SMS and email notification for school closures or events

Purpose

1.1. Notify students, teachers, staff, and parents immediately of unexpected school closures or scheduled events (e.g., weather disruptions, public holidays, agricultural fairs) via SMS and email.
1.2. Ensure all stakeholders receive accurate, real-time information, improving safety, planning, and overall engagement.
1.3. Enable administration to manage communications for multiple campuses or classes simultaneously.
1.4. Archive notifications for compliance and reference.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. Manual initiation by authorized staff through a web form or dashboard.
2.2. Automated initiation based on weather alert APIs (e.g., severe weather, heatwave warnings).
2.3. Scheduled events from a school calendar (e.g., parent-teacher meeting, farm exhibition).
2.4. Integration with local authority feeds (e.g., disaster management, public health advisories).

Platform Variants

3.1 Twilio (SMS):
• Feature/Setting: Use Twilio Programmable SMS API — send bulk SMS by configuring recipient list, sender ID, and message body.
• Sample: "POST /2010-04-01/Accounts/{AccountSid}/Messages.json"

3.2 SendGrid (Email):
• Feature/Setting: Use SendGrid Mail Send API to trigger batch emails; specify recipient groups and templated content.
• Sample: "POST /v3/mail/send" with dynamic_template_data.

3.3 Nexmo/Vonage (SMS):
• Feature/Setting: SMS send endpoint — submit sender, recipient, and text field data.
• Sample: "POST /sms/json" with required params.

3.4 Amazon SNS (SMS & Email):
• Feature/Setting: Set topic with SMS and email endpoints; publish notification to topic.
• Sample: "Publish" API with TopicArn.

3.5 Microsoft Graph (Outlook Email):
• Feature/Setting: Use /sendMail endpoint with batch messages; set subjects and HTML body.
• Sample: "POST /me/sendMail" with Message object.

3.6 Plivo (SMS):
• Feature/Setting: Use Message API for SMS distribution, set powerpack if masking needed.
• Sample: "POST /v1/Account/{auth_id}/Message/"

3.7 Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) (Push Notification):
• Feature/Setting: Send topic messages via /fcm/send for mobile app integration.
• Sample: "POST /fcm/send" with notification payload.

3.8 Mailgun (Email):
• Feature/Setting: Messages API for batch emails with variables per recipient.
• Sample: "POST /v3/{domain}/messages"

3.9 Infobip (SMS):
• Feature/Setting: Send SMS endpoint — configure sender, destination, text, scheduling options.
• Sample: "POST /sms/2/text/advanced"

3.10 Slack (Notification):
• Feature/Setting: Incoming Webhook for posting alerts to channels (teachers’ group).
• Sample: "POST to webhook URL" with payload.

3.11 Pusher Beams (Mobile Push):
• Feature/Setting: Publish to multiple device tokens using /publish_api/v1/instances/{instance_id}/publishes/interests
• Sample: Payload includes notification title/body.

3.12 ClickSend (SMS/Email):
• Feature/Setting: REST API for direct or scheduled SMS, email delivery to contacts.
• Sample: "POST /v3/sms/send"

3.13 SMTP2GO (Email):
• Feature/Setting: SMTP relay or Web API for instant or batch email sends.
• Sample: "POST /v3/email/send"

3.14 SignalWire (SMS):
• Feature/Setting: Messaging API for group broadcasts, configure callback for reports.
• Sample: "POST /api/laml/2010-04-01/Accounts/{ProjectID}/Messages.json"

3.15 MessageBird (SMS):
• Feature/Setting: /messages endpoint, supports schedules, set originator as school name.
• Sample: "POST /v1/messages"

3.16 Constant Contact (Email):
• Feature/Setting: Campaigns endpoint to trigger email notifications to segments.
• Sample: "POST /v2/emailmarketing/campaigns/{campaign_id}/schedules"

3.17 HubSpot (Email):
• Feature/Setting: Use Single Send API to deliver transactional or bulk updates.
• Sample: "POST /email/public/v1/singleEmail/send"

3.18 FreshSMS (SMS):
• Feature/Setting: Bulk SMS API with scheduling and sender settings.
• Sample: API call with recipient list and message body.

3.19 RapidPro (SMS):
• Feature/Setting: Flows for message broadcasting across defined contacts/groups.
• Sample: Define and trigger flow via API.

3.20 SparkPost (Email):
• Feature/Setting: Transmission API to dispatch custom batch notifications; support substitutions.
• Sample: "POST /api/v1/transmissions"

3.21 Zenvia (SMS):
• Feature/Setting: Send multiple SMS with Zenvia Send SMS API, configure flash SMS if urgent.
• Sample: "POST /v2/sms"

3.22 MoceanSMS (SMS):
• Feature/Setting: Send SMS with /sms/message API, supports Unicode for multilingual schools.
• Sample: "POST /sms/message"

Benefits

4.1. Drastically reduces manual communication workload and errors.
4.2. Ensures rapid notification delivery to all stakeholders, boosting safety.
4.3. Multi-channel (SMS/email) guarantees higher message open rates.
4.4. Centralized audit trail for all notifications sent for transparency and compliance.
4.5. Supports integration with regional language requirements for diverse agricultural school communities.