SCHOOL SPOTLIGHT
Fulton Public Schools
How the District Strengthened Family Engagement with Finalsite Chat
Communications were buzzing across Fulton Public Schools, but they weren’t always connected. Families were receiving updates from different platforms, through different channels, and often on different timelines.
So when Amanda Miles set out to streamline the district’s communications, she was tackling a challenge she understood from two perspectives: as the Director of Communications and as a parent with children in multiple schools across the district.
“I wanted a one-stop shop,” Amanda shared. In her role, she’d seen how scattered tools made it harder for families to stay informed and for teachers to build stronger day-to-day relationships with families.
As a parent, she knew what it felt like to keep up with multiple teachers, channels, and places to look for the same kind of information.
At a Glance
Fulton Public Schools serves students from pre-K through grade 12 and is committed to helping families stay informed, connected, and involved in school life. With a community that spans a wide range of grade levels, and home languages, the district works to make information easy to access for every family.
“My goal with our communications department is to streamline communications for families, having one place they can go to get all the information they’ll need, which is how we landed with Finalsite.”
The district had already brought its website, mobile app, and mass communications together on the Finalsite platform. When Finalsite Chat became part of that experience, it helped complete the picture.
Too Many Tools, Too Many Places
Before that, however, the district had one provider for its website, another for mass communications, and another for two-way messaging.
“Each teacher liked to do something a little different,” Amanda said. Some emailed, some used the student information system, while others sent texts. From a family perspective, it was inconsistent and hard to follow.
50K+
Messages in three months
“It was a lot,” she admitted. “If parents didn’t see a text thread or missed an email, they may not receive the information in time. Nobody was using the same system, causing families confusion on where to look.”
For a family with several children, or for a student moving from class to class throughout the day, that could bury regular school communication or important messages deep in a text thread, inbox, or social post, risking that a family misses them altogether if they look in the wrong place.
The district also served families with different communication preferences. Amanda shared that some wanted desktop access, while others expected mobile-first communications and notifications, with a single dependable place to access information on their terms.
“My goal with our communications department is to streamline communications for families, having one place they can go to get all the information they’ll need, which is how we landed with Finalsite.”
AMANDA MILES
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
Implementation: Rolling Out a Fulton-Branded Experience
Fulton treated implementation as a communication effort of its own. The district started early, first introducing the transition to internal staff and teachers. By giving staff advance notice in the spring, the district had time to prepare for the shift before the next school year.
Amanda created a step-by-step guide using screenshots from its own app so families, students, and teachers could see the Fulton-branded experience during its soft-launch.
“Our families liked to see what it actually looks like in our Fulton app,” Amanda shared. “With our district’s branding and colors, it was important for us that they understand that this is ours and not just a generic app.”
Families were then introduced to the change during the final month of school, with a focus on what they would need to know as they head into summer activities and the fall reopening.
In just three short months, the chat app had handled over 50,000 messages between district teachers, families, coaches, and staff—messages that could have been lost in inboxes and feeds.
Bringing Two-Way Communication Into One Platform
Finalsite Chat gave Fulton a way to bring two-way communication into the same connected platform the district was already using for its website, app, and mass communications. Families could have one place to go, and the district could support school-to-home communication in a way that felt much more organized and easier to manage.
Chat Across Grade Levels
The move to Finalsite Chat also fits the broader communication strategy: Larger, district-wide announcements still had their place through mass communications, but Chat created a stronger channel for direct, ongoing conversation between teachers, staff, students, and families about reminders, questions, updates, and classroom communication across grade levels.
For instance, at the secondary level, teachers used Chat for announcements, activity updates, and schedule changes. For the elementary and pre-K classes, it became a useful way to share moments and help families feel closer to the school day.
“We have the full range of how our teachers and families utilize Chat,” Amanda explained. “It's great for those families that are sending their baby to school for the very first time and checking in with that teacher to make sure their kiddo's okay. Our secondary teachers use Chat for announcements, reminders, and notifications if practice is canceled.”
“Everything’s in the app, and your most recent messages automatically move to the top of the list,” Amanda said. “I'm not having to scroll back through what can feel like endless screens of text messages to find information.”
Language Access That Helped More Families Stay Connected
And for a district that has families who speak several languages, including Afghan refugee families, Amanda pointed out that they don’t always have someone on staff who speaks each language.
With Chat’s translation capabilities, families receive messages in their preferred language, and staff can understand responses, making the district’s communication even more accessible and far more effective.
“We don't have that breakdown in communication that we did when those families first moved into the district,” Amanda said. “Being able to communicate with both the student and the family, especially now that cell phones aren’t allowed in school in our state, has been very helpful.”
“They feel more connected, and now that they can keep up with their kiddos, I think they've gotten a better sense of what school looks like at Fulton.”
A Safer, School-Approved Space for School-to-Home Communication
Fulton also wanted its school-to-home communication to happen in a monitored, school-approved environment. Amanda saw Chat’s admin oversight as a big advantage for safety and visibility.
“We’re responsible for our families' most treasured things: their children,” Amanda said. “Knowing that there are security measures in place to block inappropriate messages provides families with peace of mind, knowing that we continue to put their students’ safety first.”
One Place for Families, Stronger Tools for Teachers
Instead of chasing information across text threads, email chains, and separate platforms, families could see messages in one place.
Amanda said families appreciated that messages were stacked in the app, with the most recent communication appearing at the top. They could also scroll back through previous conversations to find pinned information, such as calendars and newsletters, without digging through old messages.
The Results
- More streamlined communication
- Families felt more connected to classrooms and staff
- Teachers felt more empowered to connect with families
- Stronger engagement at scale
A Stronger Connection Between School and Home
Finalsite Chat also gave teachers a stronger framework for communication. Instead of relying on personal workarounds, staff had a district-supported channel for school-to-home communication. That structure helped teachers respond more quickly to family questions and helped keep small concerns from growing into larger issues.
“It truly is two-way,” Amanda said. “It’s families reaching out to teachers with questions or concerns, and staff can respond accordingly. Our staff appreciates that they can set a window of time they receive notifications, versus their phone dinging all evening,” Amanda said. And since the district doesn’t provide teachers with cell phones, staff liked being able to use Chat in a browser.
“That’s definitely helped them have a healthy balance between school life and home life, because they can't be available 24/7, and this is a great way for them to have that option.”
Amanda also pointed out that privacy is an important part of the experience. Families could receive classroom communication directly, rather than relying on public-facing social media posts with photos.
“As for the number of emails, I can tell you as a parent, I don't get them nearly as often as I used to,” Amanda laughed. “I presented an overview of communications to our advisory committee, and they were a little shocked by the sheer number of messages sent through the platform.”
“I have regular check-ins with our principals, and they can see the number of messages sent, who utilizes Chat regularly, empowering them to support their staff and our continued communication efforts.”
“Our principals can be slightly competitive with their insights. It’s definitely created a little bit of a buzz. Our teachers really are sending messages and receiving them back.”
For Fulton, the move to Finalsite Chat created a more dependable way for families to stay informed and gave teachers a stronger way to build connections with home. For Amanda, that work came back to the same goal she set as an admin and a parent in the district: to make communication easier.
“Our families feel more connected to our teachers, and the things that are happening," Amanda said. “Our families have greatly appreciated the fact that they have that open, two-way communication.”
See how Finalsite’s mobile app & chat work!
Get a behind-the-scenes tour of the mobile app and Chat.
Is your messaging reaching its potential?
Evaluate the effectiveness of your school’s email, messaging, mass notifications, and more!