Together with our partner schools and districts, we developed some tips for how to successfully implement the Parent Portal. These recommendations will help your team get the most out of Bark for Schools.
Choose When to Launch the Parent Portal
We recommend launching the Parent Portal after Bark for Schools has been connected for at least 30 days. This allows you to calibrate your settings and ensure that you’re receiving the most relevant results from Bark.
- Tips for Admins: If your review team is getting either too many or too few alerts in a particular category, you can adjust your Issue Sensitivity settings here. Please note that even if the sensitivity of all issues is set to “Only Most Severe,” you won’t be in danger of missing a severe alert. Bark will always send alerts for potentially imminent threats.
- Tips for Reviewers: At the bottom of every alert, you’ll find an Issue Feedback button. Instruct your team to get into the habit of always clicking “Yes” or “No” to an alert’s usefulness — this helps our algorithm continually learn and improve. Review teams that consistently provide feedback report a higher level of satisfaction with the accuracy of their alerts.
As each school or district has its own specific goals and challenges, we provide several options for implementing the Parent Portal. We encourage schools and districts to choose the one that works best for them. Read more about implementation strategies for Parent Portal here.
Develop a Rollout Strategy
Schools with the highest levels of self-reported parent engagement have one thing in common: they send an official announcement about Bark for Schools and the Parent Portal to their communities.
We’ve provided sample letters below to help you introduce your parents to Bark for Schools, explain why you're monitoring school-issued accounts, and let them know what to expect in the coming days. You can download and edit them to suit the needs of your school's community:
Introducing Families to the Parent Portal
We've also put together these additional letters that introduce Bark for Schools in general:
Introducing Bark for Schools to Faculty/Staff
Introducing Bark for Schools to Families
Introducing Bark for Schools to Students
