For parents in Oklahoma City and Norman Public Schools, a free mobile app is improving communication between the school and parents, providing direct access to student grades, class schedules, school lunch menus and messages directly from individual schools and school districts.
Developed by School Connect, a Norman-based business that specializes in K-12 mobile application development, the app is available to Apple and Android users. It first debuted in Norman Public Schools in October 2011 and became a top 25 free education app at the Apple app store within 24 hours of its release. The app debuted to parents in the Oklahoma City Public Schools in December.
According to School Connect, nearly three dozen school districts in Oklahoma and Ohio have signed Letters of Intent to have the company develop apps for their districts. “We knew it was filling a communications void with school districts,” explains School Connect founder Steve McDaniel. “Since we provide the app for free to the districts, we knew that barrier could be removed. The speed of acceptance [of the new app] has been amazing.”
Funded by school- and family-friendly advertising revenue, the app will always be free to school districts and free for mobile users to download. “School Connect is excited, our school districts with planned launches are excited, and we are being approached by more and more districts every day.” McDaniel said. “Our goals are to provide the app to any school district that wants it regardless of where they are located, and to continue to work with our partner districts to evolve it to be even more useful to parents, students, and our partners’ communities. Our partners are undoubtedly taking school communication, transparency and accountability to a much higher level.”
School districts in the Oklahoma City metro scheduled to receive the app in the near future include Edmond, Bethany, Yukon, Mid-Del, Putnam City and Deer Creek. For more information, visit www.schoolconnectapps.com.
