Rockford Public Schools greatly values our partnership with parents/guardians and we are very thankful for your support.  Together, we are truly shaping the future by preparing the nearly 8,000 young people for life.  In order to promote essential communication between school and home for all populations, RPS uses multiple platforms.   In an effort to further inform, the following information is intended to help parents better understand how RPS uses each communication tool.

Family Access
(Whole Group Messages) In addition to housing student and family information, parents receive whole group messages from Family Access.  These emails are sent by the district, building, and/or classroom.   As long as parents check the email address that is entered into Skyward, the messages pushed out by RPS will be received.   At the secondary level, student grades can also be viewed in Family Access.   Family Access is linked in the “Family Resources” tab on the right side of the district website.

Outlook
(Individual Email) Outlook is the primary tool for communication among RPS colleagues.  Staff members also use Outlook to write and respond to individual and small groups of parents.   Emailing a staff member directly is the best way to contact a RPS Employee.  A staff email directory can be found under the “Contact Us” tab on the right side of the district website.

Schoology
(Students/Families)  Schoology is our district’s learning management system.  This means that Schoology is our district’s consistent platform for classroom/course websites.   Teachers use Schoology as an instructional tool including making resources/assignments available to students, posting homework and/or timelines, communicating classroom related messages to students/families, etc.   Schoology is not automatically regarded as a “push out” platform.  While teachers do communicate instructional information on Schoology, parents must ensure they have selected the desired notification settings.  By this time of year, most parents have already established routines, however, the attached Schoology Parent Guide provides steps parents can take to revise settings or make arrangements to use the Schoology mobile app.   Student grades are not available in Schoology.

School Messenger
(Whole Group Messages) School Messenger is used for district-wide communications to families/staff (typically school cancellations/delays). The messages are sent from the Superintendent of School’s Office.

Again, thank you for your partnership as we work together to benefit your child(ren).   We hope that this information further assists you in your efforts to stay informed.  If you have any questions, always feel free to contact your child(ren)’s school.