FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, Florida has partnered with TalkingPoints, the leading PK-12 family engagement platform, to connect district families, teachers, and staff with real-time, two-way translated communication in support of the district’s 209,000+ students in 210 schools.
TalkingPoints connects schools, teachers, and families so that all students — regardless of their background or home language — can thrive inside and outside the classroom. Its universal family engagement solutions drive student success by removing critical barriers to equitable family-school partnerships such as time, mindsets, capacity, and language via human and AI-supported translation in 150 languages.
Facilitating strong school-family partnerships
Thanks to this new partnership, 209 schools in Central Florida will be able to form strong relationships with families, a major factor to student success and sustained family engagement.
“Teachers have expressed that this platform has significantly improved their ability to connect with parents,” said Paul Maldonado, Assistant Principal of OCPS’ Colonial High School. “It has introduced them to an entirely new way of communicating that they were previously unaware of. What they love most about TalkingPoints is how it helps us connect with parents on a variety of issues, from behavior to academics. The platform makes it easy to share updates on student progress, set goals, and address any concerns that may arise. It truly helps to create a more collaborative and supportive environment between teachers and parents.”
Orange County Public Schools will provide access to TalkingPoints for all schools and families beginning in the 2023-24 school year. Currently, 13% of OCPS students speak 166 languages and dialects, including Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian-Creole.
“Every family deserves to be an active advocate in their child’s learning and to fully participate in what’s happening in school, and I’m proud to partner with Orange County Public Schools to open up lines of communication and establish more points of meaningful collaboration between schools and families,” said TalkingPoints Founder and CEO, Heejae Lim.
To date, TalkingPoints has facilitated half a billion conversations between more than five million families and educators. With a 10-fold increase in students served in the past 5 years, TalkingPoints is used in half of US districts and two-thirds of US schools across all 50 states.
About TalkingPoints
TalkingPoints is an education technology nonprofit that drives student success by removing critical barriers to equitable family-school partnerships such as language, time, mindsets, and capacity. TalkingPoints’ simple, intuitive universal family engagement platform offers the highest-quality human- and AI-powered two-way translated communication available — in 150 languages and counting. Named by Common Sense Education as “the best overall family communication platform for teachers and schools”, TalkingPoints leads to higher test scores and lower absenteeism, as shown by rigorous causal research that meets the ESSA Tier 2 standard of evidence. To learn more, view our TED Talk or visit talkingpts.org.
About Orange County Public Schools
Orange County Public Schools is the eighth-largest school district in the United States and the fourth-largest in Florida. The district serves about 209,000 students at 210 schools and is one of the largest employers in Central Florida with more than 25,000 team members.
