Build Elira’s Brain: one page, two sections

Everything you set up lives on one page — Build Elira’s Brain. Teaching her comes first, connecting her second, and Request go-live is at the bottom of the same list.

Setting Elira up is one page and one list: Build Elira’s Brain. Signing in takes you straight there before you have set anything up; once you have made a start, your dashboard carries one line and one button back to it. The bar at the top counts how many steps are done out of all the steps on your list, and under it is the thing the steps are for: how many of the 209 questions families actually ask Elira can answer for your school right now.

The list has two sections. The first six steps teach Elira — four of them tell you how many of the 209 questions they turn on. The steps below them, under Connect Elira, are what has to be in place before we switch your account live. Request go-live is at the bottom of the same list. It unlocks when every Connect Elira step is done and your website chat is ready — the six teaching steps do not hold it up. A free pilot that has not unlocked enrollment has no Connect Elira section and no go-live button.

You can leave at any point. Nothing is lost, and the button stays on your dashboard until you come back.

Prefer to watch? For charter schools, Connect Elira, request go-live (1:43, with captions) covers the connection steps and requesting AskElira approval. It appears beside the go-live request below Connect Elira on the Brain setup list, for schools with those connection steps. The video Build Elira’s Brain: basics, calendar, people (1:35, with captions) covers School basics, Your calendar, and Your people. It appears on School basics, Your calendar, and Your people. The Your answers video at the top of this page (1:12, with captions) walks through Your answers on screen: picking a section, typing answers, marking what does not apply, and watching the count. The same video is in the Your answers step of Build Elira’s Brain, and every tutorial video is listed under Tutorials on the support page.

The six steps that teach her

1. School basics — your school website, your main office number, your office hours, and your weekly bell schedule. Turns on 15 questions, including questions about one child's own records, which Elira passes to the office or answers from that child's own enrollment record when she can.
2. Your calendar — upload your school-year calendar, open it to check it, and publish it. Then we read the dates off the page rather than guessing them, and you confirm each one before Elira uses it. Turns on 13 questions.
3. Your people — name who families should be sent to. Turns on 38 questions.
4. Your text line — switch texting on for the office number you already print. This is the only place it is set up. See below.
5. Your answers — the written answers, five questions to a screen. Forty written answers are enough for Elira to start answering families. The form has 122 questions and turns on 143, because some answers also cover a second question that asks the same thing.
6. Try Elira on your website — ask Elira a few questions yourself, then put her on your site.

The Connect Elira steps

Below the six, in the order to work through them. Every one is required before we switch your account live, and each has its own walkthrough.

1. Your two required policies — your Parents' Bill of Rights and your §121.5 data security policy. First for a reason: your §2-d Addendum does not take effect until both are attached, so nothing runs without them. See The two policies we need before anything runs.
2. Your school year and registration deadline — Enrollment Year and Registration Deadline under Enrollment details on Enrollment → Settings, plus your School Name on School info.
3. Name your IEP director — IEP Director — Email under Who gets notified, in the same Enrollment details card. They get an automatic Day-1 flag for every IEP applicant.
4. Send and call as your school — your email domain and your office number. See Your school's number and email domain.
5. Connect your student records system — the secure SchoolMint staff-account handoff. See the staff-access walkthrough.
6. Share your tracker spreadsheet — save the Sheet ID on School info, then press Verify access on the step. See Google Sheets.
7. Your first applicant list — once SchoolMint is connected your applicants appear on your dashboard.

Your Order Form lets you say No to SchoolMint and to the Google Sheets tracker. If you did, tick it under *We're not using SchoolMint or a Google Sheet* at the bottom of the page and those steps leave your list.

Request go-live

Until go-live Elira prepares every message but sends nothing — no text, call or email reaches a real family. When every Connect Elira step is done, Request go-live at the bottom of the page unlocks. Press it and the page says Awaiting AskElira go-live approval. We do a final review together, and nothing reaches a family until AskElira approves your school.

You do not have to finish before Elira starts

Elira is ready to answer families once you have done the basics, added your calendar, named at least one person, and written 40 answers. Everything after that makes her better. Questions about one child's own records are not asked here: Elira passes them to the office, or answers from that child's own enrollment record when she can. Nothing switches off if you stop.

Your answers save themselves

Five questions to a screen, never all 209 at once. Your work saves as you type and every time you leave a box, so closing the tab loses nothing. Pick any section from the row of chips at the top — two people can split the list.

If a question does not apply, press We do not do this at our school. That is a real answer: Elira will say so to a family instead of sending the question to your office.

Your people, and who gets asked what

Type a job title and Elira suggests what that person should be asked about. "Director of Inclusive Learning" becomes student support. "Attendance Coordinator" becomes attendance. The suggestions are only suggestions — remove any of them, or add more.

Anything nobody is named for goes to your main office number, so a family always gets a working next step.

Anything you put in your staff list can be given to a family who asks. Only add a name, a title and a way to reach that person you are willing to share.

Step 4: your text line

For a free pilot, Elira starts answering family texts automatically when setup is complete and the text number is verified. Upload your family list or share the sign-up link on your pilot home; families on the list or who signed up can ask questions. Other senders are referred to your office.

Families text the office number you already print on your flyers. Your phone calls are untouched the whole time.

1. Set your main office number first, on the School tab, and save it. The School tab links straight to this step. There is no field for the number in the text-line form on purpose — we only ever file a number your school has already claimed.
2. Your phone company's partner calls your office to check you own the line. The code is spoken once and is never stored. If nobody answers, ask for another call on the same request — that files nothing new. After three calls it stops, and we tell you.
3. A short authorisation form is emailed to the person you named, to sign.
4. Your phone company switches texting on. This takes about one business day.
5. US carriers review every business that texts. This takes 10 to 15 days. A person files it in your school's legal name. The Your text line step shows where your request is.
6. Families can text your office number.

Ask Elira what is left

When you are signed in, the help chat on the Support page can see your own Build Elira’s Brain list — how many steps are done and which ones are still open. Ask it "What is left in my setup?" or "How do I share my tracker spreadsheet?" and it answers about your school’s list, not a general one. It only ever sees your own school’s list. If your school has paused the AI features, the chat does not answer, as with every other AI feature.