ParentSquare for Staff

Simply log into ParentSquare using their MSDWC email account to get started. Go to parentsquare.com then click "sign in with Google." Or, download the app from Apple or Google.

1. Go to parentsquare.com and on the login page click “Forgot Password.”

2. Put in your email or phone number and you will be sent a link to reset your password.

If you do not want to be notified of all messages instantly, we advise you to change your notification settings.

You have three options for how often you receive notifications on the platform via text, app alert, or email:

• Instant: Receive all messages instantly

• Digest: Receive all messages together in one daily communication around 6 PM.*

• Off: No notifications are sent.*

*Please note: Regardless of your notification settings, you will continue to receive emergency notifications instantly. These notifications can be sent in the following ways: 1) A “Post” that is set to send immediately; 2) A Smart Alert or 3) An Urgent Alert. In addition, Direct Messages can still be received.

Note: you cannot turn off Urgent Alerts & Notices; this includes attendance notices.

Change Notification Settings on Mobile App

1. From Home, tap the Menu (triple bars) on the top left.

2. Select Account.

3. Select Notifications.

4. Use the toggle to turn on or odd notifications by email, text, and app.

5. Select Instant or Digest for email, text, or app.

Change Notification Settings on Web Browser

1. From Home, click your name in the top-right corner and select My Account.

2. Select Notification Settings on the left.

3. Choose your preferred Notification Settings for General Announcements & Messages (Off, Instant or Digest) and School Alerts (On or Off).

Help Article About Notification Settings

You can enable office hours to let people know the best times you can be reached via Direct Messaging.

Staff, parents or students who initiate a direct message with a staff user, who is currently outside of office hours, will be informed that the recipient may not respond until office hours resume. 

Note: If you send a message to someone outside of their office hours, the message will still be delivered when you click send. And, the recipient can choose to reply while out of office. 

Set Office Hours via Website

1. Click your name in top right and select My Account from drop-down.

2. Select Office Hours and click Enable Office Hours.

3. Enter time and select days that you will be available to respond to direct messages. 

4. Click Save. 

5. You will continue to receive messages outside of office hours, but the sender will be informed that you are currently out of office and may not respond until office hours resume. 

Set Office Hours Using Mobile App

1. From ParentSquare mobile app, tap the three bars in the upper left, tap Account on left, and then Preferences.

2. Tap Office Hours. 

3. Tap Enable Office Hours button to turn on (or off).  

4. Select hours and days that you will be available.

Help article on office hours.

Teachers have the ability to create groups with students who are not in their class.

1. Visit Groups > New Group > New Static Group or New Auto-Update Group.

2. From here you can create the group and choose a name and description for your group, as well as whether or not you want the group to be public or private.

3. At the bottom, you can add your members by searching for them and checking the box next to the names of the individuals you would like to add.

4. When you are finished click Save at the bottom.

Here is a help article on creating a group.

1. From Admin, select Classes under Data Assistant.

2. Click action menu (three dots) next to the class and choose Manage Class Staff. Manage Class Staff allows you to add other Teachers, Room Parents, or Assistants.

3. Click Add Row, fill out details and click Save.

Here is an article about best practices for teachers working in tandem with the same class.

ParentSquare has a lot of options to make your posts more visually appealing.

Learn How to Create a beautiful newsletter here.

As a staff member and a parent, you will be able to have both your staff contacts and your parent contacts linked to the same account. If you do so, parents will not be able to see your personal contact information.

If you have a district-issued staff email on your staff record and a personal email address on your parent record, multiple accounts may have been created for you.

If you already have the same phone listed on your staff and parent accounts, your accounts can be easily linked. The accounts will merge automatically once you complete the verification process and confirm both accounts. After this, both emails will be listed on your account, but you will be required to use your staff email to log in.

If you already have separate registered accounts under different emails/phones, you can use the Combine Account option to merge them together.

Combining accounts on a web browser

1. Click on your name on the top right corner and go to “My Account.”

2. On the right hand side, you’ll see a yellow box that says “Missing kids, schools or contact info? Combine with another account.”

3. Click the link and follow the steps.

Combining accounts on the app

1. Click the menu (three bars on the top left corner)

2. Choose “Account”

3. Click “Combine Accounts” under “Missing kids, schools or contact info?”

From Home > New Post drop-down > Appointment Sign Ups and input the information according to your preferences, deleting any time slots that don’t work for you. To complete the post, in the To field, select the classes and groups that you want to sign up. 

Here is a help article on appointment/conference sign ups.

Here is a help article on Direct Messaging.

1. Select Messages from the left sidebar on the homepage.

2. Here, you can select either a single parent to message, or multiple parents. Just begin typing their name in the recipient field, and they will appear as an option.

3. If you select more than one recipient, the choice will come up to have it as a private message or a group message. A private message will create individual threads to each recipient, whereas a group message will create one thread where all recipients can communicate.

ParentSquare offers the capability to ask for both parent/guardian volunteers and items.

1. Click New Post and create a post about your class project.

2. Then, in the left sidebar you can select both Ask for Items and Request Volunteers.

3. Input the items you need and how many as well as how many volunteers you need and what activities they will be doing.

4. Once you are finished, click Post Now and watch your sign-up fill up.

Here is a help article on creating sign ups and volunteer lists.

Don’t forget to consult ParentSquare’s Help Pages with any other questions you have!