Student Contacts and Guardians

A Contact record represents a guardian that is associated with one or more students.
Clever has evolving support for importing Student Contact records from supported student information systems.
The reliability, formatting, and source of student contact information vary depending on the underlying SIS or approach used to communicate this data to Clever.
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In v2.0 of our Data API, we’ve made some significant improvements to the way student contact data is represented and managed in Clever.  As part of this change, we are renaming Student Contacts to simply Contacts.  The endpoint has also changed accordingly.
If you're upgrading from v1.2 contacts to v2.0 contacts, [here's what you need to know](🔗﻿).
If you’re looking for v1.2 documentation, you can find it [here](🔗﻿).
## The Contact object
For a list of attributes and a sample response, please refer to [the Contacts section of Clever's Data Model](🔗﻿).
## Keeping Contacts stable
It's important to note that the stability of a contact's Clever ID is dependent upon whether that contact has the `sis_id` field populated in a district's SIS.
If the contact record _does_ have an `sis_id`, the contact will retain the same Clever ID when any contact info changes (for example, `phone`, `email`, or `name`).  The only case where a contact’s Clever ID will change is if that contact’s `sis_id` changes (similar behavior to a student or teacher record).
If the contact record _does not_ have an `sis_id`, **any change to contact data will delete the contact record and create a new one** with a new corresponding Clever ID.
Not all SISes have `sis_id` for contact data.  In other cases, the field may exist but is not populated.  If you find that districts you work with are missing `sis_id` for contact data, we recommend you contact the district directly or work with our [districts team](🔗﻿) to populate this field.
## Accessing Contacts
## Contact data by student
Clever has offered support for retrieving contact data by student for some time. Given a Clever ID for a specific student, you can retrieve a collection of the contacts associated with that student using [GET /students/{id}/contacts](🔗﻿).
This approach is not recommended for applications requiring all contact data within a district, but works well for ad hoc access patterns.
## Bulk contact data by district
If your application makes heavy use of contact data, you should use Clever's bulk lookup method at [GET /contacts](🔗﻿).
Our bulk fetch approach supports the starting_after and ending_before parameters, allowing you to paginate through larger collections. As with most Clever collection methods, you may also use the limit parameter to specify up to 10,000 records per request. Standard rate limiting applies.
## Contact data by ID
In addition to accessing contact records by student and in bulk by district, you may also now look up individual contact records with [GET /contacts/{id}](🔗﻿) if you already know the corresponding Clever ID — usually to refresh data you've already obtained.
Additionally, you can use  [GET /contacts/{id}/students](🔗﻿) and [GET /contacts/{id}/district](🔗﻿) if you've somehow lost track of the associated students or district associated with that contact record.
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Please note: If the contact does not have an `sis_id`, then the contact's Clever ID is not stable - if any information changes on the contact record, the record will receive a new Clever ID.
Conversely, if the contact has an `sis_id`, the Clever ID will remain stable even if data changes on the record.
## Data warnings and required fields
It is now possible to mark contact fields as required. As a result, it is also possible to generate data warnings when districts do not supply this data, or do not have important fields like "email" in their shared contact information. This will help your app identify error cases to build against before syncing a specific district's data. If you would like to set data warnings for student contact information, reach out to your account manager.
## How Contact data varies
In most cases, Clever developers never need to worry about the underlying SIS a district uses.
Due to the wide variance in SIS support for contact records, we recommend applications making extensive use of Contacts data to be aware of these particulars and to be extra tolerant of unusual formatting as Clever does not normalize all data from these fields.
## SFTP
Districts using our SFTP upload feature can share student contacts as part of the `students.csv` upload. The following fields are supported:
contact fieldSFTP spec field
`name``contact_name`
`type``contact_type`
`relationship``contact_relationship`
`phone``contact_phone`
`phone_type``contact_phone_type`
`email``contact_email`
`sis_id``contact_sis_id`
Limitations: Using SFTP limits the number of contacts a student can have 5 contacts maximum. No custom mappings are supported.
## SIS-Managed Auto-Sync
**Limitations**: Contacts field support varies district-to-district. 
`contact_relationship` is often missing and sometimes you may find `contact_type` containing data you'd typically look for in `contact_relationship`
`phone_type` cannot be set
`contact.sis_id` is supported for Infinite Campus, IC OneRoster API, Skyward, and Skyward API only
## PowerSchool
Supported fieldsImports:
_ `name`
_ `type`
_ `relationship`
_ `email`
_ `phone`
_ `phone_type`_ Father
_ Mother
_ Guardian
_ EmergContacts
## Infinite Campus
contact fieldSIS field(s)
`name``contacts.firstName` + " " + `contacts.lastName`
`type`always "`other`"
`relationship``contacts.relationship`
`email``contacts.email`
`phone``contacts.cellPhone` or `contacts.workPhone` or `contacts.homePhone` or `contacts.householdPhone`
## Skyward
contact fieldSIS field(s)
`name``E1 Full Name`
`type`always "`other`"
`relationship``E1 Relation Dsc`
`phone``E1 Pri Phone` or `E1 Cell Phone`
## iNOW
contact fieldSIS field(s)
`name``GuardianFirstName` + " " + `GuardianLastName`
`type`"`guardian`"
`phone``GuardianTelephoneNumber`
`email``GuardianEmailAddress`
Limitations: Contacts information from iNOW can sometimes cause sync issues with Clever. For districts experiencing these issues, contact information may be missing entirely. Districts can help alleviate these issues by using our SFTP upload approach instead.
## Aeries
contact fieldSIS field(s)
`name``First Name` + " " + `Last Name`
`email``EmailAddress`
`phone``CellPhone`
`relationship``RelationshipToStudent`
`type``ContactOrder`
## Tyler SIS
We support Emergency and Primary contacts from Tyler SIS.
Emergency contacts:
contact fieldSIS Field(s)
`name``Em1Name`
`type`"`emergency`"
`relationship``Em1Relation`
`phone``Em1Hphone`
`phone_type`"`home`"
Primary contacts:
contact fieldSIS Field(s)
`name``PrntPriName`
`type`"`primary`"
`relationship``PrntPriRelation`
`email``PrntPriEmail`
`phone``PrntPriCell`
`phone_type`"`cell`"
## Illuminate
Guardians:
contact fieldSIS field(s)
`name``contact_name_prefix` + `contact_first_name` + `contact_middle name` + `contact_name_suffix`
`type``legal_guardian` (default: "`guardian`")
`email``contact_email_address`
`phone``primary_phone` or `mobile_phone_1` or `work_phone_1` or `home_phone_1`
phone_type`cell` or `work` or `home` depending on which field is used above
Emergency contacts:
contact fieldSIS field(s)
`name``contact_name_prefix` + `contact_first_name` + `contact_middle name` + `contact_name_suffix`
`type``emergency_contact` (default "`emergency`")
`email``contact_email_address`
`phone``primary_phone` or `mobile_phone_1` or `work_phone_1` or `home_phone_1`
`phone_type``cell` or `work` or `home` depending on which field is used above
## SchoolInsight
contact fieldSIS field(s)
`name``Contact First Name` + " " + `Contact Last Name`
`type``Contact Custodial Status` (default: `guardian`)
`relationship``Contact Relationship`
`email``Contact Email`
`phone``Contact Cell Phone` or `Contact Work Phone` or `Contact Home Phone` or `Contact Other Phone`
`phone_type``cell` or `work` or `home` depending on which field is used above
## Migrating from v1.2 to 2.0 Contacts
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It’s important to note that if you plan to use v2.0 contacts, you must do a full data sync (not only an Events sync) to completely refresh all contact data in your database.
## Key Changes
### Contacts now have more stable ID
Previously, if any field on a contact changes, for example, a phone number, we delete the contact and create a new one with a new Clever ID.
Now, contacts will retain the same Clever ID when contact info changes.  The only case where a contact’s Clever ID will change is if that contact’s `sis_id` changes (identical to a student or teacher record).  This should provide much more stability for contacts, and allow you to better track changes if that’s important to your application.
*If you are using Events, we now generate a _contacts.updated_ event for the contact.  More details [here](🔗﻿).
### Contacts can now have multiple students
Previously, every student-contact relationship was represented by its own record, so a guardian with 3 children would appear as 3 separate records in our API (each with its own Clever ID).
Now, contacts have multiple students associated with a single contact object, represented by an array of student IDs.
### New normalized fields
In an effort to provide more standardized contact data, we now normalize the following fields:
`type` - Primary, Secondary, Parent/Guardian, Emergency, Family, Other
`phone_type` - Cell, Home, Work, Other
`relationship` - Parent, Grandparent, Self, Aunt/Uncle, Sibling, Other

contact field	SFTP spec field
``name``	``contact_name``
``type``	``contact_type``
``relationship``	``contact_relationship``
``phone``	``contact_phone``
``phone_type``	``contact_phone_type``
``email``	``contact_email``
``sis_id``	``contact_sis_id``

contact field	SIS field(s)
``name``	``contacts.firstName`` + " " + ``contacts.lastName``
``type``	always "``other``"
``relationship``	``contacts.relationship``
``email``	``contacts.email``
``phone``	``contacts.cellPhone`` or ``contacts.workPhone`` or ``contacts.homePhone`` or ``contacts.householdPhone``

contact field	SIS field(s)
``name``	``E1 Full Name``
``type``	always "``other``"
``relationship``	``E1 Relation Dsc``
``phone``	``E1 Pri Phone`` or ``E1 Cell Phone``

contact field	SIS field(s)
``name``	``GuardianFirstName`` + " " + ``GuardianLastName``
``type``	"``guardian``"
``phone``	``GuardianTelephoneNumber``
``email``	``GuardianEmailAddress``

contact field	SIS field(s)
``name``	``First Name`` + " " + ``Last Name``
``email``	``EmailAddress``
``phone``	``CellPhone``
``relationship``	``RelationshipToStudent``
``type``	``ContactOrder``

contact field	SIS field(s)
``name``	``contact_name_prefix`` + ``contact_first_name`` + ``contact_middle name`` + ``contact_name_suffix``
``type``	``legal_guardian`` (default: "``guardian``")
``email``	``contact_email_address``
``phone``	``primary_phone`` or ``mobile_phone_1`` or ``work_phone_1`` or ``home_phone_1``
phone_type	``cell`` or ``work`` or ``home`` depending on which field is used above

contact field	SIS field(s)
``name``	``contact_name_prefix`` + ``contact_first_name`` + ``contact_middle name`` + ``contact_name_suffix``
``type``	``emergency_contact`` (default "``emergency``")
``email``	``contact_email_address``
``phone``	``primary_phone`` or ``mobile_phone_1`` or ``work_phone_1`` or ``home_phone_1``
``phone_type``	``cell`` or ``work`` or ``home`` depending on which field is used above