Should I deactivate or delete a respondent?

When an individual is deactivated in our system, they will no longer receive survey invitations or communications from the system, but all of their historical survey data will remain preserved.

This is important because each individual record is tied to reporting and historical survey results. Keeping those records intact helps maintain accurate trend analysis and reliable longitudinal comparisons over time. Deactivating former parents, students, staff, or contacts ensures your historical reporting remains consistent without affecting your data integrity.

We recommend deactivating respondents for:

• Individuals who should no longer receive communications
• Individuals who request to be removed from surveying activity
• Former parents, students, or staff who have left your school community
• Any contacts with existing survey history or reporting data

Click here to learn how to deactivate respondents!

Deleting an individual permanently removes the record from the system and also removes any historical survey data associated with that account. Because of this, we recommend deletion should only be used in limited situations where no important data is tied to the record.

A common example would be a duplicate profile that was accidentally created under a different email address. If the duplicate account has no survey invitations, responses, or historical data attached, it can safely be deleted without impacting reporting.

Deleting records with historical data can cause reporting trends and comparison points to fluctuate, making long-term data less reliable.

We recommend deleting respondents for:

• Duplicate records
• Incorrectly created profiles
• Accounts with no survey invitations or historical data attached

If you'd like to learn how to view a respondent's survey history, check out this guide!