Procare vs. Skyward Student Management System

It's good for monitoring and communication, but is very clunky when it comes to billing. It's nice that all messages for a student come up in the same conversation, but it would be nice if I could send message to only Administration or only room staff and also receive notification that my message has been read.

Incentivized

There is nothing specific that I would say sets it apart from any other LMS, but once you are used to the user interface and various features, it does everything that is needed and integrates well enough with other software to function. Probably isn't necessary in a smaller setting, but for multiple building districts, it is certainly robust enough to handle data collection and storage.

Incentivized

• Track attendance
• Accepts monetary payments
• Customer service
• Responding to feedback and customer suggestions

Incentivized

• Flexibility. This multitude of fields available makes it easy to capture data the way we want or need to.
• Quick response to trouble tickets. The company strives to reach out to the customer within an hour and start the process of resolution.
• User focused. Improvements to the system always look at how the end user experience can be enhanced.

Incentivized

• Formatting of their home screen
• Changing email addresses attached to accounts (staff and parents)
• Message filtering for large group messages

Incentivized

• Confusion when it comes to student grades- sometimes there are two different letter grades for a student for what is posted as "TR1" and "PR1." How does a teacher know which of these grades will be posted to a student's report card? How does a teacher know what the student's actual grade is for a particular course?
• Switching between the Educator Access Plus and Student Management tabs can be complicated, especially for those new to the system. Why can't everything be in one place?
• I recognize that Skyward logs out after a certain period of inactivity to preserve privacy of users, but is there a way to change those settings so that Skyward does not log out as frequently? It is difficult to keep having to log back in completely again.

Incentivized

It is the system I am most comfortable with, so having to learn a new system outweighs any problems I have with Skyward.

Incentivized

It takes some time to get used to navigating the features and layers, but once you know your way around it, it's pretty good.

Incentivized

Overall great job, issues were taken care of. People in support do care.

Incentivized

Yes, I was part of the implementation team.

Incentivized

We have used Sandbox, which was bought out by Procare and will become obsolete. The program had many good features, but in most ways we find that Procare has surpassed Sandbox. The interface as a staff person is very user-friendly, messages are more easily sent to parents, and parents have found this simple to navigate as well

Incentivized

I, personally, have not used other Student Management Systems, but having used Skyward, I do not necessarily feel any overwhelming desire to seek out the competitive software programs. Skyward does what it says it will and provides my school district with an easy and organized way to share and access all of the relevant student and family information we need. It serves it's purpose well and meets our needs.

Incentivized

• parent communication is more fluid
• changes in daily schedules are quickly communicated
• child security is handled well
• we are able to send documents and receive parent signatures through the program

Incentivized

• Overall, Skyward has had a positive impact. One way is the student information that is shared and available to see. If I need to know something about a student’s academic history, Skyward has it.
• Another way it has impacted our district is the way it has streamlined all of our payroll information. I can see check histories, different parts of my salary, and the year-end totals all in one place.
• Skyward has also made a big impact on our district by making it easier to communicate with parents. All the parents’ contact information is available and email is even included in the program.

Incentivized