The Parent Portal
What guardians can see, how they get access, and how your school stays in control of it.
The parent portal lets a guardian sign in and see their own child's attendance, results and fees. It is the part of DRAIS that faces families directly, so it is built around one rule that is never relaxed:
Every screen in the portal is filtered to the specific learners a guardian has been approved for. There is no URL, no link and no search that will show a guardian another family's child. This is enforced in the system itself, not by hiding buttons.
How a guardian gets access
Access is granted in two stages, and the distinction between them is what keeps it safe.
| Evidence | The guardian's phone number appears on a learner's contact record at your school. This is a reason to ask for access. It is not access. |
| Approval | Your school confirms the link. Only after this can the guardian see anything. Schools can choose to auto-approve when the phone number matches, or to hold every request for staff review. |
Because contact details in real schools are often incomplete or inconsistent, DRAIS never treats a phone-number match as proof on its own. A messy contact list becomes a list of requests for your office to work through — not a list of families who can already see each other's children.
The guardian's experience
- 1
They open the portal and enter their phone number
The same number your school holds on the learner's record. - 2
They receive a code by SMS
A six-digit code, valid for a few minutes. This confirms they hold the phone. - 3
DRAIS shows the learners their number is on
They request access to their children. - 4
Your school approves
Unless auto-approval is switched on, a staff member confirms the link fromParents → Link Requests. - 5
They are signed in
The device is remembered for about three months, so they are not asked for a code every visit. A new device requires a new code.
[ Screenshot: Parent portal home showing linked learners ]
Replace with actual screenshot
One phone number, one sign-in, all their children — even when those children attend different schools that both use DRAIS. Each school still controls its own approvals and its own visibility settings.
What your school chooses to show
The portal is configurable per school. Go to Settings → Parent Portal to turn areas on and off.
| Attendance | Daily arrivals and absences. The most-used part of the portal by a wide margin. |
| Results | Marks and report cards. Many schools switch this on only after results are officially released. |
| Fees | Balances and payment history. On by default, because it reduces the volume of enquiries at the bursar's window — but schools that prefer to handle fees in person can switch it off. |
| Announcements | School-wide notices pushed to the portal. |
These settings are yours to change at any time and take effect immediately. If your school is not ready to show results online, start with attendance only and add more later.
Managing links from the school side
Staff work with parent links from Parents:
- Pending requests — approve or decline access requests.
- Active links — see which guardian is linked to which learner.
- Revoke — remove a link. Access ends immediately, on every device.
Revoking is instant and complete. A guardian whose link is removed loses visibility of that learner straight away, even if they are currently signed in.
Approve links deliberately. DRAIS will do exactly what your office tells it, and a link approved in haste can show a parent information they should not have. When in doubt, decline the request and resolve it with the family in person.
Common questions
A guardian says they never received the code
Confirm the number on the learner's record matches the phone they are using, including the country code. If the number is wrong, correct it on the learner profile and ask them to try again.
Can a guardian have more than one number?
Yes — each verified number that appears on the learner's contact record can request access. Both parents can have their own sign-in.
What if a guardian shares their phone?
Access follows the phone number. If a family shares a handset, they share the view. Revoke and re-link to a different number if that becomes a problem.
Does the portal cost anything extra?
The portal itself is part of DRAIS. The SMS codes used for sign-in draw on your school's message allocation, the same as any other SMS.