District to Launch Phone Notification System

We are pleased to announce the selection and approval for something that quite frankly has been missing from our selection of communication tools: a district-wide phone notification system. We will soon be able to further our goal for more effective communication with families.

At the September 28, 2010 School Board meeting, Trustees approved the purchase of the Teleparent notification system. This approval paves the way for MISD to begin the implementation phase for what we believe will become a crucial communication asset. TeleParent is an automated system that can send a message by phone or email to parents in minutes.

TeleParent was selected by a district-wide committee after researching and reviewing a variety of notification systems available to meet our District’s needs.

Messages can be sent by teachers to their students’ parents, by campus administrators to all or a select group of parents at their schools, and by the MISD administration to all parents in the district for District-wide situations or issues.

Benefits and usage details

• Teachers and administrators can use the system to schedule and record messages. Teachers go online to select messages specific to each student while administrators use both the internet and the telephone to schedule and record new broadcasts.


• The student messaging system gives teachers the ability to send messages to the entire class, or even messages tailored to each student.


• TeleParent supports over 20 different languages.


• Since teachers will be able to select from multiple message types, such as corrective, informational, rewarding, etc., TeleParent gives students another reason to perform their best in class. It is our hope that once students realize phone calls can be easily sent to their homes, they will be more likely to attend class, behave in class, complete assignments, study for tests, and improve their overall performance.


• TeleParent is tied into the district’s student information system and will be used to notify parents daily about student absences. (We have a few call-out systems currently being used in a few schools for attendance. TeleParent will replace those older systems.)


• TeleParent will be used when challenging situations develop to more effectively reach parents about bad weather closings, delays or dismissals as well as shelter-in-place announcements (commonly referred to as “school lockdowns”) or other emergencies.

The TeleParent notification system will be a valuable district communications tool. As with any new system, it will require training during the implementation phase. We appreciate your patience as we learn the system and maximize its usage.