Economics

4 Reasons Today’s Schools Need SMS

4 Reasons Today’s Schools Need SMS

With a majority of the population owning cell phones, there is no more efficient way to reach parents and students if the need should arise. Although students are told to keep their phones off or on silent when school is in session, there may be a need to communicate with parents and students in off hours. If your school isn’t actively using SMS communications, here are four reasons why you should implement a platform at your earliest convenience.

1. Emergency Messages

If there is one thing that frightens parents more than anything when sending their kids off to school, it would be any number of emergencies that could threaten their wellbeing. From storms to fires, pandemics and any other emergencies that would require students exit the campus immediately, parents are afraid they will not get the message timely if they are at work or otherwise occupied. SMS messaging is a must for emergency communications in a school setting.

2. Building a Strong Community

Another leading concern is that parents just don’t seem to be as involved in the academic lives of their children like they once were. One SMS app, NationBuilder SMS app by Tatango has proven very effective in building bonds within the community. Your children’s schools are micro communities within the community and an app that keeps dialogue open such as you would find with NationBuilder helps to build a stronger relationship with parents and students.

3. Time and Cost Effective

In the past, when a school needed to communicate with a class or the entire school, hours and hours were spent on phones trying to reach as many parents as possible. Printed handouts could be sent home, but many parents were never given the paper by their children. If your school is looking for a highly effective method of communicating with parents, SMS platforms are time and cost effective.

4. Important Dates and Reminders

Many schools have a short day each month to give teachers time to attend workshops or catch up on grading and planning. Other times events are taking place and a reminder needs to be sent to get as much involvement as possible. Sometimes it’s the school play that will be presented in the coming days and other times it’s a PTA meeting. SMS messaging can send those reminders out so that parents can mark their calendars and make necessary arrangements to be available for those dates. Even reminders for a scheduled parent/teacher conference can be easily sent as a text message.

There is no denying that text messaging is one of the most common forms of communications in use today. This is how many of us stay connected and the right platform can make it easy for schools to reach parents to keep them involved. Messaging is faster than voice communications and can reach an entire student body list with just one message being sent. If your school is seeking to build better relationships within the community, you might want to consider an SMS platform.

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