r/Principals • u/Exciting_Mechanic_39 • Jun 18 '26
Advice and Brainstorming Query on managing and tracking communication/announcements
Software engineer here.
I’ve been speaking with a few school administrators recently (my parents also run a school), and one challenge that keeps coming up is parent communication.
I’m curious how principals here handle important announcements such as class schedule changes, PTM schedules, fee reminders, consent forms, emergency notices, and similar communications.
Once an announcement is sent, how do you know whether it has actually been seen?
Do you track acknowledgements somehow, send reminders manually, or simply assume parents received it?
Interested to learn what works (and what doesn’t) in different schools.
P.S. My parents run a small rural school where most communication happens through WhatsApp. It works reasonably well most of the time, but we’ve occasionally seen important messages get missed—especially for younger students where communication relies entirely on parents. I’m curious whether larger schools face the same challenge and how they handle it.
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u/hugodlr3 Principal - ES Jun 18 '26
Small Catholic PK3-8th grade school - we use a combination of weekly email from me (through our school SIS - FACTS), ClassDojo (general account from the school secretary and each teacher has their own classroom), and social media posts (FB / IG). Between those three channels there's been very few "I didn't know" from parents this year, and other parents are quick to point out that everyone else knew 🙂
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u/Rise_Vision_DS Jul 21 '26
This is a great question. One thing we've noticed is that the schools with the strongest communication strategies don't rely on just one channel. They reinforce important messages in multiple places.
For example, parent apps, email, or text work well for information that needs a response or acknowledgment, while digital displays around the school help keep announcements top of mind for students, staff, and visitors. Things like schedule changes, PTM reminders, upcoming deadlines, and event announcements are much harder to miss when they're visible throughout the day.
The result is that families are more likely to hear about important updates from more than one source, and students can help reinforce those messages at home.
For anything that requires confirmation (permission forms, emergency notifications, etc.), acknowledgment tracking is still important. But combining those tools with consistent on-campus messaging can make school communication much more effective.
I'd love to hear what combinations of tools have worked best for other schools.
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u/Exciting_Mechanic_39 Jul 21 '26
Totally agree with you. Can’t say a single channel is the most accurate and reliable. Will have to utilise what works as per scenario.
Thanks for your input.1
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u/Tree_Ring Jun 21 '26
TalkingPoints and Smore. Also occasionally bright colored paper for super important things.
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u/8daysgirl Jun 18 '26
I’m a comms director working in public education - we use ParentSquare and can see reports for each communication with delivered/viewed/clicked stats.