Chloe Yokitis
Editor
Parents are going crazy for the Parentsquare app, which launched for ACPS users in August to stimulate communications between school administrators and parents. The app’s accessibility and fun features are what make the app a pillar of ACPS culture, parents say.
The app, created in 2011 but just implemented by ACPS this school year, represents “the values and priorities of the community,” said ACHS Parent Teacher Association President (PTA) Soccar Mahm.
“Boy, I could just go on and on about this app!” said Mahm, who has two middle schoolers and one high schooler in ACPS. “It’s the perfect software for the school community because it ensures that all parents who either download the app or check their emails regularly get the updates. It’s like a fun game of survival of the fittest, in a way: you have to work for what you want!”
Mahm said she appreciates how easy it has become to hide news from students.
“This app has been a lifesaver when I’m trying to hide secrets about testing schedules or leadership changes from my kids. They’re so fragile, you know, and I just would never want to upset them or for them to get information from a source outside of our family. I’m just glad that ACPS understands,” she said.
Mahm said her favorite feature of the app is the Forums tab. Parents can post messages in any of the four categories: Am I The Idiot?, where parents can submit write-ups of conflicts with their children so that other parents can evaluate what went wrong; Q and A with the Superintendent, which is constantly abuzz with both questions from parents and responses from ACPS’s very own Superintendent at the moment; Vent Channel, a safe space for parents to get anything they want off of their chests; and Miscellaneous, for any other topics parents might like to discuss.
The Q and A category, Mahm said, is beloved by parents like herself who are “too stretched thin” to keep up with the specifics of ACPS leadership.
“[With the Q and A forum,] I don’t have to find the superintendent’s name in order to email them with whatever questions I might have. Even though all the ACPS emails are uniform— you know, first name dot last name— I can honestly never remember the name of whichever superintendent is in charge. Each one only lasts so long, so what’s the point?” she said.
She loved the app so much that she and her friend Thomas Toksah-Lott founded the Parents for Parentsquare advocacy group.
“I just feel like we have benefitted so much from Parentsquare, so why not advocate for every school in America— nay, the world!— to use it? It’s common sense to me, honestly,” Toksah-Lott said. “Parentsquare is the best thing that ever happened to ACPS. And that’s saying something.”
Toksah-Lotts mentioned that although a few “extremist” parents have voiced complaints about the app, particularly its monetary cost, critics are missing the point.
“Parentsquare ensures that our children are in the best learning environment possible and that parents are kept in the loop. And that is something I’d pay any amount of money in the world for,” he said.
For context, ACPS spent $400,000 on the implementation of the app. Toksah-Lotts compared this “minimal” cost to that of other programs, like the PRIDE (Positive attitude, Responsibility, Integrity, Determination and Excellence) lessons that cost $750,000 as well as the rights for A/B/C Lunch schedule, which totals $1.5 million annually.
Since the group formed in December, Parents for Parentsquare’s advocacy has led to Parentsquare being implemented in 64 schools across 12 countries.
“It makes me so happy to see Parentsquare thriving in all sorts of communities,” Mahm said. “Just warms my heart.”
Logo courtesy of Parentsquare
