ParentSquare is a platform that allows us to unify all school communication and facilitates more robust engagement with parents and students. We do not want parents/guardians to have to keep up with multiple sites/apps/group texts, etc to be informed about what is happening with their students. ParentSquare should be your primary means of communicating with parents.
ParentSquare has an add-on for Students called StudentSquare enabled for students grade 7-12. To keep in compliance with our policy on electronic communications and to promote student safety, all staff/student electronic communication including extracurricular groups, clubs, and organizations should be done using ParentSquare/StudentSquare.
The onboarding process for staff and teachers will be minimal and the platform will be set up for you. Your classes, students, and parents including all their contact information will be imported from Ascender automatically every night. Since contact information is coming over automatically, you can create your custom groups for your clubs and extracurriculars very easily.
New staff should start with the relevant training course below.
Things to do right away.
Look over the Teacher Quick Start Guide
With office hours enabled, parents that try to call or message you will get a recording or reply that tells them that you are out of the office and that they should call back during office hours or send you a message on PS.
Edit your class names.
Click the Admin button at the top. On the left, under Data Assistant, chose Classes. Click the three dots on the right, then Edit Class.
Post your first message to your class.
Training Courses
Admin Training 101 - For Principals and District Admins
Admin Training 102 - For Principals and District Admins
Additional Recommended Training
Pre-Recorded Training Webinars
ParentSquare Live Training Calendar
Use this site to search for answers to any questions that you may have. Their help center is very thorough.
Posts
Posts will go to the app "news feed". Parents and/or students will receive notifications about posts however they choose. By default, they will get an app notification right away, then a single text and email at the end of the day linking them to their daily digest. The digest will summarizes all their student’s PS activities for the day in a single message.
Direct Messaging
Direct messages are sent to parents and/or students whether they have downloaded the app or not. They will receive a text, email, and app notification when you direct message a parent or student no matter what their notification settings are. There is no way to edit notification settings for direct messages.
Virtual Phone
Virtual Phone is not yet available on Android (coming soon)
You can use your computer to call from the PS website
Calls are automatically recorded and transcribed.
Parents can call your virtual number, but not text it. If they want to message you, they should use the app.
Groups
Calendar Events
Teachers should post calendar events relevant to your class only. Grade, school, and district level events will be entered by school/district administrators. If possible, we want to avoid parents getting duplicate events for things like holidays, school plays, sport events, etc.
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