For elementary schools · Elementary School Today · set up in a day
The tool that does not get started in the fall is the one that stalls all year. Here, “today” means now: import your class roster this morning, and a family-and-class directory, real class pages, and a starter memory book exist before the coffee is gone. No procurement, no install, no purchase order, no waiting on a license or a quote — a working setup on day one, not a blank grid you promise to fill in later.
Free to start: the directory, the starter memory book, and the family newsletter are live today. The picture-day store and texted reminders are in early access. Money is honest-off — nothing here charges a card.
Import your class rosters from your student information system, or a plain spreadsheet, once — no re-keying names by hand.
The family-and-class directory and real class pages assemble in room order the same day — a working setup, not an empty template.
Send your first family newsletter the same afternoon, so families hear from the school on day one.
No purchase order and no install to begin. The directory, memory book, and newsletter tier settles no money.
Today, hour by hour
This is the whole point of the “today” in the name: a same-day path a small staff can actually walk, described as it works right now, with the early-access holds called out where they exist.
This morning
Bring in the class rosters from your student information system as an export, or from a plain spreadsheet if that is what you have. The roster is imported once and shared across the directory, the class pages, and the starter memory book — so a name is typed a single time, not re-keyed into three tools. From the first import, the roster is school-owned.
By lunch
The family-and-class directory and a set of class pages assemble in room order, and a starter memory book lays itself out class by class rather than showing you a blank grid. It is a working setup you can hand to a teacher the same day — enough to look established without hiring anyone to build it.
This afternoon
Write and send your first family newsletter the same afternoon, so families are in the loop before the first picture-day form ever goes home. A busy front office reaches every family from one place, on paper or by email, without stuffing envelopes.
This week
Put a consent-gated picture day on the calendar now, careful with young students, so the fall shoot is organized instead of a scramble. Planning it is live today; the store where portraits are sold is in early access and settles no money yet.
The roster is the one thing every other page needs, so it is the one thing you do first. Export your class lists from the student information system the school already keeps, or start from a plain spreadsheet of names and rooms — whichever you have on hand this morning. The import reads it once and fans it out: the directory, the class pages, and the starter memory book all draw from the same roster, so a child’s name is entered a single time and never re-typed into a second tool.
From the moment it lands, the roster is owned by the school, under the school’s own name and contact rather than a vendor’s. It is not shared with outside companies and it is not sold. If a family joins in October or a class list changes, you re-import and the pages that depend on it update in room order — you are never left hand-editing the same list in three places.
The promise in the headline is a real one, not a figure of speech. By midday you have a family-and-class directory in room order, a set of class pages a teacher can open the same day, and a starter memory book that assembles class by class instead of handing you an empty template to fill. It is deliberately a starter: a working scaffold you build out across the year, not a finished spring yearbook pretending to be done in September.
None of this asks you to hire a designer or wait on a setup call. A branded school page with your colors and contact details stands up the same day — enough to look established to families right away — and the real work of the year layers on top of it from there.
Same-day is only possible because nothing stands between you and the first import. There is no purchase order to route, no install to schedule with a technician, no license key to wait on, and no quote to chase before you can begin. The directory, the starter memory book, and the family newsletter are free to start — you set them up the same morning you decide to.
That is the honest reason to lead with speed. A tool that has to clear a spring purchase order is a tool that quietly never gets used; the year fills up and the setup never happens. Removing the wait is not a slogan here — it is the difference between a directory that exists by lunch and one that is still on a to-do list in May.
Once the roster is in, reaching families does not wait on anything either. The family newsletter is live today: write it and send it the same afternoon — on paper, by email, or both — so families hear from the school before the first form goes home. One office, one place, every family, without a stack of envelopes.
Text-message reminders to families — the quick same-day nudge about a form or a shoot date — are in early access, so we name them as coming rather than pretend they already ship. The newsletter is what carries the school’s first message to families today.
Planning picture day is part of the same-day setup: put a consent-gated shoot on the calendar now so the fall is organized instead of a last-minute scramble. It is built to be careful with the youngest children. Finding a child’s photo is a permission-checked roster lookup — a parent finds their own child through a checked roster, not a face match. Facial recognition is off by default.
The picture-day store — where a school earns and a parent buys their own child’s portraits — is a description of a future store, in early access. It settles no money on this page today: there is no live checkout, no card charged, and nothing to buy here yet. When the store opens it will be its own consent-gated surface, and it will say so plainly.
Setting up today does not mean cramming a year into an afternoon. The same-day setup is a foundation you build out across the whole year: the starter memory book grows into the keepsake book of the year, the directory keeps up as classes change, and the newsletter carries the school’s voice week to week. You get a real, working setup on day one and add to it at the pace an elementary school actually moves — instead of a spring rush to assemble everything at once.
If you want the full year-round picture of what an elementary school runs on — the standing directory, the memory book, gentle picture day, and the family newsletter as an ongoing product — that is the sibling this page hands you off to. This page is the front door you walk through today.
An elementary school holds the records of its youngest children, so the privacy posture here is stated plainly rather than dressed up in absolutes. Records and family contacts stay in our own private system. They are never sold, never shared with outside companies or advertisers, and never sent to an outside AI service. Data involving a minor student is consent-gated — a family opts in before any disclosure — and consent can be withdrawn at any time.
On photos, we state specifics rather than sweeping absolutes. Facial recognition is off by default. Finding a child’s photo is a permission-checked roster lookup, not a face match. Where a parent does opt in, a face template is created — and it stays inside our own private system, is never sent to an outside AI service, is never handed back to anyone (a parent reviewing the opt-in sees a plain reference, not the template), is kept only on a limited window of about a school year (roughly 365 days), which is the point at which it is marked due for destruction, is used only to group that family’s own photos, and is never sold. Withdrawing the opt-in stops the matching, on the spot. That is the honest posture: named limits you can check, not a promise no system could keep.
And one thing we will not overstate, because a parent should be able to check what we say. The step that actually destroys a stored template is not finished, and we are not going to tell you it runs on a schedule when it does not. The cleanup job is built to refuse rather than pretend: when it cannot truly destroy a template, it stops and raises an alert instead of marking the job done. We would rather leave that alert standing than write down a deletion we cannot show you, and when it can be demonstrated end to end this page will say so plainly. What already works, end to end, is the part most parents are really asking about: mark a child do-not-publish and their pictures and their name drop out of the digital edition, the online reader, and the print run.
And to be plain about the youngest students: a minor student’s records are never made public, never indexed by a search engine, and never sold. The roster and every family contact are owned by the school — not by us.
Live today and free to start: the family-and-class directory, the starter memory book, and the family newsletter. These are the surfaces the same-day setup stands up this morning, and they settle no money.
Early access — named as coming, not sold as shipped: the picture-day store (where a school earns and a parent buys a portrait) and texted reminders to families. Money is honest-off — nothing on this page charges a card, there is no live checkout, and no card is ever charged here.
What this page is not: elementaryschool.today is a for-profit product for elementary schools — not a school, a district, or a nonprofit. It sells software to schools, not donations, and it is not a charity. There are no invented adoption numbers, no testimonials, and no named schools on this page; it describes what is built and how fast it stands up, not who uses it. Student and family data is school-owned, consent-gated, never sold, and a minor’s data is never made public. Nothing here is legal advice.
FAQ
Yes — that is the whole design. Import your class roster this morning and the family-and-class directory, a set of class pages, and a starter memory book assemble the same day, with your first family newsletter out the same afternoon. There is no purchase order, no install, and no license to wait on. It is a working setup on day one, not a blank template you promise to fill later.
An export from the student information system your school already keeps, or a plain spreadsheet of names and rooms — whichever you have on hand. The import reads it once and the directory, class pages, and starter memory book all share it, so a name is entered a single time and never re-keyed. If a class list changes later, you re-import and the pages update in room order.
They are two doors to the same kind of product, shaped for two different moments. elementaryschool.software is the year-round K-5 front door — the standing directory, the memory book, gentle picture day, and the family newsletter as an ongoing product. elementaryschool.today is the fast-onboarding path: the same-day journey from a roster import to real class pages. This page gets you set up; that page describes the whole year you build out into.
The family-and-class directory, the starter memory book, and the family newsletter are live today and free to start. The picture-day store — where a school earns and a parent buys a portrait — and texted reminders to families are in early access. We name early access surfaces as coming rather than sell them as shipped.
Nothing on this page charges a card. Money is honest-off: there is no live checkout and no card is charged here. The directory, memory book, and newsletter tier is free to start and settles no money. The picture-day store, where portraits are eventually sold, is early access and settles no money yet; when it opens it will be its own consent-gated surface.
Carefully, and stated honestly rather than as an absolute. Facial recognition is off by default. Finding a child's photo is a permission-checked roster lookup, not a face match. Where a parent does opt in, a face template is created — it stays inside our own private system, is never sent to an outside AI service, is never handed back to anyone, is kept only on a limited window of about a school year (roughly 365 days), which is the point at which it is marked due for destruction, is used only to group that family's own photos, and is never sold. Withdrawing the opt-in stops the matching. The step that destroys the stored template is not finished, so we do not claim it happens on a schedule; the cleanup job stops and raises an alert rather than write down a deletion it cannot carry out. A minor student's records are never made public, never indexed, and never sold.
The school does, from the first import. The roster and every family contact are owned by the school, under the school's own name and contact. They stay in our own private system, are never shared with outside companies, and are never sold. Consent for a minor's data can be withdrawn at any time.
No. elementaryschool.today is a for-profit product for elementary schools — a software vendor, not a school, a district, or a nonprofit. Elementary schools are (mostly) public schools; the product that serves them is for-profit. It sells software, not donations, and it is not a charity — we are precise about the difference because it matters.
Set up in a day
Import your roster this morning and have a directory, class pages, and a starter memory book by lunch. No purchase order, no install, no license to wait on. The directory, memory book, and newsletter are free to start; the picture-day store and texted reminders are in early access.