Polls for Gmail lets teachers, school administrators, and faculty leads run quick polls inside the email they already send — to students, parents, or colleagues. Voting is anonymous, one-click, and requires no Google Classroom or student account.
Examples
Classroom climate, parent coordination, faculty PD — all in your existing email cadence.
Why it works
No new platform, no roster sync, no student data collection.
Students click a vote button. No "sign in to your school Google account first" prompt to stall participation.
Honest climate checks because no name is attached to a vote. You see counts only.
The same Friday parent newsletter you already send becomes an instant survey channel.
Set voter identification to off — on any plan — and polls record only the option picked and an anonymous one-time fingerprint, with no identifying student data. Need named responses? Turn it on per poll; it's available on every plan.
FAQ
No. Students vote by clicking a button inside the email — no Google login, no school SSO. The vote button is a plain link that works in any email client, on any device.
Yes — you control it per poll. Set voter identification to off and the teacher sees only the aggregate count for each option, not who voted what — ideal for classroom climate checks. Turn it on (on any plan) when you need named responses. Either way, the vote page always tells voters when their name is being collected.
Yes. Polls are tied to your Gmail account. Send some to parent guardians, some to students, some to faculty — they all appear in one dashboard with vote counts updating live.
Keep voter identification switched off (the anonymous mode) and Polls for Gmail stores no identifiable student information — each vote records only the option chosen and a one-time anonymous fingerprint to prevent double-voting. No names, emails, or grades are collected. Voter identification is available on any plan when you want named responses, so FERPA-sensitive classrooms simply keep it off.
Related
Install free in two clicks. Three polls in — plans from $50/year.