5 Reasons Your Traditional Paper Call Log Needs an Update

One of the most important strategies for fostering family involvement is through open, two-way communication—typically achieved through one-on-one phone calls, emails, and texts between classroom teachers and families.

Two-way communication creates a balanced, open channel between school and home for sharing information and building collaborative relationships. The way in which communication data is recorded, stored, and shared is vital to the usefulness of records for student growth as well as compliance.

If you’re making the effort to keep a communication log, why not ensure that the information captured is dependable, searchable, measurable, and consistent with all other student data?

Digital Logs for Two-Way Communication

Digitizing call logs from two-way school-home communication means they can be used to track engagement, see how family response rates impact student attendance and performance, uphold compliance, and eliminate conflicting stories.

The Top 5 Reasons to Switch to Digital Logs:

1. Searchable
2. Shareable 
3. Secure
4. Call recordings
5. Data visualization

Communication logs help track requests and questions from students’ families, support Response to Intervention (RTI) committees, document medication administration and updates on custody cases, tackle absenteeism––the list goes on. With SchoolStatus Connect, you can streamline the entire process.

Let’s see why!

1. Searchable

Handwritten communication logs have been routine for many, and their biggest challenge is that they are difficult to search. If, for instance, school administrators need to see details about a particular student, they often need to go through multiple teachers and school staff to get the whole picture. Emailing each teacher individually and asking them to search through their logs to see if they have any notes is time-consuming and requires combining multiple people’s records.

Imagine having immediate and searchable documentation capabilities so you can search communication from a student’s entire time in the district. 

2. Shareable 

Many districts already use digital platforms to streamline data sharing for assessments, benchmarks, and grades. Seeing this data side-by-side with text messages, emails, and call logs associated with a student builds a clear picture spanning over the course of the student’s time in your district.

When information is logged in the SchoolStatus Connect hub, it’s accessible to superintendents, school administrators, principals, teachers, and staff associated with the student so your team can compare all records across your district. 

3. Secure

Building relationships with families through one-on-one communication means building mutual trust and a shared sense of security. Your communication records need to be treated with the same care as the rest of your student data. With SchoolStatus Connect, all records are protected by banking-level security instead of being recorded and shared by hand.

4. Record and playback information

SchoolStatus audio records all phone calls between educators and families. Every time a teacher reaches out to a family through SchoolStatus Connect, whether from their computer or phone, the entirety of the call and the transcript are added to the digital cumulative folder for that particular student.

Automatic digital call logs transform the experience of recording information. Once recorded, student-centered communication data can be instantly reviewed by the administration. With up-to-date comprehensive logs, everyone can stay in the loop.

5. Data visualization

Data visualization provides a wealth of insight into your unique school culture. 

When Galena Park ISD introduced SchoolStatus to their school-home communication efforts, administrators saw over 2,000 text messages go out in just two weeks! Many teachers and school staff had previously contacted families, but no one was able to track this information easily. These impressive numbers raised the question: if you don’t know how frequently your team is engaging with families and caregivers, how do you know if it is happening frequently enough?

The ability to track content and frequency of interactions provides visual and accessible logs. Your district can better understand when communication is happening and how communication impacts student performance and attendance.

It’s time for handwritten call logs to move aside in favor of secure, automated, data-backed communication logs.