The days of phone trees and notes coming home in the backpacks, as the means of schools communicating with parents, may be numbered.  Schools are increasingly using technology to contact thousands of parents regarding school issues and emergency notifications.  The advantage: it take merely minutes to record a message and press send to notify parents simultaneously on their cell phones, home phones, and work phones. 

Kathy Reznikov, director of communications for the Ladue School District in St. Louis, said that her district has started using this technology this month and "the parents are thrilled."  The Francis Howell School District, also in the St. Louis area, is in the process of implementing this type of phone service for parents as well.  They would be the first district in the country to use this system nationwide.

Communication, currently, is handled mostly through e-mail but the problem is some parents don’t have access to computers right away and in the case of an emergency this could cause tremendous problems. Speed and accuracy is the key, and in the case of school closings and emergency situations, this gives administrators a more effective means of getting in touch with their student’s parents right away. This information can even be tailored to fit a tighter audience in the event of a bus break down, or letting parents know of events, conferences, report cards and meetings.

A company based in Fenton, Missouri, called GroupCast, markets a service called School Reach. This system can literally send more than 200,000 calls per hour.  Another service being used in the St. Louis area is a California based company called Connect-Ed. Evidently, they have had these services available since 2001 but then it was considered more of a luxury. Now, with all reported violence in the schools it is becoming a necessity.

The price is based on an amount depending on how the deal is structured with the vendor. Average prices range from $3-$3.50 per student for one year. Some parent-teacher organizations (PTO) are footing the bill for this service and rightly so. They are the ones benefiting after all. The bottom line: the peace of mind attained by a concerned parent, from a call from the principal is well…..priceless!