Parent Emergency Communication System (PECS)

The Parent Emergency Communication System (PECS) lets you easily contact parents during an emergency within CatapultEMS.

CatapultEMS Parent Emergency Communication System is available as an add-on feature. Contact your Customer Success Manager to enable this feature.

Use PECS after initiating an Action Alert
Use PECS when resolving an Action Alert
Example notifications

Use PECS after initiating an Action Alert

Log in to CatapultEMS using a District Safety Team account. A Site Safety Team account may also send messages to parents if permitted by your district.
From the District Command Center (or site dashboard if permitted by your district), choose Parent Emergency Communication System.
Note: PECS is only available during an Action Alert (code red).
Select the site(s) that you would like to contact. You can select multiple sites at once.
Choose your communication channels.
- Email: Send an email with basic text formattings like bold, italic, paragraphs, and lists. If contacts have languages specified, we automatically translate.
- Text: Send a text message to cell phones. If contacts have languages specified, we automatically translate.
- Website: Post an update to your school site if you use CatapultCMS. No automatic translation.
  - Announcement: Post information about the emergency to the announcement feeds.
  - Pop-up: Generate a pop-up with an emergency update on the homepage.
- Emergency Website: Post to your emergency website for families to visit for updates and emergency resources.
- Facebook: Post to your school page on Facebook. No automatic translation.
- Twitter: Post to your school Twitter account. No automatic translation.
- App Push Notification (Parent App): Notify parents via the mobile parent app if you use the Catapult District Branded App.
Compose the message.
1. Subject: Title of the communication. If being sent via text, the subject is included in the text message.
2. Script: If a pre-written script is available, select it from the dropdown and the script will fill the content area and subject field.
3. Message: Compose the message you would like to send. All standard features of a text editor are available
Select Send Message.

Note: Previously sent message history is available at the site level.

Use PECS when resolving an Action Alert

From the Site Dashboard, choose Resolve Action Alert (green button at bottom).
Note: For more information, see Resolve Action Alert.
Provide resolution details in the text box.
Repeat steps 4-6 from above.
Select Close Action Alert.