Alerting Parents A Delicate Balance For Southeast Texas School Districts

Drake, the parent of a seventh-grader who was already at school for an early-morning basketball practice, said she learned about the threat first from local news media posts and on the district's Facebook page. Drake and other parents took to Facebook to express their frustration about the misinformation, made worse when they called the school and were referred back to the erroneous website. With digital, technological and social media options, school districts have more ways than ever to communicate information to parents. [...] the decision came too late, Drake said, after the district's social media posts and news releases put parents on alert and left them worried and bewildered. Like PAISD, Beaumont ISD uses mobile app notifications, website pop-ups, social media posts and phone calls, spokeswoman Nakisha Burns said. The district posted information about the plan on its website and issued a press release when the process began over the summer, but it did not email parents, post on social media or send flyers home with students reminding them of public meetings to discuss it. Lumberton's Scoggins said that flyers in a weekly "take home" folder for parents works well for elementary schools, but not as well with older kids. Port Arthur's Hunt said the district used to also make phone calls to announce events, but FCC rulings on automated calls now limit that to just emergency situations. The combination of phone calls, social media and paper flyers is good, said Port Arthur mother Ramsey, because though Facebook works best for her, the district is wise to cover all the options for conveying both urgent and daily information.