Send an email to families

MarkTrack has a built-in email composer for sending a single message to many people at once — a whole class's parents, every student in a school, or a handful of people you pick by hand. This guide covers writing the email, attaching files, choosing exactly who gets it, and reviewing what you've already sent in the Communications history.

The email shows your name via MarkTrack and is sent from no-reply@marktrack.com. Your personal email address is kept private; the composer tells you whether replies will arrive in your MarkTrack inbox. Sending happens in the background: when you click Send, MarkTrack queues the email and shows you a confirmation. Large sends take a few moments to finish going out.

Step 1 — Open the email composer

Open the composer from Communications, or use the Send Email quick action on your dashboard.

1. Select the school you want to contact, then open Communications in the sidebar.
2. Click New email.
3. The New email window slides open over the page. Its header shows your name via MarkTrack and confirms that your email address stays private.

Step 2 — Pick your recipients

The To box at the top is where you choose who gets the email. You have a few ways to add people, and you can mix and match them. A running recipients count on the right tells you how many people you've selected so far.

• Search by name — start typing in the Search people, add a class, type an email… box. Matching parents, students, and teachers appear; click one to add it as a chip.
• Whole groups — click All Parents, All Students, or All Teachers to add everyone in that group at once. Each chip shows a count. (Teachers don't see the All Teachers chip.)
• By class or grade level — under By class, classes are grouped by grade or year, so "Math" in Grade 3 and "Math" in Grade 4 sit in separate rows. Click a class to add its students and their parents. Click Everyone in a grade (for example Everyone in Grade 3) to add every student enrolled in one of that grade's classes this year, and their parents, at once — a student in several of that grade's classes, or a parent with two children in it, still gets just one email. For teachers, Everyone in a grade covers only the classes you teach in that grade.
• A manual email address — type any email address into the search box and add it directly, even for someone who isn't a MarkTrack user.

Each person or group you add becomes a removable chip. Use Clear all to start the recipient list over.

Choosing a school first (admins with more than one school)

If your organization runs more than one school and you have access to several, a School scope dropdown appears at the top of the composer. It controls who shows up in the recipient lists below.

1. Pick a specific school to limit the parents, students, teachers, and classes to that one school.
2. Or pick All schools (org-wide) to reach everyone across your organization.

Switching the school refreshes the recipient lists. Teachers don't get this dropdown — their audience is always fixed to their own classes.

Step 3 — Write the subject and message

1. Click into the Subject field and type a short, clear subject line ("What's this about?").
2. Click into the Message editor and write your email. This is a rich-text editor: you can make text bold or italic, add bulleted lists, and insert links using the toolbar.
3. To add a photo inside the message, paste or drag an image directly into the editor. It embeds in the email body where recipients will see it.

Quick templates

Click Quick templates to expand a row of starter messages — Weather Closure, Delayed Opening, Early Dismissal, Field Trip, Parent-Teacher Conf, and School Event. Click one to drop its wording into the composer, then edit it to fit. Templates are a starting point, not a fixed form.

Step 4 — Attach files (optional)

Use the Attachments area for files that should travel with the email, like a PDF flyer or a permission slip.

1. Click Click to attach files to open your file picker, or drop files anywhere in the dashed box.
2. Each attached file appears as a chip below the box. Remove one if you change your mind.

Attachments differ from pasted images: an attachment is a downloadable file at the bottom of the email, while a pasted image shows inline in the message body. Both are saved with the email so you can see them later in the history.

Step 5 — Send now or schedule for later

1. Double-check the recipient count in the To area and the Send button.
2. Click Send.
3. MarkTrack confirms with "Sending email to N recipients. This may take a few moments." The window closes and the email goes out in the background.

Your draft saves as you type. Watch the save status, or click Save draft now before leaving. Reopen it from the Drafts folder in Communications. Only you can see your drafts. Use Discard draft to remove one. Saving a draft does not send it; missing recipients, subject or message must still be completed before sending.

To send later, expand Schedule for later, choose the date and time shown in the composer’s timezone, and use the schedule button. Leave the field blank to send now. Open the Scheduled folder to review, edit or cancel a message before it goes out.

Step 6 — Review your email history

Every email you send is logged in the Communications hub, so you always have a record of what went out and to whom.

1. In the left sidebar, click Communications (the inbox icon).
2. The page opens on Inbox. Choose Sent for your sent conversations, or Email blasts under the history folders for bulk messages. Choose Texts for SMS — see Send text messages.)
3. Click any email to open its detail — the full subject, message body, recipients, attachments, and any embedded images.

Step 7 — Read and reply to a family

1. Open Inbox and select a conversation.
2. Read the messages and attachments, then write in the reply editor and send your response.
3. Use Private staff comment for a note to colleagues. These comments stay inside MarkTrack and are never sent to the family.
4. Use Share when a colleague needs access, and check their permission before saving. Star a thread to find it later, or archive it when you are finished.

For texting families, see Send text messages.