With Parent connection in Microsoft Teams for Education, teachers reach the parents and guardians of their students directly through Teams chat. The contact details come from the student information system, so teachers don't have to enter anything themselves. Parent connection is available through the Parents app in class teams; check which features are available in your own tenant, as they depend on your region and settings. This article explains how it works, what IT has to prepare and what to keep in mind.
What can you do with Parent connection?
- See the list of parents and guardians for each student in a class team.
- Start a chat with a parent or guardian, even if they don't have a school account.
- Call parents or schedule a meeting from Teams, depending on the settings.
Parents use Teams with a personal account for this, for example the free version of Teams. They get an invitation through the email address or phone number the school has on file.
What does IT have to prepare?
- Set up School Data Sync (SDS) and sync parent and guardian data from your student information system.
- In the Teams admin center, allow external access for Teams accounts not managed by an organization for teachers. Read more in external access in Microsoft Teams.
- Allow the Parents app in the app policy.
- Decide which teachers may use the feature, for example through a policy per group.
How to use it as a teacher
- Open your class team.
- Choose the Parents tab or app. Add it with + if it isn't visible yet.
- Find the student and view the linked parents or guardians.
- Click a parent's name and start a chat.
Good agreements
- As a school, agree on what the chat is for and during which hours teachers reply.
- Teachers can use quiet hours to protect their personal time.
- Share sensitive student information only through the channels your school policy allows.
- Inform parents in advance so they recognize the invitation and don't treat it as spam.
Also see the Microsoft 365 education starter guide and working with external users in Teams.
Read also
Microsoft 365 for education: set up your school and class
Set up external access in Microsoft Teams
Set quiet hours in Microsoft Teams so you're not disturbed in the evening
Nederlandstalige versie: Parent connection: ouders bereiken via Microsoft Teams voor Onderwijs