The text message alert system, provided through SchoolMessenger, does not replace our existing means of communication (callouts, emails, and letters sent home and posted on school websites). Rather, it provides an additional way to contact parents and students quickly regarding important campus and district events and school or district closures or emergencies. With text messaging, you can quickly and efficiently provide accurate information to parents and students.

Principals’ Tool Kit
For this service to be useful, however, we need your help in making sure everyone — parents, students, and staff — is signed up. Below are links to a variety of documents that we hope you will find useful in promoting text messaging to your parents, students, and staff members.

Student Enrollment Forms
We are also including Student Enrollment Forms in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese, which can also be found on the Federal & State Compliance website. There are also instructions on how to enter student data and contact information into Chancery. This is important because if data is entered incorrectly, SchoolMessenger can't access it, and you can't send texts to those who have signed up.

A few things to keep in mind as you begin using text messaging:

• Not all parents, students, and staff will sign up for text messaging, so we recommend you follow a text message with a callout providing similar details.
• Be sure to identify your school when you send out a text message.
• Use text messaging sparingly to prevent diluting the power of this new tool.

Contact Information:
For questions regarding text messaging or help with drafting any notifications or other documents, please email connected@houstonisd.org.

For questions regarding the School Information System (Chancery), data entry, or other technical questions, please contact Information Technology at service@HoustonISD.org.