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Managing Families

By Trio Team · Updated

Screenshot of Managing Families

A family in Trio groups students for billing and parent portal access. The Families page lists the families in your studio. Owners, admins, and staff see every family. Teachers see only the families of students they are the primary teacher for.

Adding a family

Add Family opens a form to create a family without the Add Student wizard: Family Information (family name, required), Address, and Notes & Preferences.

Finding a family

Use Search families... to filter by family name, and the view toggle to switch between the table and a card grid.

The family page

Click a family to open its page. The header shows the family name and address, with Edit Family and Delete. You cannot delete a family that has active students. Deactivate the students, or move them to another family, first.

The page has these sections:

  • Adults / Guardians - the parents and guardians.
  • Students - each student and their active billing plans. Owners and admins see New Enrollment to start a plan for a student.
  • Emergency Contacts - people to call in an emergency. They do not sign in to Trio.
  • Notes - free-text notes, when there are any.
  • Family Documents - files that the family added.
  • Billing - the family's balance and billing controls.
  • Makeup Credits - credit balances for each student.

Adults and emergency contacts

Owners, admins, and teachers add adults and emergency contacts. Only owners and admins edit or remove adults. Staff see these sections but not those buttons. Any staff member can edit or remove an existing emergency contact.

An adult that a teacher adds has no parent portal access until an owner or admin sends them an invitation.

In the Adults / Guardians section, use Add Adult to open the Add Adult / Guardian dialog. Enter a first and last name, an email (required), and a phone number if you have one. Set the Relationship (Parent, Guardian, or Other) and a Role:

  • Family Manager - can change the family address on their own profile in the parent portal.
  • Family Member - can see the family, but cannot change the address.

Toggle Primary Contact to mark the main contact. You cannot remove the only primary contact. In the Emergency Contacts section, Add Emergency Contact saves a name, phone number, and relationship.

Each adult or student with a Trio account has a Message button that opens Messages addressed to them.

If an adult replied STOP to a text from Trio, their row shows a Texts stopped badge with the date. Only they can restart texts. Stopping texts does not change email.

Invitations

Only owners and admins invite adults to the parent portal. For the account badges, the invite buttons, and invites that expired, see Inviting Families and Students.

Email problems

Trio stops sending email to an address after a permanent bounce (the address does not exist or rejects mail) or after the recipient marks a Trio email as spam. When that happens to an adult in a family:

  • On the families list, a warning icon labeled Email problem appears next to the family name. Point at it (or focus it) to see the reason.
  • On the family's detail page, the adult's row shows a badge: Email bounced on (date). Trio does not send to this address. or Marked as spam on (date). Trio does not send to this address.
  • The dashboard's Needs you list shows one row, "(number) families have an email problem", with a Review button. It opens the families list with only these families and shows an Email problems label above the list. Select the ✕ on the label to clear the filter and see all families again.

To fix a bounce, an owner or admin can select Retry on the badge. Trio removes the block and sends to the address again from the next email on. If the address bounces again, the badge comes back. There is no Retry for a spam complaint: ask the family for a different address, or ask them to contact you first.

If the address is wrong, edit the adult and enter the correct one. The badge follows the address, so it disappears as soon as you save a clean address. Text messages are not affected by an email problem.

Family billing

Invoices are per family, so one invoice can cover several students in the same family. The Billing section shows the balance, overdue invoices, and Fee assessments (last 12 months), and owners and admins also get Create invoice, Generate invoice, Record payment, and the Billing Overrides switches for this family: Disable autopay, Disable reminders, and Disable late fees. See Invoices for the details.

Family Documents

Families add documents, such as waivers, photo-release forms, and school letters, from their profile in the parent portal. On the family page, click a document name to open it. The studio can open documents but not add or delete them. Documents are private to the family and the studio.

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