PARENTLINK

Communicate With Your Community

From the leader in school-to-home communication comes a powerful messaging system that meets the unique communication needs of school districts. Today’s school districts are charged with improving student achievement. This requires involving parents and the community to be successful. How well districts publicize their efforts and results to the community has a tremendous impact on public perception of the district. ParentLink is an easy-to-use tool that gets important information to the people who need it, when and where it is needed. This product provides easy-to-use two-way communication so that busy administrators can get information into the hands of those who need it and gather the feedback that is essential to their success.

Easy Integration

For the first time all stakeholders in a child’s education can have meaningful two-way communication with teachers and school administrators. The ParentLink school-to-home communication system gives school districts the ability to do more than simply post information to a web page. Districts can easily add this capability to their existing web site without the need to change their existing look and feel. By simply adding a link to their web page, districts can allow access to important information and greatly increase both parent and community involvement in their schools.

Equal Access to Student Information

National studies show that under 50% of households in the United States are connected to the Internet, and in many of those homes it is not used by the parents. This means that while the Internet is a quick and easy way to make information available, it needs to be supplemented by other media to reach everyone. ParentLink makes sure that everyone gets the message by making information available via the Internet, telephone, and printed letters. This allows parents to be informed, regardless of their personal situation.

Speak Their Language

Recent studies show that many households speak a language other than English. This means that even when important information reaches parents, many of them are not able to understand it. All standard messages are automatically created in English and Spanish, and “Custom Recorded” messages can be created and sent in any language. ParentLink tracks the preferred language of each household and delivers messages in that language to each location. All an administrator has to do is create the message and send it.

Let Parents Talk Back

Two-way communication is key to getting parents involved in their student’s education. ParentLink provides Voice Message boxes for faculty and staff, an anonymous tip-line, and customizable surveys to allow parents and others to be heard. When parents are given the opportunity to be heard, involvement increases and attitudes remain positive.

No Missed Messages

Some parents miss messages because of long or unusual work schedules. With this tool, hard-to-reach parents enter their phone numbers and e-mail addresses and set schedules. This allows messages to reach them no matter what their schedule. Other parents take advantage of 24-hour inbound access to messages from any touch-tone telephone or computer with Internet access. This allows them to listen to messages that were sent to them - even when they are not at home!

Messages That Meet Your Needs

Record your own custom messages - in any language - to notify your parents of upcoming events such as:

• Volunteer opportunities
• Parent-Teacher conferences
• PTA/PTO meetings
• and more!

ParentLink can be used for emergency messages, voice bulletin board for inbound phone access, athletic event announcements, positive performance messages, discipline concerns, and any other message your school district needs.

Automated Messaging

In addition to custom messages, ParentLink can automatically create and send a long list of messages that come standard with every ParentLink system. Here is a sample of some of the messages you'll get with ParentLink:

• Attendance Message
• Custom Message
• Emergency Messages
• Reminder for Report Cards
• Reminder for Mid-Term Grades
• Reminder for Progress Reports
• Reminder for Standardized Testing Day
• Reminder for PTA/PTO Meeting
• Reminder for Back-to-School Night
• Reminder for Field Trip Permission Slip
• Reminder for Free/Reduced Lunch Eligibility
• Reminder for Parent/Teacher Conferences

Technology That Grows With You

ParentLink is built on the latest technology and has been proven to provide years of reliable service. Its web-based administration is simple to use through any Internet-enabled computer. ParentLink’s unique architecture allows ParentLink to easily scale up as your district grows. No need to buy another system, so you’ll never be caught unprepared.

Working With Limited Resources

The benefits that the ParentLink appliance provides are available to you without the added costs of new computer equipment or management overhead. In addition ParentLink Appliance comes with our highest levels of support, putting our years of experience to work for you.

More ParentLink Benefits

ParentLink is a comprehensive communication tool for educators that does more than simply autodial to a list of phone numbers. Here are some more reasons you'll love what ParentLink does for you:

• Voice disguised tip line
• School and District Announcements
• Do not call list
• Tracks multiple phone numbers per user
• E-mail messaging
• Pre-recorded reminder messages
• SIF compliant
• Web administration
• Multi-lingual messasging
• Comprehensive reporting
• Automated Letters

Get Parents On Your Side

Shrinking budgets and rising expectations are forcing school districts to make many changes in policies and programs. The districts that successfully communicate these changes, along with the vision behind them, are the ones that win the public perception battle. ParentLink makes it possible to have great communication without draining your existing resources.

ParentLink Means Parent Involvement

Years of research confirms that when parents get involved children improve their academic performance, attend school more regularly, have a better attitude about education, and are more likely to graduate. These are some of the reasons that stakeholders in the education process are making increasing demands on schools and districts. Both communities and the government are tightening the standard of education. In addition to growing pressure, schools still struggle to reach every parent due to language barriers, parents' work schedules, and limited staff and technical resources.

Meeting the Demand

For over fifteen years schools and school districts have been using ParentLink to overcome barriers to communicating with parents, and improving parent involvement. Districts that want all the power of ParentLink, but don't want to worry about purchasing and managing servers and phone lines can take advantage of ParentLink.

Reaching Across Cultural Barriers

Now all of your staff and administration have unlimited access to reach every parent, in the parents' language. Important messages such as attendance or grade notification are automatically sent in a language that the parent can understand.

Accommodating Parent Schedules

Today's parents are busier than ever, and reaching them at home can be tricky. ParentLink empowers parents to determine how and when the school is most likely to reach them with important information.

Working With Limited Resources

The benefits that ParentLink provides are available to you without the added costs of new computer and telephone equipment, or additional phone lines into your building. In addition ParentLink also comes with our highest levels of support, putting our years of experience to work for you.

Creating an Open Dialogue

True two-way communication between schools and families has never been easier than with ParentLink. By using telephone, E-mail, and internet messages you give parents the tools to help their children in school. Let ParentLink help you reach out to all of your parents and get parents involved.