Question: Can parents and students email me?
Answer:
If you put your email address on your website, then parents and students can email you directly. If you don't share your email address on your website, they can use the School Loop message system to send you a message.
To send you a message, a parent or student can click the envelope icon next ot your name on the Teachers page and fill out a message form. School Loop then sends you the message by email. School Loop does not give your email address to the parent or student.
The message will come to you from system@schoolloop.com. At the top of the message it will tell you who sent you the message.
Example in your inbox:
Date: September 1, 2016 11:00:00 PST From: system@schoolloop.com To: yourname@lausd.net Subject: Request for a conference From: janedoe@yahoo.com (Jane Doe) Subject: Request for a conference My son John Doe is in your class. I would like to schedule a conference. Thanks! Jane
School Loop sends the message to the email address in your School Loop account settings. For most teachers this is their LAUSD email account.
If you reply to the student in class or phone the parent, they still will won't know your email address. They can contact you again using the School Loop message system.
If you reply by email to a parent or student, they will have your email address and may send you email directly in the future rather than using the School Loop message system.
Some teachers consider it a benefit to share their email address (increased communication), while others have concerns about getting too many messages. These days, most teachers choose to share their email addresses with those who contact them, and some put their email address on their website.
Summary
If you give your email address to parents and students, feel free to use email to reply to messages you get through the School Loop message system.
If you don't mind sharing your LAUSD email address but want to keep your personal email account private (e.g., email at AOL, Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), use your LAUSD email account for your School Loop account. That way you can reply to messages by email when you receive them through the School Loop message system.
If you consider even your LAUSD email address to be private, you'll need to find other ways to reply to parents and students who send you messages. Keep in mind that more and more parents expect teachers to exchange email with them when they have questions.