Pushpages going to SPAM folders

Jason Hiett

We have noticed a huge uptick in our school communications, pushpages, and official note notifications going directly to the SPAM folders of our parent community this year. (21-22). The disproportionate number of them appear to be Gmail accounts. While the obvious answer is for each family to add all of the myschoolapp email domains to their approved sender list, it is not practical and also assumes they will receive the email in their inbox to act upon. Is this issue affecting others?

Nancy Cunningham

Yes, we have definitely noticed this happening at our school and it seems it's always a parent with a Gmail account telling us they're no longer getting the school newsletter, grade level emails, etc. Our followup is the same as yours. I'm interested in hearing what other schools may be doing differently, if anything.

Brian Gray

We see the same problem - especially with Gmail.com. In addition to getting marked as spam, they sometimes get marked as Social, Forums, or Updates.

We recommend installing a set of Gmail filters that I created. In addition to sstx.MySchoolApp.com and sstx@MySchoolEmails.com, the filters also force anythings from our domain (sstx.org) and anything with a subject line that includes “[SSES” (which appears in the subject line of all mail sent through our Google Groups.

You can see the filter file and the video instructions for installing it here.

Of course, you would need to edit the filters to fit your school.

Shannan Swindler

Yes! This was the #1 stress inducer for parents and staff. Parents wondered if their students were enrolled and staff wondered if parents were going to log in and complete the enrollment process. It was a nightmare with hours upon hours helping 500 families individually on the phone in order for them to get logged in and complete enrollment. It was hard to help them understand how great the Myschool App is/will be when the first step is so incredibly difficult for them. We even had some families tell us the emails went directly to their trash…not even spam/promotions….