Starting this fall, Trinity is implementing a new form of communication called “ParentSquare,” or, in a student’s case, “StudentSquare.” Accessible via Chromebooks, cellphones, or any other devices, it is a useful tool for parents to keep in touch with staff and students and vice versa.
Founded in 2011 by Sohit Wahdhwa, ParentSquare didn’t launch its official product until 2014. Developed with feedback from schools, the app offers many benefits for both families at home and teachers at school. Although the site has always been quite successful, it truly took off during the COVID-19 Pandemic. COVID rapidly increased the need for school-to-home communication, leading parents and teachers straight to ParentSquare.
Director of Technology & Innovation, Dr. Shinsky, stated, “We are really excited. Our district mission is to create a connection between the school and parents, and this will definitely help with that.”
Amongst the many functions and uses of the app, there are a few that parents will utilize the most.
One feature on the app is the “Virtual Phone,” which allows teachers and staff to call families without using a personal phone number. Another interesting feature that normal websites and apps don’t offer is a “Classroom Wishlist.” This provides teachers with a way to communicate with families about the things that they might need in their classroom.
Shinsky commented, “It’s a two-way communication platform, so both sides can initiate conversation. Unlike ‘Skylert,’ which sent out blast calls that parents couldn’t respond to, parents and students can both leave comments or questions that can be answered quickly by teachers.”
What makes ParentSquare different from Google Classroom, Remind, or a Facebook Group is that it’s directly connected to Skyward. Parents can access their account by logging in with the email address they provided to the school, which is also the contact email on Skyward. After that, parents should be automatically connected to the teachers, classes and schools they need to be.
Another unique thing about ParentSquare is that information from every school that their children are in, whether it be intermediate, high school, middle school, or elementary school, parents can see all updates in one place. And ParentSquare isn’t only for schools: booster clubs, athletic teams and the parent-teacher association can all send out reminders that show up on the homepage. This makes information easier to keep track of and can take a lot of stress off the parents.
High school Counselor Mr. Poletti shared, “It’ll help communication because the longer we are using one system, people will get more comfortable and it’ll be more effective as time goes on.”
Even with all these features available, ParentSquare is still planning on providing more helpful highlights to the app. In the fall of this year, ParentSquare is beginning an AI translation feature powered by Google Gemini, supporting over 100 languages.
Parents, teachers and students alike are definitely looking forward to utilizing ParentSquare and StudentSquare to simplify communication and have a good school year!
