IRIS How-To Version 7 0
Contents
1. 12 To find your school site click on Select More Groups Check all groups you want to receive 14015 SOUTHWEST FRWY BLDG 4 SUGAR LAND TEXAS 77478 PHONE 281 207 4800 FAX 281 207 4895 your message 13 You can then narrow it down by grade level optional by selecting Select Grades STEP 4 Confirm Recipients 14 If you want your alert to be broadcast immediately bypass the Choose a Start Date Start Time and End Time fields If you want your alert to be broadcast later choose from the date and time fields Confirm that the times are in the correct p m or a m mode 15 Click on Send Alert Message Now 16 Go to the Reports tab and look to confirm your alert is listed It should be near the top If you have mistakenly sent more than one alert you have the ability to select and delete an alert under the Title column Under the column Recipients click on Report Once your alert goes out this page will provide a detailed description of how many calls were answered by a human machine or sent in error Alert Degrees Yellow Alert A Yellow Alert elevated is sent to one telephone telephone 3 and an email address Send a Yellow Alert for routine announcements and reminders as well as non routine non emergency events such as e Notification of an incident at school that might result in a media report such as a minor school bus accident etc Send an IRIS alert only in those cases where you would have sent home a n2. Alert Degree there are five colors from which to choose You should only use yellow orange or red unless the message should only be sent by e mail Refer to pages five and six for a description of each alert 5 Type in a distinctive Subject beginning with the name of your organization abbreviate if necessary followed by a brief description of the alert For instance KOHS TAKs Results 6 Enter the direct phone number where you would like the IRIS system to call you so you can record your alert 7 You could enter your organization s number in the Caller ID field or leave it blank However if you enter your organization s number as the Caller ID number you might receive multiple phone calls as soon as you send out your alert 8 After you click on Call Me to record a message IRIS will call the direct phone number Remember to say hello when answering the phone call from IRIS 9 Listen to the instructions from IRIS and wait for the beep before you record 10 After you record the message hit pound and listen to the instructions The message will play back automatically for your approval If the message meets your approval hit pound again to lock in the message If you want to re record IRIS will direct you to press one 1 to record the message again 11 On your computer screen you now have the option to Play Recorded Message if you would like to hear it again or move on to Step 3 STEP 3 Select Group s
3. Clear the wording with school administration in these examples DO NOT use a Red Alert at the school level if the school district is cancelling school due to severe weather Those alerts will be handled at the district office 14015 SOUTHWEST FRWY BLDG 4 SUGAR LAND TEXAS 77478 PHONE 281 207 4800 FAX 281 207 4895 Sample Red Alert message 1 Hello this is Jane Doe principal at Kreinhop Elementary Due to a gas leak nearby we evacuated our students at about 10 30 a m this morning The students are in no danger In an abundance of caution we transported students to Schindewolf Intermediate at 20903 Ella Blvd for the rest of the day There is no need to pick up your child Dismissal is at the usual time 3 10 p m Buses will follow the regular schedules and stops During dismissal parents who wish to pick up their children will be directed to the east parking lot at the intermediate school If you have questions please call Thank you Frequently Asked Questions What happens if forget my user ID and password Call the IRIS toll free number at 1 866 905 4747 for assistance What happens when a parent has more than one child at the same school Will the message be sent more than once The message should only be sent once The system recognizes duplicate numbers and automatically protects against repeat calling Is there a limit to the number of messages can send in a day week or month While there is no limit TechRadiu
4. a listing of alerts you can generate a report for each by clicking on the title Finally by clicking on Alerts Sent and Alert Degrees shows you the total amount of alerts during the month and by the color chosen 14015 SOUTHWEST FRWY BLDG iRIs IMMEDIATE RESPONSE INFORMATION SYSTEM By TechRadium Inc HOME aterts incivents Reports Summary In Progress Scheduled Alerts Testing Do Not Cancel Scheduled Do Not Cance Search Alerts Sender All Degree All Category All Start Date End Date Type Al SEARCH Alerts Sent Last 6 Months 05 18 2008 05719 2008 Sender Status Hickey D Hickey D Alert Category 1 General 2 Testing 3 Advisory 4 Attendance rt Degrees Sent 70 604 s04 404 304 204 104 o Orange Yellow SUGAR Copyright TechRadium Inc 2008 All Rights Reserved IRIS is protected by U S Patents 7 130 389 7 174 005 and 7 362 852 Patents Pending LAND TEXAS 77478 PHONE 281 207 4800 FAX 281 2 07 4895 YSSJ SJ Guidelines for Broadcasting an Alert 1 Log on to the IRIS website www irisdispatch com 2 From the Home page select the Broadcast Alert tab STEP 1 Select Message Type 3 Choose Voice Recording Alert On rare occasions you may use a Text to Speech Alert For when to use see the FAQ s STEP 2 Compose Message 4 Next to
5. user profile updates to Excel file ALL 14015 SOUTHWEST FRWY BLDG 4 SUGAR LAND TEXAS 77478 PHONE 281 207 4800 FAX 281 207 4895 IMMEDIATE RESPONSE INFORMATION SYSTEM By TechRadium Inc IRIs SSERS Groups This tab shows the groups to which you can Manage Users Manage Groups 1 e a new group using the form send messages If there are missing or i aeee Sh 3 Carolina test Administration 12 p Level Group incorrect groups listed please contact the 7 cooper Ere Deoarineni commer y E E L Cooper test Administration a 7 GrouniName H elp Desk 6 i Dekalb custom group Administrati 2 i E am CSD 8 i McKesson Test Group Administratio a aac a 9 i New group Administration 0 10 i New group Administratic qa 41 i Test 2 Brevard Administration a 412 i Test New Group Administratios 0 413 i Test group 2 Administration a 14 i reunion 1 Administratic a 15 APiTest Group o 16 Band a 17 Bob s Group Referal Agent 0 48 Call Center Test Group qa 19 Charles Group 0 20 Conference Call a 21 Darren Test 22 Developers 4 Reports After sending an alert always go to the reports tab to confirm the alert is listed All In Progress Scheduled Alerts are shown at the top The Search Alerts option lets you search all sent alerts by the criteria you choose Alerts are also stored by Alert Category Within each category is
6. AS 77478 PHONE 281 207 4800 FAX 281 207 4895 RKS IJJ Table of Contents Contact amp IRIS AOA sess sardine ertere tic cia Hasan aitiatie dain dela ie meislotsciaipeaide danse silica egleweideineasndainyce 1 Navigating the Website uc cuscsereecsecuaetnccresiecebiaeneocuuaet een e E EE ENEE KEEN 2 4 Broadcasting an AGM sxccnscvncneeexoaniouneenanudeneiene mene tansmenmisemtsdonaphseebeenainbenceneeuababiscenenees 5 6 Alert Degrees Yellow Orange Red ccececec cece eee e ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ea ea ea ea eden esata teen a neeaees 6 8 Frequently Asked QUESTIONS aenn orac rierien iane a e ia ERE EE Ea 8 10 Dos andi DOMIS anoosinnena ne ana a a a a E a A a aaa E e 10 11 Navigating the Website Whether you are new to IRIS or have sent five alerts we suggest you take time to get to know the IRIS website www irisdispatch com because there are many useful features Start out by learning what each tab has to offer Home This is the alerts summary page e Alerts in Progress are the alerts currently scheduled and or going out e Under Activity Details these are the alerts currently being sent out e IRIS News and Systems Updates are the updates made by date to the IRIS website e Under Options the R S User s Manual contains a document with detailed instructions e The Comments Feedback lets you submit any comments you wish 14015 SOUTHWEST FRWY BLDG 281 207 4800 PHONE IMMEDIATE RESPO
7. IMMEDIATE RESPONSE INFORMATION SYSTEM The IRIS How To Guide IRIS the Immediate Response Information System is a web based notification system that enables you to communicate directly and quickly with everyone in your identified community via telephone and email The system can be used to deliver routine messages as well as emergency messages sent to all IRIS users you desire IRIS is a powerful tool It enables administrators to deliver thousands of messages in minutes As with any tool it will be effective only if used properly This IRIS guide is intended to provide guidelines a set of dos and don ts and important phone numbers and web addresses for the administrators authorized to use IRIS Each month your organization uploads user data to TechRadium the parent company With that information securely stored TechRadium has created a database that will enable your organization to communicate with your community using as many as five contact points three telephone numbers and two emails Levels of authority can be designated through limitations placed on certain administrators For instance the superintendent of a district will be able to communicate with all the parents and staff of that district while a principal of a school will only be able to contact those IRIS users within his her school Contact IRIS website www irisdispatch com Support IRIS Toll Free dial 1 866 905 4747 14015 SOUTHWEST FRWY BLDG 4 SUGAR LAND TEX
8. NSE K ellis RIS eee svSTEM By TechRadium In Welcome to IRIS Alerts In Progress SUGAR LAND TEXAS FAX 281 207 4895 77478 IMMEDIATE RESPONSE pea Broadcast Alert R N INFORMATION SYSTEM TechRadium By TechRadium Inc Click on Broadcast Alert when you are Genome gt aers mcwents a users survers reports sien our ready to begin sending your alert r SEZ sas Sa S Select Message Type Compose Message Select Group s Confirm Recipients Broadcast Refer to the guidelines on page 4 5 for Doy TEXTTO SPEECH ALERT broadcasting an alert 7 gt x SEVERE HIGH ELEVATED GUARDED Phone 1 Home Phone 2 Mobile Phone 3 Work Phone 1 SMS Phone 1 SMS Phone 2 Mobile Phone 3 Work Phone 1 SMS Phone 2 SMS Phone 2 SMS Phone 3 Work Phone 1 SMS Phone 2 SMS Phone 3 SMS Phone 3 SMS Phone 1 SMS Phone 2 SMS Phone 3 SMS Email Email Phone 2 SMS Phone 3 SMS Email Pager Pager Phone 3 SMS Email Pager Email Pager Pager The default alert is Yellow important Reserve Red Alerts for true emergencies IMMEDIATE RESPONSE R N INFORMATION SYSTEM Radium Saved Alerts j E TechRadium Inc d i You can create a saved alert for commonly el a ee ee a ee used messages such as daily student eem pert Categories S also referred to as pre defined messages are listed below These are commonly attendance ao neneeeeergency scenarios
9. ackpack DON T abandon other time tested communications tools If the audience is small a personal phone call or a note is still the most appropriate communication DO Send IRIS messages as frequently as needed There is no limit to the number of messages you can send DON T overdo it In other school districts parents have complained or ignored messages when they were sent too frequently DO Check to be sure you are sending your message at the correct p m or a m time DON T mistakenly send a message at midnight or 5 a m DO Be aware that IRIS messages sent during business hours will in all likelihood be recorded on answering machines Messages sent after hours are more likely to get a voice answer DON T Send routine messages late in the evening or at dinner time Most messages can be sent and received in less than an hour 14015 SOUTHWEST FRWY e BLDG 4 SUGAR LAND TEXAS 77478 PHONE 281 207 4800 FAX 281 207 4895 10 DO Use the IRIS reports to identify error messages Check each individual phone number to learn the cause for the error message The IRIS data is taken directly from our school district database If phone numbers are in error update them For instance a faulty student phone number can be updated in Chancery DON T assume the district office will correct faulty data from your school Student data must be corrected at the school level in Chancery Employee data correctio
10. hat might result in a media report such as a school bus accident involving injuries etc Clear the wording with school administration in this example Send an IRIS alert only in those cases where you would have sent home a note Sample Orange Alert message 1 Hello this is John Doe principal at Wunderlich Intermediate One of our students was injured this morning after being struck by a car while walking to school The student was taken to the hospital and his parents are with him as is one of our assistant principals News reports about the accident will not include the student s name and didn t want parents to wonder if it was their child who was injured If you have questions please call the office at 832 249 5200 Thank you Red Alert A Red Alert severe is sent to as many as three telephones telephones 1 2 amp 3 and an email address Send a Red Alert only in the case of an emergency an urgent and or unexpected scenario such as e A school evacuation Lengthy school lockdown when parents might question whether they should head to campus to pick up their children The severe injury or death of a student at school or headed to or from school when parents might hear a news report and wonder if their child was involved e An incident at school that might involve law enforcement or fire rescue and might result in a media report prompting parents to question whether their child is safe at school at that moment e
11. heir school or work site Once you are accustomed to using the system you may grant access to teachers and coaches as you deem appropriate Contact Michael Arnim at 281 263 6304 to determine new IRIS administrators and set up new groups What if need to send a message after business hours Since the system is offered via the Internet you can send a message after business hours whenever necessary Is there a way to set up the system to automatically send a commonly used message perhaps for attendance messages for example Yes Under the Pre Defined Alerts tab you can easily set up an automatic message for your school Many parents and staff have Caller ID and Call Block can a message still get through Yes The system uses the school or district Caller ID information so your calls should not be blocked After receive my report and realize there are several inaccurate contact numbers what is the procedure for correcting them If it is a parent phone number enter the student database and make the necessary corrections If it is an employee contact your Human Resources department to make the corrections You should also correct the information in IRIS immediately as there will be a delay in the corrections from the district databases Can an IRIS user opt out of the program Any IRIS user with contact information on file will be included in the system However users can enter the system online at www useiris com and alter their contac
12. m recommends that you guard against over use of the system Remember IRIS is one of many tools at your disposal for contacting parents students and staff If for example you need to get a message to a small group of staff members say 10 or less an e mail or phone call might work better Additionally using IRIS to send a flood of messages could lead some recipients to become numb to the system and they may miss urgent information when it counts most Can make changes to a message before it is sent Yes refer to your IRIS User s Manual provided at the training and also available for download on the home page under the Broadcasting Alerts section for more information Can cancel a message after it has been sent Yes After you send your message go to the Reports tab and find your message from the list Click on the title Click on Delete This Alert What happens if a message is not answered the first time Does the system re send When there is a major emergency or red alert the system will attempt to make contact at least three times Can I give access to multiple users at my site TechRadium strongly encourages limiting access to no more than two people at each school initially If someone needs to send out an IRIS notification they should ask for assistance from 14015 SOUTHWEST FRWY e BLDG 4 e SUGAR LAND TEXAS 77478 PHONE 281 207 4800 FAX 281 207 4895 f pea p f one of the authorized users at t
13. ns should be sent to Human Resources for correction Updated information will be uploaded to IRIS when the district data is refreshed a process that will occur monthly You should also correct student and employee data in IRIS to avoid the monthly delay DO Leave the optional Caller ID space blank unless you want to substitute the main number at your school The advantage is that you might want parents to see the school number on the Caller ID DON T Type in the main number of your school or your personal phone number unless you are prepared to answer dozens of phone calls immediately after sending the alert Often parents will automatically call the Caller ID number without waiting to hear the message DO Send Yellow Alerts in most cases DON T Send Red Alerts except in emergency situations Parents do not want to receive IRIS calls at work for routine school messages DO Send IRIS alerts for school communication only DON T Send IRIS alerts for district wide events such as school closures as that will be done at the district level 14015 SOUTHWEST FRWY BLDG 4 SUGAR LAND MEXA S 77478 PHONE 281 207 4800 FAX 281 207 4895 11
14. or routine alert messages You can change or delete any of them by clicking on the title or create a new message by clicking on the buttons below There are two formats of alerts to choose from text to speech typed message or voice recorded message NEW TTS ALERT W NEW VOICE ALERT Title Subjectw Category Action Type Date Modified Delete 1 Clavtonf Voice General Pvoice 318 2008 2 51 PM saved alert is restricted to the administrator that created the alert DELETE SELECTED Click on the lock icon for the alert to make it public to all administrators in organization E saved alert is public and can be used by all administrators in organization Click on the public icon to restrict access to the administrator that created the alert Copyright TechRadium Inc 2008 All Rights Reserved IRIS is protected by U S Patents 7 130 389 7 174 005 and 7 262 852 Patents Pending IMMEDIATE RESPONSE n _ D l R IS INFORMATION SYSTEM Radium By TechRadium Inc nome Das cients Administer Users P 7 3 3 surveys Reports 5 sien our Edit your account information here For a example change your password to egies MMamhGaaae something you might remember more easily IRIS User Accounts a Clim 656 BP 2 KYL JM Me Ove OUR Sir UW wex IY assigned to those groups down the CTRL key to select multiple groups Export
15. ote Report card progress report release PTA meeting parent teacher night Sample Yellow Alert messages 1 Hello this is John Doe principal at Wunderlich Intermediate wanted to remind you that parent teacher conference night is coming up on Tuesday September 20 starting at 6 p m This is a great opportunity to meet your child s teacher and get the school year started off on the right foot If you have any questions please call the office at 832 249 5200 See you there 2 Hello this is Jane Doe principal at Kreinhop Elementary We had a brief lockdown at school today after Klein ISD Police notified us there was a robbery in the area Our students were never in any danger The lockdown lasted less than 30 minutes and did not interrupt our classes We do all we can to keep our campus safe Whenever there is even a remote possibility of a threat 14015 SOUTHWEST FRWY BLDG 4 SUGAR LAND TEXAS 77478 PHONE 281 207 4800 FAX 281 207 4895 we call security and keep our students indoors If you have any questions call the office at 832 484 7400 As always thank you for your support Orange Alert An Orange Alert high is sent to two telephones telephones 2 amp 3 and an email address Send an Orange Alert for non routine announcements and matters that might cause parent concerns such as A lockdown Any incident at school that might result in negative media coverage e Notification of an incident at school t
16. send messages in different languages using the text to speech mode What is the procedure for sending a message in languages other than English To send a message in Spanish or other languages use the following steps 1 We have information on file specifying which language a family speaks at home When using the text to speech function IRIS recognizes which language the family has chosen 2 The principal or another authorized user would select the text to speech function and then type in the message When the alert is sent the text is converted to a synthetic voice message The synthetic voice is of a high quality but it still might sound odd to some parents Also the text to speech often loses something in the translation The message should be very brief For instance the superintendent might send an extremely brief message in several languages announcing the closing of schools due to a tropical storm IRIS Dos and Don ts DO Use IRIS for emergencies and routine communications directly related to school DON T use IRIS for non educational purposes It is not appropriate to use IRIS to send personal messages IRIS messages are public records A good rule of thumb If you would be embarrassed to have your message played on the evening newscast don t send that message DO Use IRIS instead of printed notes sent home to parents In some cases IRIS will reach the intended audience more frequently than the traditional note in the b
17. t information The Username will be followed by their student s ID number and the password is Parents can find the student ID number on their students schedule Examples for logon information are below Username Password When is it appropriate to use the text to voice option where you type the message and a computer generated voice is used instead of my own voice TechRadium strongly encourages the use of voice recorded messages On the rare occasion that the insertion of the student s name is more important than the personal connection recording your own voice would bring example daily attendance notification using the text to voice option would be acceptable How long should my recorded message be A good rule of thumb is no longer than 60 seconds Most messages can be 30 to 45 seconds A minute is longer than you think and anything longer than that is difficult to process Remember you can rerecord your message if you aren t satisfied with it or if it runs too long 14015 SOUTHWEST FRWY e BLDG 4 e SUGAR LAND TEXAS 77478 PHONE 281 207 4800 FAX 281 207 4895 Is it possible to send messages in languages other than English Yes At some schools principals should send out an IRIS alert just as they would send a note home to parents in both English and in Spanish 1 If the alert is very brief you can send your alert in English and then immediately repeat the message in Spanish 2 It is also possible to
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