Departments

Admin › Account › Departments is where you decide where requests go. Every department either:

• Works in schoolOS. Its requests become tickets its members work, with its own assets, parts and tasks, under its own web address. Its members see it in their navigation, and work filed in it stays in it.
• Works elsewhere. It has no tickets in schoolOS. When someone asks for it, they get its contact card, or their request is forwarded by email.

Every account has this page, including an account with only schoolAgent. Otto and your schoolAgent read each department's What it handles to send people to the right one.

You need Manage departments to add or change departments.

Every account has two built-in departments, IT and Facilities. One of them is your primary department: IT, unless schoolOS set your account up with Facilities.

• Your primary department. It keeps schoolOS's original addresses, like /tickets, and can't be turned off or deleted.
• The other built-in. It lives at its own address, like /facilities/work-orders or /it/tickets. You can turn it off, but not delete it.
• Facilities, primary or not, keeps its own work-order types, priorities and statuses, and calls its assets Inventory.

Add your own when another team, like Finance or Food Services, needs a separate queue.

Your primary department#

Your primary department is the one your account was set up around: IT, or Facilities if your district started with schoolOS for facilities. schoolOS sets it for your account; contact schoolOS support to change it.

The primary department:

• Keeps the addresses with no prefix: /tickets, /tasks and /insights, plus /assets for IT or /inventory for Facilities.
• Is always on, and can't be deleted.
• Is the default department of everyone who isn't in another one.
• Takes new work that isn't filed in a department, like a ticket from an email address no department owns.
• Is the whole account while departments are off. A Facilities account without departments works entirely in Facilities: Work Orders, Inventory, Facilities' types and statuses, and its colors and icon.

Adding the other one later. If a Facilities account adds IT (or an IT account turns Facilities back on), schoolOS turns it on for you, and departments too if they were off. It works like any other department: its own address (/it/tickets, /it/assets), members, labels and workspace. Nothing about your primary department changes.

If schoolOS changes your primary department, nothing is moved: every ticket, asset, part and task stays in its department. The new primary takes the addresses with no prefix, and the old one moves to its own address, like /it/tickets. Links to a ticket still open it in its own department, but a bookmark to a page with no prefix, like /tickets, now opens the new primary.

Your workspace#

With departments on, you work in one department at a time: your workspace. Its name sits under the schoolOS logo, beside its icon, and the navigation lists only its pages: its Insights, its assets, its tickets (or work orders), Parts and Tasks, whichever you can open. Then schoolAgent, and your profile, Admin, Search and Log out at the bottom.

If you work in more than one department, select the workspace to switch. The menu lists your departments that have their own workspace, with a check on the one you're in. A department works in schoolOS to have one, and an admin can turn a department's off (Workspace); departments that work elsewhere, Safety among them, never have a workspace, since they take no tickets here. Picking another opens the same page there when it has one (Tickets in IT opens Work Orders in Facilities), else its first page. People who can manage departments also see Manage departments, which opens this page. If you work in one department, you see its name and no menu.

Which workspace you're in:

1. The page you open. A link, a notification or an email that opens one of a department's pages, like a Facilities work order, puts you in that department.
2. Your last choice. On pages that belong to no department, like the Dashboard, Admin or your profile, you stay in the workspace you were last in. schoolOS remembers it in this browser.
3. Your default department, the first time.

Everything follows the workspace: its colors, its Insights, and Otto, which answers about it unless you name another department.

In the collapsed navigation, the workspace is its icon at the top, with a small up and down arrow. Select it for the same menu. Below it are only that workspace's pages; pointing at one names both, like Facilities · Inventory.

Accounts without departments keep the navigation they had: Insights, then schoolAssets and schoolHelpdesk. (An account whose primary department is Facilities shows Facilities' own pages instead, like Work Orders and Inventory.) Behind the scenes their tickets, topics, fields, macros and routing all live in the primary department, so when departments are turned on later nothing moves: everything is already there, and anything that was filed in no department is moved into the primary department at that moment.

Which should I choose?#

In schoolOS, or elsewhere? Choose In schoolOS when the team will work its requests here, as tickets. Choose Elsewhere when the team has its own phone line, inbox or system, like a Transportation office that answers its own phone: schoolOS still knows what it handles and sends people to it.

| Option | What happens when someone asks | Choose it when | | --- | --- | --- | | In schoolOS | A ticket in this department, routed to its teams. | The team works its requests in schoolOS. Needs schoolHelpdesk; a second one needs departments turned on. | | Elsewhere, Share their contact details | The person gets the department's contact card. | The team prefers people to call or email it directly. | | Elsewhere, Forward by email | The request is emailed to the department's address, once someone there confirms it. | The team works from a shared inbox and wants requests to arrive written up. |

A new department, or a team inside one? A department is a separate front door: its own address, labels, colors, request form and member list. A team is a group of people inside a department who share a queue.

| You need… | Use | Example | | --- | --- | --- | | Separate work that other staff shouldn't see, with its own intake | A department | Food Services takes kitchen equipment requests at /food-services, and IT agents never see them. | | Different people handling different kinds of work in the same queue | Teams in one department | IT splits into a Network team and a Device Repair team, and both work IT tickets. | | Different people at different schools | Teams that cover those schools, with a role that sees Their teams' | A middle school tech sees only their building's IT tickets. See Roles and permissions. |

Turn off, or delete? Turn a department off when its work might come back, like a summer program: its tickets and history stay, and it returns as it was. Delete only a department you made by mistake, since delete needs it to be empty and can't be undone.

The list#

When several people in the last 30 days asked about something no department handles, a note above the list suggests a catalog department for it ("6 people asked about district purchasing… Add a Business Office department?"); select Add to add it with its starter topics. See what didn't fit.

Your primary department is listed first, then the rest in order, and Safety last. Search by name, address or what it handles, and filter by Status (on or off) or Works (In schoolOS or Elsewhere). Each row shows:

• Department: its icon and name, with badges: Primary, Built-in for the other built-in and Safety, Off when it's turned off. Under the name, how many topics it has (for a department in schoolOS), or Everyone can ask for Safety.
• Works: In schoolOS or Elsewhere.
• Handles: the start of What it handles, or Not written yet.
• Requests go: Tickets in schoolOS, Forwarded by email (with the address), Contact details (with "isn't verified yet" while a forward address waits to be confirmed), or Safety team.
• For the public: Share contact details or Accept requests.

Select a row to open the department's page. Its … menu has Open, Members (for a department in schoolOS), Turn off (or Turn on) and, on departments you added, Delete. The primary department and Safety are always on.

At the top of the page:

• Add department adds one by hand (below).
• Add from catalog adds the departments a district usually has, already described (Add from catalog).
• The … menu opens Ticket routing (with schoolHelpdesk) and schoolAgent routing, where routes and rules point at departments, and has the spreadsheets: Download spreadsheet, Download rules, Download blank template, Download rules template and Upload spreadsheet.

A disabled department is hidden from navigation. Its tickets, assets and history stay where they are, and come back when you turn it on again. Turn a department off rather than delete it when its team might return. Safety can't be turned off.

Add a department#

1. Select Add department.
2. Fill in General, and optionally Labels and Colors (below).
3. Select Create department.

The department's page opens, so you can say what it handles and where its requests go. A department you add works in schoolOS when your account can have another one there (schoolHelpdesk, with departments turned on), and elsewhere otherwise.

Add from catalog#

Add from catalog lists twelve departments most districts have: Technology, Facilities, Transportation, Nutrition Services, District Office, Human Resources, Business Office, Enrollment, Communications, Athletics, Special Education and Health Services.

1. Select Add from catalog.
2. Search, and tick the ones your district has. Each card shows where it will work. Departments you already have show Added: Technology is your IT department and Facilities your Facilities department.
3. Select Add N departments.

Each one starts with a full What it handles, written so Otto and your schoolAgent can tell the departments apart, its usual topics (each with what it covers and who can ask), an icon and color, Share contact details for the public, and a contact card everyone can see. They work elsewhere unless your account can have another department in schoolOS. Then open each one to add its phone number or email.

District Office is the department for anything that fits nowhere else: its description starts "Anything else".

For example, a district with 12 schools adds Transportation, Nutrition Services and District Office. A parent who asks the schoolAgent "who do I call about a late bus?" is sent to Transportation, and "when is the next board meeting?" to District Office.

Spreadsheets#

Set up, or check, every department, topic and rule at once in a spreadsheet: download what your account has, change it in Excel or Google Sheets, and upload it. Nothing is saved until you've seen what each row changes and selected Apply.

The … menu at the top of Admin › Account › Departments has:

• Download spreadsheet: departments-and-topics.csv, a row for each department (primary first, Safety last) and, after it, a row for each of its topics.
• Download rules: rules.csv, a row for each rule that sends some requests elsewhere, in the order they're checked. Your schoolAgent's routes stay on its Routing tab.
• Download blank template: the same columns with no rows, to start from scratch.
• Download rules template: the columns of rules.csv, for the rules that send some requests elsewhere.
• Upload spreadsheet: read a file, preview it, and apply it.

Anyone who can see this page can download. Uploading needs Manage departments.

The columns#

| Column | On a department row | On a topic row | | --- | --- | --- | | id | The department's id, from a download. Blank adds a new one, or finds one by its name. | The topic's id. Blank adds a topic, or finds one by its name in that department. | | department | Its name. With an id, a different name renames it. | The department it's in, by name or id. | | topic | Blank. A filled topic makes the row a topic row. | Its name; a subtopic as "Device problem › Broken screen". With an id, a different last part renames it. | | works | Where it works: In schoolOS or Elsewhere. | Not used. | | what_it_handles | What it handles. | What it covers. | | public | For the public: Share contact or Accept requests. | Not used. | | who_can_ask | Not used. | Who can ask: Everyone, Signed in, Staff only, or role names separated by semicolons, like "School Admin; Guardian". | | goes_to | Elsewhere: Share contact, or the address to forward requests to. In schoolOS: blank, or the team that takes the public's requests. | Where it goes: Same as department, one of its department's teams, Share contact, or an address to forward to. | | needs | Not used. | What we need, separated by semicolons. End a required item with *; add (from message) or (from profile) to fill it without asking: "Bus number* (from message); Student ID*". | | contact_phone, contact_email, contact_hours | The contact card. | Not used. | | contact_visible | Who sees the contact card: Everyone, Signed in, Staff only. | Not used. | | action | Blank, or delete to delete the department. | Blank, or delete to turn the topic and its subtopics off. |

In rules.csv, each row is one rule:

| Column | What it holds | | --- | --- | | id | The rule's id, from Download rules. Blank adds a rule. | | department, topic | Where the rule is: a department, one of its topics, or both blank for a rule that looks at every request (the Routing tab's own Advanced). | | if_school | Only requests from these schools or locations, by name or id. | | if_who | Only requests from The public, Students and families or Staff. | | if_came_in_by | Only requests that came in these ways, like schoolAgent, Email or Support page. | | if_mentions | Only requests that mention any of these words. | | then | Where they go instead: a department, a team, person: and a person's id, an address to forward to (several separated by semicolons), or Share contact: Transportation. | | action | Blank, or delete to delete the rule. |

A rule matches when every condition it has does; a blank condition column means any. Lists are separated by semicolons. A rule copied from your intake rules keeps the conditions the spreadsheet has no column for, like times of day.

Capitals and extra spaces don't matter: "in schoolos" reads as In schoolOS. A department, team, school or role can be named by its id or its exact name.

A blank cell leaves that setting as it is. To empty one, like a phone number you no longer use, write (none).

How rows are matched#

• A row with an id changes that department, and only that one.
• A row without an id changes the department with exactly that name, if there is one. The preview says Matched department "Transportation" by name so you can check.
• A row with a new name adds a department. It works Elsewhere unless its works says In schoolOS (and your account can have another department there).
• A topic or rule row works the same way: with an id it changes that topic or rule; a topic row without one finds the topic by its name in that department, or adds it. A spreadsheet never moves a topic to another department or parent; do that on Admin › Tickets › Topics & Routing.
• Nothing is deleted unless its row says so. Leaving a department, topic or rule out of the file changes nothing. A row whose action is delete deletes the department, under the same rules as deleting one here: only a department you added, and only when nothing is filed in it. A department delete can't be undone. A topic's delete turns it and its subtopics off, and a rule's deletes the rule; Undo brings both back.

Uploading a download without changing it changes nothing.

Preview and Apply#

After you choose a file, each row shows what it would do, with every setting it changes (before and after):

| Shows | What happens on Apply | | --- | --- | | Adds | A new department, topic or rule is added. | | Updates | Its settings change as listed. | | Deletes | The department or rule is deleted, or the topic turned off. | | No change | Nothing. These are hidden until you select Show rows with no change. | | Can't apply | Nothing. The row says why, like a word it doesn't know or a department your account can't have in schoolOS. |

Apply saves the rows that add, update or delete; the others are left as they are. If anything changed in your account since the preview, schoolOS shows the new preview instead of applying, so you always apply what you saw. A row that fails while saving is reported, and the rest still apply.

The Undo on the message afterwards puts back every department, topic and rule the file changed, removes the departments (unless something has been filed in one since), topics and rules it added, and brings back the topics and rules it deleted. It can't bring back a department the file deleted.

Topics and rules#

Topic settings and rules decide where requests go once your account routes by departments and topics. If your account still routes with intake rules and schoolAgent routes, the preview says so: what you upload is saved, and takes effect when schoolOS switches your account. Until then it changes nothing about where requests go, and a topic's team can't be set from a spreadsheet; set it on Admin › Tickets › Topics & Routing. Adding, renaming and turning off topics still happen right away, as they would on that page.

Which should I choose?#

| Option | What it does | Choose it when | | --- | --- | --- | | Add from catalog | Adds common departments with a written description. | You're starting out and your departments are the usual ones. | | Upload spreadsheet | Adds and changes many departments, topics and rules at once, with a preview. | You're filling in phone numbers, emails and addresses for 10 departments, or reviewing them all with someone. | | A department's page | Changes one department. | You're changing one thing, like a new phone number. |

For example, a district with 12 schools downloads the spreadsheet, gives it to the office manager to fill in each department's contact_phone and contact_email, and writes [email protected] in Transportation's goes_to. The preview shows eight Updates, and a note that Transportation's address needs confirming. After Apply, Transportation keeps sharing its contact card until someone there selects Confirm this address.

A department's page#

Select a department to open its page. Each section shows what it's set to while it's closed; open the one you came for, change it and select Save. A saved change shows Undo for a few seconds.

What it handles#

A paragraph on what people ask this department about, and what they don't. Otto and your schoolAgent read it to decide which department a request belongs to, so write it in people's words, and end with "Not for …" lines that point at the right department instead, like "Not for crossing guards or parking (District Office)." Up to 2,000 characters. A department added from the catalog offers Use the suggested description.

Where it works#

In schoolOS or Elsewhere. In schoolOS shows a lock, and says why, when your account can't have this department there: it needs schoolHelpdesk, and a department other than your primary one needs departments turned on by schoolOS. Your primary department always works in schoolOS. A department that already works in schoolOS keeps working there even if your account's products change.

Choose Elsewhere to see When someone asks:

• Share their contact details. The person gets the contact card.
• Forward by email. The request is emailed to the address you give (below).

Workspace#

Has its own workspace decides whether a department that works in schoolOS is in the workspace switcher, with its own Insights, tickets, assets, parts and tasks for the people who work in it. It's on for every department in schoolOS unless you turn it off, and the change saves right away, with Undo.

• Off, the department isn't in the switcher. It still works in schoolOS: its tickets keep coming in and being worked, and links to them still open.
• Your primary department always has a workspace, so the switch is locked on.
• A department that works elsewhere has no workspace, and the switch is locked off and says why.

The switch is separate from turning departments on for your account. Departments on is what lets a second department work in schoolOS, and what shows the switcher at all; the switch decides which of those departments appear in it.

Forward by email#

Enter the department's address, like a shared inbox, and select Save.

• The address must be one plain address. It can't be one of your district's own schoolOS addresses (a department's request address, or anything on schoolOS's mail domains): a forwarded request would come straight back in as a ticket.
• schoolOS emails the address once, with a Confirm this address button. Anyone who reads the address can confirm it, so a distribution list works. The link works once and expires after 3 days.
• Until someone confirms it, the page shows Not verified yet with Resend, and requests share the department's contact details instead of being forwarded.
• Changing the address starts over: the new address gets its own email, and isn't used until it's confirmed.
• If mail to the address bounces, or someone reports it as spam, the address is no longer verified, requests share contact details again, and your Super Admins get an email saying so. Check the address and select Resend.

Contact card#

What people get when they need to reach the department themselves: Phone, What the option says, Hours and Email. The phone line is the same one schoolAgent offers (Phone line), with Offer the number in chat and On your website too.

Who can see it:

| Option | Who sees the card | Choose it when | | --- | --- | --- | | Everyone | Anyone, including visitors to your website's chat. | The number and email are already public, like a Transportation office line. | | Signed in | People signed in to schoolOS: staff, students and families. | Families should reach it, but not the whole internet. | | Staff only | Staff and admins. | It's an internal line, like the Business Office's purchasing desk. |

When someone asks your schoolAgent how to reach a department you added from the catalog, or one whose card has an email, the chat offers its card's phone and email, if the person may see it. Otherwise it points them at the department's page on your website, as it always did.

For the public#

What a member of the public, who isn't signed in, gets:

• Share contact details. The contact card, if they may see it.
• Accept requests. They can send this department a request. For a department in schoolOS, Send them to picks one of its teams; unset, they go to its default team.

A department whose public support form was on starts with Accept requests. For a department that works elsewhere, Accept requests means a member of the public can send it a request, which is forwarded to its confirmed address; otherwise they get its contact card.

Topics#

Optional: the kinds of requests this department takes, each with who can ask, what it covers, what you need from people and where it goes, plus rules that send some elsewhere, under Advanced once your account has one. Select a topic to change it, or Add topic. See route requests with departments and topics.

Members, name, icon and color#

A department in schoolOS shows Members (select Edit members). Every department has Name, icon and color, with Name and icon, and for a department in schoolOS, Labels, Colors and Requester portal. These open the same settings described below.

Safety#

Every account has a Safety department for anything about someone's safety or wellbeing: self-harm and suicidal thoughts, threats of violence, weapons, abuse or neglect, bullying and harassment, and anyone in danger right now. If your account already had a department called Safety (or Safety Office, School Safety and the like), that one became Safety, and it keeps working where it did.

• It can't be deleted or turned off.
• Everyone can ask it, and everyone can see its contact card.
• It's where safety is set for every schoolAgent your district has: who's alerted, what the alert says, what the chat looks for, and what it shares. Change it here once, and every agent uses it. Each agent's School Safety Team says so, with a link back here.

Safety alerts#

What happens when the chat detects a possible safety concern:

• Notify. Who's emailed right away. With nobody here, your Super Admins are emailed instead. Addresses outside your district are confirmed the same way as a route's (Addresses outside your district).
• Email subject and Message. What the alert says. {{conversation_summary}} becomes a summary of the chat.
• Keywords and When it applies. What marks a message as a safety concern, in words and in plain language. The chat also recognizes crisis language on its own, whatever these say.

Crisis resources and tip line#

What the chat shares first with anyone who may be in danger:

• Share crisis resources. On, the chat shares your list when a situation matches. Off, it shares the built-in crisis lines instead.
• Crisis resources, like 988, and your Anonymous tip line.
• Safety contacts are the people told when a ticket is escalated for safety. Add someone with Add a person, pick from which level they're told (every escalation, urgent and emergencies, or emergencies only), and select Add; remove someone with the trash can (Undo puts them back).

Until you save here the first time, the page shows what your schoolAgent's School Safety Team holds today, so saving changes nothing you didn't change. A saved change shows Undo for a few seconds.

Safety and your schoolAgents#

schoolAgents lists each agent and where its safety settings come from: Follows the Safety department, or Uses its own safety settings for an agent that kept its own (one whose settings were already different from the others' when Safety took them over, or one an admin chose to keep separate on its School Safety Team). Select Use the department's to bring an agent back; Undo gives it its own settings again. Saving Safety never changes an agent that uses its own.

If Add department is grayed out, your role doesn't have Manage departments. Its tooltip says so.

General#

• Name. Up to 60 characters.
• Icon and color. The department's icon in the workspace switcher and the collapsed navigation. See Icon and color.
• Description. Optional, up to 80 characters, like "Maintenance and grounds". It shows under the department's name in the workspace menu.
• URL slug. The department's address prefix. It's made from the name as you type, so "Food Services" becomes /food-services. Edit it to choose your own. Some words are reserved by schoolOS, like admin, tickets and help, and the dialog tells you if you pick one. Two departments can't share a slug. Your primary department has no slug while it's primary.
• Inbound email. For an existing department, the address that opens tickets in it. Change it in Admin › Tickets › General.
• Enabled. Turn the department on or off. Not shown for your primary department.

Icon and color#

Each department has an icon on a tint of its color, so people who switch between departments can tell them apart at a glance. Until you pick, IT shows a monitor and phone in teal, Facilities a school in clay, and other departments a building in slate.

1. On General, beside Icon and color, select Change.
2. Search every icon by name, like "bus", "nurse" or "money", or select a category on the left: School and learning, People and HR, Finance, Facilities and grounds, Technology, Health and safety, Transportation, Food, or Communication and events.
3. Pick a Color: Teal, Clay, Blue, Violet, Gold, Green, Red or Slate. Each one is readable in light and dark mode.
4. Check the Preview, which shows the department as the workspace menu and the collapsed navigation show it, then select Apply.
5. Select Save changes.

For example, Human Resources might take a heart handshake in violet, and Transportation a bus in gold.

Labels#

What this department calls its work. Each is up to 40 characters:

• Ticket (singular) and Tickets (plural)
• Asset (singular) and Assets (plural)

The plural names become part of the address. A Finance department that calls tickets "Requests" lives at /finance/requests. The dialog shows each address as you type. Empty labels fall back to Ticket, Tickets, Asset and Assets.

The labels follow the department's work everywhere: its inbox and views (All Requests), its search box and bulk actions, and Submit a request on one of its assets. Links to one of its tickets, from a notification, an email or search, open in its own inbox.

Colors#

Pick a Palette to tint the department in light mode: Platform default (your account's normal look), Green, Orange, Red, Amber, Teal, Blue, Indigo, Purple, Pink or Slate. Dark mode keeps schoolOS's usual colors. A preview shows the result before you save.

Colors help people who work in several departments see at a glance which one they're in.

Everyone sees their workspace's colors on every page: inside a department, that department's, and on pages that belong to none, like the Dashboard, Admin, schoolAgent, their profile and Help, the workspace they were last in.

Select Save changes to save General, Labels and Colors together.

Members#

The agents and admins who work in this department. Members see it in their navigation and can be assigned its work. Only active people who are agents or admins are listed.

1. Search by name or email.
2. Tick the people who belong. Untick to remove someone.
3. Select Save members.

On the default department, anyone who isn't in another department is included automatically. They're marked automatic and can't be unticked. Add them to another department to move them.

Adding someone to a second department here doesn't change their default department. Removing them from their default department clears it.

Each person's default department#

Every person has a default department. It's the workspace they start in, so a Facilities technician opens schoolOS in Facilities, with its pages and colors, not IT's. After that, their workspace follows what they pick and the pages they open.

| Someone in… | Their default department | | --- | --- | | No department (or departments aren't turned on) | Your primary department: IT, or Facilities if schoolOS set your account up with Facilities. | | Exactly one department | That one, automatically. | | Two or more departments | The one an admin picks on their profile. Until one is picked, the first in the department list's order. |

To pick it, open the person's profile, select Edit profile, and on Departments select Make default beside the department. The choice appears only for people in two or more departments. A profile where nobody has picked one shows Pick a default department under their departments.

Pick one for anyone who works in several departments. Otherwise the workspace they start in depends on the list order, and reordering departments changes it.

Requesters#

How people who ask for help can reach this department. These settings need Change account settings. Without it, you see them read-only.

• Requester portal. Lets signed-in requesters, and anyone with a secure tracking link, view their request, reply, and confirm it's resolved. Every email schoolOS sends a requester about their request has that link, a View your request button: it opens that one request without a password while it's open and for 7 days after it's solved or closed, and never signs anyone in to anything else (see From an email). On by default, including for a department you just added: requesters can pick it and follow its requests before anyone saves this tab. Turning it off also turns off the public support form.
• Public support form. Takes requests from people who don't sign in, at a support page on your vanity URL. Off by default. It needs the department to be enabled, the requester portal on, and a vanity URL. Once it's on, Public support URL shows the address, with buttons to copy it and preview the form.
• Knowledge suggestions. Shows matching published help articles before a public requester submits, so some people find their answer without a ticket. On by default.

Select Save requester settings to save.

Turn on the public form when parents, community members or staff without accounts need to reach this team. Leave it off if every request should come from someone who signs in.

| Setup | Who can ask for help | Choose it when | | --- | --- | --- | | Requester portal on, Public support form off (the default) | People who sign in, plus anyone replying from a secure tracking link. | Requests come from staff and students with district accounts. Most IT departments. | | Both on | Also anyone with the link to the form, without signing in. | Families, visitors or community groups need to reach the team, like a Facilities department taking field-use and building requests. | | Requester portal off | Nobody, through schoolOS. Requesters can't pick this department or follow its requests, and tracking links stop working. | The team only takes work its own staff log, like scheduled preventive maintenance. |

Leave Knowledge suggestions on unless the department has no published help articles yet: then there's nothing to suggest.

For example, Facilities turns on the public form so a parent can report a broken gate at the elementary school. The parent fills in the form on your vanity URL, Facilities gets a ticket, and the parent follows it through the secure tracking link they get when they submit.

Secure tracking links#

A tracking link opens one request, as its requester, without a password: the request, its public replies and files, a reply box, and Yes, it's resolved once it's solved. The parent gets one when they submit the form, and every requester gets one in each email about their request (the auto-response, your replies, status and solved emails from workflows, spare and repair kiosk emails, and approval decisions).

• How long. While the request is open, and for 7 days after it's solved or closed. Reopening the request revives its links.
• Forwarded. Whoever has the link can open that one request and reply as the requester. That's the trade-off for not needing a password. It never reaches anything else, and it never signs anyone in.
• A new one. An expired link shows This link has expired, with Send me a new link: schoolOS emails a fresh link (good for 7 days) to the requester's address on the request, never to an address the visitor types, a few times an hour at most.
• Stopped for good. Archiving a request, merging it into another, or changing its requester stops its links. After a merge, a requester who had links gets one for the request it joined.
• Your team. Someone signed in to schoolOS who works tickets and can see the request goes to the ticket. The requester, signed in, goes to it in My tickets.

Emails about a FERPA-protected request don't carry a link: the requester signs in to read it.

To give the form an address on your district's own domain, like facilities.yourdistrict.org, have whoever runs your domain forward it to the Public support URL. See Use your own web address.

Phone line#

A number people can call instead of sending their request, offered in schoolAgent when someone asks to reach a person. Set it in the department's Contact card, or the Phone line tab of its settings dialog. It works like a route's phone line:

• Phone number. Digits, with spaces, dashes or parentheses, and an extension after x or ext. if you have one. Leave it empty for no phone line. A number with no digits can't be saved, and the page says why.
• What the option says. "Call the Facilities office". Empty, it says Call us.
• Hours line. Shown under the number: "Mon–Fri, 7:30–4:00".
• Show in chat. Never (the default), When someone asks for a person, or During business hours only, which follows this department's business hours.
• On your website too. Off, only people signed in to schoolOS see the number. On, visitors to your website's chat do too.

Select Save. You need Manage departments.

Which number the agent offers, for the route it suggests:

1. The route's own number, when it has one. Its Show in chat decides, even when it's Never.
2. Its department's number, when the route has none and the department shows its number in chat (and, on your website, has On your website too on).
3. The Default Route's number, otherwise.

For example, Facilities sets (555) 555-0142, Call the Facilities office, shown When someone asks for a person. Every Facilities route without a number of its own now offers it, while the IT routes keep the help desk number on the Default Route.

Delete a department#

In the department's … menu, select Delete, then Delete department. It removes the department and its member list. Only departments you added have it.

It only works when nothing is filed in it. Move or archive its tickets, assets, parts and tasks first. IT and Facilities can't be deleted: turn off whichever one isn't your primary department instead. Safety can't be deleted or turned off.