About Connect-ED - Blackboard Connect K-12  

The Blackboard Connect service provides mass alert and notification systems to local, regional, state and government agencies nationwide. Connect-ED (A Service of Blackboard Connect Inc.)  was developed exclusively for the K12 education market to enables school administrators to record, schedule, send, and track personalized messages to tens of thousands of students, parents, and staff in minutes. 

The Service

The Connect-ED services offers three service option bundled sets that include four types of notifications: Emergency, Community Outreach, Survey, and Attendance — designed to help schools at all levels improve awareness, increase involvement, and audit communication on a regular basis.

	Inform parents and staff of time sensitive situations within minutes. (weather closings, early  dismissals, bus schedule changes, lockdowns, etc.) Delivers message to all available  phone numbers and e-mail addresses for selected contact simultaneously. The service prioritizes Emergency Communication calls with the highest priority in the queue.
	Keep parents, faculty and staff informed and involved in the District community by sending general announcements such as open houses, test announcements, staff reminders, sports events, portrait day, etc. via personalized voice messages and/or e-mail.
	Ask parents and staff a question and receive real time responses. Enables the recipients to RSVP for school events and provide input on school initiatives using their telephone keypads. The service tabulates the results and then provides them to users via the website and e-mail reports.
	Notify parents/ guardians about a child’s absence early in the day with a text-to-speech attendance message. Notifications can be sent daily or on a period-by-period basis as appropriate on a school-by-school basis.

Three Service Options:

1.   Unlimited Ultra- Everything you’ve come to expect from Blackboard Connect. Includes the new Connect-Teacher module, which gives teachers the ability to send targeted messages to parents regarding their child’s performance in the classroom. 

2.   Unlimited Premium- Developed for districts which use Blackboard Connect as a core element of school-to-home communications. 

3.   Emergency and Basic Community Outreach- Designed for districts which seek a basic messaging solution, focused on emergency notifications and backed by occasional outreach messaging. 

For more information contact:

Emy Picon 914-592-4203 xt. 3237