The Federal Way school district is updating the parent notification system to better respond to the needs of families.

For the past decade, Federal Way Public Schools has used an automated messaging system to notify students’ families about emergencies, activities and other school and district news. The district uses this system for parent notification in urgent situations, such as weather events, school closures, a missing child, or a lockdown situation. It’s also used for “outreach” messaging – notifications about events and activities.

New technologies have led to changes in how people prefer to get information. More and more, the district has heard parents say they want to receive communications in a timely, but targeted manner.

Many have asked to direct calls to certain phone numbers, or to email instead. With the addition of the district app, many parents and staff now opt to receive “push notifications.” A push notifications is like a text, but doesn’t apply to cell carrier data plans.

With the upgrade to the messaging system, parents or guardians can now edit their delivery settings to reflect these options.

For example, a family may direct that attendance and emergency messages go to both mom and dad’s cell phone numbers, and that they are notified through the app, as well. If they wish, they can request outreach messages go to their home phone number, or an email address, or just to the app. Just about any combination can be accommodated, and the parent has more control than ever.

As the district transitions to the new system, families may, for a short time, receive more messages, or messages at phone numbers that weren’t previously called. The system upgrade means that phone numbers are being pulled from the student’s records in a different way. With this reboot, the system will automatically pull a primary number, a secondary number and a cell number, as well as an email address, for every adult associated with a student.

Once this new import is completed, parents and guardians be able to edit message delivery settings. This means you will be able to select the delivery method, and the email or phone number, to be used for specific types of notifications such as emergency, attendance or outreach.

There are two ways to update contact information:

The app is the fastest and surest way to make sure contact information is accurate and up-to-date, because parents enter the information themselves. As soon as they receive the email with your login credentials, they can log in to the app to:

• Update message delivery preferences

• Add a new phone numbers or email address

• Check student-specific information like lunch balances and books checked out

For assistance in updating message delivery preferences:

• Call the child’s school office

• Call the communications office at 253-945-2270, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday

Only custodial parents or guardians may request a change, and they must provide their student’s ID number.

An email with log-in credentials will be sent the last week of December. Parents will also receive directions for updating their log-in password, and editing delivery preferences.

The Federal Way Public Schools app can be downloaded through the Apple App or Google Play Store by searching for “Federal Way.”