Set up different email or SMS messages for incidents and detention severities

This article explains how to set up and customise email or SMS notifications for different incident and detention severity levels in a school management system. Users can create specific templates for various severities and assign them accordingly to ensure appropriate communication with guardians.

You can choose to notify guardians via email or SMS when an incident is logged or a detention given. 

1. Go to Students > Behaviour > Setup

2. Select the Incidents tab

3. Click on Automatic Incident Workflows.

You can choose whether to send out the default email or SMS template for each severity level.

4. To edit the default template, click on the Send message option

5. Click Modify Template.

You will be taken to the Templates section of the Communications area where you can edit the template.

Setting up different templates for different levels

You may want to send a different message via email or SMS for different incident severity levels, for example one for positive severities and one for negative severities, or a different message for more serious behaviours.

You can do this for both notifications of incidents and detentions! You can see how to set up your templates and assign them to different severities below.

Step 1 - Set up your templates

Make sure you have first set up the templates you want to use by following these instructions: Using Email/SMS/Letter Templates

When you set up the template using the Detention fields or Behaviour Incident fields options, you can pull in information using Merge Fields.

Step 2 - Assign your templates to your severities

Go to Students > Behaviour > Setup and select the Incidents tab. Click on Automatic Incident Workflows.

Select the severity level, then select the Send message template to primary guardian option.

In the slide over, you can select whether to use the standard template or your custom template for email and SMS.

• When selecting the incident option, you can see any Incident templates set up to select from. You cannot select detention templates, because detention merge fields are only available when a detention has been assigned.
• When selecting the detention option, you can see any Detention templates set up to select from. You cannot select incident templates. 

To edit the selected template, click Modify Template. You will be taken to the Templates section of the Communications area where you can edit the template.