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ParentSquare For Staff

 

The ParentSquare logo features a green and white design with a symbol of four connected circles and the text 'ParentSquare'.

 

ParentSquare is a unified communication platform that offers a whole host of tools that allows district, school administrators and teachers to more effectively communicate and engage with families and students. Some features include:

  • Mass notifications and Urgent Alerts
  • Mobile application for administrators and parents (iOS and Android)
  • Attendance notifications
  • Teacher and classroom communication
  • Direct Messaging with two-way translation
  • Social (Facebook and Twitter) and website share 
  • Forms and Permission Slips
  • Appointment Sign Ups (parent-teacher conferences, technology pick-ups) 
  • Calendar and RSVP
  • Volunteering and classroom supply sign-ups

Please use this webpage to help you get oriented to ParentSquare. If you have any questions or want personalized training, please contact Public Information Officer Carrina Stanton at (360) 807-7200 ext. 8229.

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ParentSquare FAQ for Staff

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.”

  • 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.

  • 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 “My Account” in the green drop-down menu under their name. In the column on the left hand side, choose “Language Settings” and then use the drop-down menu to choose their preferred language.

    ParentSquare also offers two-way translation, which means if you are direct messaging with a parent who prefers communicating in a language other than English, you can still send the 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.

  • 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 post 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 list of everyone who received your post, how they received your post and whether it was delivered and whether it was opened.

  • You can easily create appointment sign ups in ParentSquare for activities like conferences that allow you to create a schedule of available times and those receiving the post view all available times and sign up for a time that works best for them. 

    Please make sure to check with your administrator before using this function for conference sign ups to ensure it will not disrupt your building’s protocols.

    CLICK HERE to read about how to create an appointment sign up in ParentSquare.

  • 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.

  • If you teach more than one class of the same name, you may want to change the class group name in ParentSquare to be able to tell them apart and for students and parents to know which class group to join. CLICK HERE for directions on how to rename a class on ParentSquare.

    When making changes to the names of classes, please do not change the course description titles but instead add descriptive titles to distinguish them from one another.

  • If you are a staff member and a parent, multiple accounts will be created for you (if you have a staff email account on your staff record and a personal email address on your parent record).

    ACTION: You have two choices.

    Maintain separate accounts:

    1. A staff member can choose to have two ParentSquare accounts, one with their staff email address used for the teacher/staff account, and a personal email address used for the parent account.
    2. There is no way to be simultaneously logged into two accounts at a time.
      ParentSquare mobile apps only work with one account at a time.
      The ParentSquare web portal only works with one account at a time.
    3. Individuals can optimize their notification settings across the two accounts to reduce the risk of missing any key communications, even if they are not logged in. For example, use the mobile app + push notifications for work, and set up email notifications or text for the parent account.

    Merging accounts:

    1. How to Combine/Merge Accounts
  • ParentSquare uses the data received from the School for the sole purpose of delivering products and services to the School. They do not rent, trade, or sell or otherwise distribute your information to any third parties and will only disclose information when allowed by FERPA and required a) by applicable laws or government orders or b) to maintain and operate our service or c) when authorized by the School.