For educators, students and families alike, returning to a scholastic schedule after summer break is always an adjustment. On top of academic and extracurricular demands, potential unknowns like emergency building maintenance, COVID variants, severe weather and threats of violence create another layer of difficulty.
Keeping everyone calm, providing an atmosphere of stability and modeling resilience – those are tough asks for educators and administrators. Effective communications are at the core of it all. The ability to reliably reach faculty, students and their families under all circumstances and deliver clear, concise instructions is vital.
An efficient mass notification system can help your school ensure everyone stays informed and connected this academic year. School and district officials can send alerts, messages and notifications to multiple groups of people instantly for improved engagement, safety and health.
Ready for your crash course in mass communication?
3 Ways a Mass Notification System Can Help Keep Your School in Sync
1. Keep the Daily Schedule Running on Time
Classes, testing, homework, grading, bus schedules, drop-off and pick-up zones, lunch fees, the holiday calendar, extracurricular activities, parent-teacher conferences – does the list ever end? Academic administrators have a very busy schedule. To keep everything and everyone on the same page, you need to be able to communicate quickly and easily with staff, students and parents.
A user-friendly mass texting service keeps everyone connected. Mass communication is a convenient way to exchange information to ensure overlapping events, academic requirements and health and safety drills all result in a balanced equation. With one intuitive interface, you can make announcements, send reminders and request volunteers in just a few clicks. A modern system lets administrators:
- Create contact groups based on role, activity and a range of other factors.
- Automate sequential calling for substitute teachers.
- Set up automated attendance calls and communicate reminders.
Simple, Automated Mass Notifications for Schools
Discover how simple, automated mass notification technology can help protect and inform your school community.
2. Protect the Safety and Health of Staff and the Student Body
Your student body isn’t the only thing to fill the school hallways in the fall. As everyone is back in close physical proximity, various strains of colds, the flu and COVID also make their return to class. By keeping faculty, students and families up to date on health safety protocols, you can minimize the spread of illness and promote a hale and hearty educational environment. Updated guidelines to maintain safe operations are available from the CDC as well as a host of state and local resources.
Should circumstances give rise to remote learning, mass text messaging lets everyone know the status so learning can continue uninterrupted.
A mass texting service is also invaluable during emergencies. At a time when school violence is a major concern, having a mass communication system in place to rapidly inform and protect students, faculty and parents goes a long way to building confidence and providing reassurance. To keep everyone safe and informed, look for a system that lets you:
- Pre-create templates for anticipated events, such as delayed openings during inclement weather.
- Outline instructions for evacuation routes and procedures during emergencies.
- Engage two-way communications during evolving situations.
- Gather feedback via real-time polling of staff and parents.
3. Set the Standard for Efficiency and Savings
Effective communications do more than keep your students and parents informed and engaged. It can also save time and money when it comes to routine and time-consuming tasks like tracking down low account balances and overdue lunch fees.
The right mass notification system will provide a range of options, including the ability to:
- Sort, track and send requests and reminders for payments due, fundraisers and other school events.
- Enable recipients to set their own preferences for:
- Language (translation should be available in a range of languages)
- Modality (text, voicemail, email or push notification)
- Device (landline, smartphone, laptop or desktop)
- Prompt users to keep their contact information current via the self-update portal
- Review a record of all prior communications any time with an audit trail feature
Earn Straight "A"s in Mass Text Messaging
K-12 schools have one of the most important missions in the country, at one of the hardest times in human history. In today’s educational environment, adaptability is the most important part of a comprehensive back-to-school plan.
A mass notification system integrated with your student information system provides your school with the flexibility needed to handle everyday challenges, uncertainties and emergencies of all kinds. Download our guide to learn more about how OnSolve technology can get your students, families and faculty set up for a successful school year.
