Text, call & email consent (opt-ins)
Elira only contacts families who have opted in — texts, calls and emails each need recorded consent. How to record it, and how opt-outs work.
Elira never texts, calls, or emails a family without recorded consent. Every automated channel waits for an opt-in — email included. Consent is always voluntary — it is never required to apply or enroll.
What a family can choose
Three independent checkboxes, nothing pre-selected. Each channel has its own box and its own disclosure paragraph — ticking one never ticks another:
- Text messages — a standalone box. Carrier rules for text messaging require this consent to stand on its own, separate from consent for any other channel, so nothing else on the form can grant it.
- Phone calls — its own box, its own paragraph. A family with text consent alone is excluded from every call — enrollment calls and attendance calls alike.
- Email — its own box. An email address is required only when the family chooses email updates. Ticking it authorizes enrollment and attendance emails; leaving it unticked grants no new email permission.
A family can take any combination: texts but no calls, email but no texts, all three, or none. A family who ticks a phone box also confirms the number is theirs to give.
Below them sits a separate "Stop texts and calls to this number" box. Blank and "no" are not the same: leaving a channel blank simply records no consent for it, while ticking the decline box cancels any text or call consent that number had before.
Their exact choices are stored with the consent record.
Consent on the school application comes first
The preferred place to collect consent is your own enrollment application, including SchoolMint: families choose which school messages they want, powered by AskElira. Texts, emails and automated calls each need their own permission. Application submission alone is never consent.
When your enrollment-system export includes explicit channel choices and the exact wording the family saw, Elira can import that consent during roster sync. A missing field or a yes/no flag without the wording does not authorize outreach. Confirm your school’s application and export carry these details before relying on this route.
Other ways to record consent
- Self-serve form — share your school's opt-in link (on the texting section of Your family list) in enrollment packets, emails, or at events. Families opt in via web or paper form. Share the link exactly as shown: it ends in your school's own id (
?school=…), which is what puts a family who signs up through it on your texting list, with the exact words they agreed to and when. A copy with that ending cut off still records the family's consent, but on no school — so Elira cannot text them for you. - Bulk import — already collected consent on paper or in another system? Upload the list on the texting section of Your family list. You'll attest that the school collected consent for these families; the attestation is stored with each record. Rows that include an email address grant texts and email; rows without one grant texts only.
An import needs your signed onboarding packet first, on a data-protection agreement of version 2.3 or later — guardian names, numbers and addresses are protected data, so the import is refused until the paperwork that covers them is executed. It also skips any row for a guardian who has opted out, and tells you how many rows that was. An opt-out is the family's decision and no attestation overrides it.
The form saves contact preferences; it does not submit a school application. Families see Email updates, Text updates, and Phone updates, then press Save preferences. Phone is required for text or phone choices and stop requests; email-only consent does not require a phone number. Leaving every choice blank keeps any earlier preferences unchanged. The Learn about AskElira link opens askelira.com.
In particular, a family cannot opt in by texting you — not by replying YES, and not by texting your enrollment number first. Federal rules treat a reply to an automated message as an action taken *after* consent exists, never as the consent itself, so recording one that way would leave you with a record that doesn't hold up. A family who texts asking for updates gets a friendly reply with a link to your consent form, the family is flagged on your dashboard for follow-up, and nothing is recorded until they complete the form.
What happens with no consent on file
Nothing automated goes out — no text, no call, and no email either. The family still appears in your Applicants table and in the daily digest, so your office can reach them in person. This is the most common reason a family "never heard from Elira."
Opting out
A family texting STOP (or UNSUBSCRIBE / BAJA), asking in plain words ("please stop texting me", "no me manden más mensajes"), replying "stop" to an email, or clicking the unsubscribe link in any family email is opted out instantly across every channel — texts, calls, emails, and attendance notices alike. Any reasonable way a family says "stop contacting us" counts. Opt-outs are permanent unless the family re-consents through your school.
Nothing on your side can reverse one. A bulk import skips a number that has opted out instead of importing it, and an attendance upload skips that guardian on every channel — the student still appears on your daily list, with nothing marked as sent, so your office can reach the family in person.