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Too many reminders. Not enough responses. Whether it’s a start-of-year form or a school-wide event, sometimes it’s tough to get parents to notice.

That’s why we’ve added two powerful updates to a.school: login-blocked forms that make sure only the right people can respond, and smarter calendar notifications that actually get noticed. These changes are all about helping schools share important info once, and trust that it lands.

Login-Blocked Forms

Important forms shouldn’t slow your school down. Whether it’s a transportation form, a field trip permission slip, or anything else families need to complete, you can now make sure it happens right away.

With the new “required on login” setting, forms become part of the login process. Families will be prompted to fill them out before accessing key school features. Once the form is submitted, everything goes back to normal. This means no delays or chasing down responses.

You can apply the block to students, guardians, staff, or even just one person per family. Core areas like user settings and billing remain accessible at all times.

It’s an easy way to build accountability into your daily routine and free your team to focus on what matters next.

Smarter Event Notifications

When families miss an event, it’s usually because they weren’t aware of it. Maybe the email got buried. Maybe they hadn’t opened the app. Either way, it means extra questions, repeated reminders, and missed opportunities.

Today’s update fixes that.

Now, whenever you add an event to a calendar, you can notify participants instantly. Just check a box, and the right people will get the update automatically—by email and in-app chat—based on the calendar you’re using.

Posting to a class calendar? Students, guardians, and staff in that class will be notified.

Adding something to the school calendar? Everyone gets the message
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No extra announcements. No chasing people down. You’ll even see exactly who was notified, so you know the message landed.

It’s a simple way to keep everyone in the loop and make sure no one misses the moments that matter.

For more information, check out our support articles for forms and the calendar. And if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at support@a.school.