Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


Notification Service Adds Option for Broader Community Outreach

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 10/01/21

A notification service designed for K-12 has added the ability to reach community members too. ParentSquare, which produces a platform intended for two-way contact with families either at the classroom level or at the district or school level, now includes a "Community Groups" feature.

The format for communications with ParentSquare includes texting, email, voice, social and web sharing and app notifications. The service can also accommodate direct messaging, document sharing, appointments, invoices and calendar and RSVP invitations. The company said that the program translates messages into more than 100 languages.

The newest functionality lets people who aren't parents, guardians, students or staff sign up for various communications offered by the district and schools. Those might include notifications about fundraisers, afterschool programs and sporting or alumni events. Community web pages can be enabled at the district or school level, or both.

The idea, according to the company, is to eliminate the need for schools to subscribe to a separate mass email distribution service for communicating with the larger community.

"Our new Community Groups feature provides another layer of communications outreach to strengthen the relationship between schools, families and the community at large," said Anupama Vaid, the company's founder and president, in a press release. "Involving interested community members in school-related activities not only fosters awareness and goodwill, but it can also bolster resources through donations, volunteering and partnerships."

The feature is available to customers with the full ParentSquare subscription. Customers with the Community Groups feature can also add SMS text messages and automated voice calls. Those can be added for an additional charge.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Engineering team implements digital guardrails on AI

    3 Starting Points for Integrating AI Guardrails in K-12 Districts

    As education leaders start to craft an AI policy that is both practical and flexible enough to evolve with this fast-changing technology, there is at least one principle that should be foundational: AI should serve to augment human critical thinking and creativity but never replace human interaction and decision-making.

  • teacher holding laptop in the class at school

    80% of Teachers Are Using AI Tools in the Classroom

    In a recent survey by PreK-12 marketplace TPT, 80% of educators reported using generative AI tools in their classrooms. The majority (58%) said they use AI regularly or occasionally, while 22% have tried it once or twice.

  • interconnected nodes with currency symbols

    Report: Half of Gen AI Projects Could Exceed Budget by 2028

    Organizations may be underestimating the cost of generative AI as they move from experimentation to production, according to Gartner's "10 Best Practices for Optimizing Generative and Agentic AI Costs" report.

  • abstract data flow

    Google Announces New Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform

    Google Cloud has introduced a new platform for building and managing enterprise AI agents, as the company seeks to turn its Gemini models and Vertex AI tooling into a broader system for automating business workflows.