School Stream vs Skool Loop

School Stream is a school communication app for connecting schools with families. Schools can send targeted notices, reminders and newsletters, and create digital forms for permission slips, excursions and absences, including digital signatures. Its messaging supports unlimited conversations between school and home, with private messages to families and groups. Schools can publish event details such as permission notes, times and maps, and sync online calendars. Payments can be collected through School Stream Forms, with processing handled by Stripe. On-demand translation supports over 100 languages. Schools can see who has read notices and when, and manage parent accounts and groups. School Stream runs on Android, iOS and the web. Families have free access; school pricing is on request, with the school plan billed annually. The company says its servers are in AWS’s Sydney region in Australia, and that data at rest uses 256-bit AES encryption while services use at least TLS 1.2. Each school is assigned a Customer Success Manager for support and training.

Skool Loop is an Android and iOS app for parent-teacher communication about school notices, appointments, and other updates. Parents can receive newsletters and push notifications, check the school calendar, choose teacher-provided interview slots, respond to permission slips, send absence messages, and find school contacts. Notice groups let parents select which school channels send them updates. The app translates between English, German, and Mandarin. Its calendar can connect to a school Google calendar or student management system and synchronize with other calendar programs. The maker says the service caters to schools in Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. The maker says form information is directed to the selected school and is not accessed by Skool Loop or sold for database use. It also says data is hosted on AWS, passwords are encrypted, and images and documents are stored privately with controlled access. The app has been assessed by Safer Technologies 4 Schools.