K12 CRITICAL ALERTS
Emergency communication delivered with Critical Alerts
Critical Alerts are messages sent when school community's immediate attention is required. Schools use Critical Alerts to inform on school closures, alert on severe weather, provide immediate info on safety concerns, and other urgent updates related to community safety.
Critical Alerts are delivered at the same time across text, voice, email, and app notifications. Families receive the message quickly, even if they are not using the app. Multilingual families receive communication in their home languages.
Critical Alerts are designed for full reach. They override standard notification settings when needed. Each alert is displayed in the platform so families can refer to it. It is recommended to allow community's questions and comments that can be published after moderation.
Critical Alerts keep your district or school informed on school closures, severe weather, or safety concerns. Messages are fast, direct, and easy to send, delivered instantly with multiple channels: email, app push, text, and voice. Language translations are instant; all messages, including voice, are delivered in the parent’s language. Enable two-way communication for your community’s questions.
| Feature | School Signals | ParentSquare | Bloomz | SchoolMessenger | TalkingPoints | Apptegy | Remind | ClassDojo | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop UI (Alert sending) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | |||
| Mobile UI (Alert sending) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | ◐ | ❌ | ❌ | |||
| Override User Notification Settings | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | |||
| District-wide | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | ❌ | ❌ | |||
| School-level | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | ❌ | ❌ | |||
| SMS without app | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | ❌ | ❌ | |||
| Text-to-Speech (TTS) Voice Message Delivery | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | |||
| Alert translated to parent's home languages | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | |||
| Voice Translation (TTS Multilingual) | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | |||
| Delivery Confirmation (Sent/Delivered) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | |||
| Alert displayed also in communication feed (Persistent record) | ✅ | ◐ | ◐ | ❌ | ◐ | ◐ | ❌ | ❌ | |||
| Comments & Questions (Moderated) | ✅ | ◐ | ◐ | ❌ | ◐ | ◐ | ❌ | ❌ |
We will show you how School Signals works, and answer your questions. Product discovery calls take 15 to 30 minutes.
The main goal of a critical alert is to reach the maximum number of parents and teachers in the school community.
School Signals sends Critical Alerts by text message, voice message, email, and app push notifications.
Critical Alerts override users’ set notification preferences. They are also sent to parents with contact records on file who have not activated their School Signals account.
Because parents’ individual notification preferences are overridden, it’s important that school admins familiarize themselves with the legal use cases for school emergency communication.
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) generally requires prior express consent before sending automated calls or texts to wireless numbers. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has clarified that schools may lawfully send automated calls and texts without prior consent when the communication is for an emergency purpose.
The organization states, “We confirm that school callers may lawfully make robocalls and send automated texts to student family wireless phones pursuant to an “emergency purpose” exception or with prior express consent without violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).”
And, “We confirm that school callers may lawfully make autodialed calls and send automated texts to student family wireless phones without consent for emergencies including weather closures, fire, health risks, threats, and unexcused absences.”
Read the full report: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-16-88A1.pdf
District leaders access the Critical Alerts feature from the District Posts page. School leaders and administrators access Critical Alerts from the School Feed.
You can add up to 10 photos and videos to the alert. If you want to share more pictures, we recommend sharing them in a photo gallery.
Yes, you can allow questions and comments and include them to the Critical Alert post. Comments can be set to be moderated, in which case an admin reviews the comment and approves it before it gets published to the school community’s view.
Critical alerts are provided in parents’ home languages. For parents who have not activated their account, the language is set by the school’s admin. Parents who have activated their accounts can set their account’s language to their preferred language.
When the admin creates the critical alert, the content is sent to AI Translate, and the translation is nearly instant (about 1 second). The translated content is delivered to the parent via email, text, app push, and voice message. Additionally, the post becomes available in the School Feed, where it is automatically translated into parents’ home languages.
