Osceola County School District Gives Its Community A Platform And A Voice In School Safety Through K-12 Insight's, Let's Talk!
HERNDON, Va. and OSCEOLA, Fla., Jan. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Osceola School District in Florida needed to develop an online space where stakeholders could ask safety questions and report bullying, threats, or acts of violence and found a solution with K12 Insight's Let's Talk! customer experience platform. Let's Talk! is an innovative cloud-based communication solution that reaches more than four million parents, students, teachers and staff nationwide.
With more than 68,000 students and 8,200 staff and administrators, as well as 50 district schools and 21 charter schools, Superintendent Dr. Debra Pace and the school board made a strategic commitment to improving customer service and communication.
Part of that commitment involved the creation of Keep Osceola Safe. The online portal, powered by K12 Insight's Let's Talk! school customer experience solution, is a dedicated space for students, parents, and staff to ask important safety questions, report instances of bullying, or report potential physical or social-emotional threats. A special Critical Alerts feature makes it possible to flag messages that include potentially troubling keywords, such as "bomb," "gun," or "suicide," and fast-track those messages for immediate review and investigation.
"With school safety and security being top of mind and a top priority for our district -- like with every district -- we needed to have a reporting system," explains Dana Schafer, the district's public information officer. "People needed to feel comfortable reporting any threat or act of violence that they became aware of. We knew there had to be a better way to do it. Let's Talk! helps us track, monitor, and look into any type of threat or bullying situation."
With Let's Talk!, students, parents, teachers and other community members can easily report concerns 24/7, from any device, directly through the school district website. A back-end dashboard provides district leaders with real-time data including number and type of inquiries, response time, and a customer experience score. Let's Talk! allows students and others to reach out 24/7 from their favorite device.
"With the Let's Talk platform we'll get bullying messages from parents reporting something that happened with their child," shares Heather Kahoun, the district's community relations specialist. "Our district bullying coordinator will work in conjunction with the assistant superintendents, school principals, counselors, and others to quickly address those concerns." Because Let's Talk! tracks inquiries from submission through resolution, there is also a clear "paper trail" of actions taken by the district and community member.
By using Let's Talk! to ensure school safety and improve the customer experience, the district has been able to create a positive school culture based on trust.
"We have had far less disruptions to our school days through lockdowns and those types of things than ever before, because we've been able to use this tool to be proactive and get in front of potential threats or issues on our campus," says Dr. Pace.
K12 Insight is headquartered in Herndon, VA and partners with U.S.-based school systems, primarily serving preschool to 12(th) grades, with the recent addition of undergraduate and graduate schools. Let's Talk! won the SIIA 2019 CODiE Award for Best Collaborative Solution for Educators. For more information about K12 Insight or Let's Talk!, please visit www.K12Insight.com.
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SOURCE K12 Insight
