School-to-Home Communication

Pattonville transitioning to ParentSquare for 2026-2027 school year

The Pattonville Board of Education, on May 12, approved the selection of ParentSquare as the district’s new school-to-home communications platform. The decision follows feedback from families and staff, as well as an evaluation of the district’s current platform, Bloomz, during its first full year of implementation.

Learn more about the ParentSquare transition.

How we communicate.

Pattonville uses ParentSquare for school-to-home communications.

Beginning in the 2026-2027 school year, the Pattonville School District will use ParentSquare for school communication, primarily with email, text and app notifications. ParentSquare automatically syncs with PowerSchool (our student information system) to generate an account for each parent/guardian, using their preferred email address and phone number. ParentSquare provides a safe, secure and unified approach to communication and collaboration between school and home.

What is ParentSquare?

ParentSquare is a communications platform that will allow families to receive classroom, school and district updates and direct messages from teachers and staff in one app. ParentSquare will:

Replace Bloomz, the system used last school year, as well as other messaging systems like Class Dojo and Remind.
Not replace learning platforms such as Canvas, Empower, Seesaw or SchooLinks.
Not impact third-party platforms like MySchoolBucks and MyConferenceTime.

ParentSquare also features automatic translation to each user's preferred language and lets individuals choose how and when they get notifications — by email, text or through the free ParentSquare app.

ParentSquare is intended to improve messaging across the district, support data privacy standards and reduce confusion for families by centralizing communication. For staff, ParentSquare simplifies where to send school and classroom updates and alerts and allows staff to manage messaging in one user-friendly system.

Even if a parent/guardian does not register with ParentSquare, they will still receive emails and/or text updates. However, creating an account allows them to specify their notification preferences.

ParentSquare Features

Families and staff can utilize a variety of features in ParentSquare. This includes:

Announcements and notifications
Direct messaging
Group messaging
General updates
Calendar integration
Event coordination (such as signup sheets)
Accessible via mobile app and web browsers
Translation to more than 100 languages

Translation

ParentSquare will automatically translate messages, posts, alerts and other text-based communications. Parent/guardian language preferences will be set based on the language preference set in PowerSchool. If you need to change your translation language, it can be updated in PowerSchool or families can go to their ParentSquare account settings and select their preferred language in the Preferred Language section. Visit the ParentSquare translation support page for details.

Access ParentSquare

Families and staff can access ParentSquare online or as an app on their mobile device.

To log in online, visit the ParentSquare website. Families should use the email address or cell phone number connected to your PowerSchool account to log in. Staff can use single sign on via Google.

To download the ParentSquare app, download it from the Apple App Store or Google PlayStore.

In order to receive notifications from the app, be sure to go to your phone settings and turn on allow notifications from ParentSquare and also set your notification preferences in the ParentSquare app.

Notifications

ParentSquare offers a highly customizable platform, allowing families and staff to set their notifications either districtwide or granularly. Users can chose whether they would like to receive updates via push notification, email or text message. They can also set preferences individually for each school, class and activity, allowing them to get the notifications they need in the frequency they need it.

Communication Tools

Below are the different ways families can communicate with or receive updates from the Pattonville School District.

ParentSquare

ParentSquare will be the district’s primary school-to-home communication system. Families will be able to send communication to their students’ teachers, activity sponsors and other school contacts through ParentSquare. Students and families can expect to receive the following types of communication through ParentSquare:

District, school and class announcements and updates
Athletic and activities announcements and updates
Event information
School closures reminders
Alerts and emergency notifications

Learning Platform

Canvas, Empower and SeeSaw are Pattonville's learning platforms. Communication through these platforms are reserved for teacher to student communications, such as assignments.

Staff will send direct family communication through ParentSquare. However, families may still receive a notification from one of these platforms if they have signed up for an account or a teacher shares feedback on a specific activity or assignment with families.

Other Platforms

StudentSquare

Students in grades 6-12 have the ability to communicate with staff through StudentSquare, a secure, dedicated companion app built specifically for students. The platform allows students to interact with teachers and coaches/sponsors and view school and activity updates. The StudentSquare app is available for secondary students on their district-provided iPad. Students can access StudentSquare using the Pattonville Google account to login

What is the difference between a post, message and alert?

Pattonville staff have the option to create a post, announcement or alert in ParentSquare. Each of these options should be used as follows:

Posts - Quick updates with the whole district, school or a specific class. Staff can attach pictures, video, voice messages or even documents. *Please note, staff should not post photos that include students on the media excluded list.
Messages - Private direct message between a staff member and a parent/guardian. Group messaging is also available, such as a staff member messaging two members of a student's family or small group chats.
Alerts - Reserved for urgent information that needs to be shared and received immediately. Alerts will override users’ notification preferences and send them to reach your community in all possible ways. Use of alerts should be reserved for emergency situations.

FAQ and Additional Information

How do I activate my ParentSquare account?

Will parents/guardians receive notifications from Pattonville if they do not sign up for ParentSquare?

How do I opt-in to receive messages and notifications?

You don’t have to take any action to receive emails or texts. However, if you create a ParentSquare account online, you will have additional options, including receiving notifications through the app and setting up and update your notification preferences.

Our student information system (PowerSchool) syncs contact information directly with ParentSquare, so once you are logged in, you will have access to news and announcements from your student’s school(s) and will have all this information located together.

If you want to utilize the ParentSquare mobile app to get push notifications, download it from the App Store or Google Play store and follow the prompts. If you do not activate your account by logging in to the website, you will still receive emails and/or texts from the school and district.

How do I manage my notification settings?

What is the difference between a post, announcement and alert?

Pattonville staff have the option to create a post, message or alert in ParentSquare. Each of these options should be used as follows:

Posts - Quick updates with the whole district, school or a specific class. Staff can attach pictures, video, voice messages or even documents. *Please note, staff should not post photos that include students on the media excluded list.
Message - Private direct message between a staff member and a parent/guardian. Group messaging is also available, such as a staff member messaging two members of a student's family or small group chats.
Alerts - Reserved for urgent information that needs to be shared and received immediately. Alerts will override users’ notification preferences and send them to reach your community in all possible ways. Use of alerts should be reserved for emergency situations.

Can I access communications for more than one of my students from the same account?

How do new families enrolled in Pattonville get access to ParentSquare?

Is it possible to contact my child's teacher, coach or other staff member directly?

Once student schedules are active, it will be possible to contact your child's teacher privately by using the direct messaging tool. Once you are logged in, click on the messaging icon (the chat bubble graphic) in the left sidebar. From there, you can send a direct message to your child's teacher. You also can send messages to other staff members at the school. You can send these messages in your preferred language; the messages will arrive to staff in English.

Will I be able to see what messages my student is receiving?

Student safety is one of the main reasons why Pattonville has transitioned to one messaging platform districtwide. Each parent/guardian has access to any class, activity or group a student is in. Staff can send messages directly to students (such as changes to practice time or assignment information). Pattonville administration will have the ability to access all posts, announcements and private messages.

My child is a bus rider. How can I receive transportation updates?

English is not my first language. How can I receive content in my native language?

ParentSquare automatically sends communications to families in the preferred language they have entered into PowerSchool. If you would like to update this information, you can do so in PowerSchool. Once they have done this, ParentSquare will automatically translate any communication to them in their selected language. This translation will also occur when the parent/guardian sends a message to a staff member. Parents/guardians can also update their language preference for their account directly in ParentSquare.

I am both a parent and staff member. Will I see my child’s account or my staff account? How can I add my child to my staff account?

What shows up in ParentSquare will depend on the email address you have associated with your child in PowerSchool. If you used your Pattonville email address, you will see both your own children’s class and school information as well as your classroom information within ParentSquare.

If your PowerSchool account is set up through a separate email account (a non-Pattonville email), then you will have two ParentSquare profiles. It’s easy to navigate between the two by clicking on your name in the top left corner of your account. You can also request to have your staff and parent accounts merged so that you have access to both in one account.