Your school website is often the first impression prospective families, new staff, and the broader community will have of your district. That’s why it’s essential to create websites that are not only beautiful and user-friendly but also tell a powerful story and reflect the unique culture of your schools.
Traditional school websites can be time-consuming to build and maintain. District leaders are often left juggling outdated systems or disconnected tools. ParentSquare Smart Sites changes that.
Smart Sites is a modern school website solution built specifically for K-12 districts. As part of the ParentSquare platform, it provides ADA-compliant, beautifully branded designs that help districts reclaim time, strengthen consistency, and build lasting community engagement.
At a Glance: Why Districts Choose Smart Sites
- Time-saving: Update websites in minutes with drag-and-drop editing.
- Consistent branding: Manage all school and district sites from one dashboard.
- Accessible design: Built-in ADA compliance aligned with WCAG 2.1 Level AA, including AI-generated alt text, accessible navigation, and compliant design standards.
- Multilingual support: Google translation (and premium translation add-ons through Weglot).
- Part of ParentSquare: Manage communication and websites together in one platform.
Designed for simplicity and efficiency
Legacy website systems often require coding knowledge or complex workflows just to update a calendar, upload a newsletter, or post an announcement. The result is hours lost on basic updates that could be spent on more impactful family engagement initiatives.
ParentSquare Smart Sites eliminates these bottlenecks with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface and thoughtfully crafted K-12 design options. Updates take minutes, not hours. As part of the ParentSquare platform, your posts, alerts, and events can be shared across your website and communication channels at the same time.
“We have people at different technology skill levels touching the website. It was very easy to train everyone on how to do everything from quick text updates to more involved tasks.”
—Lisa Jones, Communications Specialist, Oak Harbor Public Schools
Unified platform, consistent branding
When each school manages its site independently, branding can become inconsistent, and district messages get diluted. Smart Sites solves this by giving district leaders centralized oversight while still empowering schools with the flexibility to manage their own content.
From one dashboard, districts can approve content before publishing, update shared content, and ensure consistent branding and messaging across every school site. Granular permissions make it easy for the right people to contribute without compromising quality or compliance.
Accessibility and ADA compliance made simple
Building accessible school websites isn’t just a best practice, it’s a legal requirement. Districts must ensure that every family has equitable access to information, communication, and services. Falling short can create barriers for users, increase the risk of OCR complaints, and lead to a poor user experience for the broader school community.
Smart Sites helps districts meet accessibility standards from day one. All websites are designed in alignment with WCAG 2.1 Level AA requirements, with built-in guardrails that guide staff as they create content. Smart Sites designs use appropriate font sizes, line height, and color contrast. The platform requires alt text for all non-decorative images, with the option to use AI-generated descriptions for consistency and time savings. Families can also navigate Smart Sites via keyboard, screen reader, or other assistive technologies, ensuring access for all.
Accessibility also supports engagement. Smart Sites makes it easy to share posts directly to your website and embed social media feeds, so your sites remain dynamic and current while still meeting compliance needs.
Website translation to engage every family
Family engagement starts with inclusivity, and for many districts that means reaching families in their preferred language. Some traditional website solutions require third-party plug-ins or manual uploads to share translated content, which adds extra tasks for communications staff and can cause security or performance issues.
Smart Sites makes it simple to offer multilingual websites. As part of the ParentSquare platform, Smart Sites supports website translation through a partnership with Weglot, a trusted leader in translation technology.
With Weglot as an add-on, districts gain:
- Premium translation features to translate, display, and manage multilingual websites with ease.
- A live preview editor to control and refine translated content.
- A customizable glossary to ensure consistent use of key terms across all pages.
How it works
- Connect Weglot to Smart Sites for a fully translated and displayed website.
- Automatic content detection scans new text, images, and SEO metadata, replacing the need for manual updates.
- Improve workflows by inviting translators, assigning tasks, and collaborating directly in your Weglot dashboard.
This add-on keeps inclusivity at the core of your digital communications strategy, ensuring every family has the opportunity to stay connected with your district.
As part of the ParentSquare platform
Smart Sites works hand in hand with ParentSquare, making it possible to manage websites and family engagement in one place. From alerts and events to newsletters and announcements, content can be published simultaneously to web and social channels. This eliminates the hassle of switching between tools.
Because Smart Sites includes dedicated design services and ongoing support, your district doesn’t need outside vendors. You’ll have everything required to showcase your schools, build relationships, and grow your digital presence in one solution.
“Our website isn’t just a place for information, it’s a vital part of how we tell our story. We needed a platform that could support our brand, attract new families and teachers, and give every campus the tools to show what makes them unique. With Smart Sites, we finally have that, and it’s all integrated into the platform our community already relies on for school-home communication.”
—Maria Iftikhar, Manager, Information & Communications, Seminole County Public Schools
The bottom line: ParentSquare Smart Sites saves time
The cost of a traditional school website adds up fast. The process to create and manage content, audit and fix accessibility issues, translate text, and align branding and messaging across multiple school sites is a full-time job in itself, keeping communications staff from focusing their energy on family engagement.
With Smart Sites, districts gain a time-saving school website solution that is part of the centralized, easy-to-use ParentSquare platform they already use to strengthen family engagement.
Ready to spend less time managing your website and more time connecting with your community? Learn more about Smart Sites today.
Smart Sites FAQ
What is a school website solution?
A school website solution is a platform that helps districts design, manage, and update websites quickly, often with features like ADA compliance, templates, and translation options.
How does ParentSquare Smart Sites save time?
Smart Sites eliminates coding and manual updates by offering drag-and-drop editing and shared publishing across websites and communication channels as part of the ParentSquare platform.
Is Smart Sites ADA compliant?
Yes. Smart Sites includes built-in accessibility guardrails aligned with WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards to help districts comply with new ADA Title II rules.
Does Smart Sites support multilingual websites?
Yes. Districts can add multilingual support through ParentSquare’s partnership with Weglot, which provides premium translation features, a live preview editor, and a customizable glossary.
How do Smart Sites support district branding?
Smart Sites give districts centralized oversight while empowering schools to manage their own content. From one dashboard, leaders can update shared content, approve edits, and ensure consistent branding across every school and district site.
