Managing School-Wide Parent Notifications
Overview
AE-Connect offers a range of notifications for parents. These notifications are selected at the school level and automatically propagate to all parents marked as custodial.
This guide includes:
Step 1: Ensure that Parent Custodial Status is selected before school notifications are selected.
Step 2: School-Wide Notifications
Step 3: Report Card - Email and Display on Parent Portal
Managing Individual Parent Notifications
Permissions
Users who do not see the Notifications in the menu must turn on the notifications in their security. Select the Security from the menu under School Profile, select the group that needs notifications and then under Organization turn on View and Manage. Refresh and then the user will see Notifications under the School Profile in the Menu.
STEP 1 Confirm Custodial Status
Notifications are only sent to parents who are marked as custodial. “Custodial” is a checkbox inside each parent account. For every parent, the school can select either the Custodial or Primary Custodial option directly on that parent's account.
Custodial status is assigned student by student. If a parent is linked to multiple students, the school must open each student's record individually to verify and set the custodial checkbox for that parent.
Notifications will ONLY automatically populate parents account IF they are first marked custodial before turning on notifications in settings.
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⚠ This process must be completed student by student. If you're unsure which parents are marked as custodial, run a report in the Custom Report Builder to confirm current assignments. Edits are nto done within the report builder — edits must be made on the individual parent account. |
STEP 2 Set Notifications at the School Level
General Notifications
School Profile > Notifications.
Go to School Profile > Notifications.
This is the area for selecting School-Wide Notifications. From here, the school selects each notification, and it automatically propagates to every custodial parent — provided that parent has Custodial or Primary Custodial checked on their account (see Step 1).
Frequency
• Choose Weekly or Daily. Only one selection is required.
• If both Weekly and Daily are selected, parents will be able to change the frequency themselves in their Parent Portal account.
Lock
The lock controls whether parents can opt out of a notification in their Parent Portal account.
| State | What happens |
| Unlocked (open padlock) | Parents can go to the Parent Portal and opt out of the notification. |
| Locked (closed padlock) | Parents cannot uncheck the notification in the Parent Portal. Their only option is to opt in to receive a text message for that notification. |
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⚠ Save this screen after making your selections. Notifications will not propagate to custodial or primary custodial parents until you save. |
Explanation of Notifications
Scheduled
- Progress Report: A summary of the student's current grades, sent on the chosen frequency.
- Reported grade is greater than: Notifies parents when a student's reported grade is above the threshold you set (for example, 80). Useful for recognizing strong performance.
- Reported grade is less than: Notifies parents when a student's reported grade drops below the threshold you set (for example, 45). Useful as an early warning.
Automatic (4-hour delay)
These send about 4 hours after the teacher enters the mark in the gradebook. The delay gives teachers time to catch and fix entry mistakes before families are notified.
- Assignment is missing: The assignment was marked missing.
- Grade is 0%: The student received a zero on an assignment.
- Grade is incomplete: The assignment was marked incomplete. Using the IN in Special Marks for Grade input
- Grade is excused: The student was excused from the assignment. Using the EX in Special Marks for Grade Input
- Grade is absent: The student was marked absent for the assignment. Using the AB in Special Marks for Grade Input.
Attendance notifications
Attendance notifications send automatically about 15 minutes after attendance is taken, so families hear the same day. The short delay allows a quick correction if a student is marked by mistake.
- Marked absent: The student was marked absent.
- Marked tardy: The student was marked tardy.
Report Card Emailing & Display on Parent Portal
Found under School Profile > Settings.
Report Card Settings work the same way as School-Wide Notifications: they apply only to parent accounts marked as custodial or primary custodial, and each setting can be locked or unlocked as needed.
• Report Card Display — allows report cards to appear in the Parent Portal.
• Report Card Send — allows authorized school users to email report cards directly to parents.
Managing Individual Parents
When the school adds a new parent, or is working with a non-custodial parent, notifications for that specific parent can be turned on or off directly from the Parent Account screen.
Video Guides
Tips and FAQ
Which notifications should I lock? Lock only the alerts every family must receive, such as Marked absent. Locked Notification parents cannot uncheck. Parents can only choose text. Leaving notifications unlocked lets parents uncheck those in their parent portal.
What happens if I uncheck Daily under Frequency Options? Parents will only be able to choose Weekly for scheduled notifications. Make sure no Default Frequency is still set to Daily.
Why didn't a parent get an alert right away? Automatic notifications wait 4 hours (gradebook) or 15 minutes (attendance) before sending. If the teacher corrected the entry during that window, no alert is sent.
Can parents change the grade thresholds? No. Thresholds are set by the school on this screen. Parents choose whether to receive the notification and, if unlocked, how often.
Do grade codes depend on teachers? Yes. Missing, incomplete, excused and absent alerts only send when teachers use those input codes in the gradebook. Share this with staff so alerts stay accurate.