‘SchoolMessenger’ Invites Parents to Text Message Alerts

Remember when kids use to come home with notes pinned to their shirts? The Hawai‘i Department of Education is transitioning to a quicker way to deliver messages to parents.

Parents of students enrolled at schools participating in the SchoolMessenger service may opt in by texting “Y” or “Yes” to 67587.

Most Hawai‘i State Department of Education (HIDOE) schools began formally transitioning this week to a SchoolMessenger text-messaging system that will allow schools to mass message parents via text message, email and phone calls with important school updates.

As part of this transition, SchoolMessenger sent an automated text message Monday morning from 67587 to HIDOE parents, which said:

Hawai‘i Department of Education alerts. Reply Y 2 confirm, HELP 4 info. Msg&data rates may apply. Msg freq varies. schoolmessenger.com/txt

Parents of students enrolled at schools participating in this service may opt in by texting “Y” or “Yes” to 67587. Parents may also opt out of these messages at any time by replying “Stop.”

SchoolMessenger will only send this text message once. Anyone who may have deleted the text message or chose not to opt in at this time may still enroll by visiting www.schoolmessenger.com and downloading the program’s smartphone app.

Parents who replied to Monday’s text will begin receiving alerts two weeks after their initial opt-in date; they will be alerted via other means in the meantime.

No action is required on the part of parents whose children attend schools that do not use the SchoolMessenger platform but received a text message Monday.

Approximately 200 schools statewide currently use SchoolMessenger.

SchoolMessenger is a communication platform used to deliver text messages to mobile phones with important information about events, school closings, safety alerts and other important information.