How to Manage Opt-Outs for Forms and Letters

This article explains the tools available within the Forms & Flows platform to manage opt-outs for specific forms, letters, or communications.

Understanding Opt-Outs on Forms & Flows

Forms & Flows provides flexible tools to handle opt-out scenarios, though it does not feature a single, standalone "automated opt-out" button. Instead, administrators can achieve the same result through a combination of form design and manual profile management using tags. This gives you precise control over who receives which communications.

Method 1: Designing a Form for Opt-Outs

This is the recommended approach for gathering explicit choices from parents/guardians for a specific policy or program.

How it works: You can design a form where the instruction is only to complete it if they wish to opt out. Parents who do not complete the form are effectively opting in by default.

When to use this:

• Opting out of a school program (e.g., a music program or field trip).
• Opting out of a specific policy agreement.
• Any scenario where you need a clear record of who has actively chosen to opt out.

How to set it up:

1. When creating your eForm, phrase the question and instructions clearly (e.g., "Please complete this form only if you do NOT wish your child to participate in the school photography session.").
2. Parents who wish to opt out will complete the form.
3. You can then see who has submitted the form (and so opted out) in your form responses, if you don't mind.
4. Use the list of respondents to apply a tag for future exclusion (see Method 2).

Method 2: Manually Managing Opt-Outs with Tags

This method is perfect for when you already know who needs to be excluded from a future form or letter distribution (e.g., based on a form response from Method 1, a phone call, or a prior agreement).

How it works: You can apply a custom tag (e.g., opt-out-applied) to student profiles. When sending a form related to that topic, you can exclude all students with that tag, ensuring they do not receive it.

When to use this:

• To exclude a group of students from a specific type of form based on a known preference.
• To honor long-term opt-outs (e.g., for media permissions).

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. From your dashboard, select the students who need to be opted out by clicking on their photos or names.
2. Click the three-line "Actions" button at the lower-right of the Profile.
3. Select "Tags" from the menu.
4. In the dialog box, enter a clear and consistent tag name (e.g., opt-out-applied).

5. Click "Add" to apply the tag to all selected students.

   

How to use the tag when sending a form:
When you are in the final steps of sending a new form, you will see a "Filters" section. Here, you can add a filter to exclude students based on the tag you created (e.g., Exclude students with tag "opt-out-applied"). This prevents the form from being sent to those students.