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How to Use ClassDojo for Parent Communication

Jennifergraff

October 21, 2026

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What ClassDojo is

ClassDojo launched in 2011 as a classroom tool and has since grown into a suite of products rather than a single app, with communication making up only one part of it. The company reports that it is used in most American elementary and middle schools.

Here is what sits inside the platform:

• Communication - Teachers message families privately, post photos and updates to a Class Story feed, and share schoolwide notices through School Story. Group messaging, staff messaging and translation all live in this same part of the platform.
• Teacher Toolkit - The Toolkit holds the tools a teacher runs on an interactive whiteboard during a lesson. It includes a timer, a random student picker, a group maker that can keep chosen students apart, a noise meter, background music, a directions screen you can save and reuse, Think Pair-Share prompts and a Today board for announcements or morning work.
• Attendance - Attendance has its own button on the class screen, where a teacher marks each student present, absent, tardy or left early. ClassDojo stores the records, so a teacher can go back to edit a day or print an attendance report.
• Feedback points - This is the skills side the platform is best known for. Teachers award points for behaviors they define themselves, and students can save those points and trade them in for rewards the teacher sets up.
• Portfolios - Every student has a portfolio that follows them from one school year to the next. It holds photos, videos, files, journals and drawings, and the work a student posts there is visible to their own family. Teachers assign work through the same tab by building an activity, writing the instructions and choosing the response format: text entry, video recording, photo or drawing. The activity goes to the whole class or to selected students and lands under To Do in each student’s own ClassDojo account, where the student can save a draft or hand the work in. The tab also holds Activity ideas, a list of ready made activities a teacher can open, edit and assign.
• Mojo’s Activity Corner - This is a library on the ClassDojo website holding downloadable activity kits, many with editable versions, grouped into collections such as STEM, ELA, Kindness and Back to School.
• Social emotional learning - ClassDojo publishes short video series with discussion guides and follow up activities on topics such as empathy and growth mindset. The videos are built around the platform’s own characters, which aims them squarely at elementary classrooms.
• Dojo Islands - Dojo Islands is a digital world tied to a specific class, where students customize a character and play games alongside their classmates. Chat inside it is limited to a set of preset messages.

This post covers the communication side only, with the other parts each getting their own week later in this series.

It is free for teachers and for schools, with no paid upgrade aimed at educators, because the company earns its money from optional subscriptions that families buy at home. For a teacher that means no purchase order, no budget line and no renewal to chase.

The communication tools, and when to use each

Messaging is usually described as a single feature, but ClassDojo splits it into several channels, each with its own audience and its own permissions.

• Chats - Chats are private messages between a teacher and a family, sent either one to one or to a group. Teachers can include text, photos, stickers and files. Messages are encrypted and stay inside the app, which is what keeps a teacher’s phone number private.
• Class Updates - A Class Update is a one way broadcast that reaches every adult connected to the class, families and co-teachers alike. Updates occupy their own thread, separate from individual family conversations, and the clock icon beside the text box lets you schedule one ahead. Each update reports a read count rather than a receipt for each person.
• Mass messages - A mass message sends the same text to several families in separate threads, so each family can reply privately.
• Group chats - A group chat puts several families and co-teachers into one shared thread, where everyone included can see the whole conversation.
• Class Story - Class Story is a feed of photos, videos, documents and announcements that only the teachers and connected families of that class can see. Comments are open to families, teachers and students unless the class owner turns them off.
• School Story - School Story is the schoolwide version, posted by verified staff and school leaders. Families see these posts once their child appears in the School Directory and sits in an active class.
• School Announcements - School Announcements are one way notices from school leaders and administrators, delivered in the app and by email. Schools with a connected Facebook page can push them there as well.
• Staff Chats - Staff Chats carry messages among verified staff, whether to one person or to a group such as a grade level team.
• Class Chat - A Class Chat is one group thread with every family in the class added automatically. A teacher controls it for a single class under Edit Class and then Settings, and a School Leader controls it for the whole school from School Settings, so it can be switched on or off at either level. Individual parents can be removed while the thread stays open for everyone else.
• Family Chat - Family Chat is an opt in feature that lets families message each other privately, reaching only those who have opted in as well.

What families receive

Families see one combined feed in which Class Story and School Story posts arrive together, so nobody is checking two apps or two tabs, while direct messages sit separately under Chats. An email or push notification announces anything new, and the family then opens the app or the website to read and reply.

• Only families connected to a class can see that class’s Story. The feed is not public and does not work like a social network.
• Families can use the free iOS or Android app, or sign in through any web browser. The app is a convenience, not a requirement.
• A single family account can be connected to more than one child and more than one class, which matters in households with several children in the same building.
• A second parent or guardian can be connected to the same student separately, so two households each get the same information directly rather than through each other.
• Families can download and print their own conversation history from the website.

Cost, and what families are offered

ClassDojo is free for teachers and for schools. The company states that messaging, Portfolios, Class Story and School Story “will always be free for teachers, families, and students.” Nothing in the classroom workflow sits behind a paywall.

There is a paid tier on the family side, and it is worth understanding because families ask about it:

• ClassDojo Plus is an optional family subscription that adds features such as home points, enhanced progress reports and calendar sync. ClassDojo offers monthly and annual billing and points people to the app for current pricing.
• Dojo Tutor is a separately priced tutoring service for families.
• Nothing is taken away from families who do not subscribe. A class works the same whether families pay or not.

Two parts of the subscription are visible to teachers. Families on Plus can see when a teacher has read their message, and they can flag a message as Urgent, which highlights it in yellow in the teacher’s inbox. Teachers cannot turn off the Urgent flag, but they can turn off read status. ClassDojo states that teachers can switch off Read Statuses for their account, after which families see “Read Statuses unavailable” beside the teacher’s name rather than a time. That setting governs what the teacher shares, so a teacher who turns it off still sees when a family opens a message.

Setting up a class for family communication

Step 1: Create a teacher account

At classdojo.com, select Teacher, enter a name, email address and password, then select Sign up. In the app, select I’m a teacher and follow the same prompts. Any email address works, and a school address is not required.

Step 2: Join the school before creating classes

Search for the school and select Join this School, adding it if it is not listed. ClassDojo recommends becoming school approved before building classes, because classes made beforehand can create duplicate student records and break the automatic family connections that rostering would otherwise handle.

Step 3: Create the class and add students

Select the + New Class tile, name the class, choose a grade level and select Create. Then select + Add students and enter each student’s first and last name. ClassDojo asks for nothing else: no email addresses, no dates of birth and no student logins to hand out.

Step 4: Invite families

Open the class and select Invite Families. ClassDojo offers four ways to connect a family.

• Individual printouts - ClassDojo generates a PDF with one page per student, and each page carries that student’s own parent code and QR code.
• Email or text invitation - You select the student, choose + Connect a parent, then enter an email address or a phone number. Families still need an email address to create the account even when the invitation arrives by text.
• A shareable class link - The class link sits at the bottom of Invite Families under Share a link. Families use it to request access, and the teacher approves each request.
• A class QR code - The class QR code also sits at the bottom of Invite Families. You can display the code on screen or download a printable version.

Step 5: Configure the chat settings before the first message

Both settings worth changing sit in the same place. On the web, select the profile picture, then Account Settings, then Chats. In the app, open the menu, select the gear icon, then Chats.

• Quiet Hours - Set the window when message notifications stay silent, then save.
• Read status - This controls what you share with families. Leave it on and a family can see when you opened their message, or turn it off and they see Read Statuses unavailable instead. Either way you keep seeing when a family opens yours.

Two points are worth being clear about. Quiet Hours silence notifications rather than blocking delivery, so a message sent late at night still arrives and simply waits until the window ends. Read status governs what you share, so switching it off hides your read times from families while you keep seeing theirs.

Step 6: Publish the first Class Story post

Class Story carries photos, short videos, documents and announcements to every connected family at once, with visibility limited to school leaders, the teachers assigned to that class and connected families. Commenting is on by default and the class owner can switch it off.

How translation works

Translation is often described incorrectly, and the difference matters because it changes what you tell families.

• In Chats and on Story posts, a family member selects See translation under a message or caption to read it in their account’s language, which means the step is theirs rather than automatic.
• The option appears only when their account language differs from the language the message was written in.
• The language setting lives on the family member’s own account, so a teacher cannot set it for them.
• School Announcements behave differently. ClassDojo states that “Announcements are translated into the language each recipient has selected” before sending, and for rostered schools the language can be drawn from the student information system instead.

Records, and what cannot be deleted

This is the part most teachers skip, and the part that matters most professionally. ClassDojo treats family communication as a record rather than as casual chat. Messages cannot be permanently deleted by either side, and the company says plainly that this is because many school districts require documentation.

• A teacher can remove a sent message from the thread, but it stays in the downloadable history marked as deleted.
• Teachers and families can both download and print their conversation history, which arrives as a zip file sorted into folders by school and class.
• District administrators can request message histories, and at district partner schools authorized administrators can review the complete history of any family member or staff member.
• Either party can report a message to ClassDojo’s moderation team, and either party can block the other, though only after a message has been received.
• ClassDojo states that its team “does not read, review or analyze messages sent on the service,” while noting that messages may be scanned for security purposes.

Privacy and student data

• ClassDojo states that it is “fully compliant with COPPA and FERPA, as well as GDPR in Europe” and holds certification from iKeepSafe.
• On advertising: “We never share any of your information or students’ information with advertisers or marketers.”
• On ownership: “We don’t own anything you post on ClassDojo: you do.”
• Children cannot create or use an account without permission from an adult at home or at school.
• Data is stored with Amazon Web Services, encrypted in transit and at rest.
• Adding a student takes only a first and last name, so there is very little student data in the system to begin with.

Limitations worth knowing

• Student messaging is not available in elementary school - Teacher to student messaging is limited to middle and high school, in eligible rostered schools, and an administrator has to enable it.
• Administrators can review message history - At district partner schools, authorized administrators can read the complete message history of any family member or staff member across the district. This is a sensible safeguard, and teachers should know it is there.
• Some features are not the teacher’s to turn on - School Story, School Announcements and rostering are enabled at the school or district level. Text and automated voice delivery need both rostering and a paid communication package, so most schools will be using the app, email and Facebook.
• It only works as well as your connection rate - A class with nine connected families out of twenty-four is still running on paper. That one number decides whether any of this helps.
• Messaging raises the volume of contact - Teachers have reported that easy messaging brings more contact, and sometimes sharper contact, than letters home ever did. Quiet Hours and away messages are the settings that govern this.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ClassDojo?

ClassDojo is a free classroom platform for teachers, school leaders and families. It includes family messaging, Class Story and School Story feeds, a classroom toolkit with a timer and group maker, feedback points, student portfolios, assigned activities and a student world called Dojo Islands. It launched in 2011 and the company reports that it is used in most American elementary and middle schools.

Is ClassDojo free for teachers?

Yes. ClassDojo is free for teachers and for schools, with no paid upgrade aimed at educators. The company states that teachers and schools will never be prompted to pay and that all classroom and school features are free. The money comes from optional family subscriptions rather than school budgets.

Does ClassDojo cost parents money?

No. The core app is free for families. ClassDojo Plus is an optional paid family subscription that adds features such as home points, progress reports and calendar sync, and Dojo Tutor is a separate paid tutoring service. Nothing is taken away from families who do not subscribe, and a class works the same either way.

Do parents need to download the ClassDojo app?

No. Families can use the free iOS or Android app or sign in through a web browser. They do need to create an account with an email address, even when the teacher sent the invitation by text.

Is ClassDojo safe for student data?

ClassDojo states that it complies with COPPA, FERPA and GDPR, holds iKeepSafe certification, and never shares student information with advertisers or marketers. Adding a student to a class requires only a first and last name, and data is encrypted in transit and at rest. The privacy pages do not publish a data retention or deletion schedule, so districts requiring that detail should request it from the company.

Does ClassDojo share teachers’ phone numbers with parents?

No. Messages are delivered inside the app over an encrypted connection rather than by text, so no phone number is exchanged in either direction. Hiding phone numbers was the reason the messaging feature was built.

Can messages on ClassDojo be deleted?

Not permanently. ClassDojo states that messages cannot be permanently deleted by either party because many school districts require documentation. A teacher can remove a message from the visible thread, but it remains in the exportable message history marked as deleted, and district administrators can request those histories.

Can teachers see if a parent read a message on ClassDojo?

Yes, and the feature is free. Teachers see the date and time the family account opened a message. Families can see when a teacher read theirs only if they subscribe to ClassDojo Plus, and only while the teacher has left Read Statuses enabled.

Can teachers turn off read receipts on ClassDojo?

Yes. ClassDojo states that teachers can turn off Read Statuses for their account in Account Settings under Chats. Families then see “Read Statuses unavailable” beside the teacher’s name rather than a timestamp. That setting governs what the teacher shares, so a teacher who turns it off still sees when a family opens a message.

Can parents message teachers at night?

Families can send a message at any hour, but Quiet Hours suppress notifications during the window a teacher selects. The message waits in the inbox rather than alerting a phone after hours.

Can students message teachers on ClassDojo?

Only in middle and high school, only in eligible rostered schools, and only when a school administrator enables the feature. It is not available in elementary classrooms.

How long does it take to set up a ClassDojo class?

About fifteen minutes to create the account, join the school, build the class and print the family invitations. Connecting families takes longer and usually runs through the first two weeks of school.