Email and Text Messaging

Overview

The ability for users to send emails and text messages from within LACES was added as part of Release 2022.10.0 on 9/2/2022.  

This functionality is not intended to replace your agency email service, but allows agencies to communicate important information to persons entered in their LACES database, such as attendance reminders, testing schedules, or class cancellations. Persons include students, staff, tutors, contacts, donors, and volunteers. 

After signing into LACES, the user is able to:

1. Send ad hoc email or text messages to a selected subset of students, staff, tutors, contacts, donors, or volunteers at those person areas. 

2. Send ad hoc email or text messages to a selected subject of persons at the All Person area. 

3. Send ad hoc email or text messages to a specific student, staff, tutor, contact, donor, or volunteer directly from the record at those person areas.

4. Send ad hoc email or text messages to a specific student or selected students in a class record.

5. Use pre-generated system templates or create and save email and text templates that can be shared with other users in the agency. 

6. Send email or text messages immediately, or schedule for future delivery. 

7. Send a test email or text to their own email or mobile phone number before sending to the selected persons. 

Email

First, make sure the person(s) you are going to email has an email address entered.  Add the "Email" field to the view to display email addresses on the grid to see the records with an email.

Sending from Student, Staff, Tutor, Contact, Donor, Volunteer, or All Person areas grids:

1. Go to one of the person areas listed above. 

2. Filter the records on the grid to make sure you have the correct subset of records.  Please note that simply putting a check next to an intended recipient will not limit the selection to only the checked records; if you use checkmarks to select the intended recipients, you will then need to go to Selection > Subset in the upper right menu to subset the records.

3. Select the Send Message toolbar icon. 

4. The Send Message window opens. 

5. Notice the default settings on the Send Message window.  These include the number of selected recipients and area, your time zone, and the email address associated with your user account.  

6. Select the options you wish to use. Options are:  Template, Copy Sender, Message Types, Schedule, and Test Address. 

7. If you wish to see how your email will display before you send to the selected persons, click Test after composing the email.  A test email will be sent to the address entered in the Test Address field. 

Composing the email

1. Enter the From Name and Subject fields.  Be sure to enter these before you click Send or you will have to compose the email again. 

2. Enter the body of the email.

3. Format the email if necessary, using the format buttons.

4. The Insert Field  drop down list allows you to select fields that pull data from the person records so you can send personalized emails to multiple recipients.  

5. A link to a URL can be inserted into the body of the email message, if necessary, by selecting the link icon and entering:

Web address:  the URL to a specific web address

Text: the text for the link that will display in the body of the email.  

Tooltip:  Tooltip that displays in the email when the user hovers the mouse over the text. 

Open link in new window:   Opens a new window when the recipient clicks the link in the email. 

6. Click Send.

7. A message will display indicating the status of the email. 

Attachments cannot be sent from LACES messaging. 

Email Recipient Limit

Emails may be sent to 250 or fewer recipients at one time.  You will see the following message if you select more than 250 recipients at the person areas or in the class record.

Too Many Recipients

The recipient list contains ### people.

• You may send a maximum of 250 messages at once.

• Please exit the message window and select a smaller list of recipients.

Sample email with formatting, inserted fields, and a link:

• A tab named Messages has been added to the person records.  This tab displays a read only record for each email and text sent to the person. 

• A More area called All Messages has been added that displays all message records.  The default filter is for messages scheduled or sent within the last week. 

Email messages can also be sent from the person record if you wish to send an individual email. 

1. Open a student, staff, tutor, contact, donor, or volunteer record. 

2. Select the Send Message toolbar icon at the top of the header. 

3. Compose the email and send. 

You may also open an individual record at the All Person area and select Send Message. 

Note:  When sending an email to one person, you do not need to select from the Insert Field list. This is optional.  

Sending from the class record enrollment tab:

1. Open the class record and select the Enrollment tab. 

2. Display the Student Contact Info view to verify that the student(s) have an email address. 

3. Place a check on the rows for students to whom you wish to send emails. 

4. Click the Send Message button. 

5. The Send Message window opens. 

6. Compose the email or SMS message the same as you would when sending from a person area or record. 

SMS (Text)

First, make sure the person(s) to whom you are going to send a text message has a mobile phone number entered in the Mobile Phone field.  Add the Mobile Phone field to the view to display the mobile phone numbers.   Text messages can only be sent to mobile phone numbers in the U.S. (excluding territories), Canada, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  An error will display if you attempt to send a text to a person who only has Home Phone or Work Phone entered.  

Text messages can be sent to a selected subset of persons, or by opening a person record, the same as described above for sending emails.  If you only wish to send a text, uncheck Email at the Message Types field. 

You can send both an email and a text by checking both Email and SMS at the Message Types field.  

If you wish to see how your text will display before you send to the selected persons, enter your mobile phone number in the Test Number field and click Test after composing the text message. 

Text Message Recipient Limit

Text messages may be sent to 250 or fewer recipients at one time.  You will see the following message if you select more than 250 recipients at the person areas or in the class record.  

Too Many Recipients

The recipient list contains ### people.

• You may send a maximum of 250 messages at once.

• Please exit the message window and select a smaller list of recipients.

Please note that simply putting a check next to an intended recipient will not limit the selection to only the checked records; if you use checkmarks to select the intended recipients, you will then need to go to Selection > Subset in the upper right menu to subset the records.

Text Message Character Limit

Text messages may contain a maximum of 320 characters including spaces.

Sample email and text message: 

Templates

Two system templates are available for you to use, if you wish.

• Example 1-Class Cancellation

• Example 2-We have missed you

1. Select Send Message from the grid or from a person record. 

2. Click the down arrow on the Template field and expand the System category. 

3. Select a template.

4. The email and text will populate with the template text.  Text highlighted in yellow may be edited by the user before sending.  

You can create and save your own templates by composing an email and text, using fields from the Insert  Fields drop down list.  

Once the template is composed, click Save As, enter a name for the template and save. Templates that you create will display at the Agency category. 

Templates may be shared with the agency by selecting the template and selecting the Share button.  To unshare, simply select the template and click the Unshare button. 

Currently, templates can only be shared in an agency.  Sharing within a state will be future development. 

Scheduling Email and Text Messages

If you wish to prepare an email or text message to be sent at a later time,  you can select Future at the Schedule field and enter the date and time you wish the messages to be sent.  Scheduled emails and texts display at the person Messages tab as a queued message. 

As is standard with all email and texting, recipients have the option to unsubscribe from emails or to block the text number.  Additionally, the recipient of an email or text message from LACES may respond to either one, but they will not receive a response in return.  If the recipient calls the number associated with the text, they will hear an automated message. Emails and texts are sent from the LACES Messaging System, which is unattended, and not the sender's actual email address or phone number. 

Last update:  1/14/2025