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School Announcement Case Studies
This selection of case studies details how School Announcement's School Alert Messaging System has helped schools across the country meet a variety of challenges.
- Communicating Weather-Related Delays & Closings
- Managing Ever-Changing Student Family Contact Info
- Reducing Truancy Rates
- Improving Communications from Teachers to Parents
- Funding an Alert System Without a Budget
- Managing Effective Fund Raising Campaiangs
Communicating Weather-Related Delays & Closings
The challenge
A school district in Arkansas wanted to improve overall school communication with their parents and students. In inclement weather situations, many parents weren’t getting the message from local media.
The solution
With the School Announcement school communication system they were not only able to get prerecorded messages, they were able to record their own messages. The school was able to record messages in both English and Spanish. A district representative then chose the message to be launched —in this case it was a school closing notification—and chose the groups to send it to and when the message should be delivered – in this instance, immediately. As the system is web-based, no hardware or software is needed so the school alert message can be created and delivered from either school or home. The process, from start to finish, takes less than five minutes. They were able to launch several thousand phone calls and get them done within five minutes.
Managing Ever-Changing Student Family Contact Info
The challenge
A school district in New Jersey, who was using another school alert system, had parents regularly changing contact information and school secretaries were spending too much time updating contact information in the system.
The solution
With School Announcement’s Parent Portal, they were able to put the parents in charge of managing their own contact information, thus freeing up the school secretaries to handle other projects. The Parent Portal is so easy to use that this district is even encouraging parents to update contact information, especially if the parents are traveling and leaving the children with family or friends.
Reducing Truancy Rates
The challenge
A school in Georgia was charged by the district office to improve their truancy rate. The district asked them to contact each student who was absent by phone and document the contact. With a school that averaged over a hundred absences a day, they thought this would be an impossible feat –until they found School Announcement.
The solution
With School Announcement they were able to prerecord a message in multiple languages, since they have a high ESOL population. The Attendance Clerk each day now uploads the absentee list and calls are made to the parents of the student. It takes 15 minutes, rather than 5 hours to complete the process – and with the School Announcement reporting feature they have instant and reliable documentation. They have even included a hot-key in the message, which allows the parents to press 1 to be connected to the Attendance Office.
Improving Communications from Teachers to Parents
The challenge
A school in Connecticut realized that one of their biggest challenges was effective communications with families— a breakdown of school communication, lack of school communication and inconsistent school communication. They were looking for a systematic way to communicate that was teacher friendly, a way to send positive messages, informational messages, and messages regarding concerns.
The solution
With the School Announcement school communication tool, not only is the Administration using the system to communicate with the parents, but the teachers now have a powerful communication tool. Teachers who teach multiple periods, with 35 students in every period, are now able to let parents know when there is a big test, research project or exam. With one click of a button, 200 families get the message. From a teacher’s point of view, it’s an incredibly effective way of communicating the good, the bad, and even general information.
Funding an Alert System Without a Budget
The challenge
A school in Indiana wanted to improve parent communication, but did not have the money in their budget to implement a system.
The solution
With School Announcement’s survey feature, the school created a registration page which gathered all the contact information of parents who wanted to participate in a notification program and collected $2.50 per student from the parents to cover the cost. Within the first month, the school had 90% participation – without impacting the school budget.
Managing Effective Fund Raising Campaigns
The challenge
A school in Tennessee who was using School Announcement for parent notification was beginning a capital campaign for modifications to the athletic facility and wanted to contact alumni to ask for donations.
The solution
With School Announcement’s easy to use list management and unlimited messaging package, the school was able to send out a voice and email campaign to alumni requesting donations. The school not only received donations for the project, but as an added benefit they have improved alumni communication and involvement.
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