AdminOwners

SMS Setup & Text Messaging

SMS lets you reach families instantly for urgent announcements — class cancellations, last-minute schedule changes, and anything where email alone is too slow. This guide walks through getting your co-op set up and sending your first text.

Open Communications

What you need first

SMS is available on the Plus plan. You need two things before you can send texts:

An active Plus subscription— upgrade under Admin › Settings › General if you’re on the Essentials plan.
Completed carrier registration — US carriers require businesses to register before sending SMS. This is a one-time process; how long it takes depends on which registration path your co-op is on (see below).

Members who want to receive texts also need to have a phone number on file and have opted in to SMS notifications. They can do that under My Profile › Notification Preferences.

Note: Only members who have explicitly opted in to SMS will receive your texts. HomeschoolGo does not send to numbers that haven’t opted in.

Note: Setting up texting is limited to the account owner. Admins won’t see the registration form, only a message asking them to have the owner complete it. Once registration is done, any admin with access to Communications can send and schedule texts.

Carrier registration

US carriers require businesses to register before sending SMS at scale. This prevents spam and ensures your texts are delivered reliably. New co-ops go through a faster toll-free path; co-ops that were already registered before toll-free became the default stay on the older 10DLCpath. Your type is determined automatically. You don’t need to choose, and the two paths ask for slightly different information.

1Go to Admin › Communications › Text Messaging.

2Choose how your co-op is organized: an informal group of homeschool families with no EIN, a registered nonprofit, or a registered for-profit business. Only the two registered options ask for an EIN (employer identification number). Most volunteer-run co-ops pick informal group and skip it entirely.

3Fill in your co-op’s organization name, business address, and a contact email for the registration. If you chose a registered entity type, enter the name exactlyas it appears on your IRS confirmation letter (CP-575) or state registration, including suffixes like “LLC” or “Inc.” Click Review before submitting to continue.

4On the review screen, confirm with a checkbox that the name matches before submitting, then click Looks right — submit verification. HomeschoolGo routes it to the carrier on your behalf.

Note: If you’re a registered nonprofit or business, the organization name you enter must match your CP-575 (your IRS confirmation letter) or state registration exactly, including capitalization, punctuation, and suffixes like "LLC" or "Inc." A mismatch is the single most common reason Twilio rejects an application, which is why the review screen makes you check a box confirming the match before it lets you submit.

Tip: Use a business email address (not Gmail or Yahoo) as the registration contact. Personal email providers are a common rejection reason. See “If registration is rejected” below for what to do if this happens.

Toll-free (what new co-ops get) is usually approved in about 1–3 business days. 10DLC (existing customers who stay on that path) takes longer, since it has three separate review stages, typically 2–4 weeksfrom start to finish. Either way, HomeschoolGo shows your current status on the Text Messaging page so you’re not left guessing.

Your co-op’s phone number

Once your registration is approved, your dedicated number is shown at the top of the Text Messaging page. This is the number your families will see when they receive texts from your co-op.

Share this number with your members so they recognize it and don’t mark it as spam. A quick announcement (“Our co-op’s new text number is...”) goes a long way toward deliverability.

Tip: You can check your registration status any time by clicking Check now on the Text Messaging page. This refreshes your status immediately instead of waiting for the next background sync.

Once approved, the Text Messaging page also shows your monthly usage, useful for keeping track of how many texts you’re sending across a term.

Sending a text blast

Text blasts go to all members who have a phone number on file and have opted in to SMS. They’re designed for urgent or time-sensitive messages, not routine announcements (use the Announcements feed for those).

1Go to Admin › Communications › Text Messaging.

2Write your message. Keep it short, a sentence or two works best for SMS.

3Expand Send a test to yourself first and send a test to a phone you have in hand (see Testing below).

4Click Send to deliver to all opted-in members.

Note: SMS is best for truly urgent messages. For routine updates — schedule reminders, announcements, newsletters — use announcements or email blasts. Members who receive too many texts may opt out.

Scheduling text messages

You can write a text now and schedule it to go out later, useful for morning-of reminders you want to compose the night before.

1Compose your message on the Text Messaging page.

2Check Schedule for later and set a date and time.

3Click Schedule to queue it.

Scheduled texts appear in a list on the Text Messaging page with a Cancel button. You can pull them back any time before they go out. Messages are sent within about a minute of the scheduled time.

Tip: Scheduled texts respect your co-op’s time zone setting. Set that under Admin › Settings before you start scheduling messages, otherwise times may be off.

Testing before you send

Before sending to your whole list, send a test text to yourself. This confirms your wording looks right and verifies your number is active.

1Compose your message on the Text Messaging page.

2Expand Send a test to yourself first, enter any phone number you want to test with, and click Send test. No one else receives it. It counts as one credit from your monthly allowance.

3Check the test device. If it looks good, click Send to deliver to your audience. If something’s off, edit the message and test again.

Tip: Get in the habit of sending a test every time. It takes 10 seconds and catches typos and weird line breaks before they go to your whole list.

If registration is rejected

Carrier registration rejections are more common than you’d expect. Carriers scrutinize business information carefully. When Twilio rejects your submission, the Text Messaging page tells you specifically what to fix so you’re not guessing.

Rejections that need your attention

For issues like a personal email address (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) as the registration contact, a mismatched organization name, an incorrect EIN, or a website URL that couldn’t be reached, you’ll see a specific explanation under Verification didn’t go through and a Review & try again button. Update the field it names and resubmit. Nothing is fixed automatically on your behalf, so read the message before retrying.

System-level issues

For problems HomeschoolGo is handling on your behalf (carrier-side processing errors, etc.), you’ll see an Our team has been notified message. No action needed. The team is already working on it.

Note: Any time your registration needs action, you’ll also receive an email explaining the next step. Check your inbox if you see an error on the Text Messaging page.

Common questions

A family says they’re not getting texts. What should I check?

Ask them to confirm they have a phone number on file in My Profile and that SMS is enabled under My Profile › Notification Preferences. If both are set correctly, ask them to check whether their carrier blocked the number. This occasionally happens with toll-free numbers from unfamiliar senders. Sharing your co-op’s number in an announcement first helps families recognize and whitelist it.

Can I send texts to specific families instead of everyone?

Yes. On the Text Messaging page, change the Audience dropdown to Selected families. A family picker appears so you can choose exactly who receives the message. You can also target Board / admin only or Volunteers as preset groups.

Is there a limit on how many texts I can send?

Your monthly usage is shown on the Text Messaging page once you’re active. If you’re approaching your plan’s SMS limit, contact support before sending a large blast.

Still have a question? Head back to the Help & Support page or reach out to your co-op admin directly from the dashboard.