features EDUCATION With our rich database integration technologies, you will not find a faster, easier or more cost effective tool for quickly delivering voice, text and email messages to parents for unexcused absences, meeting reminders, informational announcements, emergency notifications and more. REQUEST DEMO
POWER OF INFORMATION
Schools and Districts can share a wealth of information with their communities using BrightArrow.

Public school districts, charter schools, and private and parochial school systems alike use our services. With extensive product development and state-of-the-art voice and messaging technology, BrightArrow delivers one of the most flexible and powerful notification systems available anywhere.

“Our parents are very, very pleased with the system. It’s a great addition. I had a family say that this is the best thing we have done in parent involvement in a long time.”

-Gary Holt, Parent Involvement Coordinator, Cooke County Schools

BrightArrow Technologies has been providing solutions to K-12 institutions for over 20 years.  Still owned and operated by the same visionaries who founded the company, BrightArrow continues to innovate and satisfy the needs of discriminating and demanding schools and districts across North America.  The company’s philosophy is to provide a solution that adapts to the needs of your school/district, not force you to alter or change standard operating procedures to adapt to the notification system.

BrightArrow provides all of the features available in the more expensive systems, but also delivers unique benefits and features that are often not in many of the other mainstream choices.  Below, explore the features and benefits while learning more about some of those unique advantages.

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Quick Summary Feature List
1
QUICKLY CALLS, EMAILS AND TEXTS TO MASS DELIVER MESSAGES TO ALL PARENTS, FACULTY, STAFF OR ANY SUBGROUP.
2
CALL SPEED IS USER-PROGRAMMABLE.
3
THE SYSTEM USES TIER ONE PHONE CONNECTIONS, DELIVERING CRISP AND CLEAR AUDIO.
4
UNRESTRICTED NUMBER OF PHONE NUMBERS AND EMAIL ADDRESSES FOR EACH STUDENT, FACULTY AND STAFF MEMBER.
5
AUTHORIZED USERS CAN SUBMIT MESSAGES EITHER FROM THE WEB INTERFACE, MOBILE APP OR BY DIALING INTO
A TOLL-FREE NUMBER.
6
THE SYSTEM IS ACCESSIBLE FROM ALL MAJOR WEB BROWSERS AND USING OUR MOBILE APP.
7
THE USER CAN CHOOSE ANY COMBINATION OF VOICE, EMAIL AND TEXT MESSAGES, SOCIAL MEDIA POST, APP PUSH NOTIFICATION OR WEBSITE POSTING AND UPDATES.
8
INCLUDES FULL ON-LINE CONTEXT SENSITIVE HELP, AS WELL AS A PDF QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE.
FEATURES
K-12 Communications is BrightArrow’s Specialty: The company leverages its vast knowledge of K-12 databases and integration with modern communications technologies and software development techniques.  The result is a solution where the database integration is seamless, the feature set is deep, and with an interface that is intuitive to use and accessible to computer users of all levels. All of these features included at the one low price.
USER ACCOUNTS
• Unlimited number of users.
• Each user account or list can be assigned a Caller ID.
• Shared lists and groups available to different users.
• Districts can empower individual teachers to use the system.
• Many users can access the same set of lists.
• Define limitations on a user’s usage.
• Provides Single-sign-on (SSO) logins via Google mail and LDAP/AD.
DATABASE INTEGRATION
• Distribution lists acquired directly from all major SIS's using BrightArrow’s automated synchronization mechanisms, automatically broken into sub-groups based on any fields.
• Schedule automatic daily or periodic calls.
• BrightArrow system can import files in Excel, CSV (comma separated values) or tab-delimited format.
• The system can load data via (1) your database's ODBC connection, (2) Periodic delivery of text or Excel file to a local drive or SFTP site, or (3) API calls to retrieve or send data, or (4) Manual import of Excel spreadsheet or text file.
PARENT PORTAL
• A Parent Portal allows update notification numbers and emails, and retrieving prior messages.
• The Parent Portal’s user interface can be customized.
• Parents can login and change how they would like to receive messages.
• View or listen to messages (by telephone or speaker).
• A report is available of changes by parents.
• Parents can opt-in to any number of special predefined groups.
• Survey Features.
• Text and voice based surveys, system automatically generates reports.
• Two-way Communication Portal.
EDITING LISTS & CONTACTS
• In addition to the automatically loaded contacts, users can create additional list of contacts outside their SIS by importing.
• System automatically determines field mapping based on content.
• Lists, groups, and sub-groups can also be exported.
• Users can add, remove, or change settings.
• A user can edit an existing list.
• Each contact with unlimited number of phone numbers and emails.
• Choose the From and Subject fields of emails for email notification.
• Program number of retries for undelivered calls and period between.
GROUPS & SUB-GROUPS
• Distribution list can be separated into sub-groups. There are no limits.
• Choose a single group/sub-group, or multiple groups, to message.
• When the master list is updated (via a database sync or edit), linked sub-groups are dynamically updated.
• Check any members of a group to create ad-hoc subset of the group.
• Duplicate phone numbers and emails in lists are removed automatically when the message is sent.
• Sub-groups can be based on a filter query from database.
• Operations can span lists, and multiple lists can be combined into "Superset" lists.
• List protection features are included.
REPORTS
• Transmission reports show details/status for each message attempted. 
• Administrators access all reports. Individual users specified reports.
• Phone number, email or name can be searched within reports.
• The actual message (recorded and printed) is available for review.
• Reports are available online for at least one year – longer if requested.
• Dial reports exported as an Excel spreadsheet, a PDF file or printed.
• Reports automatically emailed to administrators.
• Single click checkbox shows invalid or unreachable contacts. 

MESSAGE CREATION & DELIVERY

MESSAGE CREATION & DELIVERY
  • The system has the ability to create voice calls, text messages, emails and social media posts from a single page.
  • The system can deliver thousands of simultaneous calls, limited only by the customer’s local phone company. The BrightArrow system scrambles the list to spread the calls among the telephone exchanges to minimize the chance of overloading any particular local carrier’s telephone circuits.
  • Voice mail can be either: (1) Pre-recorded from a telephone, (2) Spoken from text using Text-to-Speech, or (3) A multi-part message with a mix of pre-recorded, typed and generated parts.
  • While recording a voice mail, a user can play it back and re-record during that call, and afterwards preview and replace that message. The voice mail may be previewed over the telephone or the computer speaker.
  • Recording can be either done by the system calling your telephone or the user calling a toll-free number.
  • Authorized users can a designate start/end times for sending a voice mail or send the message immediately.
  • The voice mail page includes a notepad, as well as an advanced feature for importing and exporting audio files.
  • When delivering the voice mail, the system displays the Caller ID of the school or a user-chosen phone number.
  • Voice message recipients can replay the message by pressing the Star Key
  • Users can create an HTML email with a full HTML editor included for adjusting graphics, links and layout.
  • Emails can include attachments (basic or linked) as well as message values in the From and Subject fields.
  • Message Library: Upon clicking “Prior Messages,” any previously-created message can be reloaded and previewed.
  • The message can be delivered immediately to all contacts, specific phone numbers (such as the primary home number), or even follow a contingency algorithm that dials the first number and only goes on to the subsequent number for that contact if it cannot deliver a message to the first number.
  • Allows a “No Call List,” plus a mechanism for preventing the accidental scheduling of calls late at night.
  • A “CC” feature is available to designate administrator phones/emails to always receive all notifications to a list.

PANIC BUTTON

PANIC BUTTON
More than ever before, school districts need to provide their teachers and staff with the most effective tools for handling in-classroom crises. BrightArrow’s Panic Button is a feature that you hope to never have to use, but having it in place can be an integral part of your Crisis Response Plan. 
Panic Button is included with a BrightArrow subscription at no additional charge for one phone number.

EMERGENCY/ANTI-BULLYING HOTLINE

EMERGENCY/ANTI-BULLYING HOTLINE
  • Your school or district can have one or more dedicated phone numbers that are specifically for the purpose of two-way emergency notification.
  • The students, parents and staff are told about the dedicated phone number, and whenever anybody calls into or text to that phone number, the voice message or text message is immediately distributed to everybody designated by the school or district as the Emergency Response Team. If anybody on the Emergency Response Team replies to the text or voice message, the originator receives the reply, as well as the other members of the Emergency Response Team.
  • Can be used in a special “Panic-button” approach for staff and faculty to be able to report emergency to designated staff/faculty easily and quickly.

DATA SECURITY

DATA SECURITY
  • All contact and message data is stored on secure SSL servers with access by only three BrightArrow personnel who contractually follow the company’s strict guidelines for data privacy and security.

MULTI-LANGUAGE

MULTI-LANGUAGE
  • Can read the home language field of the student database to determine a parent’s preferred language.
  • Messages that are typed in English can be automatically translated to and spoken in 20 non-English languages. Text messages and text based emails can be translated into over 100 languages.
  • The pronunciation of the text-to-speech engine for those languages can be validated with a Preview function.

API

API
  • Rich set of API calls for messaging features – 
    Reach out to BrightArrow to learn more details.

Direct Chat

DIRECT CHAT
  • BrightArrow offers a free two-way Direct Chat portal that allows parents, students, staff and community members to reach out to the district on a variety of topic categories (of your choosing), to ask questions, make requests, register concerns or make suggestions.
  • Social media sites, such as Facebook, can offer an outlet for such communication, but BrightArrow takes it a step further by offering the two-way communication portal that allows parents to choose and reach out about specific topics in a way that the appropriate staff members receive the requests or questions and are able to address them efficiently and reliably.
  • Direct Chat includes a mechanism to auto-remind or escalate questions if the internal recipient does not respond in a timely manner.
  • This is a wonderful feature that opens a line of communications between the community and the school/district.

SIS Integration Details

BrightArrow supports ALL Student Information Systems. Below is a list of those for which we provide integration, including automated database updates, with those highlighted BLUE that are linked to documents with more information. Please reach out to us to confirm yours if it’s not on the list below. 
Blackbaud
PowerSchool
Skyward
Illuminate
Infinite Campus
DASL (OH)
Wen-GAGE (OK)
Aeries (CA)
MI Datahub (MI)
TxEIS (TX)
Maplewood (Canada)
Aspen
Genius SIS for Virtual Schools
eSchoolPLUS
Mindex
Chalkable
Q
Go.Edustar
Senior Systems
Rediker
Gradelink
JMC
SchoolWise
Sycamore

Brochures

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BrightArrow App Information

BrightArrow Target For Schools

Unique Features & Benefits for All K-12 SIS's

BrightArrow's Toll-Free Number As Caller ID

BrightArrow's Expanded Create Message Page

BrightArrow's Emergency Hotline Features

MORE BENEFITS:

Additional Charges May Apply

  • Custom Branded Mobile App – Apps available for District individual school customization, branded in school colors and logos. Syncs to your Web Calendar. Web-based Management Tool allows easy posting of news, pictures, and calendar events. Sync to your news feed and add school documents, quick links, school forms and media (pictures and online videos).  
  • CMS – BrightArrow integrates with many industry-leading CMS vendors for the industry’s most seamless, feature-rich and cost-effective integrated solution for website/app/notification. Please reach out to BrightArrow for a quote of the entire parent communication center.
  • RallyPoint Student Evacuation System
    RallyPoint is a critical communication and messaging software tool specifically designed for school emergency situations. It’s created for school administrators who want to greatly enhance parent communication, student and staff information for emergency respondents and systematic reunification of students with parents in the event of an emergency. BrightArrow has partnered with identiMetrics to improve safety, security and communication for school districts during emergency evacuations with RallyPoint.