How to Send a Message to a PowerSchool Selection
With the BrightArrow-PowerSchool integration, you can select students and/or families directly through PowerSchool to send them a message. This article details how to send a message to a person or group by selecting them in PowerSchool.
- In PowerSchool, click on People in the navigation menu
- Choose either Students or Staff depending on which group you want to send a message to (in this example we'll use students)
- In the Student (or Staff) Searches column, choose the option that makes the most sense for who you want to message, most commonly Search for Students.
- To message Parents, you'll still use Search for Students. More on that later.
- If you're messaging staff, you'll click Staff in the "People" column, then "Search for Staff"
- You'll now see a screen where you can search by name or other criteria
- If you're in District Office, you can select any student in the district
- If you're in a school, you'll only see students for that school
How to search
The various search options allow you easily search for a specific student, a group of students, or to manually select students within a group. If you want to select students from the full list of available students, you can do that too. The same applies for messaging staff members. Remember that if you want to message only the parents of students, you will still search for the corresponding student(s). When it comes time to create your message, you will have the option to send to just students, just parents, or both.
Searching for one student
If you need to send a message to one student or their parents, you can use the search bar to find them. Enter their name, student number, or whatever information you want to find them with, then click the search icon.
Searching from a group of students
If you want to search for a group of students, such as all 9th graders or all students with a last name starting with "M" you can do that using the quick search. Simply click on any of the available search options located underneath the search bar. You can further narrow the results later.
Ex: You need to message some or all of the 9th grade students/families. Search for all 9th graders by clicking the link for "9."
Ex: You need to message some or all of the students/families whose last name begins with "N." Search for all students with the last name starting with "N" by clicking the link for "N."
Ex: You need to message some or all of the students/families regardless of grade level or name. Include all students in your search by clicking the link for "All."
Selecting the students/families to message
Now that the students you need to message are included in your search filter, you can select individuals from the list if you want to narrow it down further by clicking the "Select By Hand" button.
Ex: You only need to message 20 of the 9th grade students. You'll first click the link "9" to narrow down the search results to show only 9th grade students. Then click the "Select By Hand" button.
Ex: You need to message a list of 100 students/families who are in various grade levels. You'll first click the link "All" to include the full school/district in your search results. Then click the "Select By Hand" button.
- Using the "Select By Hand" option, you can now select the individual students you need to message.
- Use the checkbox in the header row to select or deselect all students in the search
- Select only the students you need by marking the checkboxes next to their name
- Once you've selected all the students/families you want to message, click "Update Selection"
- Now that you've clicked "Update Selection" you will see only the selected students in the Current Student Selection list
Creating and sending the message
With your students now selected, use the "BrightArrow Alerts" button to start creating your message. You can use the drop-down arrow to select who you want to send the message to.
- BrightArrow Alerts Parents - sends only to the students' parents, based on the contact filter settings
- BrightArrow Alerts Students - sends only to the students, based on the contact filter settings
- BrightArrow Alerts Parents and Students - sends to the students and their parents, based on the contact filter settings
Once you've clicked the BrightArrow Alerts button, the BrightArrow Create Message page will load. You can now start creating your message to send to your selected group of students and/or parents.
a. List Name as it will appear in your BrightArrow My Lists page and Reports page.
b. Number of contacts to be included in the message. Note that this is based on the number of students selected.
Ex: You selected 23 students. BrightArrow Alerts Students will send to the 23 students selected.
Ex: You selected 23 students. BrightArrow Alerts Parents will send to the parents of the 23 students selected. If each student has 2 parents, 46 parent contacts will be messaged.
Ex: You selected 23 students. BrightArrow Alerts Parents and Students will send to the 23 students and their parents. If each student has 2 parents, 23 students and 46 parents will be messaged.
c. Message Types to Send. You can select Email, Texting, and Voice to send all 3 message types at the same time. For more information about creating your BrightArrow message, see here. If you're posting to Facebook, you cannot send the other message types at the same time. For more information about social media posts, see here.
d. Message Name is optional but recommended. The message name is for your internal use only. Adding one will make it easier for you to find again in the future if you want to reuse it or view the report of the message sent.
e. Message Priority. If your message is a true emergency, mark the message priority as "Emergency," otherwise mark it as "Informational." See here for more information about sending messages as "Informational" vs. "Emergency."
f. Mark as Urgent in App Until. If your contacts use the BrightArrow ParentHub app, you can add an end date/time so that the message shows up as an emergency alert in ParentHub. The message will move from the ParentHub Alerts tab to the regular ParentHub messages feed once the end time you set is passed. See here for more information about using this field.
g. Click "Next" when you're ready to proceed with creating your message.
After clicking "Next," you will be brought to the message creation page to start creating each of the message types you selected. For more information about creating your BrightArrow message, see here.
Continue through the message creation process by clicking "Next."
On the final message sending screen, you will have various options to send, save, schedule, and preview your message. Use the links below for detailed information about those options.
How to preview a message before sending it