School Alerts Utilize Web

Quick communication with parents during a weather emergency or a security threat is a vital concern for school districts, but older telephone-dialing systems and even mass e-mails can all fail to connect.

A recent improvement puts into parents’ hands the ability to set—and modify—their communications preferences on a Web site. That tack is used both by an alert service provided by the Honeywell Corp. and a home-grown system in a Mississippi school district.

The 340-student Harding Township schools in Morris County, N.J., subscribes to Honeywell’s Instant Alert, a managed service that relays messages from designated school officials for both...