Changes beginning July 1
Beginning July 1, the Johnston Community School District will be changing the default setting for ParentSquare posts (general announcements and messages)
from Instant to “Digest” for all schools, staff, students and parents. While about 70% of all ParentSquare school districts across the nation are on digest, only about 3.7% in Johnston are currently on digest (477 of about 13,000), so this will be a big change.
- What does this mean? Beginning July 1 and for the 2025-2026 school year, all families and staff who have not already made an adjustment in their ParentSquare notification settings will receive all district, school, class and team communications in one digest — a roundup email, text and app update at 6 p.m., rather than receiving instant notifications throughout the day. On text, this will appear as a single summary link.
- What about emergencies? Urgent Alerts sent out by the district for school closures or emergencies will continue to be sent instantly, and will override your notification settings. You will also continue to receive Direct Messages instantly. But having most of your communications (posts) arriving at 6 p.m. via Digest will help to reserve your attention for instant notification of only the most urgent and targeted communication through alerts and direct messages.
- What if I still want Instant notifications? Even if there’s a districtwide default, you can always change your personal Notifications for each school you’re affiliated with to Instant, Digest or OFF. Just go to your name in the upper right of ParentSquare → My Account → then Notification Settings in the left column. You can also learn more about notification settings as well as how to adjust them on this help article and video here.