Indiana Districts Deploy Web-Based Parent Notification System

Sixteen public school districts in Indiana have deployed the SchoolReach notification system from Groupcast within the last three months. The districts adopted the notification system to help with emergency alerts and parent communications.

SchoolReach is a hosted ASP solution that provides customized phone and text messages with voice and Web activation. Its reporting capabilities include summaries, real-time progress reports, template-based custom reports, and support for exporting data as CSV files.

Some other features include:

  • 540,000 delivery attempts per hour dialing;
  • Caller ID displays the school's phone number;
  • Reporting capabilities;
  • Alternate messages, automatic retries, and machine detection;
  • Polling and survey support; and
  • Support for several different methods for creating messages, including text to speech, .wav file uploads, and toll-free recording over the phone.

One of the new districts to implement the notification system was Rockville Community School Corp. "We wanted an easier and more efficient way to contact all parents regarding school activities, Title I Night, open houses, attendance notifications and delayed openings due to inclement weather," said Jana Crites, technology director. "The robust features SchoolReach offers for the price made it the right system for us."

In other SchoolReach news, the company said it's partnered with the Wilson Education Center, which serves several schools across Indiana. Through the partnership, WEC schools will be able to sign on for SchoolReach at a discount.

"When our schools and districts select SchoolReach as their communications system of choice they will realize instant benefits and significant results," said Phil Partenheimer, executive director of the Wilson Education Center, in a prepared statement. "We spoke to several current customers before selecting SchoolReach as our partner and the responses were all very positive."

Further information about SchoolReach can be found here.

About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


Featured

  •  laptop on a clean desk with digital padlock icon on the screen

    Data Privacy a Top Concern as Orgs Scale Up AI Agents

    As organizations race to integrate AI agents into their cloud operations and workflows, they face a crucial reality: while enthusiasm is high, major adoption barriers remain, according to a new Cloudera report. Chief among them is the challenge of safeguarding sensitive data.

  • chart with ascending bars and two silhouetted figures observing it, set against a light background with blue and purple tones

    Report: Enterprises Are Embracing Agentic AI

    According to a new report from SnapLogic, 50% of enterprises are already deploying AI agents, and another 32% plan to do so within the next 12 months..

  • stacks of glowing digital documents with circuit patterns and data streams

    Mistral AI Intros Advanced AI-Powered OCR

    French AI startup Mistral AI has announced Mistral OCR, an advanced optical character recognition (OCR) API designed to convert printed and scanned documents into digital files with "unprecedented accuracy."

  • student using a tablet with math symbols dissolving into a glowing AI

    Survey: Students Say AI Use Can Reduce Math Anxiety

    In a recent survey, 56% of high school students said that the use of artificial intelligence can go a long way toward reducing math anxiety.