ParentSquare Expansion Complete, StudentSquare Coming Soon

The beginning of the 2025-2026 school year marks the start of Lakota's full adoption of ParentSquare as the go-to school-to-home, two-way communication tool for all classroom, school and district information sharing. The gradual shift to ParentSquare over the last year is a direct response to survey feedback that prioritized a more centralized tool for all school-to-home communications.

Phase Two Highlights

Expanded features, piloted in several schools last school year, now include direct messaging between school staff and parents. Teachers are also now using ParentSquare to share classroom-level posts, which might include new features like appointment scheduling, forms, permission slips, volunteer requests and more. 

During its initial rollout in the summer of 2024, the new notification system for sending email, phone and text alerts was only used by Lakota schools and the District to share school-wide and district-wide announcements and reminders. In this second phase, parents and staff can expect to see the following expanded features: 

• Classroom Communication: Teachers will use ParentSquare as the primary way to share classroom newsletters, photos, sign-ups and other general updates as posts to their class sections. 
   
• Direct Messaging: Teachers and staff will be able to engage in two-way messaging, both one-on-one and as required, group chats too. If a mobile number is attached to a user's account, direct messages will be delivered via text. Consistent with other communications generated via ParentSquare, messages will be delivered in each user’s preferred language. 
   
• Scheduling & Sign-Ups: Parents will notice ParentSquare replacing tools like SignUp Genius or Google Forms to sign up for conference slots, donations and volunteer opportunities, for example. These things will be documented and tracked within each user’s personal ParentSquare sign-in, accessed via a staff member's or parent's Lakota OneLogin account.
   
• Daily Digest Feature: With the inevitable increase of communications sent via ParentSquare, by default, all posts directed to a single staff member or parent - whether from multiple teachers, schools or the district - will be delivered once a day in digest format. If you prefer, you can still opt to manage your notification preferences to receive post instantly too. 

Phase Three Coming Soon

The next and final phase of Lakota's ParentSquare rollout will fold students into the platform, giving students in grades 7-12 the ability to receive posts from their school and classes and also direct message with their teachers, advisors and coaches, for example. This phase will also mark the start of more consistently using ParentSquare to communicate information related to athletic teams and after-school activities. 

Following a pilot in select schools, the goal is to give secondary students access to ParentSquare in November to coincide with the start of the winter sports season. 

ParentSquare Need to Knows

As communicated at the initial launch of ParentSquare, no action is required to receive important communications at the phone numbers and email addresses parents update via FinalForms (or for staff, your Lakota email account or the phone numbers maintained by Lakota's payroll system). However, to get the most out of ParentSquare and take advantage of options to customize your Lakota communications, parents and staff are encouraged to take these steps: 

1. Log into your ParentSquare account via OneLogin to set your notification preferences for receiving school and district emails, text messages or app alerts instantly or via a daily digest. (Email and text default to "digest," while app notifications default to "instant.") Lakota will override these settings when sending an urgent, time-sensitive alert. The daily digest of messages will be delivered to inboxes and via text or app notification after 6 p.m. each night. You can also update the language preference that is automatically set based on Lakota’s records.
    
2. Download the free app (iOS or Android version) for on-the-go access to all Lakota  alerts in ONE place. You can also search "LLSD ParentSquare" from your app store. 
    
3. Join More Groups: While you are auto-subscribed to receive updates from some groups based on your associations (i.e. school, grade level, rostered classes, etc.) you are welcome to join other public groups. If accessing ParentSquare from a web browser, select “Home” and then click “Groups” in the left sidebar under “Participate.” Check this periodically, as new groups get added. In the app, select the hamburger menu at the top and then “Groups” on the left sidebar.
    
4. Review the contact information Lakota has on file for you. All parent/guardian email and phone updates must still be made through FinalForms via OneLogin. Staff must email payroll@lakotaonline.com to update a phone number; email addresses match the Lakota address assigned to each staff membe. 

For a quick overview of the platform, please take a few minutes to watch this Getting Started with ParentSquare video for parents and guardians.

Complete our ParentSquare feedback form to share your experience with the platform and help us continually improve its functionality. Visit the parent/guardian, staff or community tab on Lakota's Communications Sign-Up webpage for more details about how to stay connected to Lakota.