Beekmantown Central School District first adopted Virtual Phone to provide staff and families with a voice calling solution built directly into ParentSquare.
Gary Lambert, Beekmantown Central’s director of IT, communications, and security, shared how the district now uses Virtual Phone as part of their family engagement initiatives, including parent-teacher conferences and attendance followups—leading to more staff confidence, improved student attendance, and a dramatic 40% increase in response rate to parent-teacher conference scheduling.
What communication challenges did your district face before Virtual Phone?
Before Virtual Phone, staff relied on personal cell phones to contact families, exposing their numbers and leading to after-hours calls. Families often missed or ignored unknown numbers, delaying important information.
Without a centralized system to effectively communicate with families, staff also juggled multiple modes of communication like email, texting apps, and flyers—causing confusion, miscommunication, and wasted time.
What’s changed since you introduced Virtual Phone?
Virtual Phone provided a private, professional way for staff to contact families without using their personal numbers. Now, all calls go through ParentSquare, ensuring privacy and better boundaries.
Because each Virtual Phone user has a dedicated phone number with the school’s area code, families recognize the caller ID, leading to higher response rates. Plus, all calls are logged, and staff members can add notes about their conversations for easy reference—making communication more organized and efficient across the board.
Streamline communication with Virtual Phone—available on all devices with ParentSquare, no additional setup needed.
- Call ParentSquare users directly or dial any US-based, 10-digit phone number.
- Sync calls across your smartphone and computer for easy reference.
- Set office hours to manage availability and send calls to voicemail outside of those hours.
- Block unwanted calls (available on web) to prevent users and numbers from calling.
How have staff and families responded to Virtual Phone?
Virtual Phone has transformed how we connect, fostering a more cohesive school community.
Not only has it boosted engagement and efficiency, but it’s helped families feel more connected to their child’s education while saving staff time with streamlined communication.
Did you know?
Research shows that strong partnerships between home and school support better academic outcomes, and the U.S. Department of Education encourages schools to improve family engagement in order to improve things like student engagement and attendance.1
One of the unexpected benefits we’ve seen has been the increase in staff confidence. Without the worry of sharing personal numbers, staff feel more secure and professional, leading to more proactive family outreach.
Virtual Phone has also helped us improve accountability, with logged interactions and in-app notifications for missed calls and voicemails—ensuring no call or message goes unanswered.
Overall, it has strengthened trust and collaboration between our schools and families, making communication more responsive and connected than ever.
Can you share any best practices for using Virtual Phone to improve family engagement?
One way we use Virtual Phone is for attendance follow-ups. For example, a parent who had been unresponsive to email and paper notices answered a Virtual Phone call from their child’s teacher. The conversation revealed the family was experiencing issues with transportation, which we were able to quickly resolve.
This is just one example of how a quick, personal phone call can improve attendance and strengthen family trust in our district. Virtual Phone has helped us rethink how we address challenges, allowing us to be more proactive in supporting our school community.
Targeted outreach starts with accurate data
ParentSquare works by syncing directly with student information systems (SIS). With features like real-time visibility into data on ParentSquare with the Data Health Dashboard, schools can monitor data quality and proactively address data health concerns like missing and inaccurate information.
When schools have accurate data and insightful analytics, they can identify areas where they need to develop targeted strategies and use Virtual Phone to conduct personalized outreach to families.
How does your district’s experience with Virtual Phone compare with your expectations?
Virtual Phone has exceeded our expectations by significantly boosting family engagement. One standout example is our “Family Check-In” initiative, where teachers use Virtual Phone to call parents to discuss student progress and goals.
For many families, these conversations were a new and welcomed experience—leading to a 40% increase in response rate to parent-teacher conference scheduling. By enabling meaningful, one-on-one connections, Virtual Phone is helping us build a more engaged and supportive school community, ultimately leading to better student outcomes.
More personal outreach with Virtual Phone led to a 40% increase in response rate to parent-teacher conference attendance—driving deeper family engagement.
If you could summarize Virtual Phone for other districts, what would you tell them?
ParentSquare’s Virtual Phone is a game-changer for school communication. It keeps staff’s personal numbers private, ensuring professionalism and clear boundaries, while giving families a trusted, recognizable caller ID—leading to faster responses and stronger engagement.
By centralizing calls and two-way messaging, it reduces confusion, saves time, and streamlines communication for staff, teachers, and families alike. Virtual Phone is so much more than a tool; it strengthens school-home connections, creating a more engaged and collaborative community.
“For any district looking to uplevel its communication, collaboration, and community trust, Virtual Phone is a must-have.”
Whether you’re already using ParentSquare and want to enhance your communication with Virtual Phone, or you’re looking to discover how these integrated tools can transform your school-home communications, book a demo to learn more today.
1. Family Engagement to Support Student Engagement and Attendance (U.S. Department of Education in partnership with Carnegie Corporation of New York and Overdeck Family Foundation, 2023)
