Manage settings | PowerSchool Learning and Engagement

The Account Settings page enables you to manage your personal profile, communication preferences, and user interface settings. Use this page to update your contact details, set communication preferences, and customize how the platform behaves for you.

The Manage tab includes:

Blocked Lists: This section displays all phone numbers and email addresses that have been blocked in the system.
Contacts: Allows the user to search the system for contacts.
Imports: Shows all data imports.
Monitors: Allows users to create event triggers based on sending broadcasts.
Profiles: All user profiles.
SafeArrival: This is the single sign-on (SSO) link to access the SafeArrival system.
Settings: This section allows you to control how users interact with the web application.
Users: Contains a list of all users in the system.

SAML configuration

If you want to use SAML to sign in to Communciate, your IT department must complete the SAML configuration.

Select Admin or Manage, depending on your SchoolMessenger experience.
Select Settings, and then choose SAML Configuration.

Customer settings

Admins can manage several unique account settings.

Select Admin or Manage, depending on your SchoolMessenger experience.
Select Settings.
Select Customer settings.
Manage the customer settings within each section as needed.

Customer settings section	Name	Purpose	Notes
Basics	Support Email	By default, this is set to the PowerSchool Support email.	You can set a different support email to direct staff to the district support desk first.
Basics	Support Phone	By default, this is set to the PowerSchool Support phone number.	You can set a different support phone number to direct staff to the district support desk first.
Communication Settings	Local Area Code	Add a 3-digit area code to automatically complete imported 7-digit phone numbers.	Communicate automatically adds this area code to imported 7-digit phone numbers. For example, entering 555 changes 123-4567 to 555-123-4567.
Communication Settings	Max. Phones	Set the maximum number of phone numbers allowed for each guardian.	Set a maximum of 3 phone numbers per guardian. Existing values above 3 will remain in effect temporarily but will be reduced in a future update. After you save this value, you can increase it, but cannot lower it. For example, you can change 2 to 3, but not 3 to 1.
Communication Settings	Max. Emails	Set the maximum number of email addresses allowed for each guardian.	Set a maximum of 3 email addresses per guardian. Existing values above 3 will remain in effect temporarily but will be reduced in a future update. After you save this value, you can increase it, but cannot lower it. For example, you can change 2 to 3, but not 3 to 1.
Communication Settings	Customer-wide Default Email	Set the email address used as the default sender for broadcasts.
Communication Settings	Email as username required	Select this option to require all users to use an email address as their username.
SMS	SMS Enabled	Select this option to allow users to send SMS messages.	Request assistance from PowerSchool Support before you turn on SMS messaging. Review the SMS text message resource guides for more information.
SMS	Max. SMS	Set the maximum number of SMS numbers allowed for each guardian.	Set a maximum of 3 SMS numbers per guardian. Existing values above 3 will remain in effect temporarily but will be reduced in a future update. After you save this value, you can increase it, but cannot lower it. For example, you can change 2 to 3, but not 3 to 1.
SMS	SMS Customer Name	Enter your district name to display it in default SMS messages, for example, welcome messages.	Default SMS messages display this district name to SMS recipients.
SafeArrival	Enable SafeArrival Combined Calling	Reduce duplicate calls by combining multiple student absences into a single call.	This feature requires SafeArrival.
SafeArrival	Call Delay: 120 seconds	If combined calling is off, specify how long to wait between calls when multiple students in the same household are absent.	This feature requires SafeArrival.
Additional Features	Require Consent	Select this option to require Communicate to capture consent before sending phone calls.	When selected, your import must include a phone consent field for each phone number. Only phone numbers marked with consent will receive calls.
Additional Features	Send Message Links	Send an audio recording link through email or SMS when a recipient does not have a phone number on file.
Additional Features	Enable Autoblock	Controls how phone broadcast opt-out requests are processed. When automatic processing is off: Logs opt-out requests for administrator review. An administrator must review and process each request. When automatic processing is on: Processes opt-out requests immediately. Blocks phone numbers automatically based on the recipient's choice. Contact support to restore a blocked phone number.

Manage languages

SchoolMessenger Communicate supports up to 100 language translations over email, SMS, and phone. You can review all translated languages and manage the languages that are available in your Communicate broadcasts.

Languages must be part of the Communicate import for broadcasts to be sent to guardians in the appropriate languages.

Select Admin or Manage, depending on your SchoolMessenger experience.
Select Settings.
From Broadcast, select Language settings.

Manage recipients

SchoolMessenger now enables the automatic inclusion of users in broadcasts sent by school staff, eliminating the need to add users manually via list or contact selection. This ensures that key staff members are informed about any communication taking place at the school level.

For instance, Principals will be included in all broadcast messages sent from their schools, even if they are not part of a specific broadcast list.

There are two ways you can include recipients:

Automated inclusion
Manual inclusion

Administrators can specify the usernames that must be included in broadcasts within the Data Import Manager. Refer to Check your Data Imports to understand how data import works.

The data import file must include the Viewable By and Include on Viewable Broadcasts columns. Refer to Edit data import files for more information.

Automatic inclusion

To check if a specific username is automatically included in a broadcast message:

Select Admin or Manage, depending on your SchoolMessenger experience.
Click Imports.
Within the System Imports table, click Download for the user. The file will download as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
Open the data import file.
Select the Viewable By field for the user sending out the broadcast. The field must have the username that needs to be included in broadcasts.
Locate the username mentioned in the Viewable By field in the spreadsheet. The value in the Include on Viewable Broadcasts field must be TRUE.

If the username is listed in the Viewable By field, then administrators cannot add or remove Viewable Users within the specific user’s User Information. Refer to Data View Restrictions for more information.

Manual inclusion

When a username has TRUE in the Include on Viewable Broadcasts field, but no usernames are listed in the Viewable By field, administrators or super users can manually select when the user can be included in a broadcast.

This is useful when admins want the flexibility to select who receives a specific category of broadcast messages.

To manually include a user in broadcasts:

Select Admin or Manage, depending on your SchoolMessenger experience.
Click Users.
Locate the user you want included in the broadcast and then click View.
Within Data View, ensure Include in Viewable Broadcast is selected.
Select Viewable Users to choose users whose broadcast message will include the user.
Click Done.

Manage repeat broadcasts

You can turn off all Repeating Broadcasts at once and re-enable them later if you wish.

To disable all repeat broadcasts:

Select Admin or Manage, depending on your SchoolMessenger experience.
Select Settings.
Click Enable/Disable Repeating Broadcasts.
Select Disable Repeating Broadcasts checkbox to disable all scheduled repeating broadcasts.
Click Save.

This will disable all repeating broadcasts for all users.

Manage repeat broadcasts individually

Repeating Broadcasts are stored under individual User Accounts.

Typically, only System Administrators and other top-level users have the ability to disable Repeating Broadcasts entirely or make other significant changes to the program. If you do not have access to these features, please consult your System Administrator for assistance.

If you need to disable a single Repeating Broadcast while leaving the others scheduled to run, do not follow the steps to disable all Repeating Broadcasts. Instead, follow these steps to disable them individually:

Select Admin or Manage, depending on your SchoolMessenger experience.
Click Broadcasts.
Within System, click Repeating.
Within the Repeating Broadcasts list, locate the user whose broadcast you want to modify, and click Login as this user.
Navigate to Broadcasts, and click Broadcasts within My.
Locate the specific broadcast within My repeating broadcasts. Click edit and deselect the days for Repeat.
Click Save.

This will effectively disable the specific broadcast for that particular user.

Edit Message intro

Intro messages are brief greetings that you play back to the caller, providing instructions to follow to hear a message from the school.

To replace an existing intro message with a new one:

Select Admin or Manage, depending on your SchoolMessenger experience.
Select Settings.
Within Broadcast, select Message Intro.
Make the necessary changes within the Intro settings. There are two dropdown menus for selecting General and Emergency intros for each of the listed languages. Each dropdown allows you to choose a message from the general database or from a specific user. If you select a user, the intro will include a saved message from that user. Additionally, you can choose your own username to access the intro messages you created, if needed.
Click Preview to listen to the recorded message.
Click Done.