District Hits 99.6% Contactability for School-Home Communications with ParentSquare
Belton Independent School District (TX)
Challenge
- Multiple legacy tools with limited functionality
- No built-in language translation
- Low teacher control over direct parent messaging
Solution
- Implemented ParentSquare
- Enabled automatic multilingual communication
- Empowered teachers with direct parent engagement tools
Results
- High Contactability Rate: 99.6% of parents reachable, a significant improvement over legacy platforms.
- Automated Multilingual Translation: Eliminates manual translation, instantly supports home languages.
- Enhanced Teacher Autonomy: Direct messaging capabilities for teachers, no administrative bottleneck.
- Real-Time Parent Engagement Insights: Immediate feedback on parent engagement levels.
Belton Independent School District in Texas was using a communications tool for sharing school-related information until it realized the platform’s limitations and began exploring modern options. Teachers had little control over the communications that were being sent out, the platform had no automatic language translation capabilities and offered limited features and functionalities.
Name
Belton Independent School District (TX)
Type
District of 20 schools serving grades Pre-K - 12
Students
14,000
Location
Belton, TX
Candice Griffin, communications director, started looking for better options and found what she was looking for in ParentSquare’s school-home communications platform, which was put in place in June 2024. Since then, the district has been phasing out its use of its legacy tool in favor of the more robust, feature-rich ParentSquare platform.
“Teachers were frustrated with the lack of control over the communications, and immediately liked ParentSquare for how user-friendly it was; making the switch was completely worth it,” says Griffin, who especially likes the platform’s extensive translation capabilities.
“It used to take us so much time to translate using their previous tool, which still required someone to double-check everything (in the translated language) before we could hit send,” says Griffin. “I don’t have to waste time on all that anymore. I can just send it out in English and trust that the recipient will get it in their home language.”
“With ParentSquare we have had incredible customer service from the very beginning. We have all been catfished by vendors at one point or another—meaning they will sell you until you purchase their product—and they are nowhere to be found after the sale. I have been so grateful for our partnership with ParentSquare.”
Candice Griffin
communications director
Everyone is Opening their Messages
Since putting ParentSquare in place, Belton ISD has seen its contactability rate increase to 99.6%, which means more parents, families and guardians are receiving, opening and interacting with the messaging than ever before. “We didn’t have such clean numbers when we had the previous software,” says Griffin.
The impressive contactability rates can also be traced back to the teachers themselves, who can easily send more engaging, useful communications than before. “In the past, teachers had to ask a district administrator or other staff member to send communications out on their behalf,” says Griffin. “Now with ParentSquare, they can reach out to a grade level, a specific classroom, or some other targeted group of recipients. We’re empowering teachers to become self-sufficient and resourceful, allowing them greater control over their teaching environment and collaboration with their student’s families.”
The platform also empowers parents by opening up the lines of communication with teachers, administrators and staff. Teachers can see what parents appreciate and engage with and know what their audience wants to see more of. “We know right away what they are and aren’t interested in,” says Griffin, who likes being able to discreetly turn comments on and off depending on the feedback and subject at hand (e.g., should the feedback take on an excessively negative turn).
“I like to keep an ear to the street and see what parents are engaging with, and ParentSquare lets me do that very easily,” she adds. Recently, for example, the district used the platform to share the details of a few staffing changes. “We were able to see just how much the recipients appreciated that type of communication, and that was huge for us because we’ve never communicated like that before,” Griffin explains. “Moving forward, we’ll use the same approach whenever important updates need to be shared.”
This front-end-loaded news strategy also helps head off misinformation or “rumor mills” that may spin up on social media. “We want them to come to us for information,” says Griffin, “and know that if they didn’t get the news through ParentSquare that it may not have even happened.”
Making the Switch Paid Off
Change is never easy, but Belton ISD took a few early steps to ensure high ParentSquare usage across its 20 schools. For example, it rolled out a “roadshow” to introduce all campuses to the new platform and allowed each one to pick a time that worked best for them. Then, members of the district’s communications and technology teams went out to the campuses and held 30-minute sessions on ParentSquare and how to use it.
“There was always at least one communicator and at least one IT team member at the roadshow,” says Griffin. “That combination was great because there are always going to be some tech questions that come up that the communicator may not know about, and some strategy queries that IT may not be able to answer.”
The district also made sure everyone could log into the system, which helped streamline the onboarding process. Additionally, Belton ISD proactively provided clear information about ParentSquare’s features, instructions for use and emphasized how the platform serves as a centralized hub for all school-home communications.
Griffin also emphasized the platform’s translation capabilities, knowing that this function alone would save everyone a lot of time and frustration. “Our teachers got pretty excited about being able to talk to their students’ parents in their native languages,” says Griffin.
Teachers and parents also liked having control over notification settings in an era where information is coming at everyone from many different directions and on multiple devices. “Decision fatigue was very real for us,” she adds, “so ParentSquare came at a very good time.”
“Teachers and parents also liked having control over notification settings in an era where information is coming at everyone from many different directions and on multiple devices. “Decision fatigue was very real for us,” she adds, “so ParentSquare came at a very good time.”
Candice Griffin
communications director
Just Take the Leap
To other districts ready to shed their current school-home communications strategies in favor of a unified, modern approach, Griffin says, “just take the leap because it’s totally worth it.
Griffin continued, “With ParentSquare we have had incredible customer service from the very beginning. We have all been catfished by vendors at one point or another—meaning they will sell you until you purchase their product—and they are nowhere to be found after the sale. I have been so grateful for our partnership with ParentSquare.”
As for kicking off the implementation, Griffin recommends that schools start with a few “teasers” about the new platform and some videos showing what it can do. Then use a roadshow or another method to roll out the actual platform to individual campuses.
Then, brace yourself for a lot of positive feedback as teachers embrace and use the new technology. “Our teachers love the freedom to go into ParentSquare and do what they need to do without having to ask for help,” says Griffin. “They also love the ease of it. Sometimes adopting new software is complicated, but ParentSquare is very user-friendly.”
