Quick answers to common questions about parent messaging, group chats, activities, incident reports, and newsletters for US schools.
Dashboard: us.illumine.app
1. How can I hide parents' shared messages from certain Staff roles?
You can control which Staff roles can view or reply to messages shared by parents.
Follow these steps:
Go to Settings > Access Control.
Click the three dots next to the role you want to update and select View Permissions.
Open Messages from the left menu, then select Parent Messages.
Untick View Shared Messages from Parents and, if needed, Reply to Shared Messages from Parents.
Click Save.
2. Can parents see each other's messages?
No. Parents cannot see messages sent by other parents by default. They can message Staff directly.
However, if you create a group, members of that group can see messages shared within it.
3. Can I create a Staff-only group chat?
A dedicated Staff-only group chat is not currently available.
As an alternative, you can create a student group and add only Staff members to it, without adding any students.
4. Can I send text messages to parents?
Yes, SMS messaging is available for Announcements.
Follow these steps:
Go to Parent Communication > Activities.
Select Announcement.
Switch on Send via SMS before publishing the announcement.
Good to know: Billing notifications cannot currently be sent through SMS.
5. Where can I find all the photos Staff have shared? I want to use them for marketing.
Illumine does not currently have a school-wide photo gallery. However, you can use the Activities page to find posts that contain photos or other attachments.
Follow these steps:
Go to Parent Communication > Activities.
Set the required date range using the first dropdown.
Select With Attachments.
Keep the room filter set to All Rooms to view posts across classrooms.
Good to know: To view photos for an individual child, open the child's profile and go to the Gallery tab.
6. Why can't I save or edit a newsletter draft?
There are two common reasons:
Missing permission: Your Staff role may not have permission to edit newsletter drafts. Ask an admin to enable the required permission under Settings > Access Control.
Missing title: A newsletter draft without a title will not be saved. Make sure you enter a title before saving.
Good to know:
To add a poster to your newsletter, insert it as an Image element.
Newsletter recipients cannot see one another.
7. Where can I view all incident reports in one place?
You can find incident reports under Parent Communication > Activities.
Open the Activities page.
Filter by the activity type Incident.
Set the required date range to view the reports.
Good to know: If there are activity types your school no longer uses, you can mark them as Inactive under Settings > Activity Posts. This helps keep the activity list organized.
8. Why does the nap activity show only one time instead of separate start and end times?
Make sure you are using the standard Nap activity, which supports separate start and end times.
Also, go to Settings > Activity Posts and switch off Time Mode.