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Piscataway schools to launch ParentSquare districtwide; first-year cost disclosed
Summary
Piscataway leaders said they will launch ParentSquare next week as a unified communications platform that offers email, text, push notifications and automatic multi-language translation. Administrators said attendance messages will transition and the first-year price was cited at $54,000, dropping to $43,000 in subsequent years.
The Piscataway Township School District plans to roll out ParentSquare next week as its primary district-to-family communications platform, district staff told the Board of Education April 19.
Mr. Gary Miller, who led the demonstration for the platform, said ParentSquare will consolidate routine school and district messages into an individualized post feed and a mobile app, and that parents may receive messages via email, text, voice or push notification depending on their preferences. "Launching this next week is our new District communication platform to keep staff and families informed and engaged," Miller said.
Administrators said ParentSquare will offer automatic conversion of messages into parents'home languages; Miller and colleagues said the system will present messages in the recipient's language and estimated the district supports about 45 languages. They also said the platform will show a single feed of posts (district, school and later teacher/class posts) and provide analytics on signups and engagement.
Officials emphasized a staged transition. Attendance and some transportation notifications will continue to be sent through the district's existing SchoolMessenger system while the district completes signups and testing. "When we switch to ParentSquare we're going to just go to ParentSquare," Miller said, explaining that emails and texts will still reach families who have not yet registered but that the full app features require signup.
During board questions, a member asked whether the district tracked signups and whether there would be an opt-out. Administrators said the ParentSquare hub provides analytics on registration rates by school and that messages will reach families by email and text even if they have not created an account.
The business administrator told the board the cost for the first year is $54,000, with a projected drop to about $43,000 in subsequent years, a figure Miller confirmed during the discussion. The district also announced a planned website refresh in April that will integrate ParentSquare content.
The board did not take a separate recorded vote on the demonstration during the presentation; multiple consent motions later in the meeting carried a package of committee recommendations. The administration said staff will answer additional questions about rollout, language support and timelines as ParentSquare is enabled next week.
