Common Sense Media Review
By Stephanie Trautman
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Helpful communication tool for schools, parents, not kids.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 18+?
Any Positive Content?
Videos and Photos
ParentSquare
Privacy Rating Pass
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What's It About?
Parents, teachers, and administrators can communicate in PARENTSQUARE through posting events, photos, files, and updates. Administrators can see how many parents viewed the post, ask for items, or request volunteers or ask for an RSVP to an event. The events are integrated in a school calendar. Photos and files can be shared easily, and parents can even download photos from the site, post comments (if they're enabled), and, if schools choose, have parents upload photos into albums for others to view. The site also boasts a directory of staff and families (if this feature is enabled), and parents can directly message educators and administrators through the site.
Is It Any Good?
This site boasts many useful tools including an engaging and straightforward design that allows consistent communication. There's an app available for parents, along with other add-ons including public social fund drives, polls, archives, a registration app, volunteer hours, an alumni database, and smart voice alerts (which carries an additional cost). The site is social in its nature, allowing parents to connect with teachers and administrators through direct messages, polls, posts, photos, and files. It's great for connecting and communicating with parents as well, but it's biggest strike is that it leaves kids completely out of the equation. Kids may be talked about through discussions on the site, but they don't have any way to provide their take on a discussion. ParentSquare is meant for parent engagement, and, overall, it does a good job, but the lack of kid interaction, especially for matters pertaining to their school activities, could make information a tad bit one-sided and biased.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about sharing and privacy with their kids. When is it OK to post photos of others online, and when is it not? Should you identify kids online? Why, or why not?
Talk about expectations from a teacher. How can a child meet those expectations, and how can parents help kids achieve those goals?
Website Details
- Subjects : Social Studies : events
- Skills : Communication : conveying messages effectively , Collaboration : teamwork , Tech Skills : digital creation
- Genre : Educational
- Pricing structure : Paid
- Last updated : February 15, 2023
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
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