on them directly.
Messages
This is our two-way communication component and it is made to replace notes and s you previously sent and to add on to the conversations you are able to have with your students’ guardians. You can message an individual, multiple individuals, or a group. You can even message an image! Messages can be initiated by any user, so you can message a parent or they can start a conversation with you. But don’t worry! If they message you outside of school hours, they will receive a note form us thanking them for being involved, but reminding them that your work day is done and you may not respond until the next day. You can also turn on “Do Not Disturb” so that you stop receiving push notifications for a given conversation.

5. Posting News: Mobile App
Tap “Add News”
News can be created on the web browser or mobile app. Let’s take a look at how to create news from the mobile app.
To create a news item from your mobile device, tap Add News on the top of your screen.

6. Posting News: Mobile App
Add an image, title, and content
Add a cover image. One of the great things about posting news from your phone is that you have access to your camera and the pictures you’ve taken. Tap on the camera icon. Decide whether you want to take a photo now or choose one from your library. While this is optional, it is extremely recommended. Add a title to your news item. Then, type the content of your news item.

7. Posting News: Mobile App
Attach additional images or audio messages (optional)
You can then select to add additional images to your news item. To do so, select Attach Images and tap on those which you would like to be include. If you would like to add an audio recording, select Record a Message. You can then choose to use your microphone or have the system call you to record a message. If you want all recipients to hear this audio recording, leave it set to All Languages. If this recording is only intended for speakers of a specific language, tap change language and select which language users you want to hear your recording. You can add as many recordings as you would like. Tap Next.

8. Posting News: Mobile App
Select recipient group(s)
To publish the news item to a specific role type, tap on the tag icon
Select the group or groups you’d like to receive this news item. You may find that some recipient groups require approval. You can also filter to a specific role type (guardians, staff, students, etc) by tapping on the tag icon. Tap Next.

9. Posting News: Mobile App
Set publish and expiration dates
If you would like this post to be published at a later date, select a publish date in the future; otherwise, your recipients will see it immediately. Set an expiration date.

10. Posting News: Mobile App
Add reminders (optional)
If you’d like to send out reminders related to this post in the future, select reminders, and then tap the plus sign. Set the content and publish date for the reminder. Tap Save, and go back to the Publish screen.

11. Posting News: Mobile App
Tap Preview
Review information and tap Publish
After all of your information is set, tap Preview. You will then be able to review the cover image, title, content, attachments, and dates of your post. Once you have ensured that everything is how you want it, tap Publish!

12. Posting News: Web App
All of that can also be done from the web app. On your feed, tap the green plus sign and click “News”. Then, enter the same information here. When publishing news via the web app, you can also select to add PDFs. Please note that the content of these PDFs cannot be translated.

13. Posting Events: Mobile App
Follow the steps to post news
Set event details:
Time
Location
Check-In details
Assign points
First, tap Post Event. Then, follow the same steps you took to post news. After choosing your recipients, you will be prompted to add event details. This includes a date and time and location for the event. The location will be linked to a map, so make sure it is a street address! It will default to your school’s address, but can be changed if you are encourage families to attend an event in the community. You can also choose to track attendance at the time of the event. This can be done by geo-location (as families arrive at the address listed and tap Check-In on the app, they will be marked as in attendance). It can also be done by code (you assign a code that you announce at the event, so when users type it in, they are marked as checked-in). Lastly, you can assign points to an event tin incentivize attendance. Tap Next.

14. Posting Events: Web Browser
All of that can also be done from the web app. On your feed, tap the green plus sign and click “Event”. Then, enter the same information here. When publishing news via the web app, you can also select to add PDFs.

15. Messaging: Mobile App
Find the person you want to message in the directory
If you don’t know the name of the person you are trying to message, you can find them in the directory. Tap on the magnifying glass icon on the bottom of the screen.

16. Messaging: Mobile App
Search through your students, your students’ guardians, or your staff
If you don’t know the name of the person you are trying to message, you can find them in the directory. Tap on the magnifying glass icon on the bottom of the screen. Staff will see three sections: My Students/Guardians, My Students’ Guardians, and Staff. You as an admin, will simply have a Staff section, then can tap the magnifying lens to search for or scroll through others.

17. Messaging: Mobile App Search by a student
Find the student in the directory
Tap Message Family
If you don’t know the parent’s name and are searching by the student, you can either scroll through your students or type in their name in the search bar at the top of the directory. Then, tap Message Family.

18. Messaging: Mobile App Select guardian(s)
You will then be shown all of the contacts related to the student. Tap the names of the guardian or guardians you wish to message. Tap Next.

19. Messaging: Mobile App Send message
Your message thread with that user will appear. Type your message and tap Send. You can tap the picture icon to the left of your text to add a picture from your camera or camera roll. You can also tap the three dots in the upper right hand corner and then select Details for more information, including the ability to turn on Do Not Disturb. The other conversation partner(s) will not see that you did this and will still be able to message you, but you will stop receiving notifications for 24 hrs.

20. Messaging: Mobile App Search by staff Search by guardians
You can do the same thing by going to the My Students’ Guardians and Staff sections of the directory. In these cases, when you tap on somebody’s name, you will only have the option to send a message to that one individual.

21. Messaging: Mobile App Search by name
Lastly, if you know the name of the person you wish to message, you can go to your messages by tapping the speech bubble icon on the bottom of your screen. Then, tap the pencil and paper icon in the top right-hand corner. Search for a user by name, then tap the name when it appears. You can also search for a group to message. As a reminder, messaging a group will behave like group texting in that all participants will receive responses. Tap Next. Type and send your message.

22. Messaging: Web App Respond to existing message thread
Click on Messages in the menu bar on the left. It will default to the My Messages tab. From there, you can respond to an existing message thread by selecting the thread from the list on the left. Type your message and press Send. You can also add a picture by clicking on the camera icon.

23. Messaging: Web App Begin new message thread
You can also begin a new message thread. Click on the green New Conversation button. Click +Add Participants. You can then select whether you want to message a User or a Group. Click on as many recipients as you want. As a reminder, messaging a group or a group of users will behave like group texting in that all participants will receive responses. You will see your recipients move to the right-hand side of the screen. Click Add Participants. Type and send your message.

24. Directory Includes all users in the school community
Re-invite any individual user
In the directory, you will see all users of the school community. You can filter by label (guardian, admin, staff, student) or by your personal filters (blocked users or favorite users). You can also use the search bar at the top to search for a specific individual. Once you find a user, you can edit their profile (typically contact information). You can also re-invite them digitally or by printing an invitation letter. If no contact information is present, you will only be able to print an invitation letter for them. If they have already activated their account, you will be able to send them a message from this screen.

25. Groups: Web Browser View Member Activity
See when members last logged in
You and your staff can add to, edit, and view your groups from the web browser or mobile app. However, some features such as editing permissions, sending invitations, and viewing member activity have to be done from the web browser.
The flag icon indicates that you are the owner of that group.
Let’s look at some features to access for groups of which you are the owner. It is important for your staff to know that they can do this so that they can manage their groups on their own.
View Member Activity: hover over the gear icon to the right of group and select “View Member Activity”. This will let you see your students and when each of their guardians have last logged in. If there is no date, they have not yet activated their accounts.

26. Groups: Web Browser Re-send invites Digital and/or printed
While you can invite the entire school, staff members may want to resend invitations to their individual class(es). As always, sending or printing invitations will only affect those who have not yet activated their accounts. To do so, follow the directions below:
Click on the Groups tab in the menu bar on the left.
Hover over the group that you manage and/or own.
Hover over the gear icon to the right.
Click on Print Invitation Letters, then select the role for which you would like to print invitations. Selecting Guardians will allow you to print invitations for any guardians who are members of the group themselves. Selecting Students’ Guardians will allow you to print invitation letters for the guardians of the students who are members of the group.
A PDF of invitation letters will pop-up in a new tab. You can then print out these invitation letters to be distributed at an event or sent home.
Click on Send /SMS Invitations to automatically sent digital invitations. Depending on the contact information available for the user, an or text message invitation will be sent. If there is no contact information present, no invitation will be sent.

27. What’s Next? Activate your account Download the mobile app Post News
Check out the SchoolCNXT Calendar
Re-invite parents as needed
with questions
So what should you do next? Make sure you activate your account! Remember, you need to check your district-issued address for your invitation! We also strongly recommend that you download the mobile app. This will make it easier and more convenient to post news and send messages. Then, post news – we can’t encourage this enough! Parents will be activating their accounts soon and it will be very rewarding for them to log in and see news to welcome them! Then, check out the SchoolCNXT calendar. This will give you great ideas about what you can post and message and how often most school staff are doing so. As the year continues, remember to check your activation rates and re-invite parents as you feel it is necessary! Lastly, with any questions!