In 2017, Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD (CFBISD) began looking for possible replacements for existing classroom apps in use, ones that could streamline their operations, provide oversight of all communications, and also adhere to their district’s privacy requirements. In 2018, CFBISD adopted ParentSquare.
CFBISD, as well as their individual campuses, departments and teachers, send phone, text, email and app notifications to parents through a single platform. Parents have one place to go for school-to-home communications, while CFBISD gains oversight of communication from the district to the classroom, ensures compliance and saves time.
Simplifying Background Checks for Parents, Schools, and the District Office
Before ParentSquare, CFBISD used a separate volunteer management platform to handle the many volunteer background checks that need to happen every year. The process was time-consuming for both staff and parents. Staff needed to manually verify who was background checked and who wasn’t. Parents had to not only figure out one more system, but also had to print out and bring their background check confirmation with them to school when they volunteered.
ParentSquare worked with CFBISD to fully integrate the background check process into their parent platform. Parents now go to their existing ParentSquare account to start their background check — no additional login required. Their background check form is prefilled with existing information, if they are listed in the SIS. (Community volunteers not listed in the SIS need not worry. They can still use ParentSquare for background checks with a custom form.) ParentSquare handles submission of the form to the background check provider, and when results come back, the volunteer record is updated immediately.
The same ParentSquare platform handles volunteer sign ups: only those parents and volunteers who have completed their background check are allowed to volunteer — for everyone else, sign ups are greyed out.