Community Brands Extends Capabilities of New K-12 Education Technology Platform

April 26, 2019—ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.— Community Brands, the leading provider of cloud-based software and payment solutions for schools, associations, nonprofits, and faith-based organizations, made new capabilities available today in its K-12 Select Suite, a complete set of solutions for private and independent K-12 schools. The suite, announced just six months ago, is powered by the SchoolCommunity technology platform with a universal wallet-style ID and an innovative data service hub. The new features offer integrated workflows, eliminate manual movement of data through the enrollment process and offer unique benefits for faith-based schools and dioceses.

Today’s announcement showcases a new workflow and data synchronization between TADS, the leading K-12 financial aid and tuition management solution, and SchoolSpeak, a student information system favored by faith-based schools. The newly integrated feature set combines broad admission, enrollment, financial aid, tuition management and school administration capabilities in one efficient process. These software benefits eliminate the manual exporting and importing of data across systems, reduce errors and cut the time required to onboard new students.

“A sizable number of SchoolSpeak customers already use TADS, and it was important to further strengthen the customer experience by integrating the two solutions,” shared Bethany Little, EVP K-12 Solutions at Community Brands. “SchoolSpeak customers who aren’t yet using TADS now have an even more compelling option to address their financial aid and tuition management needs.”

SchoolSpeak is widely used by dioceses and individual Catholic schools to govern daily operations. The solution brings online communication, student information, attendance, grade book, report cards, lunch ordering, payments, emergency forms and volunteer signups together in a single solution focused on the unique needs of faith-based schools. Schools are better able to manage off-cycle admissions and enrollments with these tools.

The innovative platform updates announced today also include new TADS capabilities that help districts and dioceses track admission and enrollment trends across all of their schools in real-time. With the launch of these features, administrators with responsibility for multiple schools will be able to easily analyze aggregate trends, find new ways to optimize enrollment and compile data in minutes rather than hours.

“The integration of SchoolSpeak and TADS is the latest to come to the SchoolCommunity platform,” added Little. “Many other systems require a full replacement of their enrollment, tuition management and student information tools just to achieve a smaller benefit than what has been made available today. Allowing SchoolSpeak clients to easily tap into any aspect of TADS through a plug-and-play platform is something I have been eager to bring to the market, and customers are excited about the new integration.”

Deepening its capabilities for faith-based schools, the company further revealed a forthcoming integration between TADS and ParishSOFT. ParishSOFT is part of the Community Brands faith-based suite of solutions and provides mobile church management and accounting capabilities specifically designed to meet the unique needs of Catholic parishes and dioceses. This integration will help automate the creation of accounting entries based on payment activities managed within TADS.

Flexible software suite options from Community Brands ensure that private and independent schools can use the best mix of products to meet their needs, while also ensuring a connected and integrated experience for school administrators and families. Today’s product highlights follow an announcement of new TADS financial aid award management capabilities made earlier this month.

TADS district capabilities and the TADS and SchoolSpeak integration were previewed this week at the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) 2019 Convention & Expo. Learn more about Community Brands and its Association Solutions, Nonprofit Solutions, K-12 Solutions and Faith-based Solutions.