FDbroadcast is designed to allow principals (and selected staff) the ability to message the school community in multiple methods in case of an emergency or urgent situation.

This feature sends all users a copy of your urgent FDmail as well as a Text Forward and an Email Forward. Even if your school does not currently use the feature 'Email Forward', the FDbroadcast will still forward your FDmail message directly to the recipients' email. However, in order for the Text Forward to work, your school must have 'Enable Text Integration' enabled in Settings.

Please note - for Text Forwards, the message sent will be truncated to ~150 characters. This includes the name of the sender, a link for the recipient to login, and the first part of the message. The user will have to log in to FastDirect in order to see the remaining message. Therefore, we recommend providing the most vital information in the first 100-125 characters.

The last critical step is that your parents have entered in all the necessary information on their parent form. They will need an email address and cell phone number entered into their parent account.

Text forwards and email forwards are only sent if the appropriate fields are completed on the staff and parent forms. If a parent has opted out of receiving SMS Text Notifications or has opted out of receiving Email Forward, an FDbroadcast will still be sent to that parent in all methods regardless of the parents' preferences.

This is why FDbroadcast is ideal for urgent or emergency situations, as it overrides the parents' preferences for communication.

The option "FDbroadcast" must be selected when sending the FDmail message. The system, by default, allows the Principal access to this feature. To give other staff members access, the Principal must edit any staff account in the Staff list.

You can check which parents have the necessary information by going to:

• Settings
• FDmail
• Parent Notification Settings (Under Enable Text Forward)
• On this page you can see information for all families and also edit/add information directly to this page
• If you make any changes, be sure to Save Changes