ParentSquare posts are powerful communication tools that can be enhanced with add-ons and managed using various features. This guide covers everything you need to know about post add-ons and the tools available to manage your posts effectively.
Admin, Teachers, Group Owners, Room Parents & anybody with individual permission to post
What Are Post Add-Ons?
Posts are a great way to share information, promote upcoming events, or highlight achievements. To add advanced features to your post, watch the short video and choose from the options in the Post Add-ons sidebar.
Easily jump to to a section in the video using the player timeline.
Available Post Add-Ons
See Post Add-ons in left sidebar when creating a post. Select add-on features for your post. Note: some options may not be available; it depends on what features are enabled at your school.
Calendar Entry/RSVP
If your post is about an upcoming event, use this button to add a date and time to your post. Users can also RSVP to the event.
Attach Photos, Videos or Files
Add pictures or files to your post. You can select photos, videos or files from your computer, web, or google drive. When you add a picture or file, it will be saved in the Photos, Videos or Files section in the right sidebar for easy access.
Forms/Permissions
Whether you need signatures for a field trip, an electronic use agreement or confirmation of receipt of the parent handbook, you can add a form or permission slip to electronically create, send and receive approval from parents.
Ask for Items (Wish Lists)
Add this if you want parents to sign up to bring something – class and project supplies, staff appreciation breakfast items, tools for garden day and more. You can add items and dates if needed.
Request Volunteers
Add this to request volunteers for one or more days. Enter the task, time (optional), and how many volunteers are needed.
Note: For detailed instructions on each add-on, see the specific articles in the Post Add-Ons section of the help center.
Post As a Department
*This feature requires activation for your school or district. Admin and those with school-wide posting permissions can use this feature. Before getting started: The school or district must have at least one department created in their directory.
Use Post as to display a department's name as the Post Author. For example, office staff can choose to send a post about student laptops from the Technology Department instead of their name, which recipients may not recognize.
How to Use Post As
- Create a new post.
- Click your name next to Post as.
- Click Post as box and select a department name from the drop-down list.
- Post will be sent from the selected department.
Post As - Tips and FAQ
Setting up departments:
- You must have at least one department set up in your school/district to see the "Post as" option.
- When you add the first number under manage numbers at the district, it will automatically add the district as a department.
- If you create a department name that is the same name as your district or school name, then you'll see the name appear two times in the "Post as" dropdown. Selecting either name gives you the same result.
Q: When a department is created to "Post as" and a post is sent, does your name display for users?
Only PS Admin, district & school admin can see the true name of the author.
Q: When a post is sent with "Post as", who gets the notification if someone comments?
The original Post Author and any Post Collaborators will receive notifications for comments.
Q: If a post is sent with "Post as" will the department's name show if the Post Author comments?
If the Post Author comments on the post, their name (not the department name) will be listed with that comment.
Pin and Unpin Posts
Admin and post authors can pin a post to the top of the feed. Pinning a post keeps the post at the top of the district, school, group, or class feed. Once pinned, it will be the first post users see until you unpin it, or until another post is pinned.
Important notes about pinning:
- If a post was sent to a group or class rather than the entire school, you will need to first go to the group or class feed before you see the option to pin that particular post.
- Posts to a grade level, e.g., 3rd Grade, do not have the option to pin as there is no grade level page for the feed.
- District admin may pin a district post, but it will only show at the top of a district feed to be seen by district admin and district staff. These posts can't be pinned at a school site.
- Pin a post is only available on the web browser and not the mobile app.
- You can only pin one post per feed (school, group, district.)
How to Pin a Post
- From Home, locate post in the main feed.
- Click the gear icon in top right of the post and select Pin Post from drop-down.
- A pop-up window will appear asking you to confirm your decision. By pinning a post to the top of a feed, you will also remove any previously pinned post. Click Yes, I'm positive.
How to Unpin a Post
- From Home, locate post in the main feed.
- Click the gear icon in top right of the post and select Unpin Post from drop-down.
Note: When a post is pinned it will pin it to the top of all the feeds it was originally posted to (all recipients and groups it was sent to). Unpin will unpin from all feeds.
Appreciate a Post
Users can "Appreciate" a post. Give them generously! Teachers and school leaders love your feedback.
How to Appreciate (Website Browser)
- At the bottom of a post, click Appreciate. After you click, you'll see the heart icon plus, "You appreciate this post".
How to Appreciate (Mobile App)
- When reading a post, click the heart icon in the upper right of post to appreciate it.
Viewing Appreciations
- School and District Admins, Post Author and Post Collaborators can view names of specific members who have appreciated the post.
- Click number of users that appreciate this post to see names.
- Note: Only users who can update a post will be able to see names of people who appreciated it. All other users will only be able to see appreciation count.
Comments on Posts
ParentSquare is a two-way form of communication. When a message is posted users can ask a follow-up question or make a comment. Avoid negativity and please refrain from comments about any teacher, parent, child, or other individual or group. Comments are sent instantly.
How to Comment on a Post
- Click Comment at the bottom of the post.
- Type your comment or question and click Comment.
Public or Private Comments
Schools can choose to enable Public or Private comments. Most schools have private comments, and by default comments are set to private.
- Private comments: only the person commenting, post author, post collaborators, school admins and district admins can view the comment. Post author can reply and only commenter and admins will see the reply.
- Public comments: users can view all comments made on a post they receive, and will receive email notifications if they are part of the comment thread.
Comment Settings: Even if your school has comments set to public, you can make your comment private so that it is not visible to other parents. But, if your school has comments set to private, you cannot elect to have your comment be public.
To make your comment private, click the lock below Comment field and the status of your comment changes from public to private.
- Comment is private (closed lock):
- Comment is public (open lock):
Duplicate a Post
Duplicating a post cuts down on work by allowing you to copy your previously made sign ups, forms, and posts and republish them immediately, or save them as drafts to be used in the current year or in future years. Note: drafts stay in your account from year to year and are not archived.
- Admin can duplicate any post in the current school year and archived posts for the previous year.
- Post authors (that aren't admin) can duplicate their own posts in the current school year and archived posts from the previous year.
How to Duplicate a Post
- From Home, locate post in the main feed.
- Click the gear icon in top right of the post and select Duplicate from drop-down.
Edit details and dates in your post before you send it. Note: The duplicate function makes a copy of the post and retains the post recipients as well as any dates on the post. Be sure to update these dates before you send your post.
- If you had a Calendar Entry/RSVP on original post, the copy of the post will have the same date listed even if the date has passed.
- If you had a Sign Up on original post, the copy of the post will have the same sign up dates if the sign up is in the future. If the sign up dates have passed it will list tomorrow as the date for all sign ups.
- If you change any text, be sure to click Retranslate all from English at the bottom of the post.
A warning will also be displayed if you've changed any text, "The contents of this post have changed. Please make sure to translate before posting."
- Click Post Now. OR, click drop-down menu and select Save Draft or Schedule to send later.
Duplicate an Archived Post
- Click your name and select My Account.
- Select Archived Posts in left sidebar.
- Select a post from the list.
- Click Duplicate on the right.
Duplicate a Scheduled Post (or Draft Post)
You can only duplicate a post after the post has been sent or scheduled. If you want to duplicate a Draft post, one workaround is to schedule it for a future date, and then you can duplicate the post. Duplicating makes a copy, and your scheduled post will remain available until the date you specified. You can select and duplicate it again. It's almost like making your own post template.
- Create a new post. Click Schedule and pick a date in the future, for example, the end of the school year. Click Schedule to confirm.
- Then from Home, select Scheduled & Draft Posts in left sidebar.
- Find a scheduled post and click the title to open.
- Click Duplicate on the right.
- Edit the title and content of the post, being sure to update any dates you've included.
- Click Post Now or Schedule to send later.
- Your original scheduled post with the future date is still available in Scheduled & Draft Posts to duplicate again until the date you scheduled to send. Note: add a reminder to your calendar to change the scheduled date or remove the post before the scheduled date.
Share a Link to a Post
This function allows you to get a link to a specific post to share with another user. Send the link to other users by direct message or as part of another post to redirect users to linked post.
Note: The post is still only viewable by the recipients of the post when it was initially published. Thus, if a post was sent to a group, and then the link is sent to a user not in this group, they will not be able to see it.
How to Get a Link
- From Home, locate post in the main feed.
- Click the gear icon in top right of the post.
- Click Share and select Get a link from the drop-down. You need to be the author or post collaborator for the post.
- Or, go to post detail page and click Share, then Get a link in right sidebar.
- A pop-up window will appear with a link to this specific post. Highlight and copy this URL. Click OK.
- Paste the link into a direct message or another post to share. Note: Links are for sharing a post internally within ParentSquare.
Edit a Post
- From Home, locate post in the main feed.
- In top right of post click gear icon drop-down and select Edit.
- Make edits to your post and click Save on right side.
- Editing a post does not send a notification to users. Optional: Notify users about edits after saving. Click gear icon drop-down and select Send Update.
Additional Notes
Digest Notifications: If you edit a post the same day it was created, those people who haven't yet received an email (because they are on digest setting), will see the revised post instead of the original post.
Mobile App: To edit a post on the mobile app, use the View Full Site option.
Delete a Post
- From Home, locate post in the main feed.
- Click the gear icon in top right of the post and select Delete from drop-down.
- A pop-up window asks you to confirm. Click Yes, I'm positive.
- Message will confirm you have successfully deleted post.
Note: If you delete a post before digest notifications are sent out, the post will not be included in the digest notification.
Delete a Post With a Form Attached
To delete the post you must remove the form responses first, and then delete the post.
Comments
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