Today I attended the Parent Engagement Summit at Horace Mann Middle School (props to the Office of School-Family Partnerships and other departments for doing a great job organizing this event and turning out a very diverse group of parents!); one of the major topics at the breakout session I attended was communication — and specifically, SchoolLoop.
If you don’t know what SchoolLoop is, don’t feel bad — most parents and many staff still don’t — but this is a newly-implemented tool that brings school-home communication to the next level. It allows parents to log on and see their child’s assignments, latest grades, upcoming tests, field trips and other events. Parents without an Internet connection can receive announcements by phone, translated into any of 22 languages.
Starting in October, each school will have a designated SchoolLoop liaison to train staff and help implement the tool at each site; if you have yet to hear anything about SchoolLoop at your school, you should speak to your principal and ask him or her to schedule a training for parents and for staff.
Rachel Norton 