ParentSquare is a unified communication platform that offers a host of tools that allows district, school administrators, and teachers to more effectively communicate and engage with families and students. Some features include:
Mass notifications and Urgent Alerts with two-way communication
Mobile application for administrators and parents (iOS and Android)
Attendance notifications
Teacher and classroom communication
Direct Messaging with two-way translation
Forms and Permission Slips
Appointment Sign Ups (parent-teacher conferences, technology pick-ups)
Calendar and RSVP
Volunteering and classroom sign-ups
And so much more!
All staff members are connected to ParentSquare through their Framingham Public Schools Gmail accounts.
From a web browser, simply visit ParentSquare's website, then click "Sign in with Google."
We also encourage all staff to download the ParentSquare smartphone app from the Apple Store or Google Play.
You will receive notifications from FPS even if you do not download the ParentSquare app.
Please make sure you adjust your notification settings to control how often you receive message alerts.
Start by clicking ‘New Post’ button to send any message to your class/grade. Send plain messages, events, volunteer requests or share pictures and files.
On ‘New Post’ page, use the language translation option to automatically send messages in two languages to parents: English and their home language.
Click ‘# Notified’ next to the eye at the bottom of the post to make sure your post reached every single student family in your class. If a parent does not have an email address, they are automatically sent a text. Parents can also download the app.
Have questions? Click the question mark in the top right corner of the desktop version or the Help tab on the app (tap the triple bar icon at the top left), and select ‘Help Articles’ to find answers to most of your questions.
If you are a school principal or administrator of the school's ParentSquare account, you can send an activation reminder to parents/caregivers or staff who have not activated their ParentSquare accounts. Any parent/caregiver, staff member, or student in grades 9-12 can simply log into ParentSquare using their FPS Gmail account to get started. Go to parentsquare.com then click "sign in with Google."
Staff must update their contact information in Aspen / X2. You cannot update this information directly in ParentSquare. It will take 24 hours for the information to update itself in ParentSquare.
Go to parentsquare.com
On the login page click “Forgot Password.”
Put in your email or phone number and you will be sent a link to reset your password.
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.
From Home, tap the Menu (triple bars) on the top left.
Select Account.
Select Notifications.
Use the toggle to turn on or odd notifications by email, text, and app.
Select Instant or Digest for email, text, or app.
From Home, click your name in the top-right corner and select My Account.
Select Notification Settings on the left.
Choose your preferred Notification Settings for General Announcements & Messages (Off, Instant or Digest) and School Alerts (On or Off).
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
You can enable office hours to let people know the best times you can be reached via Direct Messaging.
Staff, parents or students who initiate a direct message with a staff user, who is currently outside of office hours, will be informed that the recipient may not respond until 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. And, the recipient can choose to reply while out of office.
Click your name in top right and select My Account from drop-down.
Select Office Hours and click Enable Office Hours.
Enter time and select days that you will be available to respond to direct messages.
Click Save.
You will continue to receive messages outside of office hours, but the sender will be informed that you are currently out of office and may not respond until office hours resume.
From ParentSquare mobile app, tap the three bars in the upper left, tap Account on left, and then Preferences.
Tap Office Hours.
Tap Enable Office Hours button to turn on (or off).
Select hours and days that you will be available.
Students are automatically added to your class through Aspen / X2. Any changes made to your class list in WAspen / X2 should be reflected in ParentSquare the following day.
Teachers have the ability to create groups with students who are not in their class.
Visit Groups > New Group > New Static Group or New Auto-Update Group.
From here you can create the group and choose a name and description for your group, as well as whether or not you want the group to be public or private.
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.
When you are finished click Save at the bottom.
From Admin, select Classes under Data Assistant.
Click 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.
Click Add Row, fill out details and click Save.
Here is an article about best practices for teachers working in tandem with the same class.
ParentSquare has a lot of options to make your posts more visually appealing.
As a staff member and a parent, you will be able to have both your staff contacts and your parent contacts linked to the same account. If you do so, parents will not be able to 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.
If you already have the same phone listed on your staff and parent accounts, your accounts can be easily linked. 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 will be required to 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.
Click on your name on the top right corner and go to “My Account.”
On the right hand side, you’ll see a yellow box that says “Missing kids, schools or contact info? Combine with another account.”
Click the link and follow the steps.
Click the menu (three bars on the top left corner)
Choose “Account”
Click “Combine Accounts” under “Missing kids, schools or contact info?”
For more information, view this help article (log-in required).
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.
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 help article on Direct Messaging.
Select Messages from the left sidebar on the homepage.
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.
If you select more than one recipient, the choice will come up to have it as a private message or a group message. A private message will create individual threads to 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.
Click New Post and create a post about your class project.
Then, in the left sidebar you can select both Ask for Items and Request Volunteers.
Input the items you need and how many as well as how many volunteers you need and what activities they will be doing.
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.
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.
Go to the post with the sign up.
In the post, click Add Someone under the Sign Up button next to the time slot or item.
Search for the user, highlight their name and click Save!
Don’t forget to consult ParentSquare’s Help Pages with any other questions you have!