For elementary schools · Built for K–5, not scaled down from high school

Software that fits an elementary school — not a scaled-down high school tool.

Little kids, big permission rules, and parents who want to feel close to the classroom. An elementary school does not need a master-schedule solver or a credit-tracking records office; it needs a handful of things done warmly and well: a class and family directory the front office keeps current, a memory book a room parent can help build, a picture day that is careful with young children, and a plain way to keep families in the loop. That is what this is — built for the elementary problem from the start.

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The directory, the memory book, and the family newsletter are live today. The picture-day store and text-message alerts to families are in early access, and money is honest-off — there is no live checkout on this page. We never sell a planned feature as if it shipped.

Built for K–5a directory, a memory book, and picture day, done warmly — not a high-school tool with its heavy parts switched off

A memory book a volunteer can builddrag-and-drop pages, the class roster tied in, and a print check that catches a costly mistake before the reprint

Gentle picture daya permission-checked roster lookup, never a face scan turned on without a parent’s say-so; a photo is never sold

Free to startthe directory, memory-book, and newsletter tier settles no money — no live checkout on this page

Elementary is its own stage — not a smaller high school

A high school is a newsroom, a records office, a scheduling puzzle, and a fundraising shop at once, and the software for it is heavy on purpose. Point that same tool at a K–5 building and most of it is dead weight: there is no bell-schedule solver to run, no course requests to arbitrate, no credit tracking, and no athletics-eligibility office. What an elementary school actually runs on is smaller and warmer — who is in which class, how to reach each family, the keepsake book of the year, and a picture day that treats a five-year-old’s photo with care.

Scaling a high-school product down leaves a small staff fighting a tool built for a problem they do not have, hunting for the four features they need inside a hundred they never will. This is built the other way round: for the elementary problem, from the start. The permission rules are stricter because the children are younger, the editor is simple enough for a room parent, and nothing on the screen assumes a guidance counselor, a course catalog, or a bell schedule that a K–5 school has never needed.

What it does

Four things an elementary school actually needs

Each one is labelled honestly. Live today means it is shipped and running now; Early access means it is built but being opened up gradually, with money honest-off. We never sell a planned feature as if it shipped.

A class and family directory parents actually use

Every classroom’s roster and every family’s contacts in one place the front office can keep current in minutes — who is in Room 12, which grown-ups pick up which child, the phone number that actually reaches a parent at three o’clock. It is the plain backbone an elementary office needs: a class list a teacher can trust and a family directory a room parent can be given a permission-scoped slice of, without handing over the whole school. A charter or a neighbourhood elementary does not need a district mainframe to keep clean records.

Live today

A memory book, not a chore

Build the school’s keepsake book in a free editor a volunteer can learn in an afternoon — drag-and-drop pages, the class roster tied in so every name is spelled the way the family spells it, and a print check that catches a broken job before it costs a reprint. It is the kind of book a family keeps on a shelf for decades, made by the room parent and the office together instead of outsourced to a rep who never met the kids.

Live today

Gentle picture day

Run portraits and class photos through a consent-gated store where a parent finds only their own child by a permission-checked roster lookup — never a face scan turned on without a parent’s say-so. Facial recognition is off by default. A photo is sellable only when permission allows, and a photo is never sold. The picture-day store itself is in early access: it is described here, not run here, and no card is charged on this page — money is honest-off.

Store in early access · money honest-off

Keep families close

Send the newsletter and the classroom update to families from one place, so the fridge-note era ends and nobody misses the picture-day form or the spring program. The newsletter is live today. Text-message alerts to families — the short nudge that catches the parent who never opens email — are in early access, and we will not pretend they ship before they do.

Newsletter live · text alerts in early access

Gentle picture day

Careful with young children, by default

A parent finds only their own child

Picture day runs through a consent-gated store where a parent reaches only their own child — matched against the class list they are allowed to see, by a permission-checked roster lookup, not a face scan run across every student. Facial recognition is off by default. A photo is sellable only when permission allows, and a photo is never sold.

Honest about face data

We will not tell you something untrue to sound clean. Where a parent does opt in to face grouping, a face template is created — it stays inside our own private system, is held on a limited retention window (about a school year) rather than kept forever, is used only to group that one family’s own photos, and is never sold. Off by default, opt-in, limited, and private is the honest description — not a pretense that no template is ever made.

The store is in early access

The picture-day store is described here, not run here. There is no live checkout and no card is charged on this page — money is honest-off. When it opens, a parent buys their own child’s portraits directly and the school earns on the sale; until then, we do not claim to process a payment.

To see the current state: book a demo.

The memory book

A keepsake the school makes itself

The memory book is the school’s own keepsake yearbook, and it is live today. It is built in a free editor a volunteer can learn in an afternoon: drag-and-drop pages, the class roster tied in so every name is spelled the way that family spells it, and a print check that refuses a broken job before it becomes a costly reprint. The office and a room parent can build it side by side, and the school owns what they make.

It is the opposite of a template a rep fills in for a building they never visited. Because the roster is already in the directory, the names, the classes, and the pages stay in step — and the same simple editor is the one a small staff can actually keep using year after year, without a training week or a support contract.

School-owned data, careful with young children

Student records and family contacts stay in our own private system and are never sold to, or shared with, outside companies or advertisers. Data about minor children is consent-gated — a family opts in before any disclosure — is never made public, and consent can be withdrawn at any time. A room parent handed a slice of the directory sees only the slice they were granted, not the whole school.

On photos, the honest posture holds throughout: facial recognition is off by default; find-my-child is a permission-checked roster lookup, not a face match; a photo is sellable only when permission allows; and a photo is never sold. Where a parent opts in to face grouping, the face template lives inside our own private system on a limited retention window and is used only for that family’s own photos.

What is live and what is early access — plainly

The directory, memory book, and newsletter are live. The picture-day store and text alerts are early access, and money is honest-off.

Live today: the class and family directory, the memory-book editor, and the family newsletter. In early access — built, but being opened up gradually: the picture-day store and text-message alerts to families. Money is honest-off across all of it: no live billing, no checkout on this page, and no card charged. “A parent buys their own child’s portraits” describes the future store, not a live payment today.

elementaryschool.software is a for-profit software platform for elementary schools — not a school, not a district, and not a nonprofit; this site sells software, not donations. There are no invented adoption numbers, endorsements, or named schools on this page; it describes what the software does, not who is using it. We never sell a planned feature as if it shipped, and nothing here is legal advice.

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FAQ

Common questions

Is this just a high-school product with the hard parts hidden?

No — that is the whole point of building it separately. A K-5 building has no bell-schedule solver to run, no course requests to arbitrate, no credit tracking, and no athletics-eligibility office, so a high-school platform pointed at an elementary school is mostly dead weight a small staff has to fight. This is built for the elementary problem from the start: the directory, the memory book, gentle picture day, and family updates — a handful of things done warmly and well, not a heavy tool with its heavy parts switched off.

What is the memory book, exactly?

The school’s keepsake yearbook, built in a free editor a volunteer can learn in an afternoon. Drag-and-drop pages, the class roster tied in so names are spelled the way each family spells them, and a print check that refuses a broken job before it costs a reprint. A room parent and the office can build it together, and the school owns the result — it is not a template a sales rep fills in for you.

How does picture day stay gentle with young children?

A parent finds only their own child through a permission-checked roster lookup — a match against the class list a parent is allowed to see, not a face scan run across every child. Facial recognition is off by default. A photo is sellable only when permission allows, and a photo is never sold. The whole point of this stage is that a five-year-old’s picture is handled with more care than a high-schooler’s, not less.

Do you use facial recognition on our students?

Not by default. Facial recognition is off by default, and find-my-child is a permission-checked roster lookup rather than a face match. To be honest rather than glib: we will not pretend a face template is never created. Where a parent does opt in to face grouping, a face template is created; it stays inside our own private system, is held on a limited retention window (about a school year) rather than kept forever, is used only to group that one family’s own photos, and is never sold.

Can parents buy portraits here?

That is the picture-day store, and it is in early access — described on this page, not run on it. There is no live checkout and no card is charged on this marketing site; money is honest-off. When the store opens, a parent will buy their own child’s portraits directly and the school earns on the sale, but we do not claim to process a payment today, and we never sell a planned feature as if it shipped.

What is live today, and what is early access?

Live today: the class and family directory, the memory-book editor, and the family newsletter. In early access: the picture-day store and text-message alerts to families. We tell you exactly where each piece is rather than blur the line, because a small staff deserves to know what it can lean on this term and what is still coming.

Is our directory and family data safe?

Student records and family contacts stay in our own private system and are never sold to, or shared with, outside companies or advertisers. Data about minor children is consent-gated — a family opts in before any disclosure — is never made public, and consent can be withdrawn at any time. A room parent given a slice of the directory sees only the slice they were granted, not the whole school.

What does it cost to start?

The directory, memory-book, and newsletter tier settles no money — there is no live billing and no checkout on this page. If a school later turns on the picture-day store, that is a separate, opt-in decision made with families, not something switched on behind your back. Book a demo and we will walk through the current state honestly, including exactly what is live and what is early access.

Is elementaryschool.software a school, a district, or a nonprofit?

No. elementaryschool.software is a for-profit software company whose product is this platform for elementary schools. It is not a school, not a district, and not a nonprofit. Elementary schools are (mostly) public schools; the software that serves them is a for-profit product. We are precise about the difference because it matters — this site sells software, not donations.

The platform underneath

Built on the school publishing platform

elementaryschool.software is the K–5 front door on a broader school platform. The same platform runs enrollment, student records, the directory, publications, picture day, and family communication for schools of every stage; homeroom.software is the publishing platform it is built on, and yearbook.sale is where a family reserves the school’s yearbook. It is a for-profit product — a software vendor serving elementary schools, not a school, district, or nonprofit itself.

homeroom.software Book a demo