ParentSquare (Teacher)

If you do not want to be notified of all messages instantly, we advise you to change your notification settings.

You have three options for how often you receive notifications on the platform via text, app alert, or email:

• Instant: Receive all messages instantly
• Digest: Receive all messages together in one daily communication around 6 PM.*
• Off: No notifications are sent.*

*Please note: Regardless of your notification settings, you will continue to receive emergency notifications instantly. These notifications can be sent in the following ways: 1) A “Post” that is set to send immediately; 2) A Smart Alert or 3) An Urgent Alert. In addition, Direct Messages can still be received.

Note: you cannot turn off Urgent Alerts & Notices; this includes attendance notices.

Change Notification Settings on Mobile App

1. From Home, tap the Menu (triple bars) on the top left.
2. Select Account.
3. Select Notifications.
4. Use the toggle to turn on or odd notifications by email, text, and app.
5. Select Instant or Digest for email, text, or app.

Change Notification Settings on Web Browser

1. From Home, click your name in the top-right corner and select My Account.
2. Select Notification Settings on the left.
3. Choose your preferred Notification Settings for General Announcements & Messages (Off, Instant or Digest) and School Alerts (On or Off).

Help Article About Notification Settings

Staff, parents, or students who initiate a direct message with a staff user outside of office hours will be informed that the recipient may only respond once office hours resume. Note: If you send a message to someone outside of their office hours, the message will still be delivered when you click send. The recipient can choose to reply while out of the office.

Set Office Hours via the Website

1. Click your name at the top right and select My Account from the drop-down.
2. Select Office Hours and click Enable Office Hours.
3. Enter the time and select days that you will be available to respond to direct messages. 
4. Click Save. 
5. You will continue to receive messages outside of office hours, but the sender will be informed that you are currently out of the office and may not respond until office hours resume.

Set Office Hours Using Mobile App

1. From the ParentSquare mobile app, tap the three bars in the upper left, tap Account on the left, and then Preferences.
2. Tap Office Hours.
3. Tap Enable Office Hours button to turn on (or off).
4. Select hours and days that you will be available.

Help article on office hours.

1. From Admin, select Classes under Data Assistant.
2. Click the action menu (three dots) next to the class and choose Manage Class Staff. Manage Class Staff allows you to add other Teachers, Room Parents, or Assistants.
3. Click Add Row, fill out the details, and click Save.

Here is an article about best practices for teachers working in tandem with the same class.

Teachers have the ability to create groups with students who are not in their class.

1. Visit Groups > New Group > New Static Group or New Auto-Update Group.
2. From here, you can create the group, choose a name and description for your group, and decide whether or not you want the group to be public or private.
3. At the bottom, you can add your members by searching for them and checking the box next to the names of the individuals you would like to add.
4. When you are finished, click Save at the bottom.

Here is a help article on creating a group.

Teachers have the ability to create groups with students who are not in their class.

1. Visit Groups > New Group > New Static Group or New Auto-Update Group.
2. From here, you can create the group, choose a name and description for your group, and decide whether or not you want the group to be public or private.
3. At the bottom, you can add your members by searching for them and checking the box next to the names of the individuals you would like to add.
4. When you are finished, click Save at the bottom.

Here is a help article on creating a group.

You cannot update this information directly in ParentSquare. Please have the front desk update your contact information in PowerSchool. It will take 24 hours for the information to update itself in ParentSquare.

You should be using the sign in with Google option.

You may notice that your class names are long or confusing. You can rename your classes however you wish to make it clear for yourself and parents. Here are the instructions: How to Rename a Class

Students are automatically added to your class through PowerSchool. Any changes made to your class list should be reflected in ParentSquare the following day.

ParentSquare has a lot of options to make your posts more visually appealing.

From Home > New Post drop-down > Appointment Sign Ups and input the information according to your preferences, deleting any time slots that don’t work for you. To complete the post, in the To field, select the classes and groups that you want to sign up.

Here is a help article on appointment/conference sign ups.

If you would like to contact a few of your parents/guardians without posting to the entire class, use the Direct Messages feature.

Here is a helpful article on Direct Messaging.

1. Select Messages from the left sidebar on the homepage.
2. Here, you can select either a single parent to message or multiple parents. Just begin typing their name in the recipient field, and they will appear as an option.
3. If you select more than one recipient, you can choose to have it as a private message or a group message. A private message will create individual threads for each recipient, whereas a group message will create one thread where all recipients can communicate.

ParentSquare offers the capability to ask for both parent/guardian volunteers and items.

1. Click New Post and create a post about your class project.
2. Then, in the left sidebar you can select both Ask for Items and Request Volunteers.
3. Input the items you need and how many as well as how many volunteers you need and what activities they will be doing.
4. Once you are finished, click Post Now and watch your sign-up fill up.

Here is a help article on creating sign ups and volunteer lists.

Can I manually add a parent/guardian to a sign-up? 

Yes, if you have parents/guardians who have contacted you about a sign up but have not signed up in ParentSquare, you can add these users manually.

1. Go to the post with the sign up.
2. In the post, click Add Someone under the Sign Up button next to the time slot or item.
3. Search for the user, highlight their name and click Save!

Yes, ParentSquare will be the preferred way to share class information, replacing tools like Remind or GroupMe.

PowerSchool email will still work, but ParentSquare is our new go-to platform for all academic communications.

• ParentSquare ensures our communication aligns with the latest legal requirements. It’s a school-approved platform, so please discontinue other digital communication methods like Remind or GroupMe. Student email and Canvas communication, like inbox and grade feedback, are still approved.  It is important to note that all communications need to be academic-related.

Experts for Board Policy DHAC  “All e-contacts with students should be through the district’s school-approved platform.”  “Electronic or digital communication” includes, but is not limited to, emails, text messages, instant messages, direct messages, social media messages, messages sent through software applications, and any other electronic or digital means of communication.” School personnel engaging in electronic or digital communication with an individual student shall include the student’s parent or guardian in any electronic or digital communication, unless such communication is on a school- approved platform and related to school and academic communications. The only exception to this requirement may be made in case of an emergency, subject to subsequent notification to the parent or guardian. School employees shall make reasonable efforts to use school-approved platforms, systems, or applications that allow automatic inclusion of parents or guardians in communications with students.”

Yes, As a staff member and a parent, you can have your staff and parent contacts linked to the same account. If you do so, parents cannot see your personal contact information.

If you have a district-issued staff email on your staff record and a personal email address on your parent record, multiple accounts may have been created for you.

Your accounts can be easily linked if you already have the same phone listed on your staff and parent accounts. The accounts will merge automatically once you complete the verification process and confirm both accounts. After this, both emails will be listed on your account, but you must use your staff email to log in.

If you already have separate registered accounts under different emails/phones, you can use the Combine Account option to merge them together.

Combining accounts on a web browser

1. Click on your name in the top right corner and select “My Account.”
2. On the right-hand side, you’ll see a yellow box that says “Missing kids, schools, or contact info? Combine with another account.”
3. Click the link and follow the steps.

Combining accounts on the app

1. Click the Menu (three bars on the top left corner)
2. Choose “Account”
3. Click “Combine Accounts” under “Missing kids, schools, or contact info?”

For more information, view this help article (log-in required).

Yes, so long as it is academic-related. All messages will be automatically saved and searchable.

The default is a daily digest. At around 7 PM, parents will receive a digest of all daily posts via text, email, and push notifications.