When sending out communication, it's important to understand what the legal ramifications are for each type of communication. According to the laws discussed in this article, recipients have a right to control what communication they receive from any entity. It is the sender’s responsibility to respect the recipient’s wishes and enforce internal communication guidelines which do not excessively bulk message their community or abuse the emergency message type. This article will show you the details for each so that you can be sure to follow the legal guidance as you send out your communication to families.
This is a Help for School Leaders article helping district and school admins with everything they need to support their communities. Are you a parent or guardian? Check out the article, "Manage your subscriptions" instead!
Subscriptions Best Practice
Help your community manage their subscriptions and customize the volume of communication they'd like to receive. Here are some resources to help you with this:
- For Parents: "Manage your subscriptions"
- For Parents: "Manage your account preferences"
- "How to allow users to make profile edits"
In this Article
- Subscriptions Best Practice
- Email consent requirements
- SMS/Text and Voice consent requirements
- Forbidden messaging
Email consent requirements
According to the CAN-SPAM Act, recipients must be able to opt out of receiving future emails. Organizations have 10 days to comply before legal action can be taken. The GDPR (General Data Protection Regularion) in the EU prohibits sending unsolicited emails without prior consent. Consent must be explicit informed and freely given.
SMS/Text and Voice consent requirements
According to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), students, parents, and faculty who provide mobile numbers to schools are effectively granting consent to receive SMS text messages for “important information" — sent as Important Announcements, Urgent, or Emergency messages — as well as sending out non-emergency messages related to the school's "educational mission."
Automated text messages and recorded voice messages are required to comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Per the TCPA, text communication must occur between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Important Note on Emergency/Urgent Messages
The timeframe offered by the TCPA doesn't include communication that would fall into the category of "Emergency/Urgent" messages, such as school closures or emergency events that take place.
Forbidden messaging
A few types of messages are explicitly forbidden with any mode of communication:
- High-risk financial services
- Third-party lead generation services
- Debt collection or forgiveness
- “Get rich quick” schemes
- Illegal substances
- Gambling
- "S.H.A.F.T." use cases
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