Our district uses the ParentSquare as a tool for communication with our parents/guardians, students, families and staff. ParentSquare works with the district’s student-data system (Skyward/Family Access) to notify families and staff through phone, text and/or email of emergencies, inclement weather situations, attendance issues, underfunded student lunch accounts and other events/activities. The overall goal of using this service is for families to receive important information about Snohomish schools - especially information that affects their children—in a timely manner. As long as we have a primary phone number and/or email on record for a student, the student’s family should automatically receive these messages when they are sent out.

The messages received through phone, text and/or email are from Snohomish School District and our schools, but are are sent though ParentSquare. ParentSquare is fully compliant with FERPA and COPPA. The company safeguards the confidentiality of all information and adheres to industry-leading security protocols for data transfer and storage.

Below are some links that may be of interest:

• ParnetSquare data, privacy and security resources - www.parentsquare.com/designed-for-k12/data-privacy-security/
• ParentSquare’s Privacy Policy - www.parentsquare.com/privacy/

Individuals who choose to not activate their account in ParentSquare will still receive an email digest at the end of each day regarding any communication that has been sent out to them. In the event of emergencies, communication will be delivered as well. That said, we encourage all to activate their accounts and download the mobile app to utilize the full functionality of the tool. By activating your account, you can also update your preferences on when and how you are notified.

You are only allowed to add an email or phone if none exists. Otherwise, you can only edit existing emails/phones.

• ParentSquare pulls information directly from Skyward/Family Access/Employee Access and works best with cell numbers, not landlines.
  • Cell phone numbers are preferred because they can get text notifications.
  • Landline numbers are better than no number, as landline numbers will get voice alerts … just not text notifications
• Please call your child's school office and ask for your contact information to be updated in Skyward/Family Access. After the school updates the information, the new contact details will be included in ParentSquare within the next two-three days.
• Snohomish School District employees must use their district email, but can update their phone numbers in Skyward/Employee Access.

For users who have clicked the opt-out link in the first text message you receive from ParentSquare or replied STOP to a ParentSquare text message, those users will no longer receive any text messages, phone calls or alert messages from the district or school(s).

If you sent STOP, you can opt back in and reply START to any text you had received or send START to 66458. This will resume the messages and ensure you receive communications, including emergency communications.

After restarting and opting back in, you can manage your account settings through ParentSquare, including how and when notifications are received (off, instant or digest). Simply visit https://parentsquare.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/7954096700173-Manage-Your-Account-Settings. 

By adjusting your notification settings to OFF or DIGEST you can better control your messages without turning them off completely (especially in the event of a school closure or emergency).

For each individual with a ParentSquare account, users can customize their notification settings after logging in and clicking My Account from the upper-right corner dropdown and then Customize Your Settings under Notification Settings.

Here is a help article available in ParentSquare on changing your notification settings. 

For general announcements via the Posts tool, each user can select Instant, Digest or Off (choose to turn off notifications altogether, excluding emergency alerts and notices) for email, text, and app notifications.

For new accounts with preferences not yet set, Instant is the default setting for message delivery. Make sure you update your delivery setting if you prefer Digest delivery.

So, what’s the difference? Please read below. 

• Instant: You'll receive an email and/or text and/or an app notification every time a notice or message is sent, in real time.
• Digest: You'll receive an email and/or text and/or an app notification once a day in the evening (delivers at approximately 6 p.m.) with all posts from that day.
• If using the digest setting, ensure you read through your digest email, which may contain multiple messages with important information.
• There is one digest per school. If you have students at multiple schools, you will receive one digest email per school.
• Off:  No notifications about posts will be sent to you. Emergency Alerts and Notices will still be sent. School Alerts will still be sent if turned on.

Additional notes: 

• Post senders can override the digest option to send instantly to all recipients despite user preferences, but in general should only do so when appropriate.  
• Notification settings apply to "Posts" only. The "Messages" tool, intended for one-to-one direct messaging or small group messaging only, is instant delivery no matter the user settings.

Employee information loads into ParentSquare directly from Skyward/Family Access (student side) and Skyward/Employee Access (staff side). In some cases, employees also have students in our district. In those cases, information on the staff side additionally automatically feeds the student side. The situation is a bit more complicated when spouses, who are both employees in our district, also have a child(ren) who are students in our district.

As a district employee, only the specific individual is able to change their phone numbers in the system. Please review your contact information in Skyward/Employee Access. Below are easy to follow directions for three scenarios:

• Employee has NO CHILDREN enrolled in the district
• Employee has CHILDREN ENROLLED in the district and their spouse/your child’s other parent DOES NOT WORK in the district (phone #1 field and phone#2 field must be identical)
• Employee has CHILDREN ENROLLED in the district and their spouse/your child’s other parent WORKS in the district (phone #1 field must be left blank)

In order for the information to be corrected and accurate, and to ensure the employee gets information when it pertains to them as a staff member and/or parent, these changes must be made by the employee in Skyward/Employee Access.

Yes, family members can share an email or phone number and yet have different accounts. However, if one account is a staff account, they can only be accessed with staff email/phone.

You can combine your multiple accounts in ParentSquare. Cases where combining accounts may make sense include:

• User is a staff member and parent/guardian: Combine staff account with a personal parent/guardian account to access both with one login. All emails and phone numbers remain associated. You should NOT merge your account with your spouse. ParentSquare is designed for each parent or guardian to have their own account.  Note: Staff must sign in with the email or phone number associated with their staff account.
• User is missing a student or school from their main account: They have a second account for student or school that can be merged. 

Web browser

• If you have more than one contact card, and click "Yes, Merge This Contact" on each card, your contacts will automatically be merged into one account. ParentSquare allows a user to have multiple emails and phones

ParentSquare mobile app

• If you have more than one contact card, and tap "Yes, Merge This Contact" on each card, your contacts will automatically be merged into one account. ParentSquare allows a user to have multiple emails and phones.

Use link on email invitation

• Click link in email, "Sign in to Combine Existing Account."
• Sign in to your other ParentSquare account.
• Select name to use on your account and click "Combine Accounts."
• Your accounts are now combined. The next time you log in to ParentSquare, you can access your account using any* of the associated emails or phone numbers on your combined account. *Note: Staff must sign in with the email or phone number associated with their staff account.

No. ParentSquare is designed for each parent or guardian to have their own account. 

If you have accidentally merged your accounts, you can contact ParentSquare directly (via email or by calling 866-496-3168) or the Snohomish School District Communications Department (via email or by calling 360-563-7263) to unmerge them.

Overview of Notifications
Users can fine-tune their notification settings for posts for each school and district. For General Announcements, you can select Digest, Instant, or choose to turn off notifications altogether (excluding emergency alerts and notices.) You can choose to receive email, text, and/or app notifications.

A secondary parent/guardian contact may want to turn off all notifications except for emergency alerts (This is particularly useful if their partner parent/guardian manages school-related daily activities).

ParentSquare allows users to customize their notifications by notification type and select their preferred delivery method for each school and district.

You can set the frequency of notifications for posts. The Instant setting will send all post notifications in real time. The Digest setting sends direct messages, alerts, and time-sensitive posts instantly, but sends all non-time-sensitive posts at the end of the day, reducing the number of notifications you receive daily. Note: ParentSquare recommends the Digest setting.  

Notification types include:

• Urgent Smart Alerts and Notices - Urgent alerts, attendance notices, and auto notices marked as critical notices (cannot be disabled).
• General Announcements and Messages - Posts, direct messages and reminders.
• School Alerts - Smart alerts and other student notices.

Under General Announcements, you can select how often you want to receive notifications for posts. Select Off, Instant or Digest notifications.

• Off: No notifications about posts will be sent to you. Emergency Alerts and Notices will still be sent. School Alerts will still be sent if turned on.
• Instant: You'll receive an email and/or text and/or an app notification every time a notice or message is sent.
• Digest: You'll receive an email and/or text and/or an app notification once a day in the evening with all posts from that day.

The default setting is typically Digest, so that you receive all notices and post messages in one convenient notification once a day. All emergency notifications still come through instantly, and a school can override settings as needed for an urgent message. If you choose Instant notifications, and have multiple children in multiple schools, that can add up to a lot of messages.

Update your Notification Settings (using web browser)

1. From Home, click your name and select My Account.
   
2. Click Notification Settings.
3. Choose your preferred Notification Settings for General Announcements and  Messages (Off, Instant or Digest) and School Alerts (On or Off). Once you've made selections, future messaging will send based on your preferences. Note: You cannot turn off Urgent Alerts and Notices; this includes attendance notices.
4. If you have multiple emails or phones listed on your account, set the order of your preferred contacts to receive notifications. Notifications will only be sent to one email and one phone on your account. Note: the “Choose Best Match” setting will select the most relevant email and phone to send the notification to. Notifications related to the student/parent will go to the personal email/phone, while notifications intended for staff only will always go to the staff email/phone. Posts sent to both staff and parents/guardians will default to the parent/guardian email/phone. If "Digest" is selected and there is at least one notification in the Digest that includes parents/guardians, the digest will be sent to the parent/guardian email. 

Update your Notification Setting (using mobile app)

1. From home screen, tap the triple bar menu at top left.
2. Select Account and then Notifications.
3. Select how you want to be notified at each school.
   - Turn OFF Custom Settings to use the same notification settings for all schools.
   - Turn ON Custom Settings to set different notifications at each school.
4. Toggle on or off to receive Email, Text and/or App Notifications. 
5. Select Instant or Digest for each mode. Note: Digest is recommended – you will receive one notification per day, for all posts, in the evening. Note: In order to receive app notifications on your phone, be sure they are enabled in your phone settings. 

• ParentSquare pulls information directly from Skyward/Family Access/Employee Access and works best with cell numbers, not landlines.
  • Cell phone numbers are preferred because they can get text notifications.
  • Landline numbers are better than no number, as landline numbers will get voice alerts … just not text notifications
• Please call your child's school office and ask for your contact information to be updated in Skyward/Family Access. After the school updates the information, the new contact details will be included in ParentSquare the next day.
• Snohomish School District employees must use their district email, but can update their phone numbers in Skyward/Employee Access.

Our district ParentSquare settings do not expose email addresses and phone numbers for staff members or parents/guardians.

Only district and school administrators with particular ParentSquare permissions have access to this information.

Please click on "Forgot Password?" on the sign-in screen and you will be emailed a link to reset your password.

On a browser, click on your name and select my account. Then on the left side, click on "Language Settings," and select your preferred language. 

On the app, go to Account > Preferences > Language. Select your preferred language. 

For each individual with a ParentSquare account, users can customize their notification settings after logging in and clicking My Account from the upper-right corner dropdown and then Customize Your Settings under Notification Settings.

Here is a help article available in ParentSquare on changing your notification settings. 

For general announcements via the Posts tool, each user can select Instant, Digest or Off (choose to turn off notifications altogether, excluding emergency alerts and notices) for email, text, and app notifications.

For new accounts with preferences not yet set, Instant is the default setting for message delivery. Make sure you update your delivery setting if you prefer Digest delivery.

So, what’s the difference? Please read below. 

• Instant: You'll receive an email and/or text and/or an app notification every time a notice or message is sent, in real time.
• Digest: You'll receive an email and/or text and/or an app notification once a day in the evening (delivers at approximately 6 p.m.) with all posts from that day.
• If using the digest setting, ensure you read through your digest email, which may contain multiple messages with important information.
• There is one digest per school. If you have students at multiple schools, you will receive one digest email per school.
• Off:  No notifications about posts will be sent to you. Emergency Alerts and Notices will still be sent. School Alerts will still be sent if turned on.

Additional notes: 

• Post senders can override the digest option to send instantly to all recipients despite user preferences, but in general should only do so when appropriate.  
• Notification settings apply to "Posts" only. The "Messages" tool, intended for one-to-one direct messaging or small group messaging only, is instant delivery no matter the user settings. 

Students, grade levels, and schools in ParentSquare will be reflective of the 2024-2025 school year after the annual roll-up process in Skyward/Family Access. That rollup is happening July 1-July 2.

After July 3, if your child's information is missing or inaccurate, please reach out to the district's Communications Department at communications@sno.wednet.edu.

If you are not associated with the district or one of our schools, please contact the Snohomish School District Communications Department at communications@sno.wednet.edu.

Yes, families can select different settings for each school and district. Parents/guardians can do this by going to their account and updating their preferences. 

Each contact (staff or parent/guardian record) has only one email and phone associated with it. A parent/guardian account can have multiple contacts, with multiple emails and phone numbers if they have different emails/phones for each child in the school database or across districts. Snohomsih School District staff who are also parents/guardians can have multiple emails/phones. After verifying your contacts, you can set your preferred order of contacts in which to receive notifications. 

No you do not need to sue the app or your cell phone. If you prefer, you can navigate to www.parentsquare.com/signin from a computer and view and utilize all of the same ParentSquare activities.

Regarding phones:

• ParentSquare pulls information directly from Skyward/Family Access/Employee Access and works best with cell numbers, not landlines.
  • Cell phone numbers are preferred because they can get text notifications.
  • Landline numbers are better than no number, as landline numbers will get voice alerts … just not text notifications
• Please call your child's school office and ask for your contact information to be updated in Skyward/Family Access. After the school updates the information, the new contact details will be included in ParentSquare the next day.
• Snohomish School District employees must use their district email, but can update their phone numbers in Skyward/Employee Access.

If you received the message "We detected that this new password was exposed in a breach at another company. As a precaution, we do not allow this password to be used. Please provide a different password," please follow the instructions on the screen to set a more secure password for your account.

A breached password means it is possible someone may have access to your password without your permission. ParentSquare’s Password Monitor provides additional security to prevent potential attackers from using leaked information to access the platform.

What is recommended for a good password?

• Use at least 8 characters (the more characters the better)
• Use a combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols
• Avoid common password words and patterns like "1Password!" and "reallylongpassword1"
• Avoid re-using passwords you've used for other websites

There are free random password generators (see links to some free sites below) available online. If using a system such as this, please make sure the password is at least eight characters long and includes letters, mixed case, punctuation and numbers.

• Norton - https://my.norton.com/extspa/passwordmanager?path=pwd-gen
• Bitwarden - https://bitwarden.com/password-generator/#password-generator
• Avast - https://www.avast.com/en-us/random-password-generator#pc

Not all Snohomish School District teachers are using ParentSquare for classroom communication this year as it is optional for teaching staff. If your student's teacher is using ParentSquare, you can message them two ways:

• On the web, select Messages in the sidebar, then start a direct conversation by clicking New Message.
• On the ParentSquare App, you can tap on the “+” sign to start a new message.

You will see your child's teacher(s) and group owners in the quick-select recipient's box at the top of the page. Or, you can type the first three letters of a name in the recipient box to autopopulate other users. 

Staff will need to sign in using their staff contact information. If they enter their (shared) parent/guardian contact information, they will get this message, "The email/phone you entered is linked to a staff account but is not your staff email/phone. Please use your staff email/phone.”

After registering, you may see a “Participate” button on the left side of your ParentSquare dashboard.

Beginning with the 2024-2025 school year, all district families and staff from a particular school will automatically receive school and district newsletters through ParentSquare. However, through the “Participate” button on the ParentSquare dashboard, district families and staff can click to join a “Community Group” to receive community-relevant information from any other school they are not a parent/guardian or staff member at.

If you were previously subscribed to the district listserv subscription tool, have no students enrolled in a Snohomish School District School and/or you do not work for the Snohomish School District, you can receive district Dear Friends newsletters by enrolling in a Snohomish School District ParentSquare "Community Group" by clicking here.  

Once you subscribe to a "Community Group," you'll get an automatic confirmation message with instructions to look for an e-mail that will ask you click another link to set up your account. If you do not receive the confirmation e-mail, please check the junk mail, bulk or spam folder in your personal e-mail account, since some e-mail providers treat bulk e-news-type messages as spam. If that occurs, open the junk mail folder and drag the e-news message into your Inbox to allow it next time.

If you no longer want to receive e-news with general updates from our schools or district, simply click the "unsubscribe" link located at the bottom of an email message - and your contact information will be blocked from receiving future messages. Please think twice before declining this service, however, as these electronic notifications are the primary way our schools communicate with parents and the quickest way to expedite important information.