Parent Messaging Experience

The parent messaging experience: what families see in the app

Summary: This describes messaging from the parent's side, using the Classroom Share mobile app. When a parent receives a message, they tap the notification to open it and can see who it is from, but not the other recipients — that stays private. If the message allows it, the parent can reply, and their reply creates a private thread back to the original sender only. Parents can also start a new message using the yellow compose bubble, choosing their school and then a recipient: they can message a school administrator directly by name, or send to all the teachers of their child's classroom as a group, which goes to the classroom inbox rather than to one individual teacher.

Who can do this

This article describes what parents see and do in the Classroom Share mobile app. Parents use this side of messaging from their own app; teachers and administrators compose and manage messages from their side of Montessori Compass, covered in the article on composing and sending a message.

Step-by-step: a parent receiving and replying to a message

1. Receive the notification. A message notification arrives on the parent's phone.
2. Open the message. Tap the notification to open the Classroom Share mobile app directly to the message.
3. See who it is from. The parent can see who sent the message.
4. Reply if allowed. If the message permits replies, the parent can write a reply.
5. Send the reply. The reply goes back according to the sender's reply setting — for a sender-only message, it goes to the original sender (for example, the school administrator).

Step-by-step: a parent starting a new message

1. Open the composer. Tap the yellow compose bubble in the bottom-left corner.
2. Choose the school and recipient. Select the school, then choose a recipient. See "Who a parent can message" below.
3. Write the message. Compose the message, and optionally add a file or photo.
4. Send. Tap Send. The message is delivered.

Recipient privacy: what parents can and cannot see

When a parent opens a message that was sent to a group, they can see who it is from, but they do not see the full list of everyone who received it. For a message sent to the whole school, the parent simply sees that it went to selected recipients. This protects the privacy of the other families on the message.

How a parent's reply creates a private thread

When a message is set so recipients reply to the sender only, a parent's reply goes only to the original sender — for example, the school administrator. This creates a separate, private thread between that one parent and the sender, which is not visible to the other parents who received the original group message. The private thread references the original message by title and even shows the original message content, so both sides know what is being replied to.

Who a parent can message

When a parent starts a new message, the recipient choices are shaped to keep things simple and private:

• School administrators can be messaged directly by name, so a parent can send a direct message to an administrator.
• Classroom teachers are not listed individually. A parent sends to all the teachers of their child's classroom as a group, shown as the classroom and then all teachers.

A parent's message to teachers does not go to other parents, and it does not go to a single individual teacher.

Why messages to teachers go to the whole classroom

A parent's message to their child's teachers goes to the classroom inbox rather than to one teacher. The reason is practical: an individual teacher might be absent on the day the parent sends the message, and it still needs to be seen and addressed by whoever is in charge of the classroom that day. Because it goes to the classroom inbox, any teacher with access to that inbox can see and respond to it.

A few things worth knowing

• Parents never see the other recipients of a group message, only that it went to selected recipients.
• A parent's reply to a sender-only message becomes a private one-to-one thread with the sender, not a message to other families.
• Parents can message an administrator by name, but reach classroom teachers only as a group through the classroom inbox.
• Routing to the classroom inbox means the message is covered even if a particular teacher is out that day.

Related articles

• Compose and send a message to families
• Activity Reports: share classroom activity with parents
• The parent mobile app: what families see

Watch the video

Here is a short video covering this topic for additional reference.