EMERGENCY MESSAGING

Meeting the Demand

School district administrators face different kinds of emergencies – everything from broken water pipes and weather-related school closing, to missing children and bomb threats. While your current automated callout/messaging system may work well for your day-to-day needs, in an emergency you need to reach parents more quickly. Oftentimes it simply isn’t cost effective to buy hundreds of phone lines just in case there is an emergency. High-quality and timely communication with parents and the community is a major part of any emergency response plan. ParentLink Emergency Messaging Service (EMS) is a cost-effective alternative to investing in additional phone lines and hardware.

The Right Tools

In an emergency situation you need to have easy access to the best tools available. ParentLink Emergency messaging gives you more than just a quick callout; it gives you the ability to prepare and respond to an emergency.

The Solution You Can Trust

ParentLink EMS utilizes the same easy-to-use interface and software tools that current ParentLink users are accustomed to. It also takes advantage of our industry-leading scalability and years of experience to make emergency messaging easier and more effective than ever. List management is also easier because ParentLink EMS can utilize the up-to-date information you are storing on your local ParentLink server or student information system to quickly and accurately reach parents, faculty, and staff during an emergency.

The System That Gets Used

No district ever wants to have an emergency. In effect, by buying an emergency communication solution, you are paying for something you hope you never have to use. With ParentLink EMS your investment leverages ParentLink’s extensive integration with existing school software and can share the same list and data sychronization as ParentLink systems hosted on site. Plus the more you use ParentLink for other uses, the better your emergency contact information will be. To guarantee you’ll be able to use ParentLink EMS, we also let you use the system to make an unlimited number of back-to-school-night and standardized-testing-related messages as well. Your district’s Superintendent will also be able to use ParentLink to send up to two district all calls.

ParentLink EMS Fits Your Needs

This system offers you an intuitive way to send emergency messages from anywhere in just seconds. And ParentLink EMS is fast – reaching all of the parents and students in an average size district in 30 minutes or less. ParentLink EMS also complements the many other ways you might already be using the ParentLink system, such as attendance calls, grade updates, and reminder messages. Districts using ParentLink for day-to-day communication can easily benefit from Emergency Messaging Service using the same data and user interface they are accustomed to using. By using our hosted service for only the most important messages, you will get the best value for your investment. You don’t need to buy more telephone lines and hardware just to have burst capability for emergency use.

How ParentLink EMS Helps

• Alleviates parent fear and frustration by letting them know what’s happening.
• Reaches everyone in a fraction of the time, because nothing is more frustrating than receiving information when it is too late to do anything about it.
• You won’t have to buy more hardware or install onsite software. In addition, no telephone equipment is required because ParentLink EMS is a completely hosted solution.
• Traditionally, emergency notification requires a lot of people, a lot of time, and a lot of resources. ParentLink EMS frees resources so that you can shift from emergency response to emergency recovery.

Creating an Emergency Plan

ParentLink gives you tools to implement a comprehensive emergency management plan. Being able to call every parent quickly is very important, but it’s only a small piece of a comprehensive emergency management plan. Many districts have built their emergency plans based on the recommendations made by the U.S. Department of Education. ParentLink Emergency Messaging can help you with all four stages - response, recovery, preparedness, and mitigation/prevention. For more information about the U.S. Department of Education’s recommended emergency plan, visit www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/emergencyplan, or visit http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/crisisplanning.html to download a copy of “Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide For Schools And Communities.”