Short Codes in Action for School Districts

Situation

Keeping students, families, and employees informed was easier said than done for Smartville School District.

In addition to regularly scheduled activities like holiday closures and parent-teacher conferences, notifications had to be sent out at a moment’s notice for the unexpected, like inclement weather, emergencies like gas leaks, or suspicious activity on campus. 

What’s more, these messages had to be customized for several different campuses across town and accessible by families with a wide range of technology and language levels. Just as importantly, recipients had to know at once that the notification came from a trusted source, especially in a crisis situation.

A short code messaging service offered the ideal solution.

Results

District administrators could both schedule campaigns for routine and recurring events and quickly assemble alerts on the fly. Distribution could be both broad—reaching thousands of people at once— and targeted, like a message to a sports team about a rescheduled game due to inclement weather. Finally, because all recipients opt in to receive notifications, they didn’t mistake important alerts for spam.

The short code messaging system kept everyone on track across the school community, including district parent Laurie and her four children.

Solution

During the family’s first winter in the community, a severe ice storm with freezing temperatures shut down everything in town, including roads and schools. Laurie had signed up for the district’s text notification program at the beginning of the year. So, she had timely notice of class cancellations and provisions for remote learning, even with her children spread out across four different schools. 

Her phone buzzed with text alerts, customized for each facility, while she was out shoveling the driveway, so she was able to immediately change the family’s plans for the day and keep everyone off the icy roads. As a result, everyone was able to stay safe at home until the weather passed.