How to Improve Family–School Communication with Mobile Platforms

Learn how to improve family–school communication with parents and guardians by using mobile phones.

The mobile revolution has had an incredible impact on education, and much has been written about how mobile technology has impacted K-12 learning.

But it has also brought about dramatically improved outcomes in another key area: communication with families.

Go Mobile with Communication and Enrollment

Today’s parents and guardians are overwhelmed with the demands of work, family, and ever-changing challenges of COVID-19. Adequately juggling those responsibilities each day can be a massive mental and time strain.

Though families consider K-12 education a top priority, they have precious little time to keep up with the paperwork involved in submitting an enrollment packet:

• Immunization forms
• Birth certificates
• Proof of residence
• Income forms
• And so on!

One of the easiest ways you can engage families, ease communication, and eliminate some common barriers is by going mobile with your processes.

Ensure Educational Equity for Families

Mobile apps allow families to connect to schools with smartphones. While lower-income families may not have email addresses or computers, they typically do have mobile phones.

Mobile platforms, such as websites, ensure they have the access they need.

Finding the time to enroll children in person can be difficult. For some families, getting the time off may be a challenge.

For others, it may mean the difference between having a job and not having one. No parent or guardian should have to take an entire day off work just to ensure their child can get an education. This is no longer necessary thanks to mobile technology.

Not All Families Have Home Internet Access 

Providing mobile access addresses another reality that many Americans experience: not all families have internet access at home. 

• According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 15% of American adults are smartphone-only internet users, meaning they lack home broadband access and rely upon their smartphones to access the internet.
• This is most pronounced among young adults, families who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, and parents/guardians with a high school education or less. 

By allowing mobile enrollment and registration, mobile apps play a major part in ensuring educational equity for all families.

Addressing the Language Gap in K-12

When interacting with schools, some families face a language barrier that can make enrollment, fee payment, and regular communication a challenge.

Fortunately, an online student enrollment software like SchoolMint Enroll supports multiple languages.

SchoolMint makes it easy for you to support the languages spoken among families in your school or district. Students and families can then use their native language to complete standard enrollment and registration tasks.

Considering the growing percentage of children who are English-language learners and/or come from immigrant families, this is more important than ever. 

How SchoolMint Helps You Connect with Families

Before the advent of mobile apps and websites, families were largely disconnected from schools. They had little clarity on the processes that affected their child’s ability to apply to schools they wished to attend — or, once accepted, fully participate in school life.

SchoolMint makes it easy for you to connect with families with two powerful platforms:

1. SchoolMint Enroll gives families a greater voice and view into their children’s education. They can quickly see the status of their child’s application or re-enroll their child for the upcoming school year, all from the convenience of their smartphone.

Not only can families complete and submit their child’s application to a single school right from a smartphone or tablet, they can also keep track of multiple applications to multiple schools. If they have multiple children, they can do all these tasks for all of their children with a single, easy-to-use app.

2. SchoolMint Connect is a complementary partner to SchoolMint Enroll. You get incredible insights and data into your enrollment and can support families as they move through the process. SchoolMint Connect also lets you tailor messages to specific audiences, manage school tour attendance, and more.

All families deserve to be fully engaged in selecting the school that’s best for them, and all children deserve equal access to a great education. Mobile platforms are one way to make that possible.

Ready to learn about the difference mobile platforms can make in your operations? Get in touch!