Real-Time Alerts and Notifications
Real-Time Alerts & Workflows were designed to help schools and districts proactively monitor student data and automate common processes. Rather than manually reviewing reports, tracking thresholds, or monitoring student trends, Real-Time Alerts allow simpldiscipline to continuously evaluate data and automatically take action when predefined conditions are met.
Alerts can be configured to monitor discipline, attendance, minor infractions, positive referrals, and other student data points. When a condition is met, the system can automatically notify staff, create discipline incidents, create minor infractions, or initiate other workflows.
This functionality allows districts to identify concerns earlier, improve compliance, reduce manual work, and ensure that important events do not go unnoticed.
Types of Alerts
There are two types of alerts available within the system:
My Alerts
My Alerts are personal alerts designed for individual users. Users with elevated permissions can create their own notification rules to monitor student data that is important to them.
My Alerts are personal alerts designed for individual users. Users with elevated permissions can create their own notification rules to monitor student data that is important to them.
Key Characteristics
- Personal to the user who creates them
- Only send email notifications
- Cannot create discipline incidents
- Cannot create minor infractions
- Emails are sent only to the user who configured the alert
- Other users cannot see or manage another user's My Alerts
Example Uses
- Notify me when a student accumulates 5 OSS days.
- Notify me when a student accumulates 10 tardies.
- Notify me when a student receives 3 positive referrals.
- Notify me when a student has a significant increase in discipline activity.
My Alerts are ideal for principals, counselors, special education staff, attendance personnel, and other users who want personalized monitoring without affecting school-wide workflows.
School Alerts
School Alerts are shared, building-level workflows that can be configured by users with Reviewer or Super Admin permissions. Unlike My Alerts, School Alerts can perform actions automatically and can notify multiple staff members.
Key Characteristics
- Visible to all Reviewers and Super Admins
- Can be edited by users with Reviewers or Super Admin role
- Can send email notifications to all users in a building
- Can automatically create discipline incidents
- Can automatically create minor infractions
- Can be configured differently at each school
School Alerts are intended to automate district and school procedures that would otherwise require manual monitoring.
Available Actions
When an alert condition is met, one or more actions can occur automatically.
Email Notifications - Send an email notification to designated staff members.
Examples:
- Notify special education staff when a student with an IEP reaches a suspension threshold.
- Notify attendance staff when a student accumulates excessive absences, for example 10 consecutive UX absences.
- Notify administrators when required outcome actions are missing.
- Notify counselors when a student experiences a sudden percentage increase in incidents or infractions
Automatic Discipline Incident Creation - Create a discipline incident automatically when specific criteria are met.
Examples:
- Student receives 5 tardies.
- Student accumulates 3 cell phone violations.
- Student receives 3 minor infractions during a specified time period.
Automatically created incidents will be sent to administrators for review and approval.
Automatic Minor Infraction Creation - Create a minor infraction automatically based on system activity.
Examples:
- Generate a minor infraction after repeated attendance violations.
- Automatically submit a minor infraction with lunch detention on the 5th student tardy.
Note: If you automatically assign consequences to a student through a Minor Infraction, we strongly recommend enabling the option to automatically email students when calendar events are assigned. This ensures the student receives an automatic notification in their school email with the details of the assigned consequence.
Example Alert Scenarios
The flexibility of Real-Time Alerts allows districts to build workflows that match their policies and procedures.
Special Education Monitoring
Condition: Student has an IEP and accumulates 10 Out-of-School Suspension days.
Action: Send an email notification to designated special education staff.
Tardy Escalation
Condition:Student accumulates 5 tardies.
Action: Automatically create a discipline incident. {The alert can also be configured to trigger again at every additional 5 tardies (10, 15, 20, etc.).}
Missing Expulsion Outcome Tracking
Condition: An incident contains the action code "Recommended for Expulsion."
Action: After a specified number of days (for example, 10 days), verify that an outcome action has been entered. If no outcome exists, send an email notification to designated staff indicating that follow-up is required.
Minor Infraction Escalation
Condition: Student receives 3 minor infractions during the current quarter or semester.
Action: Automatically create a discipline incident for administrative review.
Behavior-Specific Escalation
Condition: Student receives 3 Cell Phone Violation minor infractions.
Action: Automatically create a discipline incident. This allows schools to escalate repeated behaviors consistently.
Attendance Monitoring
Condition: Student accumulates 10 consecutive unexcused absences. (10 Day Drop Criteria)
Action: Send an email notification to attendance staff or administrators.
Absence Code Monitoring
Condition: Student accumulates 10 occurrences of a specific attendance code, such as Parent Note.
Action: Send an email notification to designated staff members.
Trend Analysis
Condition: Student experiences a 50% increase in minor infractions during a rolling 9-week period.
Action: Send an email notification to administrators, counselors, intervention teams, or other staff members.
Positive Referral Recognition
Condition: Student receives 5 positive referrals.
Action: Send an email notification to designated staff members. Schools often use this to recognize students, notify counselors, or celebrate achievements.
Benefits of Real-Time Alerts & Workflows
Real-Time Alerts & Workflows help schools:
- Reduce manual monitoring and reporting
- Ensure compliance with district procedures
- Identify students needing intervention earlier
- Improve communication among staff
- Automate repetitive administrative tasks
- Increase consistency across schools
- Support MTSS, PBIS, attendance, and discipline initiatives
- Ensure important follow-up actions are not missed
By continuously monitoring student data and automatically responding to key events, districts can shift from reactive processes to proactive student support.
Supported Qualifiers:
- Incident action code
- Incident action reminder
- Incident behavior code
- Incident count
- Minor infraction action code
- Minor infraction behavior code
- Minor infraction count
- Positive referral count
- Student absences
- Student attendance code
- Student count trend
- Student suspension days
Supported Filters
- Student Class
- Student Grade Level
- Student IEP/504 Status
- Student Last Name Range
Options:
| Setting | Definition |
|---|---|
| Behavior has occurred X times | Triggers the workflow when the selected behavior code or behavior category has been recorded at least the specified number of times. |
| Action has occurred X times | Triggers the workflow when the selected disciplinary action has been assigned at least the specified number of times. |
| Include all enrollment schools | Includes occurrences from all schools where the student is currently enrolled, such as alternative schools, career centers, or other shared enrollment locations. When disabled, only occurrences from the selected school are counted. |
| Repeat this workflow every X occurrences | After the workflow is initially triggered, it will run again each time the specified number of additional occurrences is reached. For example, a value of 5 runs the workflow after every 5th occurrence (5, 10, 15, 20, etc.). |
| Time Range | Specifies the period used when evaluating the workflow. Only qualifying records within the selected time range are included. The time range can be defined by academic year, number of days, or number of weeks. This uses a rolling time period rather than a specific grading period, such as a nine weeks. |
| Is missing after wait | Waits for the configured amount of time and then checks whether the selected action, record, document, or other required item is still missing. If it remains missing, the workflow is triggered. |
| Entries must be consecutive | Only counts qualifying entries when they occur consecutively. A non-qualifying entry breaks the sequence and resets the consecutive count. |
| Percentage | Triggers the workflow when the calculated percentage meets the configured threshold. |
| Limit to attendance mode | Limits the workflow to attendance records from the selected attendance mode, such as daily or meeting attendance. This prevents records from different attendance modes from being counted together. |
| Unique code must meet threshold | Determines whether the threshold is evaluated across all selected codes or separately for each selected code. When disabled, occurrences from all selected behavior or action codes are combined toward the threshold. For example, if the threshold is 5 and the selected behaviors are Talking Back, Fighting, and Cell Phone, the workflow will trigger after any combination of 5 occurrences across those three behaviors. When enabled, each selected behavior or action code must meet the threshold individually. Using the same example, the workflow would only trigger when the student has received 5 Talking Back, 5 Fighting, or 5 Cell Phone occurrences. A combination of different behaviors or actions does not satisfy the threshold. |
| Limit to section | Limits the workflow to attendance data recorded within the selected section. Attendance entries from other sections are not evaluated for this workflow. The ability to select occurs in unique sections is coming soon. |
| Count action dates instead of actions | Counts the number of unique days on which a qualifying behavior or action occurred instead of counting each individual assignment. For example, if the same qualifying code is assigned four times on one day, it counts as one occurrence for that date. |