August is the right time to do this. Not September 4th, when the school newsletters are already stacking up and someone just asked you to RSVP to curriculum night by Friday.
Here is everything you need to do before the school year starts so your inbox and your calendar are ready when the communication wave hits.
Part 1 — Get your FamilyHQ forwarding address ready
☐ Log in to FamilyHQ and confirm your forwarding address is on your Dashboard. It looks like u_<token>@mail2.familyhq.com.
☐ If you have a new child starting school this year, add a Correlation rule in Intelligence:
"Emails about [Child Name] — starting kindergarten at [School Name] this fall."
☐ If you have a child changing schools or grades, update the existing Correlation rule to reflect the new school and teacher context.
Part 2 — Collect every new sender for this school year
At back-to-school night (or from the welcome packet), collect:
☐ Classroom teacher email address(es) — one per child, per teacher ☐ School office email address ☐ School district newsletter sending address (check last year's newsletters for the from address) ☐ Principal or assistant principal email ☐ Specialist teacher emails — art, music, PE, library, if they communicate directly with parents
For each app the classroom uses this year:
☐ Seesaw — note the sending address (no-reply@seesaw.me or similar); enable email notifications in app settings
☐ ClassDojo — enable email notifications; note sending address
☐ ParentSquare / SchoolMessenger / Bloomz / Remind — enable email delivery; note sending address
☐ Any new app introduced this year — ask the teacher at curriculum night which communication platform they use
Part 3 — Set up or update forwarding rules
Open Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail and create (or update) forwarding rules for everything collected in Part 2.
☐ Rule: Classroom teacher
from:teacher@schoolname.edu → forward to FamilyHQ address
One rule per teacher.
☐ Rule: School office and principal
from:(@schoolname.edu OR office@schoolname.edu OR principal@schoolname.edu)
☐ Rule: District newsletters
from:@districtname.k12.state.us
☐ Rule: School communication apps
from:no-reply@seesaw.me
from:notifications@classdojo.com
from:@parentsquare.com
from:@remind.com
☐ Rule: After-school programs
from:@afterschoolprogramname.com
from:director@daycareorcenter.org
☐ Rule: Sports and extracurriculars (one per activity)
from:coach@teamname.org
from:@soccerleague.com
from:notifications@teamsnap.com
Part 4 — Update school records with both parent email addresses
☐ Log in to the school's information portal (PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, Skyward, or your district's system) and confirm both parent/guardian email addresses are listed.
☐ Email the classroom teacher directly with both parents' addresses if the portal only shows one.
☐ Update extracurricular coordinators — sports coaches, after-school program staff, music or dance studio — with both parent contacts.
☐ Update app accounts — Seesaw, ClassDojo, and similar apps allow both parents to have separate accounts linked to the same child. Set this up so both parents receive notifications independently.
Part 5 — Calendar integration (optional but recommended)
☐ Connect Google Calendar or Outlook in FamilyHQ Settings under Calendar Integration. Extracted events will push directly to your calendar automatically.
☐ Add the school's published calendar as a subscribed calendar in Google Calendar or Apple Calendar. Most schools publish an ICS feed; the link is usually on the school website under "Calendar."
☐ Add key recurring events manually now, before the year starts: first day of school, last day of school, known early dismissal days, school holidays. The school's printed calendar or website usually has these.
Part 6 — Test the system
☐ Send a test email from a personal address to your forwarding address. Confirm it appears in your FamilyHQ Dashboard within a few minutes.
☐ Forward one actual school email (from last year's archives, if needed) and confirm FamilyHQ processes it and extracts a summary.
☐ Check the next scheduled digest in Settings and confirm the timing and timezone are correct.
Part 7 — Brief your household
☐ Tell your co-parent or partner about the FamilyHQ digest schedule so they know when the weekly summary arrives and what it contains.
☐ If you share school logistics with a co-parent in a separate household, confirm their FamilyHQ account is set up and their forwarding rules are in place. (Or walk them through this checklist.)
One-time setup, year-round calm
The whole checklist takes 30–45 minutes if you are starting fresh, 15–20 minutes for an annual update. You will spend less time on inbox management in the first month of school than you spent on this setup. Everything after that compounds — the system runs automatically and improves as Stackora learns your context.
Good luck with the school year.