Kick start your journey with ParentSquare this year by using the handy checklist found at THIS LINK.

With read receipts, staff can now see if their direct message has been read by the recipient. Staff will see a "Read" or "Sent" status for any messages that they author. (This update only applies to direct messages, not group conversations.) Parents, students and guests will not see read receipts for messages they send. Note: available on the web browser now, with the app release coming soon.

CLICK HERE for more informatiom about this feature.

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

CLICK HERE to learn how to set office hours

If you use Canva for Education and are a website user on SmartSites, you can now access templates specifically made for SmartSites. In the Resource Center, find links to templates our design team has created for photo collages, animations, backgrounds, and more! These are set up to be the recommended dimensions and allow for easy customization. Creating special design flourishes to help your site stand out has never been easier. 

Even if you are not a SmartSites user, these templates can be useful for branding purposes. Creating an image for a post that can also be provided to your administrator for use on the web ensures the same look and information goes out to all users.

CLICK HERE to access Canva Templates for SmartSites.

Sometime this fall, ParentSquare will be introducing a new translation upgrade powered by Google Gemini, an advanced AI model that delivers more accurate, fluent, and context-aware translations — specifically designed to improve how schools communicate with multilingual families.

This feature will become available after back-to-school (post-September) and will initially support only a limited set of languages. For all other languages, ParentSquare will continue to use Google Translate.

CLICK HERE for more information

ParentSquare will be introducing cascading notifications to help reduce duplicate messages and make communication less overwhelming, without sacrificing visibility. Currently, if a school message was sent out, parents may have received both a mobile app notification and a text message, even for the same update. Coming this fall, ParentSquare uses a smarter, app-first approach.

CLICK HERE for more information

Starting in August 2025, ParentSquare is rolling out a new way to send text messages: instead of using a 5-digit short code, most messages will now come from 10-digit local phone numbers. This change will help messages feel more personal and stay better organized in your text messaging app.

CLICK HERE for more information

• 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