When H1N1 Hits, Communication From Schools to Parents is Critical
As students head back to school, the CDC is reporting increasing influenza activity across the U.S. With the H1N1 vaccine not yet available, what can schools do to ease parent's minds? Communicate.
Many schools rely on mass notification systems to relay
critical information about issues like H1N1 to parents. According to a
recent telephone poll conducted by Zogby International, of 1,004 school
officials nationwide who have a mass notification system, nearly all
(93 percent) have used such a system to communicate with parents about
important events including school closings due to weather, pandemic
outbreaks or even physical damage to school buildings.
Mass notification systems provide school superintendents
and principals with a leadership communications tool, enabling them to
communicate directly with their community in an urgent situation, when
time and accuracy matter most. By utilizing a trusted multi-modal
notification platform, leaders can actually record a message in their
own voice, from any phone or mobile device, and send the message via
voicemail, e-mail or SMS text within minutes.
This is the second survey conducted by Zogby
International to gauge the use of mass notification systems among K-12
school leaders. According to both the 2006 and 2009 polls, Blackboard
Inc.'s Blackboard Connect(TM) (or Connect-ED(TM)) remains the
market leader, maintaining a 23 percent share of the school systems
that use a mass notification system.
The polls also asked school officials about their
satisfaction with their parental notification systems. In 2009, 90
percent of school officials who use a Blackboard Connect service said
they are very satisfied with it. This consistently high level of
customer satisfaction has been achieved during a period of record
growth for both Blackboard Connect and the industry.
"We're proud of our ability to continually provide the
highest levels of customer satisfaction in the industry, particularly
as we've grown to accommodate an average of 40 million message
deliveries per month," said Karl Engkvist, executive vice president of
Blackboard Connect.
The survey also demonstrated that customers who use
Blackboard Connect are increasingly satisfied with their system's ease
of use (98 percent in 2009; 93 percent in 2006), the time it takes to
relay a message (96 percent in 2009; 91 percent in 2006) and with the
return on their investment in the system (85 percent in 2009; 74
percent in 2006).
In response to growing concern about H1N1, Blackboard
Connect has established a dedicated Web site where clients can access
best practices, sample phone scripts and press materials to
successfully manage communications to their community and the media
during a pandemic.