Families trust a new school tool faster when they hear about it from you first. This guide walks Owners and Managers through every way Minga can reach parents, and how to communicate with families to set expectations (including templates and resources for you to use). This guide provides the tools you need to explain the benefits of a digital campus, from security features to daily convenience.
Permission Level Required: Owner | Manager
In this guide:
How Minga Communicates with Families: A review of the various types of communications that originate from Minga and can be sent to families.
Introduce Minga to Families: A simple plan to keep families informed and in the loop.
Family Email Template: A template for you to use and customize.
Download the Family Guide: PDF and slides for parent introduction to Minga.
How Minga Communicates with Families
Minga reaches parents at many levels depending on what is configured for your school, and everything is entirely within your control at a school level. Each type of communication answers a different communication need and family questions. To guide your decisions on what to communicate with families, and the benefits of each, refer to the table below.
Level | What families receive | When it sends | Who sets it up |
Email Announcements from the Minga Home feed can additionally be sent by to families | Each time staff include parents as recipients when publishing announcements on the Home Feed | Owner, Manager | |
An email and/or text message when a specific behavior or consequence is assigned to their child (eg: a student is tardy to school or receives a detention) | The moment the behavior or consequence is assigned to a student (when configured on an individual behavior or consequence basis) | Owner, Manager | |
(Plus and Premium) | Email Notification of newly available FlexTime sessions for students to participate in (eg: calculus office hours) | A pre-configured rolling period ahead of available sessions and student eligibility | Owner, Manager |
(Plus and Premium) | A Weekly Parent Summary email of their child's hall passes, behaviors, consequences, and points | Every Saturday at 10 p.m. Pacific time | Owner |
To receive all of the communications above, Minga uses the contact information attached to each student (email and phone number) imported with an automatic SIS sync or a manual upload.
Introduce Minga to Families
Send a one-time message from your school that explains what Minga is, how students use it, and how student data is protected. You send it from your own school email system, newsletter, or website, not from Minga. Send it in the week before students start using Minga.
Minga recommends updating multiple sources of information to ensure parents and families are well informed.
Publish information about Minga to your schools website. The article Information and resources for your school's website has been written to be copied and directly added to your school website.
Remove any section for a solution your school doesn't currently use.
Copy the welcome email template below into your school email system.
Replace every item in curly brackets, such as {School name}, with your school's details.
Remove any section for a solution your school doesn't currently use.
Send the email to all families.
Post about Minga to any social media accounts the school has, reminding families to check their email for more information you sent.
Regularly remind families about Minga in recurring communications (like a school newsletter), and provide links to Minga or school resources.
Give parents a look at how Minga works at your school during any days when parents are in school like Parent/Teacher days
Resource | What it is | How to use it |
A Help Center article written for parents. It covers Digital IDs, hall passes, the Home feed, privacy, and how students sign in. | Link to it in your welcome email. | |
A printable version of the Family Guide. | Attach it to your email, print it for open house, or post it on your website. | |
Copy-and-paste text for a public page on your school website, including answers to common parent questions. | Publish it before you send the welcome email so you can link to it. |
Family Email Template
A clear, personalized email ensures families know exactly how their children will use Minga and where to go for help.
We've saved you some time! Here is a handy email template for parents to help get you started. Please review it carefully, as you may not be using all of the features or communications included in the content below.
Email template: Introduce Minga to families
Subject line: Introducing Minga at {School name}
Dear {First name/Families},
This {month or term}, {School name} is introducing Minga, a platform that helps us keep our campus safe, organized, and connected. Minga brings everyday tasks like hall passes, student IDs, and school announcements into one secure place.
What this means for your child:
Digital student ID: Your child can show their student ID from a school device or a personal phone
Digital hall passes: Your child requests a hall pass from a device instead of carrying a paper pass. This helps us account for every student during an emergency.
Faster check-in: Your child checks in digitally when they arrive late or at events using their student ID, Student Number, or name and gets to class faster.
Recognition: Teachers use Minga to recognize your child for positive actions and record in-class behaviors.
School news and events: Your child sees announcements, can join clubs, receive updates, and see upcoming events in one feed.
Your child signs in at app.minga.io with their school email account. Students can access Minga regularly from a school laptop, tablet, mobile app, or a campus kiosk. A smartphone is not required.
We take safety and security seriously, and so does Minga. Minga does not track your child's GPS location, does not show advertisements, and does not sell student data. Minga is FERPA and COPPA compliant. Learn more about Minga and its security features in the Welcome to Minga Family Guide.
You can expect to receive updates from Minga by email or text message.
These updates include email or text message updates about:
School announcements
Assigned behavior or consequences
Weekly summaries of student activity
Open student enrichment opportunities
If you have questions, visit {link to your school's Minga web page} or contact our front office at {phone number}.
Thank you for being part of our school community.
Sincerely, {Email signature}
đ Tip: Leave emojis out of your subject line. Some school and personal email filters flag them as promotional, which can send your email to a spam or promotions folder.
Download the Family Guide
The Welcome to Minga Family Guide is a critical resource that addresses common questions about security, app installation, and digital IDs.
We have a handy guide that you can forward to parents here:
Or, you can download a PDF version in English or Spanish here:
Resources
Resources
How students sign in to Minga and get started on their new school experience.
A collection of resources and tutorials for student use of Minga.
Copy-and-paste text for a public page on your school website, including answers to common parent questions.