ParentSquare Reviews

by NoActionJackson

This system, which our school district spent millions purchasing, is so dysfunctional that teachers and students are spending the majority of their time creating work arounds rather than learning substantive subjects. My own parent system has not worked for weeks now and rather than helping me directly or allowing our school district to help directly our school district is having to act as a go between. I tried to find a contact number to call the company directly but none is available (411 couldn’t even find a number). They want me to log on for assistance and I would if I could but logging on is the problem. This is the legal system of record for our county but since the teachers, students and parents are often unable to use it consistently and are resorting to creating work arounds I’m beginning to wonder the legal implications of including graded work in permanent transcripts (a child’s legal permanent record determines things like graduation, employability, college admissions, financial assistance etc). I hope it becomes more reliable and user friendly with time.

by Char@@@@

I think the concept is a good one however, the system is constantly kicking out parents so they are not receiving any posts from me, (their child’s teacher) but they get emails from the school office. It takes a few times to put them in the system before they even receive an email. Then I have parents contact me who have been in the system and have received all the emails all year long who are getting kicked out and not receiving emails anymore.

And it is a bummer that teacher’s can’t just add the parents/students into the system on our own. We have to call the school office and they have to contact PS to add parents/students. It makes the process longer and sometimes we have to ask again and again for a parent to be added because it doesn’t work the first or second time.

Plus, as a parent in the district and an educator in the district, I can only see and posts for my classroom student’s. I cannot see anything for my own children who are at different schools in the district. I get the emails for my own children, however, if I click on an attachment or form or picture through the email, it takes me back to my teacher account and I can never see the links for my own children.

Super frustrating.

by Fretburner

My children are in a school that uses ParentSquare. I was not able to create an account using the email I have on file with the school. I sent a message to Parent Square support via their website and received no response. No one at the school has any idea how to solve this issue and no one at the company responds to customer service requests. Without support it cannot be seen as a reliable way of staying in touch with the school. Update, April 2021: more of the same. Still no support, still unable to set up account, and still completely reliant on text messages from other parents to know what the school is sending via parent square. ParentSquare provides absolutely no advantage over email. It simply adds yet another layer of confusion.
***update 5/21: my older child is about to finish 5th grade, so that’s seven years of no support from this garbage company. No one at the school will take administrative responsibility. This is nonsense. ParentSquare does not provide any benefit whatsoever over email.

by Yohutch08

I appreciate having a platform for school communications in one place. However, it’s hard to find info or to search for posts. If there is a new comment/update to a post there’s no way to know other than searching for the post and to open the comments. It would be helpful if the post went to the top if there was new activity/comments or an indicator for “new comment”. I’d like to be able to tap on a profile to see their info (who their child is, their contact info or posting activity etc). Posting a photo within a comment would be helpful too (now you have to create a whole new post to add a photo). Also, posting a link within a comment doesn’t seem as straightforward either (you have to leave ParentSquare for the website). It’s a simple app that could be more useful with a few more functionalities. Please make improvements!

by Terry714Bear

Love ParentSquare since we can work with teacher communication and school event plus more. Now what needs works: its so easy to add students and school to ParentSquare but you all make it hard to remove students once once they are no longer in ones house hold (it be foster home, divorce or ect) and thats when the other person who’s trying to log in get access and then try’s to changea specific students email verification it changes EVERYONES, and then the main person who opens the account no longer has access making it to the point that now I have to call the schools and find a way to fix or find a solution. And there is no way to contact the person who made ParentSquare to fix it (no email or phone number). You really have to go threw the schools.
PLEASE FIX THIS SMALL FLAW TO WHERE WE CAN ADD AND REMIVE STUDENTS FROM ParentSquare .

by Raylyn103

The glitches are so annoying and make ParentSquare inconsistent and sketchy. It does take forever to start-up (in agreement w/ an earlier review), sometimes (often time) I’ll try to load a video or pic and write a message for it, and once I click the upload button it kicks me out of ParentSquare , deleting all the thoughtful words I had to go along w/ the post!

ParentSquare doesn’t archive things well, either. There are items that were posted a while ago, and I just want to search a keyword from it and find it, and I can’t nor do I know where to even begin if I wanted to.

I can’t stand ParentSquare, it’s partially the reason why I’m transferring my son’s school and I hope his new school doesn’t use it as a platform.

by CBon507

If I was in 1 building and not a parent and a teacher I might like it. However. I work in 4 buildings and cannot combine my groups so I must send messages to students in each of my 3 elementary buildings separately . The posts come separately from each building and you must log into that building in order to see the messages and posts. There is no central location.
I have a daughter in the 4th building I work in. So I get the posts -too many- from her building admin, teachers, and my students and parents. My other daughter attends the 5th building in our district. So your see there is a Constant stream of texts coming to parent square. I receive emails telling me I have a parent square and texts telling me to check parent square. Too much to keep track of.
I have asked my students’Parents about it. Their students have been reminded but still miss remote classes so I asked. The parents of children in separate buildings tell me they don’t pay attention to it. They get too many texts and cannot access them easily.
So, I give it a 3 because it is useful, but not very friendly for teachers in multiple buildings or for parents with more than 1 or 2 children

by Iatgt

Parent square seems to be a good tool for parents and teacher to communicate, however I still don’t know where or what I am suppose to do to see their report cards. Kids are in 3rd grade and still don’t know what their grades are. Not very user friendly if not familiar with any of the school software programs. Wouldn’t be all that difficult to print an example out on what to do etc. after all handbooks aren’t printed anymore they surely could give examples out during the first meet the teacher or when parents go a school function. The district wants parents to be more involved and they need to be but there should be support for the parents in order to learn what needs done. And back to report cards, this takes away from having something to look back on when one gets older. I still have some of mine. Seems like it means more to have something physical to see verses looking at a screen and think whatever.

by Srtapol

As a teacher, PS has been a great tool for communicating with my families. I know there are many ways to use it. I sometimes find it complicated to figure things out. For instance, if you go to add ons it says you can easily create groups by adding students, but it doesn’t explain how to get started. This is just one example, it’s also confusing to see results from forms or polls and hard to figure out which will be useful for the info you want. I would like to be able to share photos easier in messages. I found that simple in ClassDojo.
Lastly, when I’m looking at messages it scrolls way too fast and I can’t easily get to that part I want to read. Or it’s in a little tiny box and I can barely read or respond. Also, info/Posts often get lost. I’d like to be able to ( and for parents to as well) title and search messages.
I know I’ve focused on the negatives here, ParentSquare has a lot of wonderful features and has been a great communication tool.

by Dragon_chica

I use this as a teacher. Prior to switching over to PS I have used Remind and Class Dojo. I liked both applications for what each brought to the table. Although I did favor Remind a bit more for its usability. At one point my district tried to get us to use Sangha and I refused. It was a terrible and unfriendly program. This year they introduced PS and I have officially closed my Remind account and moved over to PS. Whether I’m using ParentSquare or on my laptop it has the best of all messaging apps. My word count is larger, I can post videos, pictures, links, etc. I can schedule messages. Sending private group messages are much easier than on Remind. I like the “forms/permission” option. My parents said it was super easy to sign a permission slip. And best of all? I don’t have to hope that all my parents will join ParentSquare . It’s connected to our student rosters so I know that almost every parent will receive my messages.

by Mommaeva

I think every school should use this. It is so easy to be able to click on ParentSquare and pull up who I need to message. And right now for the carona virus we have to submit a form daily to say if our child has symptoms or if they have been around anyone with covid and it’s just so easy to get on ParentSquare and submit the form because ParentSquare keeps track of it.
If I need to contact her teacher I can
If I need to contact her counselor I can
If I need to contact principal I can
If I need to contact anyone from that school I can all by a click through ParentSquare I love it and it’s so simple and easy.

by Alittook

I am a teacher and Parent Square is a great way to communicate with parents, schedule meetings, and provide resources to parents. I am way more organized thanks to parent square. I love that I can see which parents have read my newsletter, and that I can have parents RSVP to evening meetings and gatherings. I upload photographs of my students work to share with the parents weekly and it helps everyone to stay connected. During distance learning I have used the Resource Hub to provide parents with helpful articles, recordings of me singing and telling stories and I have uploaded important documents that parents need to fill out.

by Rufus13$$

I thought this was a great tool until today. I pulled up ParentSquare and this page came up saying I needed to verify the following information: child’s name, child’s address, my email, and continued. I tried to make corrections and or verify and it gave and error message on each one. We have custody of Grace and are starting the adoption process so this shook me to tears. I was so scared I could not stop crying.
I called the school and they said my records had not changed and they didn’t ask for any verifications from me. Someone needs to check into this and make sure that it never happens to another parent ever!

by IDKNW18

PS is a great tool! I’m also on class Dojo and Remind, but PS is my favorite. I receive notifications immediately and new feed pops up first, whether it’s from the teachers and/or administrators or education board, and you don’t have to go back and forth switching between them all. Messages are easy to convey and receive with no glitches—no complaints whatsoever! So happy my daughter’s school switched! Some people have complained that there is info overload, but if you’re a parent of multiple children in different schools with extracurricular activities, many reminders (even if they’re repetitive) are much appreciated!!! Thank you this app—keep up the great work!!!

by Dhcfyxhufdvhy

I honestly like this platform better than whatever system we use before to communicate. It's real-time messaging and you get the alerts in real-time. One particular thing I like the feature that you can message them individually! It's so user-friendly. I love using this than getting an actual email where I'm not able to interact with other parents, give my opinion, appreciate the message or simply get informed of what's going on in the school. I would love to have a feature where parents can post important news that can be reviewed before being posted to the masses. That right there will be fascinating!!!

by Beautiful Love💙🙏

Parent Square has truly been a blessing to me. Since my child has been home schooling it’s been a challenge for her and myself. Moving forward I saw God preparing us for our upgrade in this modern technology. My child learned quickly but for myself I started catching on and with ParentSquare I felt I could communicate more socially to other parents about all the different things relating to our children education and the experiences we learned so far that we could encourage one another through us being able to communicate as parents how we can better help our children get through this pandemic as well as build strength to get us through this as well. This is why I wanted to be apart of Parent Square!💙💪🏼🥰

by Ava'sMomma

I am very pleased with the Parent Square app. The app gives parents and teachers the ability to communicate with each other in the most simple way! Being able to speak with the Teachers directly and know that I will receive and immediate response, has really been very helpful with my Daughters education...Especially on days that I have concerns about my Daughter after dropping her off to school. ParentSquare is also the easiest resource to get all important notifications and reminders for parents within the school and/or district wide. ParentSquare is easy to navigate and definitely important for parents to have to allow us to be the most involved with our children and their education.

by Yatter7

I have tried several parent/teacher communication tools in my elementary and this app is by far the best. Having one common place for parents to receive notifications, reminders and the happenings of their child’s classroom has been priceless. It is a tremendous help for parents to see what things are happening in their child’s class and it creates a climate of transparency and trust for my entire school. My entire school is signed up and every teacher uses it several times a week. I also love how it integrates and syncs with my SIS / PowerSchool. It makes getting started and signing up parents very easy. I’ve also been trying out the forms and permission form for things like field trip permission and we love it.
Probably the best part of being with this app so far has been the amazing customer service. Everyone has been so nice and helpful.

by Lisastars

Last year my daughter was introduced to Seesaw as a kindergarten and ParentSquare was unstable/interactive but confusing to navigate as a parent; which was concerning, not to say that she didn’t learn how to use the tools included like a reading app full of virtual books.

this app is nice because it seems to be set up for parents and users to get the most updated information to respond accordingly. ie something that the parents can “ play “ around with without the distraction of children styled apps. There looks like a feature to possibly interact with your child but the issues I run into are that the PS doesn’t load. I hope these can be easily debugged as relaying on email alone or visiting other platforms like Facebook to stay current with the school via pta meetings or listening in on school board meetings is important to me as a mother of a child enrolled and another on the way.

by @@jp@@

Honestly as a technically challenged parent ParentSquare scared me. After exploring the easy to use app, and using the readily useful communication tools my comfort level eased quite a bit. The videos seemed slow and do get stuck making viewing a lesson difficult, but none the less I’m still impressed. Actually I was struggling a bit with my son on the subject of learning in school. Despite the COVID-19 crisis I feel like I’m developing a much closer relationship with my son as far as discussing what he’s actually learned and where he needs help. I also feel much closer to his teacher giving me the satisfaction of actively being apart of the education being presented to my child. This has been a very positive experience for not just my son, but the entire family! My two year old can now participate in educational activities with his brother instead of racing out to the curb every morning to wait for the big yellow Twinkie that he doesn’t get to ride.

by Riptide360

So our local Catholic school uses ParentSquare Parent Square to notify parents of school notices and homework. They use another app Remind for notifications and a third app Power School to post grades.

Well they had a methane gas leak at school and the Fire Dept got called out. Between these 3 apps I failed to get the emergency notification to come pick up my kid.

If the developers are reading this can you make sure you test your in app notifications? ParentSquare really needs to step up its game to help in an emergency, and ideally encompass enough features so that parents don’t have to juggle 3 apps just to see how our kiddo is doing at school.

by LucyTR

ParentSquare takes a while to load when starting. When watching videos or viewing multiple pieces of content, the download time is painful even if you’re on excellent WiFi and that is if it doesn’t crash on you. Streaming videos shouldn’t be difficult in this day and age but ParentSquare feels extremely outdated. There should also be better notification settings. Most in my community just turn off their notifications because they feel too bombarded but the options don’t allow for batch notifications. This then leads to most folks missing timely information in ParentSquare .

by AStanMomTo3

The sign up section needs a lot of work. Why would I need to see all the filled sign ups that other parents have filled? Why do I need to scroll down and search for a Star in order to see my own time slot? It’s not convenient or quick whatsoever. Also, when I got my new iPhone ParentSquare kept crashed every time I typed a word in new message. I can definitely see the need and purpose for this type of app. I think it has a lot of potential still, just not exactly where it should be while already supporting the demands and responsibilities of actual parent communication.

by Factory GraphX

Great information on events and happenings.
TEACHERS DON’T RESOND!
So far, only 2 teachers ever respond to questions regarding my child, I’ve asked two. One was regarding my concern about my nephews change in energy and enthusiasm. This being his first year I wanted to see if his teachers witnessed any issues. One answer out of 7. After communicating with one teacher through my nephews account, she said she only communicates through google classroom, but doesn’t give parents access to communicate because she would get too many emails. It was appreciated and comforting to know that at least two teachers care about their students.

by Apple Lifer

I’m really liking ParentSquare for our schools but my hold out of one star is the fact that when you have children at different schools there is no central place to view everything nor can you always tell when receiving notifications from the teacher which school the messages apply to. It’s cumbersome to have to keep switching back and forth between schools trying to find the message or post I’m looking for. Other than that it really has a lot of potential!

by Just Send Comments

I absolutely love ParentSquare and am so thankful our school uses it as our communication tool. I continue however, to have an issue that I have emailed your company requesting help but have never received a reply.

All works well with app if I am just viewing. If I respond to a post with a comment, my comment is posted BUT ParentSquare goes into a tizzy....blinking, blinking, blinking. I am unable to get it to stop; cannot use back button either. The only way to get it to stop is to completely close ParentSquare (“x” out does not work). I have tried deleting app and reinstalling but this bug continues.
I am using an iPad. Hope this is something you are working on fixing because you app is an incredible communication for schools (I am in school Administration....)

Thank you for addressing this issue.

by NWalk00

ParentSquare is a great way to receive communication for classrooms, whole grade level information, and personal notes from teachers. Having all the communication in one place is terrific. My only critique is that I would love to be able to delete a notification from my home page if it doesn’t pertain to us or if we’ve already completed it. The lack of ability to “clean out the feed” is frustrating. But otherwise a great communication tool.

by =M=E=M=

The best app our school district has used to date. It's still a bit of a pain with students in 2 schools, so developers should keep working on improving the experience for multi–school families. Love being able to contact teachers and get quick response. Suggest every post should have a Respond To, so parents can point out things like broken links, out of date info, etc.

by HEGM4321

I am really enjoying using ParentSquare. I have very few complaints. The only one really worth mentioning is what I receive an email notification I must go through ParentSquare to check it. If I try to go through the email which then takes me through the browser, it’s really slow and unresponsive on the phone. This is only a phone issue. On the computer it’s fine. I love how versatile it is. I only wish more parents would get on board.

by Swissiemiss

ParentSquare has been a very effective tool for keeping in touch with our children's teachers, specific classes, and entire school. I especially appreciate the ability to message an individual or small group of people, instead of the entire consortium of parents and school staff. The volunteer reminders are fantastic and really help keep us on track as to what the needs are of each grade, as well as how we can be most helpful -- without promptly forgetting. I wish all schools used ParentSquare!

by Lemonite

We’ve had better communication with this than any other method with our previous experiences in 3 school districts. I especially love that I can send messages right there in ParentSquare to the teacher posting the information. If you are overwhelmed with notifications silence some of them in your phone messaging or change your options in the this app app.

by Kulpnfamily2021

I am so impressed by the interactive notifications, either important or just informative pieces of info. My Bruin is a freshman and I can't tell you how many times I've been reminded by this email The Parents Square of things, that my 14 year old hasn't quite gotten the reminder button working in his brain to share with me. I love it!!! I appreciate all the teachers, leaders and really the students that work hard to help other students!! This act of kindness says a lot for the Ponderosa Bruins as a team!!! I'm a Cougar in my heart, class of 75, (yikes), but I truly truly love the Ponderosa Bruins, and am proud to say I'm also a Bruin at heart!!! Great job everyone...

by Will & Karmen

I absolutely love this app it has been so informative. The teachers and staff are so prompt with helping me with EVERYTHING. I am a single mom of twins. Everyone wants their babies to be at a great school, one that you as a parent feel confident about. I rate Virtus as a 5 star school, I have watched both of my girls become little ladies. They love their teachers and that truly makes my heart happy. Anytime I need to reach out to either of the girls teacher, they are very prompt and make me feel that I know I made the right decision for my family by choosing Virtus. Thank you Virtus for giving me the courage to place my angels in your care everyday. I appreciate everyone of you!!

by I Like School Now

Love this tool. My daughters grades have went up because I can communicate with her teachers and tell them about her frustrations on things she doesn’t understand (doesn’t get it. I can’t do it) I relay to teacher and they work with her to help her understand. My daughters comes home HAPPY she had a good day. No more crying No more stress for her. We are all happy 😊. I would like to be able to message the Principal to parse the teachers.

by Lhhobbit

ParentSquare is amazing for communication!! Easily send/receive messages from her teacher. Every faculty member who has a blanket notification for the entire school or just the class is great!! There are 2 questions to ask:

1. I had received a post from the principal stating that the fire alarm was only a drill, nothing to worry about. I never received an initial notification that there was an alarm. That causes a concern.

2. I don't know if it's my phone but a video was posted that was in QuickTime. Is there anyway that videos can be posted that gives an option for a different viewing platform (i.e Windows Media Player for video and not just audio). I don't know if that's an app issue?

Thank you!!