Free absence alerts for daycares, preschools, and camps
No absence should go unnoticed.
Give every family a fast, direct alert the same morning a child is marked absent, using a free system your program owns completely. Setup must be done on a desktop computer.
Why this matters. The mornings that go wrong are usually the ones where the routine changed and everyone assumed the child arrived. An alert that same morning gives a family the chance to notice and check.
How it works
Designed for simplicity.
Staff report absences, families hear right away, and the office sees every result. No extra apps and no paid platforms.
Open the unlisted Absence Form link, choose a group, check names, submit. No sign-in, and nobody is marked present.
Every contact listed for that student gets their own message with the child’s name, group, and time, plus a call button if you entered an office phone. Families of students who are present are never contacted.
Sent, skipped, and failed are logged in the Sheet. A failed send tells the office to reach that family another way.
Mark them as Text on the Students tab. The office gets a button per family that opens the message already written. A person presses send. Or connect your own Twilio account and the texts send themselves.
Know before launch
What this can and cannot do.
It is a safety net for absence alerts, not an attendance register or student information system. It still depends on accurate attendance, Google, email delivery, and human follow-up.
Anyone with it can see names and submit. Keep it in trusted staff channels and replace it if exposed.
The log shows that Google accepted the send. It cannot prove the message reached an inbox or was read.
They run within the chosen hour. Pause alerts on closure days and holidays.
Editing the Students tab stops all alerts until you choose Build or update system. It emails the office rather than guessing, but that morning’s alerts do not go out.
Copies do not update automatically. Your program controls access, data retention, testing, and follow-up.
One-time setup
Five simple steps. No code.
The setup helper walks you through
Add your program’s name and office email. Phone, logo, color, and reminders are optional.
Replace the sample rows on the Students tab: name, class or group, and family email. The build checks every row and explains exactly what to fix.
One button creates the staff Form, connects alerts, runs the safety checks, and hands you the staff link.
The first time you open the menu, before anything else, Google asks you to allow access. Some accounts also see a warning that the app is not verified, which is normal for a private copy: click Advanced, then Go to Absence Alerts.
Put yourself in as a student with your own email, submit a practice absence, and check the alert arrives and the Email Log fills in. Then add the real roster and build again.
Before you copy
Eleven quick answers.
What about parents with no email, like a flip phone?
Put their number in the Family phone column and set Contact by to Text. They are never emailed. Instead the office gets one urgent email with a button per family that opens the message ready to send, a few seconds each. Manual is the free default because no free way to text automatically still exists: the carriers shut those down, and using your program’s own line risks having it suspended. Those families stay marked TEXT NEEDED in red until someone ticks the box. If your program wants the texts to send themselves, the next answer covers the built-in Twilio option.
Can the texts send themselves? (the built-in Twilio option)
Yes. Twilio support is built in, but off by default, so the promise stays intact: copy it and it works, no vendor, no account, no cost. Turning it on is your program’s choice. Open the sheet menu and choose Set up automatic texts, create an account at twilio.com, get an SMS-capable number there, and paste in three details: the Account SID, the Auth Token, and your Twilio number. From then on, every family set to Text is texted the moment they are marked absent, logged as TEXT SENT in green. Typical Twilio cost is about a dollar a month for the number plus about a penny per text; US numbers usually need Twilio’s short business-texting registration first, and Twilio walks you through it. Your details are stored privately in your copy’s own script settings, never on the spreadsheet, and if an automatic text ever fails, that family drops onto the manual office list, so nobody is missed. Everyone else keeps free automatic email plus the two-tap text flow.
Can our AI help us set it up?
Yes, and it is a good idea. Your copied Sheet opens on a Read Me tab that explains every step, every menu item, and the questions programs ask most. Share that tab or this page with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or any assistant and ask it to walk you through setup or explain anything you see. The whole system is public and free, so an AI can read all of it.
What does this cost?
The Sheet, Form, script, and alerts are all free. There is no paid tier, tracking, or separate account to create. Google service limits still apply.
What does the family alert look like?
Moshe was marked absent today.
Moshe (Grade 3) was marked absent at Beis Torah on Friday, July 17 at 9:31 AM.
If Moshe was expected to be there, please confirm their location and call now.
Call Beis Torah
If this record is wrong, reply to this email. Replies go to the office.
Does “Sent” mean the family saw it?
No. This is a safety net, not a guarantee. “Sent” means Google accepted the message. It does not prove inbox delivery or that the message was read, so a failed or unanswered alert still needs human follow-up.
Where does student data live?
Your roster, settings, responses, and log stay in your copied Google Sheet and Form. Alerts pass through Google and recipients’ email providers. There is no separate server or database.
Why does the staff Form not require sign-in?
Attendance roles and shared devices change. The unlisted link lets staff submit without accounts. Treat it like a password: share it only with staff and replace it if exposed.
Why does Google show an unverified app warning?
Your copy is a private Apps Script project owned by your program, not a published Google app. Google asks you to allow access during setup, and some accounts also see its standard unverified-app warning: that is normal for a private copy, so click Advanced, then Go to Absence Alerts. The requested permissions are public in the Permissions file and never include Gmail, your Drive files, or contacts. The Forms permission is the broad one; the next answer explains why.
What permissions does setup request?
Setup asks to read and update this spreadsheet, create and manage Forms, show its own menu and sidebar, install its triggers, send email, and connect to an outside service. That last one exists only for the optional Twilio texting: the code contains exactly one outside address, Twilio’s, and if you never connect Twilio it is never used. It does not ask to read Gmail, contacts, or the rest of Drive.
How do I start after I copy the Sheet?
Open your copy and choose Absence Alerts > Open setup helper. It shows what to do, checks your work, and builds your absence alert system for you; you never edit code or build a Form by hand. Only two fields are required to begin: your program’s name and office email.
Give your program a faster safety net.
Copy it, test it with fake students, and make it yours. The Sheet, Form, script, and alerts are free, and copies never update themselves, so your program controls every change.