On July 1, the Cohoes City School District will transition from Blackboard Connect to ParentSquare, a new communication platform that will allow the district, administrators, and teachers to more effectively communicate with families.
Like Blackboard, ParentSquare is fully integrated with SchoolTool and will be used to send updates to our families via email, text and voice. You likely won’t notice any changes in those features.
So what’s new?
ParentSquare features an app and website, which allows for direct messaging, attendance notifications, sign-ups for parent conferences and classroom events, and direct tracking of forms and permission slips. Additionally, it translates communications into 100 languages and is compliant with the latest student privacy regulations. It will also eliminate the need for parents to download numerous apps to communicate with multiple teachers.
Some of these additional features won’t be immediately available and will be rolled out over the school year. The district and your child’s principal will provide additional communication on the availability of these as they are launched and put to use.
In early July, please be on the lookout for an emailed invitation to activate your ParentSquare account. You can also download the app for your smartphone, as well as register your account to start receiving communications through the ParentSquare app. If you don’t register or use the app, you will still receive district communications via text, email and voice.
If you don’t receive a ParentSquare invite, please go to parentsquare.com/signin and try to sign in with your email and/or phone number on record in SchoolTool. If neither of those work, on the sign-in page, you can fill out a “Request to Join ParentSquare” form. By filling out this form, it will send an email notification to the district ParentSquare team with your request. You may be contacted to provide additional information, so be sure to provide a valid email address and phone number.