Apps help teachers communicate with non-English speaking families

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Emma González Gutiérrez has struggled for years to communicate with her five children's teachers.

She has tried to stay engaged. She has attended meetings, leaned toward Spanish-speaking staff and relied on translators, including her children, over the years.

Now, thanks to an app that McElwain Elementary, her Adams 12 school, began using this year, she has found opportunities to participate in new ways in her youngest son's education.

Recently, the kindergarten teacher sent her a text message through the ReachWell app, which allows the teacher to send text messages in English and parents to receive the messages in their own language. The teacher told González Gutiérrez that her daughter had won a student of the month award and invited her to come to school to surprise her daughter when she was given the award. The small gesture that meant so much to González Gutiérrez.

“For me it was very exciting,” González Gutiérrez said. “It was so valuable that she was able to let me know.”

ReachWell and similar translation apps have become more common and, for some teachers, crucial as educators work to communicate with the growing number of non-English speaking families. Apps often allow communications between parents and teachers to be personal. Some teachers say it has helped parents open up about problems their children or families are having, which then helps teachers interact better with students.

In addition to viewing teachers' texts in their native language in ReachWell, parents can respond in their native language and teachers view responses in English.

Kayli Brooks, a teacher at Tollgate Elementary School in Aurora, uses the Talking Points app, which also allows her to text parents. She also translates texts between parents and educators, but does not require families to download an app.

“Families will share that they're having difficulty with transportation, or this is why maybe they're acting out, or they might text me and say, 'Hey, this happened at home and I think my kid is going to be very sad today at school,'” Brooks said. “It's a big problem. Families want to be involved in their children's education no matter where they are from or what language they speak.”

Brooks said that since his Aurora school started using the app in 2020, it has had much more success collecting permission slips, for example.

With immigrant families who are new to the country and “a little overwhelmed,” she said, texting them through the app has also helped them better understand the basic information they need to get their children started in school.

Communication that seems personal, via text message, is often more manageable for families than directing parents to online forms and resources, she said.

Sara Olson, principal at McElwain Elementary School, said the ReachWell translation app is “a tool that provides equitable access.”

“It's almost mind-boggling to me that some of these people have maneuvered for years into schools without access,” Olson said. “As a parent I can't imagine not having access to information, to teachers. Every child and family member has the right to have that access.”

Olson said she had no problems getting all the families at her school to download the app.

Zuben Bastani created the ReachWell app after he said he saw that some families at his son's school in Denver were not receiving all communications. He said he saw children excluded from field trips after arriving at school, unknowingly, unprepared (for example, wearing sneakers on the day of a snowshoe trip) because their families had not understood the communications. schoolchildren.

“It became very apparent, very quickly, which families were aware and came forward and which were not,” Bastani said.

The app is used in many schools and districts in the metro area and across the country in places like Pittsburgh. In addition to schools, the company is also partnering with some emergency service agencies to provide emergency notifications, such as shelter-in-place orders or evacuation orders during natural disasters, that non-English-speaking populations can receive in their mother tongue.

Jean Boylan, community liaison at McMeen Elementary School in Denver, also uses ReachWell at her school, but said she also used the Google Translate app on her phone to greet parents face-to-face when they pick up students from school. . She said all staff are looking for as many ways as possible to communicate.

At her school, concerns about whether new immigrant families have access to the Internet have led staff to start printing materials as well. McMeen is one of a couple dozen Denver schools that have enrolled a significant number of new students from Venezuela and elsewhere this year.

But every time they can communicate with the ReachWell app, it saves them time and energy, Boylan said.

The app helps because families speak many languages. He said there is a map in his office with at least 27 countries highlighted, reflecting where the school's current families come from.

Bastani said ReachWell found that because parents have to download the app and select from more than 130 languages ​​which is their preferred language, many schools find that they have been underestimating how many languages ​​their families speak.

On average, they discover 25% more languages ​​after a few months, ReachWell leaders said.

Boylan is now working with Bastani to create a resource page that ReachWell offers in the app for families. It may include ways for families to access help, such as food or housing.

For parents like González Gutiérrez, the personal communications they have with teachers are the most critical.

González Gutiérrez said she realized earlier this year that her kindergartner son had become frustrated with an online program the school used for children to learn math. It was causing the girl stress and fear and González Gutiérrez said she didn't know how to talk to the teacher about it, until she realized she could send her a text message.

Letting the teacher know what the problem was allowed them to work together to solve it.

“It's worth it,” González Gutiérrez said. “It's been a great gift to me.”

This story has been updated to reflect that users do not have to download the ReachWell app to receive messages through ReachWell, although downloading the app is an option.

chalk beat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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