Dear Parent/Legal Guardian

Dear Parent/Legal Guardian,

I have always believed that any way in which we can improve communication between our school system and our parents is a win-win situation for everyone involved. Therefore, NAME OF SCHOOL/DISTRICT is pleased to share the following information with you. This school year NAME OF SCHOOL/DISTRICT will be incorporating One Call Now, an automated parent notification service, into our system of communication that will allow us to contact thousands of parents within minutes.

How Does One Call Now Work? One Call Now allows school personnel to keep you updated quickly and efficiently with personalized messages and helps you, as a parent, stay actively involved in your child’s education. As a parent, if you choose to participate in One Call Now, you may select two ways to be contacted. They are:

 Routine notification – these are calls that do not directly deal with the safety of students or staff. These calls may include, but are not limited to: information on upcoming events or the cancellation of a school activity that your child is involved in, school closings or delays, absenteeism, delays in school transportation, etc. When we have inclement weather and have to close or delay school those calls will begin being placed at approximately TIME in the morning. Also, the primary* number will receive all of the same calls that the emergency number receives. I would also like to point out that One Call Now offers a texting service that we hope to merge into our system as we gather phone numbers and incorporate them into our database.

 Emergency notification – these are calls made only during critical incidents in which a child’s or staff member’s safety is in immediate jeopardy. These calls may include, but not be limited to, lockdowns, evacuations and relocations. If you designate a number as emergency it will not receive notification of school closing or delays.

*At least one phone number given to the school has to fall into the category of Primary Notification.

Security - Only authorized personnel within the school district may activate the system. One Call Now keeps all of its clients’ information confidential and secure. Furthermore, all data is password protected on secure servers accessible only by school administration.

Importance of Accurate Contact Information – If you choose to participate in One Call Now, for it to work effectively and efficiently it is important that each school in our district has updated phone numbers and email addresses. The One Call Now system will call the home, cell or any phone number to which you need a message sent. During our initial set up we are asking each family to provide one phone number per family. Eventually each child enrolled in our school system may have up to six phone numbers that link to his or her parents, grandparents, child-care provider, etc. Also, on our school website you will find a link to One Call Now that will allow you to add extra numbers to our database. On the attached page, please provide the one number you would like to designate as the contact number for your child or children. Yes, you only have to fill out one form per family. Also, there may be times when your child’s school will communicate with you via email. Like the phone numbers, you may supply one email address at which to be contacted, but you may later add up to five additional email addresses.

Please keep this page for your information, but detach the second page of this correspondence and have your child return it to school or you may drop it off at the school office. If you have multiple children in our school system it does not matter to which school the phone contact information is returned. We would like to have all forms returned by FORM DUE DATE . Again, I am very confident that One Call Now will help SCHOOL NAME/DISTRICT improve communication with parents; this in turn pay dividends as we work together toward continued success throughout our school system. If you have any questions, please call me at your convenience. Sincerely,

TITLE, SCHOOL NAME/DISTRICT