Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


PowerSchool to Acquire SEL Provider Kickboard

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 11/12/21

Education technology company PowerSchool has announced it will acquire Kickboard, which produces K-12 education behavior management software, to help educators manage social emotional learning (SEL) and multi-tiered systems of support. PowerSchool offers a number of products, including a K-12 student information system, a learning management system and enterprise resource planning. However, this specific purchase fills a gap since the company lacks dedicated software in the SEL realm.

"This announcement represents PowerSchool's continued commitment to helping ensure students can get the support they need for future success as lifelong learners," wrote PowerSchool CEO Hardeep Gulati in a message to customers. "I couldn't be more excited about bringing Kickboard into the PowerSchool family. Addressing students' social emotional well-being and mental health is critical, not just for schools and districts, but for our families and communities. By adding Kickboard's solutions, we're taking an important step to providing real, comprehensive insights that give educators a complete view of the whole student."

Eventually, PowerSchool officials noted, integration of the two companies' technology will enable schools to:

  • Centralize behavior management and reporting, including SEL, positive behavior intervention and support (PBIS), MTSS, overall student performance and professional development programs; and

  • Gain visibility to the "whole child," combining SEL well-being and mental health data with student performance, academic outcomes, demographic data and attendance.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The two companies said they expected the acquisition "to close soon."

About the Author

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

Featured

  • Girl playing video games

    5 Lessons Video Game Designers Can Teach Educators About Learning

    Video game designers spend an enormous amount of time studying what keeps people engaged when something becomes difficult. They have become very good at helping people persist. Schools should pay attention.

  • A computer screen shows a phishing email warning message in a modern office

    AI Platform Behind 12,000 E-mail Breaches Dismantled

    Microsoft has shut down EvilTokens, a cybercrime service that used AI to help attackers break into e-mail accounts, study their victims, and build convincing financial scams.

  • lock icons, shields, and glowing data paths

    Studies Suggest AI Is Accelerating Familiar Cyber Attacks

    Research released around the recent Black Hat USA 2026 conference demonstrates that artificial intelligence is increasing the speed and scale of cybersecurity activity without replacing the attack methods defenders already face.

  • circuit patterns

    Anthropic Intros Lower-Cost Claude Sonnet 5

    Anthropic has launched Claude Sonnet 5, positioning the model as its most autonomous mid-tier offering to date and a lower-cost alternative to its flagship Opus 4.8 system. The company said the model can plan multi-step tasks, operate tools such as browsers and terminals, and complete agentic work at a level that previously required larger and more expensive models.