Family outreach & consent

I texted your number and got no reply

The reasons a text to the school number gets no answer — and why the time of day is never one of them.

The family question-and-answer line is 24/7 by design. There is no quiet-hours rule on it and no overnight cutoff: a reply to a text a guardian sent is a reply, and it goes out whenever the text arrives. So the time of day is never the reason you didn't hear back.

If a text got no answer, it is one of these instead.

1. Your account is still in its observation week (most common)

During an observation week AskElira sends nothing to a phone — including a reply to a text somebody sends in. Your questions are still recorded and still reach your office; the outbound reply is held. That's the commitment the observation week is: no messages to your families for any reason.

For a free pilot, replies begin automatically after setup is finished and the text number is verified. A pilot that has ended no longer answers family texts.

During an observation week, use the in-house test on your pilot home instead of texting the live number.

2. The number you texted from is not known to your school

Elira answers families on your school list or who signed up to text. A number on neither receives a referral to your office, not an answer about school facts. Add the family to your family list or share the sign-up link on your pilot home. Repeated unknown texts are limited, so later texts may get no reply.

3. That number is a guardian at more than one school

If the same phone appears on two schools' rosters we can't answer school-specifically, so we don't answer at all.

4. Somebody replied STOP from that number

A STOP is permanent and silences everything, replies included. Check Your family list.

5. Your data-privacy agreement isn't signed yet

Until it's signed, no family question reaches the AI at all — every one goes to your office instead. You'll still see the question; the family gets a note saying a person will follow up.

What a working reply looks like

Either a direct answer from the facts you've published, or *"I've passed that to the office and someone will follow up"* — with the question landing in your dashboard for a human. Both are the system working. What you should never get is silence.

Testing the line yourself is a good idea, and it catches all of the above. Tell us the number you'll be texting from first and we'll make sure it's set up to answer you.
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Related guides

Set your own outreach hours, closures and campaigns
Narrow when Elira contacts your families, close specific days, switch individual campaigns off, and list families the office is handling itself — from AI Knowledge → How your outreach runs.
How Elira messages families (and understands replies)
What enrollment messages families receive, how yes/no replies are confirmed before anything is binding, and what happens after an acceptance.
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.
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