Overall, it works for what we need it at our school (an attendance management system and to keep track of class rosters). However, I think it is unfortunate we can't use more of it's capabilities and that we use so many different systems instead of it all being streamlined into one. I wish being able to toggle how to print and see attendance and class data was easier and more intuitive.

Our school mostly uses this for class rosters and tracking attendance. For those purposes, it works really quite well. Tracking attendance is quick and easy, you can go in and mark students as absent or present or tardy. You can also click "all here". You can add in health notes about students and other important things we need to know as teachers.

The other features we don't use because they aren't good (e.g. the grade book) and we use it with schoology instead as it links with assignments that can be turned in. However, I really wish we could streamline it and use all one program for everything (learning management system, grade book, attendance, etc.) or that they all connected. Also, while the class rosters and schedules work and can be printed, it is not intuitive how to do so. They are not displayed well or functional for how I'd like to use them. While I like I can go in and see student notes and data, you have to click on students individually which sometimes is difficult.

This is my district's 7th year using Skyward. I am the counseling secretary in our high school and work in Student Management. I am also a security manager for our district. Honestly, when we made the transition to Skyward I was very unhappy. I didn't find Skyward to be very user friendly and I wasn't pleased with the customer support response time. Oftentimes I was unable to find a way to make Skyward do what I needed. However, as the years have passed, Skyward has made improvements to the program, I have learned the system better and the customer support live chat option is a huge timesaver. Now, I really enjoy using Skyward. I have the dubious distinction of being our district's "Skyward guru" and I believe I've learned a lot through exploration in my efforts to assist others. When I can't find answers, I know that help is only a live chat away! I would definitely recommend Skyward to other districts.

Possibly my favorite aspect of Skyward is the ability to dump data directly into Excel. This is a huge timesaver and allows me to manipulate, sort, share and utilize data as needed. I also like the ability to create reports based on my needs using Data Mining.

There are still a few things that I wish I could do in Skyward, that I can't, such as use activity groups to run certain reports/schedules. Occasionally, we experience what I call "Skyward quirks" when something doesn't work right one day, but it works the next. Recently, our library parapro ran a report and new that the info displayed wasn't wholly accurate. I checked her format and everything was good. I printed it with the same results. I cloned the report, changing nothing, and ran that and it was accurate. The next day her report worked properly again.

I use mostly the student management modules. I've worked in attendance, discipline, scheduling, substitution, reports cards, fee management, data mining, and health office.

This is an extremely powerful suite of software. Once you learn the basic interface (which takes quite a while) you can get more and more useful data out of the system.

The learning curve is steep. I've been using this program for 15 years and am still improving my skills. Many of the reports are hard to read and simply ugly. I shouldn't have to have my tech department use Crystal Reports (which I don't have access to and don't know how to use) to get something that looks professional. It needs to include a publishing tool similar to Microsoft Publisher (NOT Word!) so that I can design things easier. The report designer is terrible. It is cumbersome and not at all intuitive.

Overall the Skyward system lets us do the things we need to do with student data. This information is very invaluable to our district so the system is used heavily. It does what it advertises.

The Skyward system allows our corporation to enroll and schedule students with ease. The reporting feature has been invaluable to my own job. There are so many facets to this software that you can do just about anything.

The user interface is somewhat outdated. They released a more web friendly version a while back but it had the same problems. In a world of student information systems though, it is on par with most other ones.

I HAVE REALIZED THAT TIMES HAVE CHANGED FOR CHILDREN IN SCHOOL NOW BECAUSE THEY CAN'T TRICK THEIR PARENTS INTO THINKING THAT THEY HAVEN'T RECEIVED THEIR REPORT CARDS BECAUSE OF THE SKYWARD SCHOOL MANAGEMENT APP.

I LOVE THAT SCHOOLS OFFER SKYWARD TO PARENT SO THAT THEY CAN KEEP UP WITH THEIR CHILDREN'S HOMEWORK AND CLASS WORK AS WELL AS ALLOWING PARENTS TO ADD MONEY TO THEIR KIDS LUNCH ACCOUNTS. YOU CAN SEE YOUR CHILD/CHILDREN'S GRADES AS WELL AS WHICH ASSIGNMENTS THEY ARE MISSING. YOU CAN ALSO SEE HOW MANY QUESTIONS THEY MISSED ON A QUIZ OR TEST. IT ALSO ALLOWS YOU TO HAVE MORE THAN ONE CHILD LISTED AND THEY ALL CAN BE AT DIFFERENT SCHOOLS. AMAZING!!!!!

There isn't anything that I don't like about this software. It is the best thing that they have created.

Skyward School Management has been a very positive change for our district. We switched a couple of years ago and since then it is easier for us to manage debt on lunch accounts and easier for me as a parent to stay on top of things like this.

I like how easily accessible Skyward is for parents to keep track of student expenses. Not only can parents easily add money to and watch student's lunch accounts, they can also easily pay fees online and very quickly. In a matter of seconds, I am able to add lunch money to my child's lunch account.

There is nothing I dislike about this software.

It has a comprehensive set of features that allow student management. From the teacher side the data is fairly easy to view and input of the gradebook and attendance is relatively easy.

It is somewhat difficult to learn. There are many variables that can confuse teachers in creating gradebooks and in accessing information. The reports are not particularly intuitive to use.

Skyward is a "one stop shop" for teachers. Student information can be quickly accessed through Skyward. Teachers use Skyward for attendance, grades, and student information.

Some of the grade book setting can be a learning curve, but not very difficult to figure out.

I am a teacher. My whole district uses Skyward. I have around 300 students at any given time.

I love that I can send mass emails to all parents. I am impressed by some of the reports that I can generate from the website.

Some of the features are clunky and hard to use. It is extremely difficult to access messages that people have sent me in Skyward.

As a parent of children in a two household family, Skyward has been nothing short of a frustrating experience. The system designates the categories of Family 1 and Family 2. Being listed as Family 2 means that I get excluded from important communications, am restricted from scheduling parent teacher conferences, and at one point was told I could not check out my own child from school to go to a dentist's appointment. I have voiced these concerns multiple times in my district only to be informed that the frustrations I have voiced are voiced several times over by other parents and that Skyward has done nothing to address these complaints. It appears that NO consideration was given in the design, or implementation of two household families who share the responsibility of raising their kids. For context, my ex and I share 50/50 joint physical and legal custody which means I am equally responsible for their financial, physical, and educational wellbeing.

Being listed as Family 2 means I don't get much of any benefit out of Skyward other than seeing my kids' grades and progress.

The software is clunky, not user friendly, not family friendly, and serves only as a repository of data that is very uneasily accessed.

We have to keep detailed records on everything from students to the financial. This software does it all. It allows multiple people to see the same data and manipulate it, all while having secure separate log-ins. It keeps all the data, runs all reports and keeps logs of who has done what and when.

Skyward keeps all of the records and any information that you can possibly want to report, accessible at your fingertips.

The annual cost is a little much, not sure how it compares to other school softwares. It takes some training to use. If you know computers and how they work, it will be a snap. I did not find it very intuitive.

Skyward I am sure has many functions that I have not been trained to used. I feel good software should be user friendly and somewhat intuitive; Skyward is not.

I like that I can mark all students present with one click. You can set up seating chart attendance with or without pictures. It can average grades for you. You can see if parents have accessed their child's profiles.

This is not user friendly and requires training. If staff is not trained (I was not) it leads to a great deal of frustration.

Skyward has been our SIS for 10 years now and while many districts have switched SIS systems every few years, we have remained happy customers. The main reason for this happiness? The company is very responsive to the input from their customers. Because of being responsive to that input, Skyward has been able to create an extremely flexible system that allows for many different scenarios for how schools operate. The future is bright, and we know even more great things are coming from the company.

Flexibility and the frequency of updates to the software

Navigation can be burdensome for those who have system-wide security access. This is just due to the amount of features that are available, but not much of a problem for end users as they only have access to what they actually need.

I have used Skyward for both student management and employee access for personal work data. It makes day today task easier and I like having access to important information when needed.

I like how Skyward makes everyday tasks like taking attendance easy or checking attendance history. I also like the availability to gather student information from their profiles when needed.

I don’t like how the app version doesn’t allow you to view detailed information like the computer software does. I wish the two mirrored each other better.

I like that I can choose how I want my screen to look and can choose the information presented. I am able to toggle between all of the different pages easily and efficiently. I can access my child's information st the click of a finger. Additionally, I can access pertinent school and district information. I prefer this program to PowerSchool, as a parent user. I have access to more information faster and easier.

I have had no real problems with this program so far. It has served my needs as a parent. I only struggled with the initial login, due to a bit of s glitch in the system, but that was all worked out.

I always describe Skyward as a top of the line SIS. Skyward has been wonderful to work with and an asset to our district. We love giving our staff one stop shopping for data. We also know our parents and students have come to rely on Family/Student Access for up-to-date information. We find the system easy to use and has features and functionality that is always on the cutting edge.

Very easy to use for all levels. Skyward holds an abundant amount of data so we can use it in my areas in the school district.

There is sometimes a longer wait then expected to hear from customer service.

My experience with SKYWARD has been great. I use it daily to keep attendance, grades, and contact info for all my students.

I love that I can easily access information about all of my students in one location. From parent contact info to the student's transcripts, I have easy access to anything I might need.

There is nothing that I do not like about the software. It is super user-friendly and easy to use.

Overall extremely happy with this application. I highly recommend that every parent who has a child in school use this app.

I enjoy using this software because I get to track my children's grades and progress daily! Report cards and progress reports are posted on here as well, so if my child ever "forgets" to bring it home, I can always look it up

There is nothing about the Skyward application that I do not like. Everything about it is easy to use!

When my district converted to Skyward, some of the training sessions were not as informative as we would have liked. Now that we are a few years into using the software, most of us have come to appreciate all that can be done. It continues to be a learning process. Many of the "features & functions" are real time savers.

Reports that are time savers.

Some settings are at deep levels that are difficult to find and use.

I have been utilizing Skyward for over 10 years and find it a useful tool in managing student performance data, as well as attendance information. Data is stored and may be easily retrieved for years. Reports are easily compiled and may easily be modified by student or entire class.

What I like most about Skyward is that it offers many types of reports that can be printed out or shared online. Data can be accessed by parents any time of day and they are able to ask questions through the program.

I haven't found a need that is not met by this software.

Skyward was reliable and fairly easy to use for the day to day functions of a classroom.

I enjoyed the simplicity of everyday use for attendance and entering grades. I also enjoyed the connectivity from administrators to teachers.

I didn’t enjoy the complexity of grades for midterms and report cards. It took a while to enter all comments and run the report.

Keeping up with my children school progress.

I love being able to log in and see how my child is doing in high school by each class. You can see missing assignments, test scores and quizzes. The teachers and the school can also contact me through skyward.

It can be confusing to use when you first start using it, but it gets easier and easier the more you use it.

Skyward is a very powerful product. We have used it for 15+ years and I am still finding useful features. Anytime I have an issue, support is punctual and extremely helpful to solve my issue.

Skyward can be very daunting because it is so powerful. It is semi-userfriendly, but the interface looks stark and cold.

Horrible

Nothing at all do I like about Skyward.

Very difficult to use and a waste of time and energy