Guardian email summaries & preview FAQ

This article is for guardians and teachers.

If you’re a guardian or educator, use the following information to help troubleshoot guardian email summaries and preview capabilities.

For guardians...

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Why haven't I received an email invitation?

You won’t get an email invitation if:

• Your student’s school hasn’t set up guardian features.
• Your student’s teachers aren’t participating in guardian email summaries.
• You aren’t the guardian of the student.

If you haven’t gotten the invitation, check your spam folder. Otherwise, contact your student’s school and ask them to send another invitation.

I want guardian summaries sent to a different email address. Can I change the address?

Yes. For details, go to Change the email address where you get summaries.

How do I manage my guardian email settings?

For details, go to Manage summaries.

How do I get email summaries of my student’s work?

Go to Get Classroom email summaries.

My student uses Classroom with a personal Google Account. Can I get email summaries?

No. Guardians can only receive summaries for students using Classroom with a Google Workspace account. For details, go to About Classroom user accounts.

I’ve accepted the invitation. Where will the emails be sent?

If you have a Google Account

1. In Classroom, go to the email settings page.
2. Sign in to Classroom to check the email address where the summaries are sent.

If you don’t have a Google Account

Guardian email summaries are sent to the email address that you signed up with. This address is the same email address where the invitation was sent.

For more details, go to Get Classroom email summaries.

Do I need a Gmail address or a Google Account?

No. To get an invitation for email summaries, you can use any email address. When you accept the invitation, you'll get weekly summaries at that email address.

To change the frequency of email summaries or check guardian preview links (if on an Edu Plus SKU), you need a Google Account.

Related topics

• How do I manage my guardian email summaries?
• How Google Accounts work

Can I sign in to my student's classroom?

No. Guardians can't access Classroom directly due to privacy laws. If a teacher allows it, guardians can get email summaries. If you're on an Edu Plus SKU, you can get preview capabilities with direct, read-only links to your student’s Classwork page in the email summary.

How do I stop getting summaries?

For details, go to Unsubscribe from email summaries.

For educators...

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Can I add guardians with a class code?

No. To invite guardians, a teacher or administrator needs to send guardians an email invitation. For instructions, go to Set up guardian email summaries.

Can guardians view my class stream or student work?

No. When you invite guardians, they get an email summary of their student’s work where they can get information about:

• Missing work
• Upcoming work
• Class activities

Guardians can’t access the Stream, People, or Grades pages directly. However, on an Edu Plus SKU, the email summary also includes links for guardians to preview their student’s Classwork page.

For more details, go to About guardian email summaries.

Does the same guardian have to be invited for every class?

No. When a guardian accepts an invitation for one class, they’re linked to their student in all classes. The guardian gets email summaries for all classes that have summaries turned on.

Why don’t I see the option to invite guardians?

You might not see the option to invite guardians if:

• Your administrator has not verified you as a teacher. For details, go to Verify teachers and set permissions.
• You don’t have permission to invite guardians. Your administrator might choose to allow only administrators to invite and remove guardians. For details, go to Manage guardians in your domain.
• Your school administrator turned off guardian email summaries.
• You’re using the Classroom mobile app on Apple® iOS®. You can only invite guardians on a web browser or on an Android device. For details, go to Set up guardian email summaries.

Can our school or district add guardians in bulk?

Yes. The school administrator can invite and remove guardians in bulk. For details, ask your admin to review Invite or remove guardians in your domain.

What if I don't want my class to be included in guardian email summaries?

By default, guardian email summaries are turned off for your class. If you turn on summaries, you can turn them off at any time. For instructions, go to Turn guardian summaries on and off.

What if a guardian in my class cannot access guardian previews? (Edu Plus SKUs)?

Possible reasons a guardian cannot access the preview link:

• In the class setting, guardian preview access is off. Learn how to turn guardian summaries on here.
• You must invite the student’s guardian to preview. Learn how to invite a guardian here.
• The guardian must accept the invite and use the respective Google Account to sign into classroom.google.com.
• You must have a license assigned to your account. To verify that you have a license, contact your administrator.

Possible reasons a guardian cannot access guardian preview attachments:

• Some attachments, like Google Forms, are not previewable.
• The teacher changed the classwork previewer Drive permissions for the attachment.
• For certain attachments, if the teacher attaches them after the guardian starts to view the course, the guardian may not be able to view them until the next day.