Parents in South Windsor are using a new app, called ParentSquare. This app provides direct communication with teachers regarding upcoming events, weekly updates and individual, student based conversation. According to their website, ParentSquare is passionate about better connecting schools with families to improve student outcomes and school success.
The idea for ParentSquare started in 2011 when Anupama Vaid, a computer engineer, who had recently taken a leave of absence from work to be with her young kids, experienced the difference in how connected she was with her kid’s life at school after being a stay-at-home mom. With the use of ParentSquare, she hopes to bring the same connection to every family at school.
Due to the new school board recommendation, many parents are downloading ParentSquare, as all communication from the South Windsor School District is now available through that platform. This app has proven useful for many parents so far.
“It makes it much easier to track what’s going on in schools,” parent of SWHS student, Preeti Malhotra, said. “We don’t have to search through emails and go to different websites and all, we get notifications for any updates.”
Teachers and Coaches prefer this form of communication over emailing, which was used during previous years.
“It’s a good notification tool,” Spanish teacher and JV girls soccer coach, Fransisco Ruiz told The Prowl. “When I need to, I just put a notification to parents in the middle of my class, parents and students.”
Parent Square includes many features that students, parents, teachers and coaches can use. Some features include event planning, photo and file downloads, health screenings, fee payments, sign-ups, volunteer hour tracking, and more. Teachers can send voice messages and urgent alerts, which automatically notifies parents. School personnel can also ask for items, request volunteers, fill out forms, collect payments, send secure documents, get RSVPs, or even fundraise. The app also includes a calendar, with important events integrated, making event tracking much easier.
“[ParentSquare is] providing more transparency and faster reach to teachers,” SWHS parent Neeraj Kumar, said.
Like everything else, ParentSquare also has its drawbacks. Many users noticed that while using the app after installing it, the process was very tedious, and many were struggling to use the different features.
“I think I see the initial learning curve at first, because it’s not very transparent about how to do different functions,” English teacher, Mrs. Onochie told The Prowl.
ParentSquare concludes that effective, unified communication can build a strong home-school relationship and result in higher parent engagement in turn improving student outcomes.
