.png)
Summary
Use Announcements when you need a one-time message to many waitlist families — closure notices, policy updates, or event reminders. This is separate from automated waitlist workflows.
Before you start
- You need admin or director access to Communications.
- Know which families to include (often filtered from Waitlist before you start).
Steps
- Open Communications.
- Stay on the Announcements tab (or select it if another tab is open).
- Select New Announcement.
- Enter a Campaign Name and choose Email Only or Email & Text Message.
- Write the Subject and message body. Use template variables if your center configured them.
- Review Recipients — adjust the list if needed (Edit Recipients).
- Optional: choose Send Test Email or Send Test SMS from the send menu before going live.
- Select Send, or choose Schedule for Later / Save Draft from the dropdown.
You can also open bulk announcements from Waitlist bulk actions when families are selected.
What happens next
- Kiddo queues messages through your center's configured channels.
- Families receive email and/or SMS from your center (via Kiddo) — they see your center's name as the sender, not internal campaign names.
- After you send, open Communications → Announcements to see delivery status and results on the list.
For ongoing automated messages (confirmations, continued interest, etc.), see How automated messages work.
What your parents see: Email or SMS from your center's name (via Kiddo). If families report missing mail, share Not receiving emails from Kiddo.
Track results on the Announcements list
The Announcements table shows one row per campaign. After a send finishes (or while it is still going out), use these columns:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Status | Draft, Scheduled, Starting, Sending, Sent, or Partially sent |
| Open Rate | Rough estimate of how many email recipients opened the message |
| Click Rate | How many families used a Kiddo action link from the email (for example View Waitlist), not every link in the body |
Status on the list uses different labels than the delivery card when you open a campaign — for example, Sent on the list corresponds to Completed in the detail view, and Partially sent corresponds to Completed with issues.
Open Rate and Click Rate are helpful estimates, not exact counts:
- Opens depend on email-client tracking. Some clients block or inflate open signals, so treat the number as directional.
- Clicks count families who followed a Main Action link Kiddo generated for that announcement (the primary button-style link), not arbitrary URLs you pasted into the body.
- Either column may show
--while the campaign is still Sending, before any emails have been delivered, or when the campaign did not include email.
Rates can keep updating for several hours after a send completes as opens and clicks arrive.
Review an announcement
To see delivery detail and parent engagement while a send is in progress or after it finishes:
- Open Communications → Announcements.
- Select the campaign row (not New Announcement).
Once a campaign starts sending, it opens in a read-only Campaign Details view — you cannot edit message content or recipients. Draft and Scheduled campaigns stay editable when you open them.
To send something similar to a past announcement, return to the list, open the row ⋯ menu, and choose Duplicate.
Delivery status
At the top of Campaign Details, a delivery card summarizes the send:
- Completed — every queued email and text for that campaign finished without failures (shown as Sent on the list).
- Completed with issues — some messages could not be delivered (shown as Partially sent on the list). Review the Delivery issues list below the progress bars.
- Sending / Starting send — delivery is still in progress (shown as Sending or Starting on the list). You can leave the page; sending continues in the background.
Progress bars break down Email and Text separately (for example, 45 of 50 sent · 2 failed).
If deliveries failed for specific families, a Delivery issues list shows the guardian or child, which channel failed, and a short reason when Kiddo has one. Some rows include Reached anyway — for example, email failed but text succeeded, or another parent on the account received the message on a different channel. If many families were affected, the list may show the first entries only, with a note such as Showing first 10 of 25.
Parent engagement since sending
For finished sends — including Partially sent campaigns — Kiddo shows Parent engagement since sending — activity from contacted families after the announcement went out:
| Metric | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Parent activity since sending | Parents who signed in or took in-app action after the send |
| Updated waitlist info | Parents who updated waitlist details (for example contact info or enrollment preferences) |
| Removed from waitlist | Children no longer on the waitlist after the send — includes parents who withdrew and applications the parent closed from their side |
Percentages are of parents contacted, not of every child on your waitlist. A chart below the cards shows how these counts accumulated day by day.
Engagement appears only after the campaign has finished sending. If metrics do not load, refresh the page or check back once the list shows Sent or Partially sent (or the detail view shows Completed or Completed with issues).
Common questions
How is this different from Wait List Communications?
Announcements are manual one-time messages you compose. Wait List Communications are automated workflows triggered by events (application submitted, status update cadence, etc.).
Can I message only certain schedules or locations?
Yes — start from filtered recipients on Waitlist or edit the recipient list in the announcement editor before sending.
Why is Send disabled?
Complete the Campaign Name, subject, message content, and at least one recipient. Kiddo shows validation if something is missing.
Why is Open Rate --?
Common reasons:
- The campaign is still Sending or has not delivered any emails yet.
- The announcement did not include email, so there is no open tracking.
- Email delivery has not finished — wait until the list shows Sent or Partially sent (or the detail view shows Completed or Completed with issues).
What counts as a click?
Click Rate tracks families who used a Kiddo action link tied to the announcement's Main Action (for example View Waitlist). Links you type manually in the message body are not included in this metric.
Why is Click Rate --?
- The announcement did not include email, so there is no click tracking on the list.
- The campaign is still Sending or no emails have been delivered yet.
If emails were sent but no families used the Main Action link yet, the column shows 0% rather than --.
Why did some texts or emails fail?
Invalid phone numbers, carrier blocks, full mailboxes, and spam filtering can cause individual failures while other recipients still receive the message. Open the campaign and review the Delivery issues list for affected families. Kiddo notifies the support team when a send has partial failures.
What does "Removed from waitlist" include?
This counts children who left the waitlist after the announcement was sent. The breakdown includes:
- Withdrawn — the parent withdrew the application.
- Archived by parent — the parent closed the application from their Kiddo account.
Center-initiated changes that do not remove the child from the family's view may not appear here. Use Waitlist for full application status.
Related articles
- In the app: Communications → Announcements → New Announcement
- How automated messages work (and what families receive)