Managing groups of students and staff from multiple schools across a district has traditionally been a challenge, with staff access often limited to school-specific rosters. This restriction makes it difficult for district-wide intervention teams, instructional coaches, and those managing clubs and sports to effectively collaborate and engage with students and families from multiple schools.
To address this need, District Groups now allows for authorized district-level users to create and manage groups with students from any school within the district, while also providing the flexibility to assign individual staff members to these groups. Staff can message these students and their families from the teacher apps they’re familiar with, whether on the web or mobile app.
This update streamlines cross-district collaboration, ensuring that staff can easily connect with and support students and families across the district, all within the apps they already use.
When will assigning staff to District Groups be available?
This feature update will be available as part of TalkingPoints Foundations for all district partners for back-to-school 2025.
What type of district groups will this feature update support?
Assigning staff to a district group may be a good solution for partners when:
Staff need to message groups of students based on category / demographic info / district initiative that are managed by different departments, for example, Indian Education Dept, Title I / Title III, state testing, College and Career readiness, etc.
Staff who have caseloads spread across multiple schools, but do not need access to all students at all of the sites they work at (e.g., speech language pathologists, social workers, special education teachers).
Staff who are assigned to teams or clubs that have students from multiple schools.
Who will have access to assign staff to district groups?
Any district-level user with permission to create and manage district groups will be able to assign staff to district groups from within the district product.
Any staff member assigned to a district group will be able to access the group and student roster from within their teacher apps (web and mobile).
It’s important to note, because district groups can contain students from across multiple schools, only teacher-level staff can be assigned to a district group.
Where can partners access staff assignments to district groups?
The ability to assign staff to a district group will be available in the Groups module within the District product. District group assignments will appear within individual staff profiles.
Teachers can access their district group assignments from within the Classes & Groups module in the teacher web and mobile apps.
How does it work?
District level users with permission to create and manage district groups will be able to assign individual staff members to a district group. Staff who have been assigned to a district group will be able to access the group and all its current students from within their teacher web and mobile apps regardless of their individual school assignments. They will be able to message the families and students within the group.
Districts will retain oversight into the group and all messaging. They will have complete control over which students and staff are assigned to a district group. District groups can be deleted individually or en masse when it’s time to refresh rosters.
Will district group assignments be visible to staff in the teacher mobile app?
Yes, staff assigned to district groups will be able to access the group and all its current students from within their teacher web and mobile apps.
Will staff assigned to a district group be able to access all students within the group, even if the students are rostered at different schools than the staff member?
Yes, staff assigned to district groups will be able to access and message any student and their family within the group, including those from different schools within the district.