The Parent App provides direct access to the latest school news and events and department news and information into the hands of parents and carers.

NSW Department of Education Chief Information and Data Officer, Sandie Matthews, said news and information about individual schools was now more accessible.

“The Parent App is designed to improve and streamline communication between schools and their school communities, with 180,000 parents and carers already using it,” Ms Matthews said.

Through the app, parents and carers can receive push notifications from schools to their phones to ensure they do not miss any important news.

“Our public education system is one of the biggest in the world. We have more than 800,000 students and one million parents and carers so it is so important they stay connected and engaged with their child’s education,” Ms Matthews said.

“One of the main benefits is parents and carers with children at more than one NSW public school can get news and information about school events from multiple schools through the one app.”

Parents and carers can also add school events to the personal calendar on their phones and contact the school either by phone or email via the app.

Ms Matthews said schools would be able to easily update news and events content for the Parent App through their school website.

“The app integrates with the school’s website so school admin staff can post news and events to both the school website and the app at the same time.

“We have plans to add more functionality to the app over the course of this year and beyond.”

NSW Government Chief Information and Digital Officer, Greg Wells, said the NSW Government was committed to providing parents and carers with digital solutions to make their life easier.

“It has been great to watch this fantastic new time-saving application progress from an initial concept through funding via the NSW Government’s Digital Restart Fund (DRF) and on to its official release to parents across NSW,” Mr Wells said.

“The new Parent App highlights how the DRF is driving digital transformation across NSW and it will make a real difference for parents of school-aged children.

“Our vision for the app is it will further link with the existing Service NSW app to provide an even better ‘Tell us once’ customer service experience.”

The Parent App is available to download on Apple Store and Google Play.

The NSW Government has allocated $2.1 billion across four years for digital transformation projects through the DRF. The fund is administered by the Department of Customer Service and targets smart, simple technology solutions which create efficiencies for customers across the state.

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