Overview
When a serious concern is detected for a student, Shield can include that student's parents as recipients of the alert. This article explains which alert tiers include parents, what the alert carries, and what controls are in place.
How Alerts Reach Parents Today
Sentinel's live destination is the alert row itself. An alert appears in the Sentinel alert inbox the counselor dashboard reads, and a parent with a verified link to the student sees the alert in the parent portal. The parent's email and SMS settings are recorded on their record, but no email, SMS, push or page is sent yet — the notification channel is not live.
Which Tiers Include Parents
Sentinel ships with the parent-notification threshold set to Tier 3, so by default parents are included only for critical alerts. The threshold is configurable per school:
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Parents are included for every real signal that clears the noise filter |
| Tier 2 | Parents are included for counselor-level concerns and critical alerts |
| Tier 3 (default) | Parents are included only for critical/immediate alerts |
Your school's MSP or a school administrator can adjust the threshold in the Sentinel configuration settings.
Tier 0 (noise) signals never generate any notification to anyone.
Requirements Before a Parent Is Included
Two conditions must both be true before a parent is included as an alert recipient:
-
The alert tier meets or exceeds the school's parent-notification threshold. A Tier 2 alert will not include a parent whose school has set the threshold to Tier 3.
-
The parent's consent must be verified. This is the COPPA/FERPA requirement. Even on a Tier 3 critical alert, a parent without verified consent is silently excluded from the recipient list. There is no override. See Consent Verification.
Both conditions must be satisfied. If either is missing, the parent is not included in the alert.
What Parents See
When a parent is included in an alert, the alert they see in the portal carries:
- The name of the school
- The general concern type — for example, "self-harm concern," "bullying," or "grooming concern" — without raw message content
- A note that the school's counseling team is involved
- The comment thread where the parent can ask questions
The alert does not include the original message text, the full case file, or any sensitive details beyond the concern category. This is intentional — detailed information is available in the portal for authenticated parents with a verified link to their student.
Notification Channels
Each parent record has independent channel settings:
- Email — On by default.
- SMS — Off by default. A valid phone number must be on file for this preference to be usable.
These settings record the parent's preferred channel. They are not a live delivery channel today: no email, SMS, push or page is sent. The alert itself is the destination — it appears in the Sentinel alert inbox the counselor dashboard reads and, for the parent, in the parent portal.
Parents can update their own preferences in the portal. School staff and MSPs can also update these settings from the parent's record.
Weekly Digest
Schools can enable a weekly digest for parents. The digest is meant to summarize the previous week's non-critical signals and alerts for their linked student, on a configurable day of the week (default is Friday), for parents with verified consent. It is not live today: the digest is defined and never invoked — the generator exists but nothing calls it and no scheduled job runs it — so no digest is produced for any client, and no digest is emailed to parents yet. Schools or MSPs can turn it on or off and change the day in the Sentinel configuration settings.
Multiple Parents for the Same Student
Each parent record is independent. A student can have multiple parents linked to them — for example, two parents with separate email addresses, each with their own notification preferences and consent status. Each parent is evaluated independently when an alert fires.
Frequently Asked Questions
A parent says they should have been included in an alert but were not. How do I troubleshoot?
Check in order: (1) Is their consent flag set to verified? (2) Does the alert tier meet the school's parent-notification threshold? (3) Is the parent linked to the student? All must be true for the parent to be recorded as a recipient.
Can a parent opt out of notifications entirely?
Yes. Schools can allow parents to opt out. A parent can turn off both channel preferences in their portal preferences. The school or MSP can also disable notifications on the parent record directly. Note that opting out of notifications does not remove the parent from the system or their student link.
Does the parent see the same case file the counselor sees?
No. Parents see a summary view of their child's alerts that shows the concern category and status, plus any non-internal comments in the thread. The full case file — with risk factors, counselor guidance, and evidence references — is not displayed to parents.
What happens if an alert is later marked as a false positive?
The alert remains visible in the parent portal until the school resolves it. Shield does not send a retraction notice. If a parent has already seen an alert that is later marked false positive, a counselor or admin should communicate that directly.
Can I test that notifications are working without triggering a real alert?
There is no delivery channel to test today — no email, SMS, push or page is sent. Contact your MSP to verify that alerts are reaching the Sentinel alert inbox and the parent portal.