Grade levels: Primary, Intermediate, Middle, High

TalkingPoints is a two-way multilingual family engagement platform that allows school administrators, instructional staff and other key staff to send messages to parents/guardians who receive them in their home languages as text messages or through the parent mobile application. Parents/guardians can reply to the message they receive in their home languages, because TalkingPoints will translate it into English for staff. TalkingPoints supports over 145 languages, including the primary languages in BCPS. Please view the introductory video and a one-pager for more information. 

Access: Users can go to the Apps Portal (link also located in the BCPS Links folder in your Chrome browser) and click on the Talking Points icon and then select the log in with Microsoft option. 

Getting Started with Talking Points

• Learn how to send messages and best practices for using TalkingPoints from the TalkingPoints Communication to Teachers document.

• Join the TalkingPoints Schoology Group for information about trainings, office hours, and resources for all TalkingPoints users. Click here to for the Access Code to join the Schoology Group.

• School administrators can send messages to families of students in the whole school, in a grade level, in a specific class, in a custom group they have created and individual students. 

• Classroom teachers who have students tied to them in Focus can send messages to families of students in their class, custom class groups they have created and individual students. 

• Instructional staff without students tied to them in Focus will have access to send messages to families of students in a grade level, custom class groups they have created and individual students.

*Teachers need to work with their school administrator or TalkingPoints Liaison to create custom groups.

• High school athletic coaches, band directors, and club sponsors will have access to send messages to high school  students in school groups that school administrators have created.

• TalkingPoints supports over 150 languages and allows school staff to communicate and engage about students’ academic progress and learning with ALL families.