Top Three Elements of a Great Online Portal for K-12 Schools

In a survey of 1,000 private school families conducted by Blackbaud in partnership with YouGov, participants identified an online portal as the most important aspect of technology when selecting a K–12 school. Parents and caregivers want a central location for all school information with immediate access to their children’s grades, assignments, and academic progress. They prefer news, a calendar, and resources relevant to their family. They want communication from the school, but on their terms. These findings can be summarized into three elements.

1. Family Engagement

A great portal empowers users to customize their experience, so the news and updates most relevant to their families are front and center. It should have robust directories that facilitate connection among families, enabling them to create and join groups and interact, alleviating the school’s need to manage those communications. Users should be able to control their privacy settings, so they only get the communications they want. Many families have separate residences, multiple generations, or non-family members involved in childcare. To be inclusive for all families, a portal should allow for multiple logins per family. The more customizable and targeted the portal is, the more engaged families will become.

2. Streamlined Communication

Best practice is for a school to communicate with families by both text and email, with the user choosing which they prefer through their portal notification settings. They should be able to opt out of certain communications and control content with which they engage. A great portal should allow each user to personalize their calendar with items important to their family, such as class and sports schedules, after-school activities, meetings, events, etc., and to sync that calendar with their smartphone. Current and returning families are unlikely to visit the school’s external website for information. With the portal, the school should be able to highlight important announcements and target communications based on each family’s grade levels, interests, and more.

3. Data Health

Schools must have up-to-date information for their families. A great portal has forms customizable by grade, role, activities, etc., that auto-populate contact information fields in other parts of the portal when updated by the family. Administrators should be able to configure alerts when any changes are made. Medical forms must be HIPAA-compliant. The portal should enable a school to change forms quickly and send out notifications with links to those forms when due. Schools should have an enterprise view of which families have completed required forms and which are still pending. When a family member can easily update their phone, email, or physical address in a portal, it saves the school time and money.

A great online portal will empower families, increase their engagement and generosity, improve retention, and strengthen the school. A fully engaged family will give more to the school, whether it be time, treasure, or talent. They will become advocates, sharing their school experiences with other families and attracting more students. They are more likely to return every year, see value in their investment, and to contribute in meaningful ways.