As educators gear up for the remainder of the 2021-22 school year, school-to-home engagement continues to be a top priority. To unify all school communication and build stronger communities, school systems nationwide — including public, private, and charter school systems — have signed on to expand their use of ParentSquare, the premier unified school-home engagement platform for K-12.
Recent school districts to renew and expand their ParentSquare features include the Pleasanton Unified School District, Napa Valley Unified School District, and the Yakima School District. ParentSquare 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.
Extending community reach. Pleasanton USD, in northern California, has over 14,000 students enrolled in its 30 schools. The district’s overarching goal for signing on with ParentSquare was to make information more accessible and digestible for families, especially during the pandemic. The district recently adopted ParentSquare’s new Community Groups feature to contact alumni of its oldest high school about that school’s centennial. “Some alumni have email, some just have a phone number, but with Community Groups, we now can reach everyone, with relevant information,” said Patrick Gannon, the district’s communications and community engagement coordinator.
Increasing family access. Napa Valley USD serves 16,600 students in 27 schools in the communities of American Canyon and Napa, California. After using ParentSquare for everything from the district’s mass notifications to classroom conference signups, the district looks forward to expanding its use of additional platform features to staff and families. “NVUSD places great importance on communication as we work together with our parent community to continually improve our schools and ensure student success,” said Chris Ready, assistant director of communications for Napa Valley USD. “By leveraging more functionality, such as Forms and Permission Slips, Secure Documents, and Fundraisers, we will continue to increase our accessibility and accountability to families.”
Reconnecting with alumni. The Yakima School District is the second largest district in Eastern Washington state and has a population of over 16,000 students in 26 schools. The district partnered with ParentSquare in summer 2021 and upgraded to the premium package, which includes Community Groups, in November. Starting in January, the district will be using Community Groups to spread the word about the auditorium renovation at A.C. Davis High School, one of its six high school campuses. “Generations of people have attended Davis, and many have a huge sense of pride in our rich arts community,” said Kirsten Fitterer, Yakima’s chief communications officer. “We’ll be connecting with alumni who have moved out of the area but are still enthusiastic about theater as well as with other groups who are invested in that high school.”
ParentSquare now serves 14 million individuals — parents, students and staff — across the United States with both standard and premium product packages, including advanced features such as Secure Documents, Health Screening, Community Groups and more.
About ParentSquare™
ParentSquare is relied upon by millions of educators and families in 44 states for unified, effective school communications. ParentSquare provides parent engagement tools that work from the district office to the individual classroom, supported by powerful metrics and reporting. ParentSquare's technology platform features extensive integrations with student information and other critical administrative systems, translation to more than 100 languages, and app, email, text, voice, and web portal access for equitable communication. ParentSquare (http://www.parentsquare.com,) founded in 2011, is based in Santa Barbara, CA.
