Overview of the Invited Parents (non members) feature for Admins

When a Classlist admin member invites a parent to join the school's Classlist site, the invitee is added to a list of 'Invited Parents'. If the invited parent then follows the links in the invitation and signs up, he/she becomes a full member of Classlist. If not they can remain as an 'invited parent' on a contact list, which is only visible to the ambassador and the admin user who issued the original invitation. Parents who are invited to join by other parents who are not admin members will not be added to the invited parents admin list, and will not be automatically pre-approved.

In order to be added to the invited parents list, the parent must be invited by an admin:

• from within the green admin area of Classlist
• by email.

Invited parents on the list receive top level notifications via email (Announcements and Community Event invitations), even if they have not signed up to Classlist.

If a parent signs up using a different email address instead of the one the invitation was sent to they will stay on the invited parents list and not be pre-approved with the other email address. If this happens simply check & approve their application and delete the invitation from the 'invite parents' page on the admin side. 

How to view and manage invited parents

It is best practice to review the invited parents regularly to see who has not signed up. You can re-send invitations to people, re-allocate the class they are in, change parents' details or delete anyone who left the school after the invitation was sent. Find out how to track, edit and delete your invited parents here.

Background about the feature 

Being an 'invited parent' is intended be a temporary status. It was designed so that important PTA communications are not missed even if parents are a little slow to sign up. It works a bit like a mailing list, so it can also prompt parents to sign up: supposing an invited parent receives an email inviting them to the school Summer Fair or sees an Announcement about school funding, they might want to know more and therefore they click the link to sign up to Classlist, weeks or even months after their original invitation to join was sent. 

If an invited parent is assigned to a specific class/year during the invitation process, they will receive not only 'Whole School' Announcements, but also Announcements sent to their class/year. It is possible for a parent to be on the invited parent list for more than one class/year. To do this the Class Admins for each class/year in which the invited parent has children should send an invitation to join that specific class/year.

NB: if a parent is invited to two different class groups by two different admins, they will appear twice in the invited parent list. In addition, if they have been invited using two different email accounts, they will appear twice, and if they then use one to join, the admin will need to delete the invitation linked to the other, unused, email account. 

Function of the feature as a mailing list

The system works in the same way as a mailing list and invited parents can unsubscribe at any time. Other parents who are registered cannot see an invited parent's details on their Classlist site, nor can they get in touch with invited parents and vice versa. Only Admin users can see that a parent has been invited, up until the point when the invited parent joins the site. 

Invited parents miss out on most of the benefits of Classlist so it is a good idea for Admin users to review their invited parents contact list at least once a year and consider re-sending an invitation to join or deleting email addresses for people who have never signed up. 

Unsubscribing

Invited parents can unsubscribe from the list by tapping the link at the bottom of Classlist emails:  'opt out of all your school's Classlist community email'. Unsubscribed parents will remain on the invited parents list but will be displayed as 'unsubscribed'. If an Admin member re-sends an invitation to the unsubscribed parent, it will not be delivered.  

The system will remember that the email account was unsubscribed, even if the 'Invited Parent (unsubscribed)' account is deleted from the list of non members. This means that if the parent later changes his/her mind and wants to join using the same unsubscribed email account, an Admin member will need to contact Classlist central to get the account taken off the unsubscribed list. 

Tap here for more information on how to invite parents.