In July 2024, Seminole County Public Schools settled a contract with the school communication app ParentSquare, where ParentSquare would provide their services to SCPS for three years.

The deal stipulated a one-year pilot period, where the app was in use at six schools in the county, which would then be followed by a two-year period with the app in use at every school operated by the county. The payment for the trial was $20,000, with the price increasing to $219,640 for the second and third years. SCPS will be able to renew the deal for an additional two-year period following its July 2027 expiration, and the district also has the ability to cancel the deal within 30 days before the start of each fiscal year.

“ParentSquare is our district tool for communication from school and district to staff, families, and students,” Katherine Crnkovich, Chief Communications Officer at SCPS, said. “This system also sends families’ absence notifications and allows teachers, coaches, [and] club sponsors… to create groups and have a secure setting for conversations and messaging.”

ParentSquare promises to streamline school communication to families. Promotional materials for the app focus on the variety of options offered by the app, which boasts features falling under four categories: “Mass Notifications,” which includes attendance notes, school newsletters and urgent alerts, among other things; “Classroom Comms,” which includes direct messaging, appointments such as parent-teacher conferences, and the like; “School Services,” which includes capabilities to host forms and permission slips, calendars and polls; and “School Websites,” which allows schools to use templates to create their own website.

Florida Administrative Code 6A-1.012(14) allows school boards to choose whether they want to obtain services through direct negotiation or a process called competitive solicitation based on what “best fits the needs of the school district.” For the contract with ParentSquare, SCPS opted to directly negotiate with the company, which is unusual for such an expensive deal; according to the SCPS Purchasing Procedure Manual, deals over $50,000 must be achieved through competitive solicitation unless the school board approves an exemption.

“Our Chief Technology Officer and Communications Officer went through several demos of various platforms and compared the functionalities and offerings for each tool, as well as pricing structure, and feedback from other districts across the country about each tool,” Crnkovich said. “We felt that ParentSquare gave us the most options, and had the easiest platform not only for communications, but for the website management for staff members at schools and in departments.”

Oviedo High School began using ParentSquare along with the rest of the county on Aug. 1, 2025. Oviedo principal Trent Daniel has been a heavy user of the app to send information about school news, events, volunteer opportunities and scholarships, among other things.

“School Messenger [the communication platform formerly used by SCPS] was just really a one-way communication tool,” Daniel said. “ParentSquare, one of the positive things about it is, it can be [a means of] communication back if people have questions.”

Due to the contract, ParentSquare is now the only platform used by the school to communicate with families. However, since it is such a new platform, Daniel is concerned that it is not yet being widely used.

“That’s my number one concern. Are students, especially seniors, checking [ParentSquare] because I’m posting scholarships in there, right?… You know, that kind of concerns me, but I can’t control it.” Daniel said. “The only way I have to communicate with families is really ParentSquare. So I just hope they’re using it, because that’s where all the information is coming.”

With big events like the fall Homecoming dance approaching, the dissemination of school updates is of increased importance, especially considering updates to policies such as the method used to purchase tickets (which have changed from being available to purchase in-person to being exclusively available on the platform MySchoolBucks).

“We’re trying to go digital. We’re trying to modernize here at Oviedo, and it’s hard for some people, I recognize that. And so it’s a slow process,” Daniel said. “But I’m just hoping that, because people are interested in Homecoming, they get on ParentSquare to see.”

Parent and student opinions are mixed on ParentSquare. Oviedo sophomore Mason Glaser likes the app’s concept, but dislikes its execution.

“I believe it’s generally improved [communications from the school], in having people actually know what their students and children are learning, but I do believe it kind of acts as an anchor and parents become much more worried about things that aren’t actually an issue,” Glaser said.

By default, when a notification is sent through ParentSquare, recipients are informed through three platforms: a notification from the actual app, an email, and a text message. Jennifer Moschovas, the parent of two Wekiva Elementary School students, expressed annoyance over the volume of notifications.

“I personally did not see the need for an app… [I] had no issues with emails. I am getting a lot of push notifications from the app. I then received a text letting me know a message was put in the app, and an email letting me know too,” Moschovas said. “It seems redundant, and all the notifications are annoying because when I get one, I usually stop what I am doing to make sure it is not an important notification that requires my immediate attention.”

Users of the app are able to change the notification settings and choose between three notification styles—Off, Instant, and Digest—for the app, email, and text, but the standard settings facilitate a pile-up of notifications. According to Crnkovich, feedback from across the county has generally been positive.

“People appreciate having the ability to customize their settings for how they receive communication, as well as finding everything they need in one place, versus using multiple applications,” Crnkovich said.

Hiccups are to be expected with a new program, and parents and students aren’t the only ones who have to adjust to the new app. Teachers also have the opportunity to use ParentSquare, and though training for the app is available to them, the transition has had friction.

“The teachers prefer to have it in email so it’s in one place, because they check email consistently, it’s a habit. Going to ParentSquare for them is an extra job, so we’re only now really posting things only to students and the community and parents… where everything internal is still going through email,” Daniel said.

SCPS is not the only school district in Florida that has adopted ParentSquare. Other districts using the app include Orange County, Lafayette County, Osceola County, Hernando County, St. Johns County, and Flagler County.

SCPS is still adjusting to the new software. Currently, opinions on it vary, but there’s no sign of ParentSquare going away anytime soon. Once parents, teachers, and students all become acquainted with the app, time will tell if it meets everyone’s needs.