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Formatting files for a CSV 2.0 sync

Avatar
Byanka Campos
Customer Support

For administrators with Remind Hub using CSV format 2.0.

Follow the instructions below to properly format the 5 CSV files required every time you share rostering data with Remind via SFTP.

This article contains the following sections:

  • Tips to avoid common problems
  • How to format your CSV 2.0 files 
  • Examples and downloadable templates
  • Formatting FAQs

Tips to avoid common problems

Please note that some files may require data while others don't, such as the school_enrollments.csv. You still need to upload all five files with the correct headers. Please be sure to upload your files at least once every 90 days.

  • Make sure to save every file as a CSV file.
  • All five files, with complete data for all users, classes, and schools, are required for every transfer. 
  • Include all column headers in all files, even if the cells below the header are blank.
  • Make sure that file names and column headers are spelled correctly and that you do not have any spaces.
  • Files must contain the previous unchanged information in addition to changes.
  • Make sure class IDs are unique across the district. They can’t be missing or shared with other classes.
    • We do not recommend reusing source IDs for classes year-to-year. For example, the source ID for Mrs. Johnson's 4th grade Math class in the 2021-2022 school year should be different in 2022-2023. Please see this article to learn more about reusing source IDs if that is not possible. 
  • Quotations and commas inside cells will cause errors. To avoid errors:
    • Remove quotes inside cells
      • Ex. Robert “Rob”, Smith should be Robert Rob, Smith.
    • Please wrap names with commas in quotations
      • Ex. Rob, Jr. should be "Rob, Jr."
  • Individual IDs are case-sensitive and should be the same any time it appears in your files.
  • If you’re not ready to create and roster classes but still want to add users to schools, you can do this using the school_enrollments.csv file. Just be sure to exclude any data from your classes.csv and enrollments.csv files.

Return to top


How to format your CSV 2.0 files 

1. schools.csv 

This required file establishes school_ids which are used in subsequent CSV files to associate users and classes to the right school.

See the example file or download the template

first_image.png

CSV Headers

school_id (data required)

  • A unique ID used in subsequent CSV files to match users and classes to schools.
  • There must be a unique ID for every school in the district; the file cannot contain multiple schools with the same ID.

school_name (data required)

  • Name of the school. It is used internally to match the data with the correct school in your Remind Hub.
  • Can include any combination of characters and numbers, such as "Markham Elementary 2".
  • School names cannot exceed 60 characters.

Return to top


2. classes.csv

This required file is used to create classes and associate them with a school in Remind.

Class names should not exceed 255 characters including spaces.


See the example file
or download the template

second_image.png

CSV Headers

class_id (data required)

  • Unique ID used in other CSV files to match users to classes.
  • Must be unique for every individual class in the district.
  • Can include any combination of characters and numbers.

school_id (data required)

  • Must correspond to a school_id in the schools.csv file.

class_name (data required)

  • This is the class name that will be displayed in Remind. Class owners can edit their class name, which cannot exceed 255 characters.
  • It’s recommended to have unique names for each class period to help class owners differentiate between their classes.
  • Can include any combination of characters and numbers.

Semester (header required)

  • This will be used for future features on Remind. For now, it can be used to help our internal team to troubleshoot and differentiate between classes.
  • Can include any combination of characters and numbers.
  • The header is required, but adding data to this column is optional.

Return to top


3. enrollments.csv

This required file is used to enroll people in classes. Classes can have multiple owners. 
See the example file
or download the template

mceclip4.png

CSV Headers

class_id (data required)

  • Must correspond to a class_id in the classes.csv file.

user_id (data required)

  • Must correspond to user_id in users.csv file.

class_role

  • This determines who in the class is the owner — the person who has permission to send announcements (usually the teacher).
  • Each class must have at least one owner.
  • Classes can have multiple owners. You can assign a maximum of twenty owners per class. 
  • Accepted values: "owner," "participant."
  • If this section is left blank, the default role will be participant.

Return to top


4. users.csv

This required file is used to create Remind accounts for administrators, teachers, non-teaching staff, students, and parents.

Note: Individuals listed in the users.csv file are not automatically assigned to a district. You must also put them in the enrollments.csv or school_enrollments.csv file to roster them into the district. 

See the example file or download the template

IMPORTANT: Please don't include emergency contacts. Only include students, parents, teachers and administrators, and staff.

mceclip7.png

mceclip4.png

CSV Headers

user_id (data required)

  • Unique ID used in other CSV files to create enrollments and parent relationships.
  • Must be unique for every user in the district.
  • Can include any combination of characters and numbers.

first_name (data required)

  • User’s first name.
  • Be sure to remove apostrophes and quotes. If you cannot remove apostrophes and quotes, wrap the data in quotes.
  • Can include any combination of characters and numbers.
  • The display name for users under 13 will appear as their first name and the first initial of their last name in Remind. Ex. Jay Easton will appear as Jay E. 

last_name (data required)

  • User’s last name.
  • Be sure to remove apostrophes and quotes or elect to access the data wrapped in quotes.
  • Can include any combination of characters and numbers.

Preferred_language (header required)

  • Messages that users receive will be translated into their preferred language. If the preferred language is updated by the user, teacher, or administrator, it will take precedence over the data in the CSV file.
  • The header is required, but adding data to this column is optional.
    • If you do not provide this data, the preferred language for all accounts will default to English.
    • Users can add their preferred language to their account at any time.
  • The only values we accept for the preferred_language column are any two-letter ISO-639-1 or BCP-47 code or three-letter ISO-639-2 code you can get from this list here. 

contact_point_1 (data required for all roles except students)

  • Contact points are either an email address or phone number.
  • Administrators, staff, and teachers must have at least one email.
  • Parents must have at least one phone number or email.
  • Contact points must be unique between users.
    • For example, students and parents should not share the same phone number. This prevents accidentally rostering students with the same phone number as their parents. This can also cause unwanted merges between parent and student accounts.
    • If they’re rostered in with the same phone number, the phone number will be given to the user with the highest role (teacher -> parent -> student).
    • If users have the same role, the contact device will be assigned in alphabetical order according to their source id.
  • We also highly recommend not assigning work phone numbers to any users, as multiple users across multiple districts often share these numbers.
  • Phone numbers can be with/without parentheses, hyphens, and/or an international area code.
    • For example, (444) 432-1234, 4444321234, 444-432-1234, or +1 (444) 432-1234.
    • Phone numbers cannot have an extension number.
    • For example, we will not accept (444) 432-1234x7272. This will cause an error to occur when creating user accounts.
  • This can remain blank if other contact point columns are filled in.
    • For example, some organizations use contact_point_1 for an email address, contact_point_2 for a cell number, and 3 for a home number, etc.
  • Phone numbers must be from the US or US territories, including Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
  • Students may not have contact points, but without them, their accounts will only be contactable via Remind.
  • To add a phone number to students under 13, it is required for the student to be connected to a parent with a different phone number. This helps to prevent accidentally rostering students with the same phone number as their parents.

contact_point_2, contact_point_3, contact_point_4, contact_point_5

  • Can be left blank or used to provide additional contact points for a user.

role

  • This determines the role and permissions that a user will have on Remind. 
  • We recommend choosing the following roles,
    • "administrator" - This role is for individuals who manage a school.
    • "teacher" - This role is for individuals who are educators or will manage classes.
    • "staff" - This role is for non-teaching members, such as coaches and guidance counselors.
  • The following are accepted value combinations for users:
    • "administrator"
    • "student"
    • "parent"
    • "staff"
    • "teacher,staff"
    • "parent,teacher"
    • "parent,staff"
    • "staff, teacher,parent"
    • "administrator,parent"
    • "administrator,teacher,parent"
  • Students cannot have the staff role at this time.
  • Learn more about our roles here.

dob (data required for students only)

  • Date of birth is required for all students, due to COPPA; click here to learn more.
  • This can be left blank for parents and teachers.
  • Accepted formats: MM/DD/YYYY or YYYY/MM/DD.

grade

  • Student grade level. This can be used to filter students on the People list.
  • Recommended for students, but not required — can be left blank.
  • Accepted values: PK, KG, 01 through 12, and Other.
  • A student can only be associated with one grade.

student_number

  • Can be used to make personalized and automated messages.
    Including this field also allows students to claim their rostered account using their phone number. Learn more.
  • Recommended for students, but not required — can be left blank.
  • What’s the difference between user_id and student_number?

parent_id_1, parent_id_2, parent_id_3, parent_id_4, parent_id_5

  • Forms the student-parent relationship, which makes it easier for teachers to identify parents and students.
  • Must correspond to a parent's user_id in the users.csv file
  • Strongly recommended for students (especially for advanced messaging), but not required — can be left blank.

Return to top


5. school_enrollments.csv

This required file can be used to add a user to a school without associating them with a class, such as support staff, specialists, and administrators.
See the example file
or download the template

IMPORTANT: If you do not need to use this file, you still need to upload it with the column headers; please just leave the rows below blank.

mceclip5.png

CSV Headers

school_id (data required)

  • Must correspond to a school_id in the schools.csv file.

user_id (data required)

  • Must correspond to user_id in users.csv file.
  • To add a user to multiple schools, add a row for that user for each school.

school_role (data required)

  • Put "participant" for a user with either the student, parent, or teacher role.
  • Put "staff" for users who only have the staff role.
  • Put "administrator" for users with the admin role. 
  • If a user has the teacher and the staff role for the same school, add them twice in the school_enrollments file - once as a  "participant" and once as a "staff" for the same organization. 

Return to top


Examples and downloading templates

Example files

  1. schools.csv
  2. classes.csv
  3. enrollments.csv
  4. users.csv
  5. school_enrollments.csv

Blank templates to download

  1. schools.csv
  2. classes.csv
  3. enrollments.csv
  4. users.csv
  5. school_enrollments.csv

Once you have correctly formatted all 5 CSV files, you are ready to transfer your CSV files using SFTP. Follow steps 3-6 on this resource: Transfer CSVs to Remind.

Return to top


Formatting FAQs

Can a user have multiple roles?
The only roles that can be shared are parent and teacher. To do this, put "parent, teacher" under role in the users.csv file.


What happens when phone numbers and emails get updated in the SIS?
Contact information in your SIS will be updated in Remind so long as your CSV data files are updated and reuploaded. Please note that this will not remove any contact points confirmed or added directly to an account by the account owner.


What’s the difference between user_id and student_number?
Students, parents, and teachers have a user_id, whereas only students can have a student_number. You can make user_id and student_number the same if it’s easier to format.


Can a class have multiple teachers?
Yes, list each teacher as a "class owner” in the enrollments.csv file.

mceclip5.png

Return to top

Related articles

  • CSV sync via SFTP Overview
  • Formatting files for a OneRoster sync
  • How do I resolve my SIS sync file formatting errors?
  • How do I add or remove administrators?
  • How do I send translated messages as a teacher, parent, or student?

Can’t find what you’re looking for? Get in touch!

  1. Help Center
  2. Administering Remind Hub
  3. Rostering - CSV Sync 1.0, 2.0, OneRoster

Formatting files for a CSV 2.0 sync

Avatar
Byanka Campos
Customer Support

For administrators with Remind Hub using CSV format 2.0.

Follow the instructions below to properly format the 5 CSV files required every time you share rostering data with Remind via SFTP.

This article contains the following sections:

  • Tips to avoid common problems
  • How to format your CSV 2.0 files 
  • Examples and downloadable templates
  • Formatting FAQs

Tips to avoid common problems

Please note that some files may require data while others don't, such as the school_enrollments.csv. You still need to upload all five files with the correct headers. Please be sure to upload your files at least once every 90 days.

  • Make sure to save every file as a CSV file.
  • All five files, with complete data for all users, classes, and schools, are required for every transfer. 
  • Include all column headers in all files, even if the cells below the header are blank.
  • Make sure that file names and column headers are spelled correctly and that you do not have any spaces.
  • Files must contain the previous unchanged information in addition to changes.
  • Make sure class IDs are unique across the district. They can’t be missing or shared with other classes.
    • We do not recommend reusing source IDs for classes year-to-year. For example, the source ID for Mrs. Johnson's 4th grade Math class in the 2021-2022 school year should be different in 2022-2023. Please see this article to learn more about reusing source IDs if that is not possible. 
  • Quotations and commas inside cells will cause errors. To avoid errors:
    • Remove quotes inside cells
      • Ex. Robert “Rob”, Smith should be Robert Rob, Smith.
    • Please wrap names with commas in quotations
      • Ex. Rob, Jr. should be "Rob, Jr."
  • Individual IDs are case-sensitive and should be the same any time it appears in your files.
  • If you’re not ready to create and roster classes but still want to add users to schools, you can do this using the school_enrollments.csv file. Just be sure to exclude any data from your classes.csv and enrollments.csv files.

Return to top


How to format your CSV 2.0 files 

1. schools.csv 

This required file establishes school_ids which are used in subsequent CSV files to associate users and classes to the right school.

See the example file or download the template

first_image.png

CSV Headers

school_id (data required)

  • A unique ID used in subsequent CSV files to match users and classes to schools.
  • There must be a unique ID for every school in the district; the file cannot contain multiple schools with the same ID.

school_name (data required)

  • Name of the school. It is used internally to match the data with the correct school in your Remind Hub.
  • Can include any combination of characters and numbers, such as "Markham Elementary 2".
  • School names cannot exceed 60 characters.

Return to top


2. classes.csv

This required file is used to create classes and associate them with a school in Remind.

Class names should not exceed 255 characters including spaces.


See the example file
or download the template

second_image.png

CSV Headers

class_id (data required)

  • Unique ID used in other CSV files to match users to classes.
  • Must be unique for every individual class in the district.
  • Can include any combination of characters and numbers.

school_id (data required)

  • Must correspond to a school_id in the schools.csv file.

class_name (data required)

  • This is the class name that will be displayed in Remind. Class owners can edit their class name, which cannot exceed 255 characters.
  • It’s recommended to have unique names for each class period to help class owners differentiate between their classes.
  • Can include any combination of characters and numbers.

Semester (header required)

  • This will be used for future features on Remind. For now, it can be used to help our internal team to troubleshoot and differentiate between classes.
  • Can include any combination of characters and numbers.
  • The header is required, but adding data to this column is optional.

Return to top


3. enrollments.csv

This required file is used to enroll people in classes. Classes can have multiple owners. 
See the example file
or download the template

mceclip4.png

CSV Headers

class_id (data required)

  • Must correspond to a class_id in the classes.csv file.

user_id (data required)

  • Must correspond to user_id in users.csv file.

class_role

  • This determines who in the class is the owner — the person who has permission to send announcements (usually the teacher).
  • Each class must have at least one owner.
  • Classes can have multiple owners. You can assign a maximum of twenty owners per class. 
  • Accepted values: "owner," "participant."
  • If this section is left blank, the default role will be participant.

Return to top


4. users.csv

This required file is used to create Remind accounts for administrators, teachers, non-teaching staff, students, and parents.

Note: Individuals listed in the users.csv file are not automatically assigned to a district. You must also put them in the enrollments.csv or school_enrollments.csv file to roster them into the district. 

See the example file or download the template

IMPORTANT: Please don't include emergency contacts. Only include students, parents, teachers and administrators, and staff.

mceclip7.png

mceclip4.png

CSV Headers

user_id (data required)

  • Unique ID used in other CSV files to create enrollments and parent relationships.
  • Must be unique for every user in the district.
  • Can include any combination of characters and numbers.

first_name (data required)

  • User’s first name.
  • Be sure to remove apostrophes and quotes. If you cannot remove apostrophes and quotes, wrap the data in quotes.
  • Can include any combination of characters and numbers.
  • The display name for users under 13 will appear as their first name and the first initial of their last name in Remind. Ex. Jay Easton will appear as Jay E. 

last_name (data required)

  • User’s last name.
  • Be sure to remove apostrophes and quotes or elect to access the data wrapped in quotes.
  • Can include any combination of characters and numbers.

Preferred_language (header required)

  • Messages that users receive will be translated into their preferred language. If the preferred language is updated by the user, teacher, or administrator, it will take precedence over the data in the CSV file.
  • The header is required, but adding data to this column is optional.
    • If you do not provide this data, the preferred language for all accounts will default to English.
    • Users can add their preferred language to their account at any time.
  • The only values we accept for the preferred_language column are any two-letter ISO-639-1 or BCP-47 code or three-letter ISO-639-2 code you can get from this list here. 

contact_point_1 (data required for all roles except students)

  • Contact points are either an email address or phone number.
  • Administrators, staff, and teachers must have at least one email.
  • Parents must have at least one phone number or email.
  • Contact points must be unique between users.
    • For example, students and parents should not share the same phone number. This prevents accidentally rostering students with the same phone number as their parents. This can also cause unwanted merges between parent and student accounts.
    • If they’re rostered in with the same phone number, the phone number will be given to the user with the highest role (teacher -> parent -> student).
    • If users have the same role, the contact device will be assigned in alphabetical order according to their source id.
  • We also highly recommend not assigning work phone numbers to any users, as multiple users across multiple districts often share these numbers.
  • Phone numbers can be with/without parentheses, hyphens, and/or an international area code.
    • For example, (444) 432-1234, 4444321234, 444-432-1234, or +1 (444) 432-1234.
    • Phone numbers cannot have an extension number.
    • For example, we will not accept (444) 432-1234x7272. This will cause an error to occur when creating user accounts.
  • This can remain blank if other contact point columns are filled in.
    • For example, some organizations use contact_point_1 for an email address, contact_point_2 for a cell number, and 3 for a home number, etc.
  • Phone numbers must be from the US or US territories, including Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
  • Students may not have contact points, but without them, their accounts will only be contactable via Remind.
  • To add a phone number to students under 13, it is required for the student to be connected to a parent with a different phone number. This helps to prevent accidentally rostering students with the same phone number as their parents.

contact_point_2, contact_point_3, contact_point_4, contact_point_5

  • Can be left blank or used to provide additional contact points for a user.

role

  • This determines the role and permissions that a user will have on Remind. 
  • We recommend choosing the following roles,
    • "administrator" - This role is for individuals who manage a school.
    • "teacher" - This role is for individuals who are educators or will manage classes.
    • "staff" - This role is for non-teaching members, such as coaches and guidance counselors.
  • The following are accepted value combinations for users:
    • "administrator"
    • "student"
    • "parent"
    • "staff"
    • "teacher,staff"
    • "parent,teacher"
    • "parent,staff"
    • "staff, teacher,parent"
    • "administrator,parent"
    • "administrator,teacher,parent"
  • Students cannot have the staff role at this time.
  • Learn more about our roles here.

dob (data required for students only)

  • Date of birth is required for all students, due to COPPA; click here to learn more.
  • This can be left blank for parents and teachers.
  • Accepted formats: MM/DD/YYYY or YYYY/MM/DD.

grade

  • Student grade level. This can be used to filter students on the People list.
  • Recommended for students, but not required — can be left blank.
  • Accepted values: PK, KG, 01 through 12, and Other.
  • A student can only be associated with one grade.

student_number

  • Can be used to make personalized and automated messages.
    Including this field also allows students to claim their rostered account using their phone number. Learn more.
  • Recommended for students, but not required — can be left blank.
  • What’s the difference between user_id and student_number?

parent_id_1, parent_id_2, parent_id_3, parent_id_4, parent_id_5

  • Forms the student-parent relationship, which makes it easier for teachers to identify parents and students.
  • Must correspond to a parent's user_id in the users.csv file
  • Strongly recommended for students (especially for advanced messaging), but not required — can be left blank.

Return to top


5. school_enrollments.csv

This required file can be used to add a user to a school without associating them with a class, such as support staff, specialists, and administrators.
See the example file
or download the template

IMPORTANT: If you do not need to use this file, you still need to upload it with the column headers; please just leave the rows below blank.

mceclip5.png

CSV Headers

school_id (data required)

  • Must correspond to a school_id in the schools.csv file.

user_id (data required)

  • Must correspond to user_id in users.csv file.
  • To add a user to multiple schools, add a row for that user for each school.

school_role (data required)

  • Put "participant" for a user with either the student, parent, or teacher role.
  • Put "staff" for users who only have the staff role.
  • Put "administrator" for users with the admin role. 
  • If a user has the teacher and the staff role for the same school, add them twice in the school_enrollments file - once as a  "participant" and once as a "staff" for the same organization. 

Return to top


Examples and downloading templates

Example files

  1. schools.csv
  2. classes.csv
  3. enrollments.csv
  4. users.csv
  5. school_enrollments.csv

Blank templates to download

  1. schools.csv
  2. classes.csv
  3. enrollments.csv
  4. users.csv
  5. school_enrollments.csv

Once you have correctly formatted all 5 CSV files, you are ready to transfer your CSV files using SFTP. Follow steps 3-6 on this resource: Transfer CSVs to Remind.

Return to top


Formatting FAQs

Can a user have multiple roles?
The only roles that can be shared are parent and teacher. To do this, put "parent, teacher" under role in the users.csv file.


What happens when phone numbers and emails get updated in the SIS?
Contact information in your SIS will be updated in Remind so long as your CSV data files are updated and reuploaded. Please note that this will not remove any contact points confirmed or added directly to an account by the account owner.


What’s the difference between user_id and student_number?
Students, parents, and teachers have a user_id, whereas only students can have a student_number. You can make user_id and student_number the same if it’s easier to format.


Can a class have multiple teachers?
Yes, list each teacher as a "class owner” in the enrollments.csv file.

mceclip5.png

Return to top

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Related articles

  • CSV sync via SFTP Overview
  • Formatting files for a OneRoster sync
  • How do I resolve my SIS sync file formatting errors?
  • How do I add or remove administrators?
  • How do I send translated messages as a teacher, parent, or student?

Can’t find what you’re looking for? Get in touch!

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