Washington's Kent School District recentlylaunched its mobile app — available on iPhone and Android — joining several other area districts that have gone mobile including Highline, Federal Way and Issaquah.
Kent paid $56,700 to a professional developer for the basic infrastructure and ongoing service, and then customized the app for the district’s specific needs.
The district hopes to increase parent engagement with the technology, allowing for convenient, real-time communication, according to Thuan Nguyen, the district’s chief information and digital strategy officer.
Parents can use the app to find contact information for teachers, administrators and other district staff.
The district can send notifications and instant alerts, but parents can customize the app so they only get the information they want.
Kent surveyed middle and high school students last spring and discovered that 86 percent of them had access to a smartphone at home.
The Pew Research Center reported this month that 64 percent of U.S. adults now own a smartphone, up from 35 percent in 2011 when Pew began tracking the trend.
Pew also reported that lower-income adults are more likely to depend on their smartphones for going online.
©2015 The Seattle Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
