Parents are busy people. They want to get information on what is happening in their students’ school sent to them, especially when there is an emergency. Wylie Independent School District communicates with parents for routine, as well as emergency and bad weather closing/delay notifications using the following methods.
ParentSquare is the district’s main tool for immediate outreach.
While the District’s website is a great place for parents to go to find information, parents don’t always know when new information is posted and campus newsletters may only go out every week or so. The tool that Wylie Independent School District uses when it needs to let all parents know something is happening is ParentSquare. This communications system allows the district to send mass telephone, e-mail, text messages, push notifications, social media posts and more to thousands of parents and guardians in a timely fashion. The district has developed some protocols around how and when this tool is used. This page describes some of those uses and what parents need to know.
Who gets the call?
The contact information from the Student Enrollment sheet that parents/guardians must file each year is placed into Skyward Family Access, the district’s student information system. Once a day, new information from that system is uploaded into ParentSquare's secure and confidential system. So within 24 hours of being entered, a new family may begin receiving communications. The caller id for all calls will generally be your student's campus main number.
In the event of a true emergency, such as a tornado or fire, the district or school may need to get to parents quickly. Parents may need to come to the school to pick up their student(s). Or they may be asked not to come to school or to go to a different location for reunification. In the case of a true emergency, ParentSquare will send a message from the district in all of these ways:
- A recorded message to every telephone number on record for a student
- An e-mail to every e-mail address in the system
- A text message to each cell phone in the system
- A push notification to the Wylie ISD Connect app (app must already be downloaded to receive the message)
- Post on the district Facebook and Twitter pages
- Alert on all district web pages
Routine calls: are made to the telephone number in the system for each parent/guardian on record for a student. These recorded message calls may come from the district office or the student’s school. They are often reminders, such as when curriculum night is being held, or new information parents may need, such as a change in the school schedule. The system does mark duplicates, so parents with more than one student will not get duplicate calls. If the telephone is answered by an answering machine, the system will leave a message.
Daily Attendance calls: are made if your child is marked absent from school, regardless of the reason (for the day or for just one period).
Food Services Account Balance calls: are made at scheduled times if your child's meal account balance drops below a preset value.
Non-School Hours Emergency calls: are made from the District Office only. This kind of call may be made, for example, to tell families that school will be closed or delayed because of severe weather.
School-Hours Emergency calls: are made from the District Office only. For example, notification of an event that impacts our ability to continue class.
In case of bad weather
To ensure that all families know when school has been canceled or delayed, Wylie Independent School District will place a call to all parents via ParentSquare. If you need to know whether school has been canceled or delayed before you get a call, the information will also be available on the District’s website, Facebook and Twitter page and local media outlets. The calls are made early in order to provide enough time to get to school.
Other information
Text messages
Carrier message and data rates apply. While some school districts use the text message service for routine messages, Wylie Independent School District has decided to use it only for emergency messages. As noted, cell phone carriers may charge message and/or data rates for these messages, depending on the cell phone plan. That issue is outweighed in our minds in an emergency, when text messages may be the only kind of message that can get through. To ensure you receive text messages in an emergency, make sure your cell phone number is indicated in Skyward Family Access.
Updating your contact information
Because this information is housed in our student information system, changes must be made via Skyward Family Access or at your child’s school. If you cannot make the change in Skyward, simply contact the school office to let them know you want to change your phone number or which telephone number is listed first. Some parents who do not want early bad weather calls to go to their home number may choose to list a cell phone first. Please be aware, that due to security concerns, the campus may require you to visit them in person and present a valid photo id before completing the change.
Resetting your password
If you never received or have forgotten your password to ParentSquare, you can use the forgot password link on the ParentSquare sign-in page. Please use the same email address or phone number provided to the district to locate your account.
These procedures are subject to change without notice. Last Update – 10 June 2024
