Make Student Communications Visible on the Parent Portal – Finalsite Enrollment

The Student Communication feature lets schools make emails and text messages sent directly to students visible to families in the Parent Portal, supporting transparency requirements and providing parents a more complete view of the enrollment process.

Enabling This Feature

Since this feature impacts the parent experience and visibility of student data, it is turned off by default. To activate this for your site, submit a request to our Support Team so we can enable the feature for your families.

💡Quick Answers

Is the Student Communication feature enabled by default? No, it is off by default; submit a request to Support to enable it for your site.
Where do families see student communications in the Parent Portal? In a Student Communication section to the right of the checklist, which appears after a parent clicks into a student's record; clicking View Student Communication opens a list of all emails and texts sent to the student.
Does the feature show all family communications or only student messages? Only communications sent directly to the student are shown; emails sent to both the parent and student display only the student's version.
What types of communications are shown? All emails and text messages sent to the student, organized with the most recent at the top.

Overview

For schools that communicate with students directly, the Student Communication feature allows you to make emails and text messages sent to students visible to families on the Parent Portal. This feature was introduced to help schools meet evolving privacy requirements, including specific laws in Kentucky and Oklahoma.

While this feature was designed to assist schools in states requiring transparency for student-only communications, it is available to all clients who wish to provide parents with a more comprehensive view of the admissions and enrollment process.

How It Works

When the Student Communication feature is enabled, families will see a Student Communication section on the Parent Portal next to their child's checklist.

Student Communication section on the Parent Portal.png

Location: In the Parent Portal, once a parent clicks into a student's checklist, they will see the Student Communication section to the right of the checklist and above the contact and custom content widgets.
The Experience: Clicking the View Student Communication button opens a modal (pop-up window) that lists all emails and text messages sent to the student, organized with the most recent messages at the top.

This feature is most relevant for schools that collect student email addresses or phone numbers and communicate with students directly.

⚠️ Important Note on Visibility

The Student Communication feature only shows emails and text messages sent to the student, and not other family members. If an email was sent to both the parent and student, only the student's communication will display on the Parent Portal.

Additional Resources