When a student is marked absent on a co-curricular roll without an explained absence on file, PortalHQ can automatically SMS the parents. This catches families who forgot to notify the school and reduces the manual follow-up the office has to do.
The auto-SMS is configured per activity group, so different activities can have different messages and different timing.
Where to set it up
Open the activity group and go to the SMS template section.
Fields
- Active — turn the auto-SMS on or off for this activity group.
- Delay (minutes) — how long after the roll is marked to wait before sending. Gives parents a window to update the school if there’s a genuine absence reason.
- Message body — the SMS content. Plain text. Placeholders supported.
Placeholders
The message body can include:
{student_name}— the child’s first name.{parent_first_name}— the parent’s first name.{activity}— the activity name (e.g. Football).{session_date}— the date of the missed session.{school_name}— your school’s name.
Example:
Hi {parent_first_name}, {student_name} was marked absent from {activity} today, {session_date}. If you've already notified us, please ignore this message. - {school_name}
When the SMS fires
For an SMS to fire:
- The roll is marked and closed.
- The student is marked Absent (unexplained) — not present, not late, not explained.
- The delay has elapsed since the roll was closed.
- No known-absence record exists for the student and session.
If all four conditions are true, the SMS goes out to the parent(s) on file for the student.
Choosing a delay
Most schools set the delay to 15-30 minutes. The trade-off:
- Short delay (5-15 minutes) — parents who forgot get the message right after the session. Best for catching real no-shows. Risk: parents who did notify but used a slower channel (e.g. phoned the office) may get an unnecessary message.
- Longer delay (30-60 minutes) — gives office staff time to record absences before SMS fires. Less false-positive but slower follow-up.
Excluding from auto-SMS
A student is excluded automatically if:
- They have a known absence for this session — see Creating known absences.
- They were marked Absent (explained) at roll-marking time.
- They were marked Late or Present (i.e. they showed up).
To exclude a specific student from all auto-SMS regardless (e.g. a family with complex circumstances), talk to your portal admin about a per-student opt-out.
Two-way SMS replies
If your SMS provider supports two-way SMS, parent replies to the auto-SMS are captured and logged against the session. Staff can see the reply on the session detail page.
A common reply pattern: Sorry, ran late, will message coach — captured in PortalHQ as the absence reason without anyone having to take a call.
Costs
Each auto-SMS is billed per recipient. The cost can add up if you have:
- Lots of activity groups with auto-SMS enabled.
- High unexplained absence rates.
- Many parents per student (sending to multiple guardians per absence).
Review the SMS log monthly and consider whether auto-SMS is delivering value for the cost.
Disabling for specific sessions
If you know a session will have lots of legitimate absences (e.g. a Saturday training that conflicts with another major school event), disable auto-SMS for that session:
- Open the session.
- Choose Override SMS settings → Disable auto-SMS for this session.
The roll still marks normally; no automatic messages go out.
Tips
- Test the template on yourself before going live. Sign yourself up as a test student and trigger an absence.
- Use a clear “if you’ve already told us, ignore” line so parents don’t panic-reply for absences they’ve already notified.
- Review the SMS log weekly to spot patterns — recurring false positives, broken phone numbers, opted-out families.
- Tune the delay based on actual experience with the first term — short delays catch more but generate more noise.