Managing Category Contact Filters Unlimited Contacts

There may be situations where you only want specific contacts associated with each student to receive an alert. For instance, perhaps there will be a field trip that will run late, and you only want to let the people who will be picking up the students (designated as “School Pickup” in Powerschool), to receive the alert. This guide is designed to help you understand and manage the Category Contact Filter feature.

***IMPORTANT: If you wish to use this feature, we strongly recommend that you create a new alert category (specifically for applying this filter) as opposed to using this feature on an existing category to ensure that all intended recipients receive the alert.***

1. From SwiftK12, go to Settings -> Alert Categories
   
   
2. Click the  button.
3. Apply the settings you wish for this category until you reach "Category Contact Filters."
   
   
4. By default, the "Category Contact Filters" option is set to “Use Max Default Contacts” which is the same as the filter not being enabled; the category will allow messages to go to any contact field that is opted in to receive messages from this category.
   
   
                              
   
   
   • If you uncheck the box for “Use Max Default Contacts,” it will reveal the different contact filters you can use. If you were to select “Have Custody” for instance (and only this one), and save your changes, then future alerts using this category will only go to Contacts with the “Have Custody” distinction attached to their contact in Powerschool.
     
     
            
     
     
     
   • Once you have made the desired changes, click  

Here are some examples of this setting in use for brand new category, to help you get a better idea of how this setting works. When you create a new category, all users within your Max default Contact limit (typically the first one or two contacts) are opted into the category by default. Let's assume that you've created a new category, and you've locked it down from edits by hiding it from the Parent Portal and/or unchecking the Allow Preference Override option within the category:

Example 1: Matching the Filter

Example 2: Not Matching the Filter

Example 3: Matching one of many possible filters

 

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As mentioned above, it is highly recommended that this feature be used on new categories only. Category contact filters do honor the individual user's preference, so you may be unintentionally notifying less contacts than you anticipate.

Here are examples of what this would look like if we tried to use this feature for an existing category, (i.e. General Information) where the contact or an admin made manual changes to their preferences...

Example 1: Everything matches

Example 2: Matching the filter, but not the Alert Category

Example 3: Matching the Alert Category, but not the filter

Example 4: Matching one of many possible filters (and the Alert Category)