ParentSquare
Overview
Puyallup School District uses the ParentSquare platform for school and district communications. ParentSquare is used to send primarily email, text, and app notifications in your preferred language. ParentSquare automatically generates an account for each parent/guardian, using their email address and/or phone number on file in Home Access Center.
While you’ll still be able to receive emails, text messages, and phone calls from the district and your school/s without registering your account, you’ll need to register to access the ParentSquare parent portal and mobile app to update your message preferences, see your school or district’s feed of past messages and alerts, and receive notifications via the ParentSquare app. You can follow the simple instructions below to register your account now.
How To Sign Up
- Go to https://www.parentsquare.com/districts/1303. You can also install the ParentSquare app on your smartphone (available in the Apple App Store and Google Play) and follow the prompts to sign up.
Tip! Use your email or the phone number that you have provided to your school and is in our Home Access system to set up your account otherwise ParentSquare will not be able to link your account to your student's information. Your email/phone number must match contact details in the school's database for this to work.
Tip! If your contact details aren't recognized, contact your school to get them added. After they update your information in their database, the new contact details will appear in ParentSquare after the next daily sync, and you will be able to create an account.
Here’s what you can do with ParentSquare
- Receive messages from the school via email, text, phone and/or mobile app notification
- Choose to receive information as it comes, or all at once at 6 pm daily
- Communicate in your preferred language
Where can I go to learn how to use ParentSquare as a parent/guardian?
You can find video and step-by-step tutorials here. Please note, you must activate your account by following the steps above to be able to log in to view the linked page in this answer.
ParentSquare FAQ
- What is ParentSquare
- How does ParentSquare work?
- How is my communication managed?
- Can I access communications for more than one of my students from the same account?
- What are the message/alert/notification categories, and what do they mean?
- What types of messages will I get?
- My email is correct in ParentSquare. Why am I not receiving emails?
- How do I change my password?
- Can I change the email and/or cell phone number on my account?
- English is not my first language. How can I receive content in my native language?
- I am getting too many messages from ParentSquare. Is it possible to receive fewer notifications?
- I've received an invalid registration link. What should I do?
What is ParentSquare
How does ParentSquare work?
How is my communication managed?
Can I access communications for more than one of my students from the same account?
What are the message/alert/notification categories, and what do they mean?
What types of messages will I get?
My email is correct in ParentSquare. Why am I not receiving emails?
How do I change my password?
Can I change the email and/or cell phone number on my account?
English is not my first language. How can I receive content in my native language?
I am getting too many messages from ParentSquare. Is it possible to receive fewer notifications?
I've received an invalid registration link. What should I do?
Changing ParentSquare Notification Settings
Overview of Notifications
Users can fine-tune their notification settings for both school and notification types. For General Announcements, you can select Digest, Instant, or choose to turn off notifications altogether (excluding emergency alerts and notices) for email, text, and app notifications.
These settings allow a secondary parent/guardian contact to turn off all notifications except for emergency alerts (particularly useful if their partner parent/guardian manages school-related daily activities).
ParentSquare allows users to customize their notifications based on notification type and select their preferred delivery method for each school.
- The Instant setting will send all post notifications in real-time.
- The Digest setting sends direct messages, alerts, and time-sensitive posts instantly, but sends all non-time sensitive posts at the end of the day, reducing the number of notifications you receive daily. (We recommend the Digest setting.)
Notification Types
- Urgent Smart Alerts & Notices includes any urgent alerts, attendance notices, and auto notices marked as critical notices (cannot be disabled).
- General Announcements & Messages includes any posts, direct messages and reminders.
- School Alerts includes any Smart Alerts and other student notices.
Under General Announcements, you can select when you want to receive notifications for posts. Select Off, Instant or Digest notifications.
- Off: no notifications about posts will be sent to you. Emergency Alerts and Notices will still be sent. School Alerts will still be sent if turned on.
- Instant: you'll receive an email and/or text and/or an app notification every time a notice or message is sent.
- Digest: you'll receive an email and/or text and/or an app notification once a day in the evening with all posts from that day.
The default setting is typically Digest, so that you receive all notices and post messages in one convenient notification once a day. All emergency notifications still come through instantly, and a school can override settings as needed for an urgent message. If you choose Instant notifications, and have multiple children in multiple schools, that can add up to a lot of messages.
Update Your Notification Settings (using web browser)
- From Home, click your name and select My Account.
- Click Notification Settings.
- Choose your preferred Notification Settings for General Announcements & Messages (Off, Instant or Digest) and School Alerts (On or Off). Once you've made selections, future messaging will send based on your preferences.
- If you have multiple emails or phones listed on your account, set the order of your preferred contacts to receive notifications. Notifications will only be sent to one email and one phone on your account.
Note: the “Choose Best Match” setting will select the most relevant email and phone to send the notification to. Notifications related to the student/parent will go to the personal email/phone, while notifications intended for staff only will always go to the staff email/phone. Posts sent to both staff and parents will default to the parent email/phone.
Update your Notification Setting (using mobile app)
- From home screen tap the triple bar menu at top left.
- Select Account and then Notifications.
- Select how you want to be notified at each school.
- Turn OFF Custom Settings to use the same notification settings for all schools.
- Turn ON Custom Settings to set different notifications at each school. - Toggle on or off to receive Email, Text and/or App Notifications.
- Select Instant or Digest for each mode. Note: Digest is recommended – you will receive one notification per day, for all posts, in the evening.