The following message will be sent Tuesday, August 22, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. to all parents and guardians in our current communication system:

This is an important message for all parents and guardians about future communications.

As of tomorrow, August 23, 2023, we will transition to a new communications system. This system will utilize the contact information you provide to your school to call, text, email, and identify your home address in situations where a geographic area is used to send communications.

The new communication system will no longer utilize a Parent Portal to set preferences or to ensure all parents and guardians receive communications. Now, each parent and guardian listed on your student’s file and approved to receive communications from the school will receive communications via phone, email, and text message. Please ensure the phone number on file at your school for each parent/guardian is accurate. If you wish to receive text messages in addition to phone calls, or in lieu of phone calls, please ensure you provide that mobile phone number to your school office. Make sure all home addresses are accurate for each parent or guardian in the case of a geographic emergency in which we need to notify you based on your home address.

I will send an initial communication via phone, email, and text message to each parent or guardian tomorrow, when we transition to the new system. At that time, you will have the opportunity to opt-out of any form of communication you prefer not to receive.

School administrators will have use of the previous communications system until August 31. At that time, systemwide and school-based communications will all transition to the new system.

I also want to take this time to remind you of the HCPS app. When we transition to the new communications system, all systemwide communications will be sent as push notifications through the HCPS app, too. You can set your app preferences to receive notifications via the app and then determine whether you also wish to receive phone, text, and email, or any combination of the previously mentioned. We will also continue to post systemwide communications on the green News Alert on hcps.org as well as via social media channels.

We will continue to share this information over the next few weeks via our social media channels to ensure all families have an opportunity to ensure there is no disruption or missed messages moving forward.