For: District Admins
Platform: Web Only
What Are Personal Messages?
Personal Messages allow school-level staff to send 1:1 messages directly to families and students (age 13+) from their own staff identity, without needing to use the Teacher Product.
District Admins can grant this permission using custom roles—perfect for support staff like counselors, nurses, and attendance clerks who need to communicate directly but don’t need access to class-based messaging or school-wide announcements.
Why Use Personal Messages?
Before this feature, staff had to:
Add themselves as non-rostered staff
Switch into the Teacher Product
Use the Teacher mobile app
Now, with Personal Messages:
Messaging is seamless from the School Product
Messages are personal, showing the sender’s name—not the school
Staff can message any student/family tied to the school
🛠 Granting Personal Message Permissions
District Admins can assign this permission through a custom school-level role.
Best for:
Staff who need to message families but don’t manage full school communication
Support roles (e.g., nurse, counselor, attendance clerk)
Users who don’t need access to announcements or staff messaging
Role Type | Personal Messages Access |
School Admin | ✅ On by default |
Technical School Admin | ❌ Off by default |
School Viewer | ❌ Off by default |
Custom Role | ✅ Can be granted |
How to Assign Personal Message Roles
Option 1: Create Custom Role
Go to Staff & Roles
Use the blue power bar to select and assign roles, including specific permissions like Personal Messaging
ℹ️ If needed, you're able to bulk assign custom roles using this step-by-step bulk assign guide →
Option 2: Upload a .CSV
Use this CSV upload method for fast district-wide setup
Additional Notes
These users can message any student (13+) or family contact tied to the school, including manually added students
Messages come from their personal name/signature—not the shared school account
Human translation is not applied to personal messages, even if the sender is a district or school admin