• ParentSquare Academy free online learning opportunities are available at THIS LINK
• Public Information Officer Carrina Stanton (cstanton@chehalisschools.org or (360) 807-7200 ext. 8229) is always happy to answer questions and can schedule a one-on-one or small group training session at any time during the year. 
• The CSD tech training site has many ParentSquare tutorials available at THIS LINK
• While logged in to the web based ParentSquare, click on the question mark logo in the upper right hand corner of the page to be taken to a searchable database of ParentSquare training articles and videos. ParentSquare even offers free training opportunities throughout the year

• Public Information Officer Carrina Stanton (cstanton@chehalisschools.org or (360) 807-7200 ext. 8229) is always happy to answer questions and can schedule a one-on-one or small group training session at any time during the year. 
• The CSD tech training site has many ParentSquare tutorials available at THIS LINK
• While logged in to the web based ParentSquare, click on the question mark logo in the upper right hand corner of the page to be taken to a searchable database of ParentSquare training articles and videos. ParentSquare even offers free training opportunities throughout the year

• If your staff member account’s contact information is incorrect in ParentSquare, send an email to Kathy Maslowski at kmaslowski@chehalisschools.org
• If your parent account’s contact information is incorrect in ParentSquare, send an email to Janis Dobyns at jdobyns@chehalisschools.org
• If a parent tells you their contact information is incorrect in ParentSquare, send an email to Janis Dobyns at jdobyns@chehalisschools.org

To make a post in ParentSquare, you must have a role or permission that allows you to make posts. Administrators, teachers, specialists and group owners can make posts. 

For those who can post:

CLICK HERE for instructions on how to make a post using parentsquare.com.

CLICK HERE for instructions on making a post on the ParentSquare App.

If you have an announcement that you want made to your entire building and your role does not give you permission, please give your message to your building administrator to post. If you have an announcement you would like made district wide, please send it to Public Information Officer Carrina Stanton at communications@chehalisschools.org.

Who Gets Your Post?

You get to choose your audience for posts and most staff members don’t even have the ability to make a post to the entire school district.

After you choose “New Post”, the first line in your new post is “To”. If you click on that box, it will give you a list of all of the groups you can make a post to. Posts can be building-wide (with role permission) or to a specific group of your choosing such as a classroom, sports team or extracurricular activity group. After you choose your “To”, the next line gives you a drop down menu next to the words “Who Should See This?”

CLICK HERE for more information on how to make a post.

If you have an announcement that you want made to your entire building and your role does not give you permission, please give your message to your building administrator to post. If you have an announcement you would like made district wide, please send it to Public Information Officer Carrina Stanton at communications@chehalisschools.org.

Delivery Report

On your Home ParentSquare page, you will see a feed of posts for your school, class or group. In the box of your post, you will see two gray bars at the bottom: # Notified; and #Appreciated. If you click on the red number next to Notified, it will take you to a page with message delivery statistics. At the bottom of the page, there will be a searchable list of everyone who received your post, how they received your post and whether it was delivered and whether it was opened.

Post Comments

You must choose for someone to be able to comment on your post. Even if commenting is turned on, all comments are automatically private so only the post administrator and the comment author can see the comment and any replies.

To allow commenting on a post, choose the settings wheel in the top right hand corner of your post and under “Comments” choose “Enable Comments.” If commenting is enabled for a post, the choice under “Comments” will be “Disable Comments.”

ParentSquare offers a few different ways to make newsletters. There are pre-made templates that you can simply personalize, or you can make a template of your own. By default, only administrators have the ability to make templates but if this is something you are interested in, let Carrina Stanton know and she can add that role to your account.

CLICK HERE for how to create a newsletter using a template.

CLICK HERE for how to create custom templates for newsletters and posts.

NOTE: Since every building handles conference scheduling differently, make sure your administrator is made aware before you use this function of ParentSquare

You can create appointment sign ups in ParentSquare that allow you to list which appointment times you will offer and parents sign up for the spot that works best for them. 

CLICK HERE for a helpful article about how to create an appointment sign up post

CLICK HERE for an appointment sign ups FAQ that can help you troubleshoot appointment sign ups

Sometimes, the name of your class in ParentSquare might not be descriptive enough for you to keep track of classes (for instance if you teach 3 periods of 9^th Grade ELA). Even if you don’t have multiple classes, you may want to change the display name of your classroom to fit with a classroom theme or your own preference.

CLICK HERE for a helpful article about how to rename your class in ParentSquare

You don’t have to! When they register their account with ParentSquare, families have the ability to choose from 120 different languages that they can send and receive messages in. To choose their preferred language, parents need to choose “Manage Account” in the drop-down menu under their name in the upper right hand corner of ParentSquare.com. In the column on the left hand side, choose “Language Settings” and then use the drop-down menu to choose their preferred language. (Note, parents will need to register their account in order to access their account settings)

ParentSquare also offers two-way translationI. If you are direct messaging with a parent who has chosen a preferred language other than English in their ParentSquare account settings, you can send a message in English and they will receive the message translated into their preferred language and they can send you a message in their preferred language and you will receive it in English.

CLICK HERE for more information about using translation in ParentSquare.

The two options for messaging someone through ParentSquare are “Direct” and “Group.”

• With a “Direct” message, you can send a message to up to 150 people and any replies to your message are private between you and the person commenting (like using the “reply” button on an email).
• With a “Group” message, you can send a message to up to 50 people and all replies are visible to all (like using the “reply all” button on an email).

CLICK HERE for instructions on sending a direct message using parentsquare.com.

CLICK HERE for instructions on sending a direct message using the ParentSquare App.

One of the many add-on features for ParentSquare posts is the ability to ask for items or volunteers. You can list what your needs are and parents can either sign up to bring items or volunteer their time. Having an event requires both volunteers and items? You can add both requests to a single ParentSquare post.

CLICK HERE for an article about how to add “ask for item” or “ask for volunteers” to a post

NOTE: This function is enabled on our ParentSquare platform, however, make sure to get approval from your building administrator before using it.

Forms such as field trip permission forms, use agreements or receipt of student handbooks can be sent and managed through ParentSquare. You can create a one-time form, or a form template that can be used by an entire building. Once filled out, these forms are stored on the ParentSquare platform for easy access. 

CLICK HERE for an article explaining forms and permissions

CLICK HERE for an article about digitalizing an existing form

CLICK HERE for an article about creating a one-time use form

CLICK HERE for an article about creating a form for the forms repository

NOTE: This function is enabled on our ParentSquare platform, however, make sure to get approval from your building administrator before using it.

Secure documents such as progress reports and report cards can be shared through the ParentSquare platform, potentially saving printing and mailing costs.

CLICK HERE for an article and videos about how Secure Documents works

CLICK HERE for an article about how to send secure documents through ParentSquare

To support better boundaries for staff, app and text notifications for direct and group messages will no longer be sent outside your Office Hours. Messages are still delivered and appear as unread in the app, and email notifications (if enabled) will continue. 

Smart and Urgent Alerts are not affected and will still be sent immediately. 

This is applied automatically—just set your Office Hours in account settings.

CLICK HERE to learn how to set office hours for direct messaging

When you make a conference sign ups post (read how at THIS POST), at the bottom of the first page you will have 3 options you can choose:

• Hide names of users who sign up
• Limit to 1 appointment per user across all time slots
• Require student information

Most often, if a teacher has a parent who cannot sign up for a conference, it is because the teacher chose “Limit to 1 appointment per user across all time slots” when creating the appointment sign up. This can be confusing but “User” actually means student here, which means only one adult will be allowed to sign up for a conference for each student. 

To avoid problems for students with more than 1 household, do not choose Limit to 1 appointment per user across all time slots

This is one of the few options that cannot be edited after the post is made. If you have made a sign ups post with this option chosen, the recommendation is to:

1. Choose “Edit” under the settings wheel on your post
2. Delete the time slot that the parent who cannot sign up wants so that no else can choose it
3. Keep a list for yourself of those you have added like this

The first step when you don’t see options or functions you normally see is to look at your Location and your Account.

Location – Each staff member’s permissions are unique to their position. Some may have permissions only in their building, others may have permissions in the district or in mulitple buildings. If you are not seeing what you normally see, make sure you are not in the home page where you do not have those permissions.

• On Web: Look in the upper, left hand corner at what entity is in Bold
• On App: Your location shows at the top of your screen

Account – If you are both a parent and a staff member – you have 2 different accounts, with two different permissions, in ParentSquare. For instance, parents may not post or view parent directories, while teachers can. If you are not seeing what you normally see, make sure you are in your staff account and not your parent account:

• On web: Look in the upper, right hand corner to view which account you are in. Use pull down menu to change.
• On app: click on the triple bar in the upper, left hand corner and choose “Account”

Your Delivery Report is your best first step to help a parent who is not receiving ParentSquare messages. On your most recent post, look for an icon that looks like an eye with a number and the word “notified.” Click on the number to be taken to the delivery report for that post. You can search for that parent in the delivery report to gain insight on what is happening.

Some common issues include:

• A parent receives “Digest” messages – which is one message at the end of the day containing any message that day for your family, and did not know to scroll to the bottom for other messages. This is a good opportunity to ask them “Would you prefer to receive ParentSquare messages in a different way?”
• A family’s contact information has changed and was not updated in Skyward Family Access – you might see the words “failed”, “bounced” or “Invalid” in the delivery stats next to their name
• ParentSquare messages are not getting through because they were marked as Spam – either by the parent or by their carrier’s firewall. You would see the word “Marked as Spam”, “Blocked” or “Opted Out” in the delivery stats next to their name. Have them check their spam folder and mark the message as not being spam or check their list of blocked senders and unblock. This is a change that can ONLY be made on their end
• A ParentSquare message was received but not opened
• Something went wrong with the post (parent contact info is correct but message failed) – please alert Carrina Stanton ext. 8229 if this happens

ParentSquare receives student and family information directly from Skyward Family Access. If you can’t see a student or parent/guardian in ParentSquare it could be because:

• The student/family is very new to the district and may not yet be in Skyward as “active” – assume new students will take at least 48 hours to show up in ParentSquare
• A “parent” is not listed in Skyward Family Access as a parent/guardian – if it is a case of a new marriage or new guardianship, alert your school registrar to have them added to Skyward. If it is someone who the family approves to be a “parent” in ParentSquare but no Skyward change is warranted, please email their First Name, Last Name, Email Address and Phone number to Carrina Stanton and she will manually add them (family must approve)
• For W.F. West High School Students  – if they have transferred to Turning Point/LCAS
• Something has gone wrong – if none of these reasons exist, please contact Carrina Stanton at ext. 8229 and we will investigate

Some families receive “Instant” messages, which means they receive each message when it is posted, and some receive “Digest” messages, meaning they receive all posts for one day in the evening (around 6-6:30 p.m.). 

In the box directly above the Post button, choose “Send Instantly (overrides digest settings)” if:

• You are making the post after 5 p.m. and you are sharing information that recipients need today and tomorrow night would be too late (“great job on our game tonight, see you at 9 a.m. tomorrow for practice” or “don’t forget tomorrow’s concert”)
• You are making a post with information that is urgent (“today’s practice is canceled” or “the bus to the game is leaving 30 min. earlier today”) 

ParentSquare allows parents to customize their message delivery options to help avoid message fatigue. If a parent complains of receiving too many messages during the day, please remind them they have the option to choose to receive “digest” ParentSquare messages, which is one message at the end of the day (around 6-6:30 p.m.) containing all messages for your family from that day. This option can be chosen by clicking on “Manage my Account” under your account, and then “Notification Settings”