Schola can send announcements to parents on WhatsApp and receive their replies in an inbox, so messages land where parents actually read them instead of waiting in a portal.
Sending
When you write an announcement, tick Also send on WhatsApp. Before sending, you'll see an estimate: how many recipients are reachable, and how many credits it will cost.
Only parents who can actually be reached are counted — see Consent below.
Broadcast credits
WhatsApp draws on a broadcast credits balance, shown on the Communication area.
- Your plan includes a number of free messages each month.
- After those, it's 1 credit per recipient.
- Top up at any time; payment works exactly like AI credit top-ups.
Broadcast credits and AI credits are separate. Drafting an announcement with AI spends AI credits; sending it on WhatsApp spends broadcast credits. Running out of one doesn't affect the other.
If your balance won't cover everyone, Schola tells you before sending rather than part-way through.
Consent is required
WhatsApp doesn't allow schools to message people who haven't opted in, and Schola enforces this.
A parent is reachable when all three are true:
- They have opted in, and it was recorded.
- They have not opted out.
- They have a phone number on file.
Consent can be collected outside WhatsApp — a line on the invitation they accept, or your own record that they agreed. Parents without it aren't included in sends and aren't charged for.
Opting out
A parent replying STOP on WhatsApp is opted out immediately and permanently, and you can't reverse it from inside Schola — only they can, by opting in again.
They still receive everything in the app and by email. Nothing is lost; it changes the channel, not the content.
The inbox
Communication → WhatsApp shows replies as conversation threads. Filter by Open or Resolved, and mark a thread resolved once you've dealt with it so the queue reflects outstanding work.
This is a shared school inbox, not a personal one — anyone with the communication permission sees the same threads.