Jacksonville, FL — With Duval County students returning to school on August 12th, the district is encouraging parents to go ahead and download the improved version of the free DCPS app.
The app includes access to the school calendar, information about busing, as well as information about school lunch.
Parents can also customize the app and select which schools they want to receive alerts about.
"If you allow notifications, [you] get the notification that there is an emergency or that there could be an emergency at your child's school," Emily Kristansen, the principal at Oceanway Middle School, tells our partner Action News Jax.Â
She and other principals in the district are being trained on the app this week, ahead of the quickly approaching school year.
Included in the latest version of the DCPS app, is a new help-line for parents.
"If there's something that needs to be reported or something that you might see or hear in your community, and you need to report that to school officials, you can do into the app," explains Kristansen.
DCPS says it will still make emergency phone calls to parents, in addition to any alerts that are sent through the app.
"I think parents need to know what's happening with their children all the time." Michele Aiken said she knows what it's like to need info about your loved ones & have limited access to it. "Having nieces that went to Stoneman Douglas, it was a very scary thing." @ActionNewsJax pic.twitter.com/x1c1rFn7Er
— Courtney Cole (@CourtneyANJax) July 29, 2019
@DuvalSchools is working to change that THIS school year. While they've had their mobile app since 2015, #NEXT on @ActionNewsJax at 6--I'll show you the new feature being used to streamline communication between parents-- and the schools their kids attend: pic.twitter.com/4AJZ38TldP
— Courtney Cole (@CourtneyANJax) July 29, 2019
