Press Coverage

FUSD Introduces 5-Star and ParentSquare

Devam Parekh — This 2023-2024 school year, the ParentSquare and 5-Star applications have been introduced for parents to stay updated with school events and to streamline the Flex sign-up process. Teachers have been quick to utilize ParentSquare as some have already started informing parents of what material they have covered and what material they are planning on covering in the upcoming week. This process is more effective than... (Read More)

5 reasons to use a one-stop-shop communications platform

Craig Sheil and Donna Dennis — When our School Administrative Unit (SAU) set out to find a communications platform that all six of its schools could use across all grades, we had good reason for doing so. For starters, our administrators were using one communication system and teachers were using a completely different system. Teachers had to create their own distribution lists, which weren’t always current. For example, one might... (Read More)

Henrico Schools unveils new communication platform for parents and staff

Liana Hardy — Henrico County Public Schools soon will begin using the ParentSquare app to send alerts and information to parents and to allow parents and teachers to message each other directly. Both parents and teachers can download the school-home communication platform now on their Android or iPhone. Launched in 2014, ParentSquare provides features such as mass notifications, urgent alerts, and private direct messaging.... (Read More)

School districts bring a new level of communication with launch of app ParentSquare

Mac Larsen — Imagine having all of your child’s classroom and school information available in one easy-to-use app. What’s more, the app automatically translates all messages into your preferred language and allows for one-on-one messaging with teachers and school staff. The education software company and app developer ParentSquare does just that and has become a popular school district communication tool nationwide... (Read More)

SchoolMessenger going away, new ParentSquare app has notification options, language translation

Jordan Renfro — The Clarksville-Montgomery County School System is changing its mass notification service to a new app that gives parents many more options, including notification customization, direct messaging and language translation. CMCSS is switching from SchoolMessenger to ParentSquare, which will let parents customize how they receive notifications and allow for notifications translated into over 100 languages... (Read More)

Your top 5 school-home communication challenges, solved

Brooke Allen — Implementing a unified communication solution focused on family engagement provides school districts with multiple benefits. An intuitive, easy-to-use program can standardize communication between school and home, for example, and increase overall family engagement. Selecting the right K-12 communications platform that supports the needs of everyone and is purpose-built to engage families can save everyone time, increase... (Read More)

Building Equity & Access Into Districtwide Communications

Brooke Trahan — School districts deal with numerous unexpected challenges and roadblocks on a daily basis and ours is no exception to that rule. In fact, we recently found ourselves grappling with an electrical transformer that was put out of service by a major storm in the area. All of the lights went out at one of our elementary schools, leaving the campus with no Wi-Fi, phones or backup generator. Everything went down, but because the school’s... (Read More)

GCCISD to use ParentSquare for more effective communication

Ivy Kramer — 05/26/23 — Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District is creating an inclusive, unified, and safe way of communicating for teachers, parents and students. ParentSquare was presented at Monday’s school board meeting by Kendall David, Executive Director of Community Engagement, Kristyn Cathey, Director of Communications, and Mima Trujillo, MultiMedia Design Specialist. The new system of comm... (Read More)

4 Tips for a Successful Districtwide Communication Platform Launch

Karl Weinrich — 05/15/23 — Until last year, our district was using a number of different websites and platforms for school-home communications. Many of those platforms weren’t supported by our district, which takes a hands-off, lenient approach to approving websites and other tools for use across its 31 schools. For example, teachers will sometimes find free tools and then jump in and start putting student data in them. We’re trying to reel... (Read More)

6 ways to transform district communications with tech

Tonya Daniels — 04/24/23 — When I joined our district in 2021, I was asked to review its overall communications and ensure that we were communicating effectively both with our families and with the surrounding community. Across our 13 schools, it was immediately apparent that our current platform wasn’t meeting expectations. That platform didn’t have the features and resources we needed to be able to reach our... (Read More)

5 ways to ensure a smooth implementation of a school communications platform

Debra Murdock — 04/21/23 — Three years ago, we were looking for a communication platform to enhance school-to-parent outreach efforts to promote greater family engagement and collaboration at our 40 schools. Our communications team in Cherokee County Public Schools was using a messaging system that wasn’t as user-friendly as our principals would have liked. They wanted to be able to drill down into specific... (Read More)

Hart district approves $2 million grant for career and college readiness

Jose Herrera — 03/07/23 — The William S. Hart Union High School District board approved a $2 million state grant Wednesday night to promote inclusive access to college and career readiness opportunities for its students. In addition, the district approved an approximate $89,250 agreement to transition from Blackboard, a one-way mass communication system, to ParentSquare, a two-way communication system with capabilities of translating messages... (Read More)

2022 Excellence in Equity Awards | Equity & Access PreK-12 Issue 22: Feb/Mar 2023

01/28/23 — [Page 79] ParentSquare is the only fully unified product that engages every family with two-way communications and communications-based services all the way from the district office to the classroom teacher, and all in one place. The platform features reports and tools to improve contactability and offers extensive integrations with student information and other critical administrative systems, translation to more than 100 languages... (Read More)

Northshore School District readies to roll out new app for parents

Kevin Opsahl — 01/23/23 — The Northshore School District (NSD) is readying the rollout of a new app designed to centralize communications and help families who speak English as a second language–yet some parents are already expressing skepticism about the platform. ParentSquare will replace Blackboard, Interim Superintendent Michael Tolley wrote in a recent message to parents upon their return from winter break. He explained that the importance of... (Read More)

Using Good Communication to Improve Turnaround Schools

Josh Wucher — 12/07/22 — Establishing a culture that encourages strong home-to-school bonds was built into the DNA of our organization, Transformation Waco. Formed in 2018, its foundation was built on the need for a Waco-driven solution to school improvement. We operate with a community schools model and mindset. We treat schools as neighborhood hubs that bring together academics, youth development, and family and community engagement with... (Read More)

5 Ways for Rural Schools to Get the Most out of a Districtwide Communications Platform

Stephanie Hinds — 11/08/22 — Our rural school district operates from a single campus, but that doesn’t make school-home communications any easier. With 1,500 students across grades K-12, we were previously using a blend of different tools to sync up our teachers, students, and families. The selection included a host of other apps that teachers would discover on their own... (Read More)

National Hispanic Heritage Month: Latino family connects with teachers like never before

Lindsey Jensen — 10/13/22 — The Yakima School District started using the ParentSquare platform last year as students returned to back-to-school learning. ParentSquare helps parents communicate in their native or home language in real time. Ana Castillo and Francisco Mendiola only speak Spanish with two kids at Nob Hill Elementary School. They said they feel heard and in the... (Read More)

How a Poor District in NY Leveled the Playing Field with Better Communications [and Lightened the Load for School Staff]

08/04/22 — As the poorest school district in Long Island, N.Y. — one of the wealthiest suburbs in the U.S. — our district faces some unique challenges. Ninety-five percent of our families live below the poverty line, our entire district is eligible for free lunch through the community eligibility provision, and two of our schools have been identified for improvement. Fortunately, our team never backs down from a challenge. In assessing the current situation... (Read More)

Alexandria’s interim superintendent of schools will detail mental health, safety

08/04/22 — Alexandria Interim Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt said the city will focus on social-emotional learning next school year. While hiking as a child, Melanie Kay-Wyatt came across another hiker who needed help in the play areas. She stopped and worked to help the girl, and was overwhelmed when the girl’s parents approached her, thanking Kay-Wyatt for interacting with... (Read More)

Why we use a multilingual districtwide platform for personalized communications

Kirsten Fitterer — 07/08/22 — With more than 15,000 students across 25 different schools in central Washington state, one of our biggest goals coming into this past school year was to develop a feature-rich communications system that was the same for teachers, schools, and the district. We looked at the options on the market, talked to other districts about what they are using, and then put in a new school-home communications platform in place for the 2021-22... (Read More)

Finding a centralized voice for safe, accurate and timely school-home communications

Brian Burke — 06/17/22 — When I joined Bristol Public Schools as its first-ever communications director in November 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was about eight months old and schools nationwide were struggling with how to educate and support their students and families through various learning models. One of my first action items was to conduct a communications audit, a strategy... (Read More)

Email rules! 8 things to know about leaders’ favorite ways to reach families

Matt Zalaznick — 04/21/22 — In a world of texts, Tweets and Snaps, it may come as a surprise to hear that good old email is still the No. 1 tool education leaders use to keep the school community informed. Clear and consistent communication is now becoming an even higher priority for many administrators as COVID and remote learning have gotten parents more involved in their schools... (Read More)

4 Ways a Districtwide Communications Platform Strengthened Our Stakeholder Relationships

Shelly Reggiani — 02/11/22 — On any given school day, our 17,300 students across 32 schools speak more than 60 different languages. Where the top languages (aside from English) spoken include Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese and Chinese, in that order. Our district has numerous specialized programs, three bilingual elementary schools, a bilingual middle school, and a high school that... (Read More)

The Learning Counsel - App of the Week | ParentSquare is the premier unified school-to-home communications platform for K-12 education

ParentSquare is the premier school-to-home engagement platform for K-12 education. It is the only fully unified product that engages every family with school communications and communications-based services — all the way from the district office to the classroom teacher, and all in one place. Schools know who is not being reached, and have the reports and tools to improve... (Read More)

WSCUHSD approves COVID-19 Safety Plans to reopen in hybrid model

April 5, 2021 — On March 30, the West Sonoma County Union High School District board approved the COVID-19 Safety Plans (CSPs) required for each of the district’s three schools to reopen in a hybrid model in less than two weeks. The trustees also authorized facilities director Jennie Bruneman to purchase roughly 450 laptops for the incoming freshmen this fall to use for their four years in the district... (Read More)

EdTech Needs to Embrace Parents Post-Pandemic - MarketScale EdTech Today Podcast

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. — March 16, 2021 — Not even one month into his new role as Chief Strategy Officer at ParentSquare and Chad Stevens has created the first and possibly most important edtech acronym for 2021. In this episode of EdTech Today, Chad drops the particulars of Parent Relationship Management (PRM) and how the present technologies that kept families connected to schools during COVID will only improve as we move past it... (Read More)