The rule before attendance SMS goes out: verify three fields — the saved register, the authorised guardian number, and delivery status — before any message is dispatched. An absence notice reaching another person’s phone is a privacy violation and a trust loss for the institution — both at once.

What to verify: saved register, authorised contact, delivery status

The pre-send verification checklist:

# Field Verification question
1 Saved register today’s attendance saved — in all classes?
2 Absent list is every listed student actually absent (any wrong taps)?
3 Authorised number will SMS go only to the authorised guardian’s number?
4 Message template name, date, class inserted correctly?
5 Credit enough SMS credit?
6 Delivery will delivered/failed be checked after sending?

Step 2 is the most common error point: in a rushed roll-call, a tap lands in the next student’s field — one glance at the absent list before sending catches most of these.

A usable sample: the pre-send verification checklist

Steps to build the discipline:

  1. A fixed save-time for all classes (by 10:00 AM).
  2. At 10:00, open the absent list and check totals — a sudden doubling means a tap error somewhere.
  3. Weekly sample check: pick one student and match the record with the SMS text.
  4. Credit-level warnings enabled (e.g., alert at 100 SMS remaining).
  5. The failed list reconciled at week end — which numbers failed repeatedly.

Attendance SMS verification: workflow steps and limitations

  1. Verify guardian numbers at year start — a message to a wrong number is the most harmful failure.
  2. If multiple authorised numbers exist per student, write which is primary in the policy.
  3. Limitation: delivery status proves the SMS arrived, not that it was read — so unresponsive students’ exceptions stay on the next day’s view too.

SMS verification: questions to ask before your demo

  • Can the absent list be viewed/edited before sending?
  • Will the SMS text include the student’s name and class — can you show it?
  • Can failed numbers be listed?

See the pre-send structure in the attendance module and attendance documentation; channel setup in the communication module.

SMS verification FAQ

If an SMS went to a wrong number?

Immediate phone call to the correct guardian + an office note; correct the number in the record — the old number stays in history.

SMS does not always arrive — should we drop auto-SMS?

No — work the failed list by calling those who missed it; auto-SMS’s benefit (daily signals for reliable numbers) outweighs the risk.

When does the SMS go after hand-marked attendance?

Immediately on save — that is the system’s value; a delayed SMS loses its value.