Attendance emails automatically send families an attendance update after you submit attendance. Each email can include the student’s attendance status, lesson details, absence or cancellation reason, and formatted lesson notes.
Messages are sent through your connected Gmail account.
The account owner can manage the default attendance email settings.
Organization admins can manage attendance email defaults for the organization.
Organization members cannot access the Attendance Emails settings page or replace the organization’s defaults.
Organization members can adjust the available email options for their current attendance submission.
Each teacher must connect Gmail to send messages from their own Gmail address.
Attendance emails require Gmail sending access.
Go to Settings > Connected Apps > Integrations to connect Gmail. You can also check your Gmail connection from Settings > Client Experience > Attendance Emails.
The Gmail section displays:
Whether Gmail is connected
The Gmail address messages will be sent from
A button to connect or manage the Gmail account
Attendance can still be saved when Gmail is disconnected, but attendance emails will not be sent.
Open Settings > Client Experience > Attendance Emails.
These defaults load automatically when you open the Attendance page.
Turn on Send attendance emails after submit when you normally want attendance updates sent after attendance is saved.
You can still turn sending off for an individual submission from the Attendance page.
The family’s primary contact email address is the main recipient.
You can also enable:
CC students when they have an email to copy each student with an email address on file
Include secondary contacts to copy the secondary contact when an email address is available
A family must have a primary contact email address to receive an attendance email. If no primary contact email exists, the email is skipped.
Duplicate addresses are removed automatically. The primary recipient is not repeated in the CC field.
Use Send for these recorded statuses to select which statuses trigger an email.
Available statuses include:
Present ($) — Billable
Absent ($) — Billable
Absent — Not billable
Cancelled — Not billable
By default, all recorded statuses are selected.
Unrecorded attendance never sends an email and cannot be enabled as a trigger.
For example, you can send updates only for absences and cancellations by turning off Present ($) while keeping the absence and cancellation statuses enabled.
The template includes an editable subject and rich-text body.
Select Email Variables to insert information that changes for each family.
Variable | Information inserted |
|---|---|
| The sending teacher’s name |
| The student’s first name |
| The student’s last name |
| The primary contact’s first name |
| The primary contact’s last name |
| The secondary contact’s first name |
| The secondary contact’s last name |
| The family account name |
| The attendance status, lesson date, lesson time, and recorded reason |
| The formatted lesson notes entered while recording attendance |
The default subject is:
Attendance update for {{StudentFirstName}}
The attendance summary and lesson notes are separate variables, so you can position them independently in the message.
Select Preview email beneath the template editor to see how the subject and body appear after variables are replaced.
The settings preview uses:
The current teacher’s name
Today’s date
Representative student and family information
Example attendance and lesson notes
The preview follows your current light or dark theme. It does not send an email.
The Attendance page includes a collapsible Attendance email panel beneath the Mark All and Submit controls.
The panel starts with your saved defaults. For the current submission, you can change:
Whether emails will be sent
Which attendance statuses trigger an email
Whether students are copied
Whether secondary contacts are copied
The email subject
The email body
Changes made here apply only to the current submission unless you enable Save these choices as new defaults.
Personal account owners and organization admins can save new defaults from the Attendance page. Organization members cannot replace organization defaults.
When attendance emailing is enabled, each recorded attendance row includes a Preview email link.
The row preview uses the current unsaved form values, including:
The actual student and family contact information
The selected attendance status
The lesson date and time
The absence or cancellation reason
The current lesson note
The current subject and body
The selected student and secondary-contact CC options
The preview link does not appear while the status is Unrecorded.
A row preview shows how that lesson contributes to the email. If multiple qualifying lessons in the same submission belong to one family, Cadence Calendar combines them into one family email.
When you submit attendance:
Cadence Calendar saves the attendance statuses, reasons, and lesson notes.
Unrecorded lessons and statuses that are not selected as email triggers are excluded.
Qualifying lessons are grouped by family account.
One email is prepared for each family with a primary contact email address.
Student and secondary-contact addresses are added to CC when enabled and available.
Template variables are replaced with the family’s actual information.
The message is sent through the teacher’s connected Gmail account.
Formatted lesson notes appear as formatted content in the email rather than unformatted markup.
Attendance saving and email sending are handled separately. If Gmail sending fails, the attendance records remain saved.
Cadence Calendar displays a warning when:
Gmail is not connected
All attendance emails fail
Some attendance emails fail
Email sending is otherwise unavailable
If a family does not receive an email, check that:
Gmail is connected for the teacher.
Attendance emailing was enabled for the submission.
The attendance status was selected as a trigger.
The attendance status was not Unrecorded.
The family has a primary contact email address.
Student and secondary-contact email addresses exist before expecting them to appear in CC.
Preview the template after changing variables or formatting.
Keep {{AttendanceSummary}} and {{LessonNotes}} in the body so families receive the complete update.
Keep the subject short and recognizable.
Review family email addresses regularly.
Use status triggers to avoid sending unnecessary updates.
Check the per-student preview before submitting sensitive notes.
Remember that multiple qualifying lessons for one family may be combined into a single email.
Attendance emails provide a consistent way to notify families after attendance is recorded.
Configure personal or organization defaults under Settings > Client Experience > Attendance Emails, review the options on the Attendance page, preview individual messages, and submit attendance to send qualifying updates through Gmail.
