How should we roll out School Signals to our school community?

After subscribing to School Signals, one of the most important early steps is getting your staff aligned on how your school plans to use the platform: where communication will take place, what staff is expected to post, and how School Signals overall fits into your school's communication practices.

For larger schools, it can be helpful to invite staff first and give them time to become familiar with School Signals before inviting parents. Smaller schools may be able to accomplish this during the initial setup period.

Once your staff is aligned, introduce School Signals to families with a clear message about where to expect future school and classroom communications.

Before inviting families, decide which types of communication you want to move to School Signals.

Consider questions such as:

While you are introducing School Signals, continue using your current email lists, newsletters, websites, or other channels to keep families updated. Make sure everyone knows where to find future school messages.

You don't need to introduce every School Signals feature at once. Start with your main communication areas, help staff and families get used to the platform, and add additional features over time.

Before launch, decide how much participation you want parents to have within School Signals. Schools can choose settings that support anything from mostly one-way communication to a more interactive school community.

Consider questions such as:

Some schools may prefer to begin with more restrictive settings and expand parent participation over time as families become familiar with how School Signals is intended to be used.

The goal is to find the right balance for your school. Giving families meaningful ways to participate can make School Signals more useful as an ongoing community space, while moderation and communication controls help the school maintain appropriate boundaries.

If parents must continue using separate tools whenever they want to contact staff, reach another parent, contribute to a group, or participate in school activities, they may have fewer reasons to return to School Signals regularly. Consider which interactions you want to bring into the platform and which should remain outside it.

If your school is large, it helps to invite staff before parents. School Admins can invite all staff at once so teachers can sign in, get to know School Signals, and learn how the school will use it.

During this staff-only period, make sure notifications to inactive accounts are set to No so parents who have not yet signed in do not begin receiving notifications prematurely.

For smaller schools, a separate staff rollout may not be necessary. Staff access during the initial setup period may provide enough time for everyone to become familiar with the system.

Before the parent launch, teachers should understand:

School Admins can use posting rights to control where teachers are permitted to post.

Your initial School Signals launch should establish the places families will use most frequently.

We recommend beginning with:

This gives parents an immediate reason to use School Signals and helps them understand how information is organized.

Additional features, such as Private Messaging and Volunteering, can be introduced once families are comfortable using the platform.

When you are ready to launch, send the School Signals Invitation Email to parents. This gives families the information they need to access their accounts and begin using the platform.

At the same time, use your existing communication channels, such as your current email system, newsletter, website, or other established channels, to let families know that School Signals is launching and explain how your school intends to use it.

School Signals also provides Parent Materials you can use during your launch, including a printable PDF handout, sample messages to introduce School Signals, app QR code images, website banners, and other graphics for your school communications.

Encourage parents to:

Your launch communication should also make it clear where families can expect school and classroom communication to live moving forward.

Once invitations have been sent, begin using School Signals consistently for the communication you have told families they should expect there.

Consistency helps families understand where to look for information.

For example:

School Admins can configure posting rights based on how much access teachers should have. For example, a school can reserve School-wide News for School Admins while allowing teachers to post within their own Classrooms. The goal is for parents to know exactly where to find different types of school information.

Once School Signals is part of your school's regular routine, you can start using more of its features.

You might introduce:

You can also check if parents are signing in and use Delivery Reports to make sure important notifications are reaching them.