PowerSchool to Acquire Kinvolved, Expanding K-12 Platform to Provide Critical Messaging and Communication Solution to Improve Engagement and Student Outcomes

Rhea-AI Summary

PowerSchool (NYSE: PWSC) has announced its definitive agreement to acquire Kinvolved, a provider of K-12 communication solutions, serving over 250,000 students across three of the top four U.S. school districts. The acquisition aims to enhance communication between schools and families, addressing chronic absenteeism, which has reached alarming rates. Kinvolved’s technology will integrate with PowerSchool's existing solutions, focusing on increased engagement and attendance. The deal is expected to close in PowerSchool's first fiscal quarter, funded with cash on hand.

Positive

• Acquisition of Kinvolved strengthens PowerSchool's communication capabilities in K-12 education.
• Kinvolved's technology targets chronic absenteeism, addressing a critical issue faced by schools.
• The integration aims to enhance family engagement, potentially improving student outcomes.

Negative

• None.

By adding Kinvolved’s industry-leading two-way communication, attendance, and engagement technology to PowerSchool, schools and districts will benefit from stronger collaboration and enable more equitable partnerships between educators, students, and families.

FOLSOM, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- PowerSchool (NYSE: PWSC), the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Kinvolved, a leading provider of K-12 communications, attendance, and engagement solutions supporting over 250,000 students and used within three of the top four school districts in the U.S. Adding Kinvolved’s leading communication engine to PowerSchool’s Unified Home solution will enable schools and districts to strengthen and simplify overall communications and notifications between school and home to increase engagement and help reduce absenteeism.

“Collaboration between teachers, parents, and students is one of the most important aspects of an effective education, and we know it’s a top priority for our customers to have efficient, centralized notifications and communications integrated with PowerSchool,” said Hardeep Gulati, CEO of PowerSchool. “We look forward to welcoming Kinvolved to our PowerSchool team, and together making a bigger impact on improving student engagement and outcomes.”

Recent research from the National Education Association shows how crucial parents and families are to the education and growth of students, as support from the home directly increases student attendance and academic outcomes. Ongoing COVID-related disruptions have also increased the importance of schools being able to communicate time-sensitive updates to parents and families no matter where they are or the language they speak. The return to in-person and hybrid instruction saw a dramatic increase in chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 10 percent or more of the time, with some districts reaching rates as high as 40%. Student absences also have a direct and negative impact on available budget for schools and districts, and recently accounted for $10.7 billion in lost annual funding.

The combination of PowerSchool and Kinvolved will allow schools and districts to centralize communication tools and attendance data with leading teaching and learning solutions to help address chronic absenteeism and strengthen engagement between home and school. Adding Kinvolved to existing PowerSchool solutions benefits educators, students, and their families in multiple ways:

• Deliver targeted mass communications: Recent disruptions to teaching and learning have made timely updates to families more important than ever. Kinvolved helps expedite the delivery of time-sensitive school, district, and class communications via text message, email, and voice call.
• Personalize 2-way communications: Increasing collaboration between schools and homes is a priority for most schools and districts. With Kinvolved, educators can support equity and increase accessibility for all parents with individualized two-way communications that can instantly be translated into more than 80 languages.
• Raise attendance: Studies show that increased family engagement is directly correlated to improved attendance and student outcomes. Kinvolved’s digital attendance/engagement postcards provide administrators with a simplified approach to improving attendance with built-in reporting for deliverability and open rates that support a more efficient and data-driven approach to managing attendance-based interventions.
• Further integration with PowerSchool: As a partner since 2019, Kinvolved already integrates with PowerSchool’s industry-leading student information system (SIS). Our users can also expect additional embedded and seamless integrations with PowerSchool SIS, Schoology Learning, and other products.

“The issues Kinvolved has championed for a decade rapidly accelerated to the top of districts’ priority lists as a result of the pandemic — the importance of positive school-home relationships, and their impacts on student attendance,” said Miriam Altman, Kinvolved CEO and Co-founder. “This acquisition provides the ideal and timely opportunity for PowerSchool and Kinvolved to join forces in providing proven, equitable solutions to these pressing challenges now and into the future.”

PowerSchool and Kinvolved will continue to operate separately until an official close has been announced. The transaction is expected to close in PowerSchool’s first fiscal quarter and will be funded with cash on hand.

About PowerSchool

PowerSchool (NYSE: PWSC) is the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education. Its mission is to power the education ecosystem with unified technology that helps educators and students realize their full potential, in their way. PowerSchool connects students, teachers, administrators, and parents, with the shared goal of improving student outcomes. From the office to the classroom to the home, it helps schools and districts efficiently manage state reporting and related compliance, special education, finance, human resources, talent, registration, attendance, funding, learning, instruction, grading, assessments and analytics in one unified platform. PowerSchool supports over 45 million students globally and more than 13,000 customers, including over 90 of the top 100 districts by student enrollment in the United States, and sells solutions in over 90 countries. Visit www.powerschool.com to learn more.

About Kinvolved

Kinvolved is the leader in solving the student disengagement crisis, by building foundational relationships between school and home that get students to show up to class. Through its KiNVO software suite, Kinvolved helps school systems build positive, two-way relationships between school and home via automated, translated text-messaging-based nudges, and provides attendance and engagement data to school and district administrators to inform real-time interventions. Supporting nearly 700,000 stakeholders from small rural to large, urban communities across 16 states, KiNVO is an third-party, efficacy-tested solution, helping school systems reduce absenteeism by an estimated eight percent across all grade levels. To learn more, visit www.kinvolved.com.

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View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220124005860/en/

Jenna Mills

public.relations@powerschool.com

(916) 836-6378

Source: PowerSchool Holdings, Inc.

FAQ

What is the purpose of PowerSchool's acquisition of Kinvolved?

The acquisition aims to enhance communication between schools and families, focusing on reducing chronic absenteeism and improving student engagement.

When is the expected closing date for the Kinvolved acquisition?

The acquisition is expected to close in PowerSchool's first fiscal quarter.

How many students are supported by Kinvolved?

Kinvolved supports over 250,000 students across three of the top four school districts in the U.S.

What is the expected impact of the acquisition on student outcomes?

The integration of Kinvolved's solutions is expected to improve family engagement, which is directly correlated to better attendance and academic performance.

How will PowerSchool fund the Kinvolved acquisition?

The acquisition will be funded using cash on hand.