Flocknote PARENT INFORMATON

The Archdiocese of Atlanta requires parental consent to use  teen's/minor's personal email and/or cell phones.  We are asking the parents of our Confirmation Prep teens to give their consent for the teen's small group catechist and the DRE to use their personal email and/or cell phone to contact them.  All contact will be related directly to their faith formation in the Confirmation Prep program and other St. Michael's related events.  Catechists will NOT be able to view the teen's email nor cell phone number.  Catechists are only given access to a group email/text without being able to view teen contact info.  Therefore, catechists are only able to use this for group email/text.  Only the DRE and RE Administarative staff-3 people-are actually able to view the teen email and cell phone number.

Parents will receive all texts and emails sent to their teen's small group.

Please see the Safe Environment video below for information on how Flocknote complies with Safe Environment of Minors requirements.

St. Michael the Archangel follows the Archdiocese of Atlanta’s Social Media Policy and Guidelines for the Use of Social Networking Sites with Minors for contacting teens via social media.  This includes text messages and emails to contact youth. 

St. Michael the Archangel will be using Flocknote as a means of texting/emailing teens registered in the Confirmation Prep Program.  Each teen’s small group catechist will have access to Flocknote and contact the members of their small group directly via Flocknote. 
Flocknote keeps children safe and remains Safe Environment compliant by:

1. Archives everything — Flocknote archives every conversation, whether it’s a text message or email conversation. Everything is recorded.
2. Copy parents — Flocknote makes it easy to copy parents on any communications sent to a minor.
3. Protects sender’s contact info — Flocknote keeps personal contact info (email address or phone number) from being revealed, preventing others from figuring it out and then starting direct communication threads outside the system directly with the private email or phone.

Is this Safe Environment approved?  This is a completely Safe Environment approved form of communication with your teen. All of these communications are kept in Flocknote. The DRE has access to all these communications at any time.   
Who has access to the teen’s contact information?  Only the DRE and the PSR Admin have access to the teen’s contact information. 
Can the Catechist contact only one teen from the group?  All texts/emails are from the catechist to all in their small group. 
Can a student respond to a text/email? Students can respond back, but the whole small group sees it. 
Does the catechist have acces to the teen's contact information?  Their catechist doesn’t have access to their contact information. Flocknote “hides” the teen’s contact info from their catechist.
Can the Parent email/cell number be used instead of the teen's? Parent emails/cell numbers cannot be used for their teen because the parent is registered in Flocknote with that contact info.  Flocknote uses your cell#/email for unique identifiers. 
What if my teen only has a cell# or email?  Then they will be contacted using only their cell# or email (whichever they have)
What if my teen doesn't have their own email or cell phone?  If a teen doesn’t have their own email or cell# they will not be included in the small group messages. 
Can a parent be included in the small group instead of their teen if their teen has no contact info?  Parents are automatically added to their teen's small group.  Parents receive all emails and texts sent to their teen's small group.