For: District Admins + School Admins and School Staff with Messaging Permissions
Platform: Web
Help families stay informed and engaged with research-backed weekly messages about the importance of attendance. Easily schedule a school-wide communication plan without writing every message from scratch.
📌 What is the Attendance Message Series?
A calendarized, school-level message series designed to:
Educate families on why attendance matters
Support prevention and engagement year-round
Offer ready-to-send, research-based messages aligned to grade level
Messages are:
Available for Elementary, Middle, and High School
Organized weekly, with ~40 total messages aligned to the school year
🚀 How to Access the Series
Go to the Engagement Tools module
Click on the Attendance tab
Select Attendance Message Series
You’ll now see a weekly message section with:
Message previews
Filters by grade level and status
Option to search by keyword
🔍 Preview & Filter Weekly Messages
All school-level users with access to the Attendance module can:
Preview weekly messages
Filter by:
School level (Elementary, Middle, High)
Message status (Sent, Scheduled, Ready to Use, Hidden)
Search by keyword
See empty state messages when no results match filters
Users must have permission to access the Attendance module to see these messages.
📅 Set the Weekly Start Date (Permissioned Feature)
Users with permission to send and receive school messages or send and receive attendance messages can:
Set a weekly start date for the message series
This defines the calendar timing for all ~40 messages
Best practice: align to your school year start date
Change the start date at any time during the year
Trigger label updates in weekly trays (e.g. "Week of Sept 2")
Automatically collapse past weeks and show current + upcoming 2 weeks
🔐 This applies school-wide and is visible to all users.
🕒 Schedule Weekly Messages
Users with correct permission will see a Schedule button on each message card.
Click Schedule
A compose window opens with the message pre-filled
You can edit the message before sending
Once scheduled:
Message shows Scheduled status + date
After sending, status updates to Sent + date
✏️ Edited messages are saved with an Edited icon and become the new school-wide version of that message.
🔐 Scheduling permissions are available to:
School Admins by default
Custom roles with:
Send school messages, or
Send and receive attendance messages
🙈 Hide or Unhide a Message
Want to remove a message from staff view?
Users with appropriate permission can:
Click the hide icon on any card to remove it from weekly trays
Hidden messages can only be found using the “Hidden” status filter
Click the unhide icon to restore the message for all users
✋ Hiding/unhiding affects all school users.
🔁 End-of-Year Reset
The Attendance Message Series refreshes each school year to provide up-to-date content.
If your district uses a school year cutoff date for message filtering, that will control when messages reset
Otherwise, TalkingPoints uses a default date of July 1
After reset:
You’ll see new messages for the new school year
You can set a new start date
Past messages stay visible by selecting prior school years in the filter
🧠 Why It Matters
The Attendance Message Series helps your team:
Consistently reinforce attendance as a priority
Save time with proven message content
Engage families before attendance becomes a problem