DECEMBER 10, 2015, 11:58 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2015, 12:04 AM
BY LINDA MOSS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
With so many parents and students virtually inseparable from their cellphones, North Jersey school districts are increasingly turning to smartphone applications as the most efficient means of sharing information about school closings, delayed openings and emergencies.
The Wood-Ridge school system launched a mobile app in late October.
Wood-Ridge and East Rutherford were among the districts that introduced free apps for mobile devices this fall, using them not only as a way of sharing time-sensitive notifications, but also to put announcements, lunch menus, staff directories and other useful information at parents’ fingertips, district officials said.
And for urban districts — such as Paterson, which was among the first in New Jersey to introduce an app — the technology has the added appeal of being capable of translating school messages into dozens of languages for students and families of many nationalities, many of them at the lower end of the income scale.
“School districts need to provide equity of access, and speak to communities of all socioeconomic levels,” said Nate Brogan, senior vice president of SchoolMessenger, a company based in Scotts Valley, Calif., that has developed apps for about 30 districts in New Jersey, including Paterson, and 400 nationally. “And often the most disadvantaged among us are actually where you have the greatest adoption of smartphones because it’s often a lifeline. It may be someone doesn’t have the Internet at home, but they have a smartphone. So many school districts use this as a way to involve their entire educational community.”
And in an era of deadly school shootings, parents have been quick to embrace school district apps as a communications system that can swiftly catch their attention and transmit information.
