Resources
Blackboard Connect
https://www.blackboardconnect.com/Login
Improving School to Home Communication
The Muscogee County School District uses Blackboard Connect, a telephone notification/messaging service, to communicate with parents and district employees. Blackboard Connect allows administrators to personally contact parents about emergencies, events, and other important issues that impact you and your child throughout the school year. Principals and administrators use Blackboard Connect to send a personalized voice message to your family's home, work, or cell phone. For example, principals can make one phone call and reach all of the parents, employees, or a combination of both within minutes. The service also offers email and text message capability.
Why Text Messages Are Not Likely to Be Used
Text messages are likely not to be used due to the need for clarity and accuracy. Some service providers may limit the number of characters used in a text message. It is important that parents and employees receive the entire message sent from school to home via Blackboard Connect.
Contact your child's school if you receive a message that is incomplete or cut-off.
Blackboard Connect Tips for Parents
Be sure to supply accurate contact information to your child's school
- All Contact Numbers (Home, Cell, Work)
- Email Address
- Home Address
Blackboard Connect will detect answering services and leave a message after the beep. Outreach messages typically go to the home phone number. Emergency messages go to numbers supplied by you (up to six numbers).
Changes to Contact Information
Parents are responsible for making sure accurate contact information is on file at their child's school. Changes include name, address, emergency numbers for home, work, cell phone and email address(es). If the information is not accurate, you may not receive messages sent via Blackboard Connect.
The information must be on file at your child's school in order for principals and district administrators to send important messages to you via Blackboard Connect. Once information is changed, it usually takes up to 24 hours to update in the Blackboard Connect system.
Examples of Messages You May Receive:
Emergencies (Up to six phone numbers can be contacted.)
- Crisis/Safety
- School Closings
- Cancellations
- Bus Delays
Outreach Messages
- Open House
- Test Schedules
- PTA Meetings
- School Events
- Report Cards
Attendance
- Notification of Student Absence (Primary Use of Connect-ED)
Timeline for Attendance Notifications to Parents:
- Elementary Schools 8:45 am
- Middle Schools 9:45 am
- High Schools 9:10 am
- SIG Schools 8:25 am *(School Improvement Grant Schools start at 7:40 a.m.)
Attendance messages are sent during these times to inform you of your child's absence and for safety concerns. Parents should verify absences by contacting their child's school. Please note, parents will still get an attendance notification message even if you have notified the school that your child will be out for a particular day or week. This is verification of school attendance records and notification to parents.
Single Survey
- Will vary depending on your child's school
Principals are also expected to communicate with parents continuously through traditional methods (letters, flyers, newsletters, and the school website) about events, programs, or announcements. Principals are encouraged to send a wrap or summary message (no more than two per month) about upcoming events or issues at school to effectively communicate with parents and school employees. This will keep parents informed, but also limit the number of calls received for matters other than attendance or emergencies.
Parent Technology Center
GoGuardian Parent App
Welcome to GoGuardian Parent/Guardian!
Muscogee County School District has granted you access to GoGuardian Parent, a mobile app designed to provide parents/guardians insight and control over their student’s online activity when on school-managed devices and accounts. First, the GoGuardian Parent app provides an overview of your children’s online activity on school-managed devices and accounts – this overview includes the apps, extensions, documents, and websites your student visited. Second, GoGuardian Parent provides you with an additional set of internet controls that you can set for out-of-school hours. GoGuardian Parent was created to help provide students additional educational support and is a companion to the classroom engagement and internet filtering tools that our school uses.
What is included in this app:
- Top 5 overview of your student’s online activity
- Any teacher interventions related to your student’s online activity
- 30-day overview of your student’s online activity
- Ability to block websites on school-issued devices during out-of-school hours (4:00pm to 7:00am M-F, and ALL weekend)
- Ability to pause internet access on school-issued devices during out-of-school hours, either on-demand or at a scheduled time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDR28cwcWDU&t=1s
To access the app, please follow the below instructions:
1. Download the application
2. Enter email address for authentication
After the app is successfully downloaded and installed, open it up and enter the email address registered with the school (this email needs to match the email used in Infinite Campus/Parent Portal) Note: If you forgot your registered email address, please reach out to your school administrator.
NOTE: If the message “Sorry, the email you provided can’t be verified. Please try again or contact your school’s administrator” appears, double-check the spelling of the full email address.
If it is correct, please contact the school or district’s administration to verify the email is on file as the primary Infinite Campus email. It will be the same email you use to enter the Infinite Campus Parent Portal.
3. Email verification
Login/Check Email: Check your email on your phone for a link to log in to the app. Tap the “Verify your email”, and it will take you straight to the app. Note: If you don’t have access to your email through the device you used to log in, tap on “Login with verification code”, and copy and paste the verification code from the email into the app.
4. Review terms and conditions
After successfully entering the email address, proceed to read the terms and conditions for GoGuardian Parent by navigating to the bottom of the text box. After reading the terms and conditions, click the checkbox to confirm review of the text and click the “I Agree” button.
NOTE: If the “I Agree” button is not present and shows as “Read to the bottom,” ensure that the text has been reviewed by reading to the bottom of the text within the text box and clicking the checkbox to confirm the text has been reviewed.
If this does not work, please close the application, confirm the device has an active internet connection, re-open the application, and try again.
5. Explore GoGuardian Parent
After successfully signing in, choose a student account to review activity from the “Your Students” page. Depending on the administrative configuration, you may have access to the following information:
- A list of the student’s top 5 Top visited domains and GSuite files.
- A count of how many times Teachers using GoGuardian Teacher has guided the student’s browsing behavior by closing tabs, locking browsing, opening specified tabs, or blocking access to websites.
NOTE: This feature depends on the account’s subscription status to GoGuardian Teacher and may be unavailable. - All browsing activity by domain is logged within the Chrome browser for the student’s managed Google account.
If you have any questions, please refer to the Muscogee County School District GoGuardian page