ParentSquare: Conference Sign Ups

You can set up conferences in ParentSquare using their Appointment Sign Ups feature. This article will go over

Setting up conferences in ParentSquare (video walkthrough)
Priority Conferences
1. What to do when you already know conference times for specific families due to translation services or other circumstances.

See these links for more information

Appointment Sign Ups in ParentSquare

From Home, click the New Post drop-down menu and select Appointment Sign Ups.
Fill out the Appointment Sign Up form.
1. Date: Select the first date. If you are having conferences on multiple days, click Add Another Day under the date box.
2. Start and End Times: These times will be for all dates you selected, so you should select your earliest and latest times. You’ll be able to remove specific time slots on the next screen.
  1. Example: Conferences on Wednesday from 4:00-8:00 pm and Thursday from 8:00-8:00. Enter 8:00 am as the start time and 8:00 pm as the stop time. You can remove unwanted time slots on the next screen.
3. Recess: Use this to block off a length of time where you don’t want conferences; Lunch or dinner for example. When you check this box, options will show up to enter a start and stop time, but only one set can be entered. Remember that you can delete unwanted time slots on the next screen.
4. Appointment Duration: Set how long you want your conferences to last.
5. Break Between Appointments: Enter the amount of time (in minutes) between appointments. Enter "0" if you do not want breaks in between.
6. Hide names of users who sign up: Click the box to hide the names from other parents/guardians. Note: student names will always be hidden from other parents/guardians.
7. Limit to 1 appointment per user across all time slots: If this box is checked, each individual can only sign up for one time.
8. Require Student Information: It is recommended that this box be unchecked.
  1. Unchecked:
    1. Parents who have separate households can sign up for separate conferences.
    2. However, your sign up list will only list the parent name. When signing up, they can add a note with their child’s name.
  2. Checked:
    1. Parents will select their child from a dropdown list and the child's name will be displayed in the sign-up form.
    2. The student can only have one conference time, even if parents are requesting separate conferences.
    3. If this happens, you could remove the time from the sign-ups and then communicate with the parent.*** (See example at the bottom of this article).
9. Click Next.
You will see a list of appointment dates and times. You can now edit them as needed.
1. Sign up slot title: (optional) edit title, e.g. Conference Time Slot.
2. Available Spots in appointment slot: Set to 1. Changing this allows multiple families to sign up for each time slot.
3. Remove time slots that do not fit your schedule: click the trash can to the right of the time.
Click Next.
Now you can complete your post to recipients.
1. Click the To field to add your class.
2. Edit the Subject and Description of the post or use the template already populated into the boxes.
3. If you already have some conferences scheduled (translations etc), pause here and follow the Priority Conferences instructions listed below.
Once all your information is entered, you can Post Now or schedule it to go out at a specific time.
ParentSquare automatically sends out 2 reminder emails.
1. Reminder to sign up: sent 1 day after you post the sign ups.
  1. NOTE: It is only sent to users with Instant notifications, not the Digest setting.
2. Reminder of conference time: Sent in the morning, 1 day before the scheduled conference.

Priority Conferences

There are times when you want to give priority or already know the time for a particular student/parent. Follow these steps to schedule your appointment or conference in the near future so you have time to add these students prior to the post going out to all families.

Follow steps 1-6 above
Click the drop-down arrow next to Post Now and select Schedule.
1. Choose a day and time in the future, then click Schedule.
Your post will load with all the available times. Now you can add someone to the sign-up before post recipients see the sign-up post.
At the desired time, click Add Someone.
Search by parent name and click Add.
Now when your post is sent out, this time slot will already be taken and another person cannot select it.

How to Remove Time slots AFTER you have posted your Sign Ups

From Home, find your Sign Ups post.
Click on the settings button in the top right corner of the post, then click Edit.
Scroll down and click the X for the time slot that needs to be deleted.
Scroll up to the top of the page and click Save.