Upper Perkiomen School District

ParentSquare, is the district's new communication management system. ParentSquare provides families one unified platform for all communication.

This new communication system replaces our old system Skylert. ParentSquare syncs nightly with our student information system, Skyward.  

We understand that this might feel like “another app / service” you are using for the district. However, ParentSquare will be the only method of sending communication for the district beginning during the 2024-25 School Year. UPSD is rolling out ParentSquare on a phased approach over the next year. ParentSquare offers several features and safeguards that will significantly enhance our communication experience while ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of sensitive information.

What will ParentSquare replace in 2024-25?
Any application outside our district such as, Remind, TeamSnap, Band, Facebook Groups, and more.

If you are a parent or guardian of a student in Upper Perkiomen School District, you should have received an invitation email or text to join ParentSquare, and you’ll click a link to activate your account. You can also use your email or phone number to set up your account without the invitation.

Action:

• Go to www.parentsquare.com/signin. You can also install your school’s ParentSquare app and follow the prompts to sign up.

• Use Google single sign-on, your email, or your phone number to set up your account. Your email/phone number must match the contact details you gave the school for this to work.

• If your contact details aren’t recognized, contact your school secretary to get them added. After they update your information in our student information system, the new contact details will appear in ParentSquare after the next daily sync. Then you will be able to create an account.

Please check your spam to see if any ParentSquare messages ended up there, and mark them as "Not Spam." Also add donotreply@parentsquare.com to your email contacts so your server recognizes our messages. If you still are not receiving emails, please contact support@parentsquare.com so they can assist you.

If you are missing a child/school, it may be because:

• Your contact information is inconsistent across the schools' student information systems.

• You have more than one ParentSquare account with different contact information

Action if one account:

• Contact your child’s school to update your contact information. Ensure you have the same email and phone number on file for all children and all schools.

• Your account will be corrected when we sync with the SIS (daily).

Action if multiple accounts:

• Contact your child’s school to update your contact information in the SIS. Verify that each of your children have the same email address and mobile phone number listed for you.

• Delete your ParentSquare user account(s) that does not have the correct email address (choose “Delete” when accessing your account in ParentSquare).

• Your account will be corrected when we sync with the SIS. If the contact information has been made consistent across accounts in the SIS and the ParentSquare account(s) with the incorrect contact information have been deleted, then when we sync, your associations will be pulled into one ParentSquare account.

Please go to parentsquare.com and on the login page click "Forgot Password." Put in your email or phone number and you will be sent a link to reset your password. 

Is the phone number wrong? Do you want to change your primary email? Is your name misspelled? Do you see information for a student who’s not yours?

Action:

Contact the school office and ask for your contact information to be updated. Once they update your information in our student information system (Skyward), the changes will appear in ParentSquare after the next daily sync.

You can customize your language settings by going to "My Account" and clicking "Change This" under language settings. From here, you can choose any language you prefer from the drop-down menu and you will start to receive content in that language. Here is a help article on how to change your language settings.

Here are instructions in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.

How to do it on a computer:

1. Click on your name on the top right corner of the website.
2. Click on “My Account”
3. Under “Language Settings” click “Change this”
4. Choose your language in the drop-down menu.
5. Click “Save.”

How to do it from the phone app:

1. Click the three bars at the top left of the app.
2. Click on “Account”
3. Click on “Preferences”
4. Click on “Language Setting”
5. Choose your language.

You can customize your notification settings by going to your homepage and clicking on your name in the top right corner and selecting "My Account" from the drop-down menu. On your account page, you can find your notification settings in the top right corner and click "Change This" to customize your notifications. If you are receiving too many notifications, try changing to your Digest setting where you will only receive one condensed message in the evening.

ParentSquare allows parents to customize their notifications based on notification type and select their preferred delivery method for each school. Notification types include:

• Emergency Alerts & Notices (cannot be disabled)

• School Alerts

• General Announcements & Messages

Action (Web Portal)

1. On your home page select the down arrow next to your name and click on 'My Account'.

2. Select "Customize your settings" under Notification Settings.

Action (Mobile Apps)

1. From your home screen click the triple bar in the top left corner

2. Click on "Account," then "Preferences," then "Notification Settings"

Here is a help article on changing your notification settings.

Contact your child's teacher privately by using our direct messaging tool. On the home page, click on "Messaging" in the left sidebar. From here, you can send a direct message to your child's teacher that only you and the teacher can see. You can also send messages to other staff members at the school, such as your child's coaches and club leaders.

Here is a link to our help page on direct messaging.

In order to change your sign up, you must delete your existing signup and sign up again for the correct slot. To delete your sign up, hover your mouse over your name and you will see a trash can appear to the right of your name. Click on the trash can and your sign up will be removed. Then, you can click on the "Sign Up" button that corresponds with the correct slot.

If your plans change and you would like to change your RSVP, click on "Sign Ups and RSVPs" under the participation tab in the left sidebar. On this page, find the event that you had previously sent an RSVP for and click the green button that says "Change my RSVP" on the right side. 

If your registration link expired, you will need a new one. Please contact your school's admin or send us an email to support@parentsquare.com and ask for a new link to be sent to you.

You may have some duplicate accounts. Please email support@parentsquare.com to combine your accounts and investigate further. To merge accounts, please provide the following information:

1. Your name
2. Preferred email and phone number to be used in ParentSquare
3. Other emails or phone numbers possibly associated with your account
4. Student name(s)
5. School(s)

Once ParentSquare receives this information, they will merge your accounts and follow up when it is complete. 

Sometimes, non-parents get messages from a school using ParentSquare.

• ParentSquare synchronizes with each school's internal student information database. It contains contact details provided by families (on forms, during enrollment, etc.)

• Most likely a parent or staff member made a typo, and there is incorrect contact data for a parent or student that matches a real phone number or email!

• Only the school or district is authorized to update contact details. This maintains security and protects student privacy.

All district information will continue to be sent to you via email, call and/or text in addition to the ParentSquare Platform. For even more convenience, download the ParentSquare app (available for free for iOS and Android devices). Each parent/guardian in the Skyward system will receive notifications.

If a parent receives this notice: 

“We detected that your password was exposed in a breach at another company. As a precaution, we do not allow this password to be used to sign in to your account. An email has been sent with password reset instructions to example@email.com. Please remember to check your spam folder too.”

This is because ParentSquare cross-referenced your login credentials with a database of known breaches and recommend creating a new password to protect your account and keep school information secure. 

If a password is flagged as a security risk, they will be prompted to provide a different password. If it does not show up right away, they can click “Forgot Password” and it will prompt them to the next steps.

More information about this can be found here: https://parentsquare.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10402694170765#what-do-i-need-to-do--0-4