Set Up a Class Absence & Pickup Page in Under a Minute

If parents currently email you about sick days and early pickups — and you're never quite sure whether the office got the message too — this guide sets up a better system in about a minute.

No student roster to upload, no IT ticket, no cost.

What you're setting up

One link for your class. Parents open it, tap what's happening, pick a date and time, and send. You and everyone else you list get an email with Confirm and Can't accommodate buttons built in, so you can respond without signing in to anything.

Parents get a real confirmation back instead of wondering whether anyone read their message.

Step 1 — Create the page

Go to classgear.co/a/new and sign in. Teachers need an account for this (parents don't), because a page that routes real messages about real children should have a real owner.

You'll fill in:

• Class name — write it the way parents would recognize it: "Mrs. Espin PK3-B", not "Section 4B-2".
• School — optional, but helpful when a family has children in more than one class.

Step 2 — Add who gets notified

This is the setting that matters most, so give it a moment's thought.

Add yourself plus the front office or receptionist. Everyone you list receives every request, and any of them can confirm it. Typical setups:

Class type	Who to add
Elementary classroom	You + front office
Co-taught class	Both teachers + front office
Preschool / daycare room	Lead teacher + aide + director
Sports or activity	Coach + assistant + athletic office

You can add or remove addresses at any time from the class dashboard.

> Tip for schools: if several teachers add the same receptionist, that's fine and intended. Each teacher controls their own list, so nobody is depending on a shared setting they can't see.

Step 3 — Add a note for parents (optional)

There's a free-text field shown above the parent form. Use it for the constraint parents most often get wrong — for example:

> "Pickups before 2:45 need 30 minutes' notice. We can't release students during the 1pm assembly on Wednesdays."

Stating this up front prevents most declines before they happen.

Step 4 — Share the link and QR code

When you save, you'll land on your class dashboard with a link and a printable QR code.

Where teachers actually put it:

• Printed on the classroom door — the single highest-use spot, since parents are standing right there at pickup
• In your class bio on whatever app your school uses (Bloomz, Remind, ClassDojo, Seesaw)
• In your welcome email or back-to-school night handout
• On a magnet or card sent home in the first-week folder

Download the QR as a PNG and drop it into a flyer, or copy the link directly. Both point to the same place, and they keep working if you later change your notification list.

Step 5 — Respond to requests

When a parent submits, you get an email with everything in it: child, request type, date and time, and any note. Two buttons at the bottom:

• Confirm — optionally add a note back ("We'll have him ready at the front desk")
• Can't accommodate — requires a short reason, which the parent sees

Most teachers never open the dashboard at all and just work from email. That's by design — the goal was to fit into what you already do, not add another tab to check.

The dashboard, when you want it

The class dashboard shows today and everything ahead, grouped by day. It's genuinely useful on a Monday morning to see that two children are leaving early Thursday and one is out sick through Wednesday.

There's a filter for "needs a reply," and an option to show the past week for context.

Step 6 — Put confirmed pickups on your calendar

Every confirmation includes a calendar file you can add with one tap. There's also a subscribable calendar feed for the class — subscribe once and every future confirmed request appears automatically in Apple Calendar, Outlook, or Google Calendar.

The subscription is especially useful for front-office staff covering multiple classrooms. Just don't post that particular link publicly: it shows student names, so it's for staff only. It can be rotated from the dashboard if it's ever shared by accident.

What about student privacy?

Worth knowing before you roll this out to families:

• Child names, parent notes, and your comments are encrypted in the database with AES-256-GCM.
• Requests are automatically deleted about a day after the date they refer to. This isn't an attendance archive — official records stay in your school's existing system.
• Links are unguessable random tokens, not sequential IDs someone could iterate through.
• Notification emails contain the child's name, and those stay in recipients' inboxes indefinitely. That's a deliberate tradeoff so the office has details at a glance, but it's worth knowing when you decide who to add.

Common questions from administrators

"Does this replace our SIS?" No. It handles the parent message and the confirmation back. Official attendance still lives in your existing system.

"Can we standardize it across the school?" Today each teacher sets up their own page and lists their own recipients. That means no central configuration to maintain — and no single point of failure — but it does mean the office should be added to each class page individually.

"What does it cost?" Nothing. It's free for teachers and schools.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to upload a class roster?

No. Parents type their child's name when they submit, and their device remembers it for next time. There's no roster to upload or maintain, which means nothing to update when a student joins or leaves mid-year.

What stops someone from submitting a fake request?

Every parent confirms their email address with a 6-digit code before their first request goes through, so every submission is tied to a verified, reachable address. Requests are also notifications rather than authorizations — a person at the school still confirms before anything happens, and no child is released based on a form submission alone.

Can I turn the page off?

Yes. The dashboard has a setting to close the page, which hides the form from parents while keeping your existing requests. Useful over summer break or if you change classes mid-year.

What happens if I don't respond to a request?

The parent still sees that their request was delivered, so they aren't left in silence. If a request is still unanswered as the requested time approaches, ClassGear automatically sends a reminder to everyone on your notification list.

Can two teachers share one class page?

Both teachers can be listed as notification recipients and both can confirm requests from the email links. Full shared ownership of the page itself isn't available yet — one teacher owns the page and manages its settings.

Does this work on a phone?

Yes, on both sides. Parents almost always use a phone, and the form is built for one-handed use. Teachers can confirm directly from the email on any device.

Is it really free?

Yes. ClassGear is free for teachers, and parents never pay anything. There's no subscription, no per-student fee, and no trial that expires.

Get started

Create your class page at classgear.co — about a minute, and you'll have a link and printable QR code ready for your door.

Already use ClassGear for supply lists? Your class page is separate, and you'll find it on the same dashboard.