Two thumbs up to Parent Locker!

The admissions process and parent access to information has been so much more efficient with Parent locker. Data about the school is at our fingertips which has made everything more efficient. We looked at many different database solutions for schools - most of them sky-high expensive, complicated and not affordable for our small school - and we found Parent Locker to be the most easy to use and meeting our needs.

Pros

From creating a form to getting the link up on our website to getting submitted forms into our database, Parent Locker has made the admissions process so easy. The software seems very intuitive and easy to use. Our families so appreciate being able to submit an admissions form on their phone while they're on the go. I also love how quick it is to generate a report for any data you need! If I receive a spontaneous request from the board for enrollment data, it takes me five minutes to generate a report. I've found the customer support really good - they usually respond within 24 hours, and they are always dedicated to helping you until your problem is resolved. Plus they will continually make improvements to their software based on customer feedback - there aren't many companies you can say this about! We've been so happy with their product and their responsiveness to our needs, we still can't quite believe we have such a great product at that price.

Cons

There are a couple of things we are currently unable to generate in a data report - for example, we can't generate a report of students who have left the school so attrition trends are still a little challening to document in the database - but anything we can't do from our end, Parent Locker will do for us and get the info to us, which is so appreciated.

Unbelievable Bang for buck

We are using ParentLocker as the back end for all of our school systems. We were able to roll it out in a very short period of time and have been up and running. The low learning curve is one of its greatest assets. Another is how quickly it added features to adapt to the pandemic. Daily homework emails changed times to be daily schedules, contact tracing and screenings were added along with Zoom integration and more quickly accessible Google Classroom integration. New features are developed all the time.

Pros

Parent Locker took a complicated system, a school database, and made it extremely easy to use by simplifying the interface. Where other systems use complicated and heavy SQL type databases, PL seems to run a much more lightweight system. While this might sacrifice some power in theory, we have rarely had a task that we needed to run which couldn't be run natively. When we did, support came through in unbelievable timing to either run or develop to the functionality for us.

Cons

The company is somewhat small. While the company is growing, I had some reservations about the age and size of the company on its long term viability. This has proved to be a moot concern as the company has continued to build and develop and is going strong. I am still nitpicking but this is still my greatest concern with the software if forced to pick one.

Very satisfied

Pros

Easy to use, downloadable app to your phone, nice looking mass emails

Cons

Some of the SIS features are confusing but easy to learn.

Does the work of serval Administrators

Pros

ParentLocker centralized all of our admissions, registration, student information, paperwork and attendance needs into one convenient and easy to use program. We love the Parent Teacher (P/T) Conference module as well as the beautiful Progress Report and Report Card features. The easy to use school wide email and text message features make sending information and reminds very user friendly. We are also grateful for the way the ParentLocker teamed jumped onto the distance learning program early in the COVID-19 situation and quickly integrated with Zoom and Google Classroom. We are excited to integrate ParentLocker with FACTS for our tuition contracts for this year and to roll out the other new features when we return to school.

Cons

The few features that we felt were missing have either already been added or are being rolled out this year.

Ease of use

Pros

Parent Locker understood the needs of our particular school. Although many of the features we needed were already anticipated, the team at Parent Locker was quick to customize our needs. The greatest thing about Parent Locker is the ease of use.

Cons

Parent Locker has recently added a lot of features we were using other platforms to do for us, thus not integrated into one system. They have been slow to add such features but are realizing that schools need many different databases to "talk" to each other for better management of student's information.