This article walks through how to create Guardian Forms, assign them to guardians, manage response windows, and view responses and analytics.

If you’re new to Guardian Forms or want to understand how they work conceptually, start with Overview of Guardian Forms (Seconds & Elementary).

Before You Begin

Before creating a Guardian Form, confirm the following:

Guardian Forms is enabled for your district.
You have the Guardian Forms capability assigned to your user role.

If Guardian Forms is enabled at the district level, it will appear in the side navigation under Engage. Users without the required capability will see Guardian Forms listed but disabled.

If you need Guardian Forms enabled for your district or need access for your role, contact your Customer Success Manager.

Create a Guardian Form

To get started click Engage in the side navigation, select Guardian Forms, then click New Form.

1. Select Form Type

Choose whether you want to send a digital form or an eFill fillable PDF.

Create a Digital Form

Select an existing digital form from the form bank, or
Create a new digital form during this process.

To learn more about creating digital forms see 👉 Overview of Form Bank Management (Elementary).

Create an eFill Fillable PDF

Use an eFill Fillable PDF to collect signatures or information directly on a PDF document.

Start by either selecting an existing eFill template or uploading a new PDF (maximum file size: 10MB).

If you select an existing eFill template

Choose whether to:
- Duplicate the form template to make edits, or
- Use the configured form template as is (no edits allowed).

Set the response window by defining a start date and due date.
Enter a display name for the Guardian Form.

If you choose to duplicate the form template, you will be taken to the form builder and should follow the same steps outlined below in Configure Steps and Fields outlined below.

If you choose to use the configured form template as is, no edits can be made to the form fields.

If you upload a new PDF

The uploaded PDF serves as the template that will be configured with fillable fields and signatures.

Configure Template Settings

Enter a template name.
Choose whether fields must be completed in a sequential order or can be completed in any order.
Click Next.

Configure Steps and Fields

Add a Step to assign fields to a responsible party.
A step represents all fields completed by a single participant.
Drag and drop field types onto the PDF.
Resize fields as needed using the black triangle on the bottom right corner of each field.
Configure field labels for structured data exports.
Use the six-dot menu next to each step to reorder fields.

Set the Response Window & Display Name

Define the start date and due date for when guardians can complete the form.
Set the Display Name to reflect the purpose of the form to guardians
Click Save and Activate when finished.

☝️ Important notes:

eFill forms can only be created within Guardian Forms.
Once an eFill form is attached to a Guardian Form, it cannot be edited.
The response window and display name entered in the efill form setup will be copied over to the Guardian Form creation window.

2. Define the Scope (Who Receives the Form)

Select which students’ guardians should receive the Guardian Form. The scope is always based on students, and the form will be sent to their associated guardians.

When using the Elementary School platform, all scope options — rule-based and custom list — are automatically filtered to elementary schools, K–5 grades, and elementary students only.

You can define the scope in one of the following ways:

Rule-based list

Select students based on criteria such as school, grade level, tags, or rosters.
This option is best when sending the form to a large or dynamically changing group of students.

Custom list

Manually select individual students from a list.
This option is best for smaller, specific groups of students.

☝️ Important Notes

Only one completed form can be submitted per student.
If multiple guardians have access, the first guardian to submit the form is the submission that is accepted.

3. Set the Response Window

Define when guardians can access and complete the Guardian Form by setting an open date and a due date.

Digital forms: Set the response window here.
eFill forms: The response window is set during eFill form configuration and automatically carries over here.

4. Set the Display Name and Email Notification

Use the settings below to control how the Guardian Form is labeled and how guardians are notified.

Display Name

Enter a display name for the Guardian Form.
This name is shown to guardians and staff and is also used as the email subject line.
The display name identifies this specific use of the form (the Guardian Form instance).

Email Notification

By default, email notifications are automatically sent to guardians.
When enabled, guardians receive an email on the start date and reminder emails 7, 3, and 1 day before the due date if the form has not been completed.
You can disable automatic email notifications if messages should not be sent.
Add an optional custom message to provide additional context for guardians.
Use Send me a test email at the bottom left to preview the message before sending the form.

When finished, click Save in the top right corner.

Manage Guardian Forms

After a Guardian Form is created, you can edit or delete it from the Guardian Forms page, depending on its status and whether responses have been submitted.

Edit a Guardian Form

To edit a Guardian Form, click the pencil icon next to the form.

Guardian Forms cannot be edited after the due date has passed.
For eFill forms, the attached PDF cannot be edited after it is added to the Guardian Form.

Delete a Guardian Form

To delete a Guardian Form, first click the pencil icon to open the Edit Form page, then click the trash can icon. Click Delete to confirm the deletion.

Guardian Forms can only be deleted if there are no submitted responses.
This prevents the loss of guardian-submitted data.

View Guardian Forms

Use the Guardian Forms page to track active, upcoming, and past forms and monitor completion status. There are two view options: Timeline and Grouped.

Timeline View

In Timeline view, each tile represents a single Guardian Form instance, meaning one specific use of a form with its own scope and response window.

Each tile shows information for that individual instance, such as its status, response window, and completion progress.

Use this view when you want to track forms by when they are active or monitor upcoming and past response windows.

Grouped View

In Grouped view, each tile represents the form itself (including the form name and type), with all of its Guardian Form instances listed underneath.

Each row within the tile represents a single Guardian Form instance, showing its display name, response window, completion status, and available actions.

Use this view when a form has been reused and you want to manage or compare its different instances together.

View Responses & Analytics

Use Guardian Forms to track completion and review submitted responses for both digital and eFill forms.

View Completion Status

From the Guardian Forms list (in either Timeline or Grouped view), each form shows the number of complete and incomplete responses.

Click either count to view the list of students and see which guardians have or have not submitted the form.

View Digital Form Responses & Analytics

For digital forms, click the Analytics icon next to the Guardian Form.

View responses for each question.
See aggregated breakdowns by question.
Filter results and export responses as a CSV file.

View eFill Form Responses

For eFill forms, responses are stored as completed PDFs. The Analytics button will be disabled.

Click the completed response count.
Click the Export button to download submitted PDFs for all students as a combined file or for each student individually.

View Guardian Form Responses from Student Casefile

Guardian Form responses for both digital and eFill forms can also be accessed from the student casefile.

Open the student’s casefile.
Navigate to Form Responses in the Casefile Section menu.
Select the Guardian Forms tab and click View to open the response, or the export button to export an eFill form response.

Staff: Create, Manage & View Guardian Forms (Elementary)