Kinvolved is a K-12 education technology company that builds software to help schools track student attendance and communicate with families in real time. Its core product, KiNVO, gives teachers and administrators a way to record absences, spot attendance patterns, and send translated messages to parents so schools can respond to disengagement before it becomes chronic absenteeism. In short, Kinvolved connects classroom attendance data directly to family communication, closing a gap that many school information systems leave open.
Who Is Kinvolved?
Kinvolved is a privately held education administration company headquartered in New York, founded in 2012 by Miriam Altman, a former New York City public high school teacher, and Alexandra Meis, a former parent advocate. Altman had observed firsthand how absenteeism affected her students, and that experience shaped the company’s approach of pairing technology with direct family engagement.
In January 2022, PowerSchool, a major provider of cloud-based K-12 software, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Kinvolved. At the time of the acquisition, Kinvolved supported more than 250,000 students and was used within three of the top four school districts in the United States, including major urban systems. The company’s tools are now offered as part of PowerSchool’s broader K-12 platform rather than as a standalone vendor.
What Does Kinvolved’s Software Do?
Kinvolved’s flagship product is KiNVO, a web and mobile application used by teachers, administrators, and families. KiNVO gives educators, parents, and students access to data that highlights attendance patterns, all aimed at motivating changes in behavior, and it provides a single interface for managing attendance records along with push notifications about student attendance.
The app also functions as a communication hub. Teachers can record attendance by swiping a student’s name left or right to mark them absent or late, log a reason and the number of minutes missed, and then send a text message, email, or phone call to parents in multiple languages, all from within the app. The app can import attendance records directly from a district’s student information system and lets staff visualize attendance trends at both the student and course level.
How Does Kinvolved Support Family Communication?
Kinvolved’s messaging system is built to remove language and access barriers between schools and homes. KiNVO lets schools and families communicate through voice calls, emails, and two-way text messaging that is instantly translated into more than 80 languages. Real-time, two-way translation lets teachers and parents communicate in each person’s preferred language, and a teacher’s personal phone number or email address is never shared with parents through the app.
This matters for districts with large multilingual populations, since a parent who does not read English can still receive and reply to an attendance notice in their own language. Administrators also get transparent oversight of teacher-student and teacher-parent messages, which gives school leaders visibility into communications without requiring parents to create a separate login.
What Results Has Kinvolved Reported?
Kinvolved has published outcomes from partner districts to show the software’s effect on attendance. In Providence Public Schools, KiNVO’s translated, attendance-based text nudges were more effective at reducing absenteeism than common interventions such as mentoring and personalized phone calls. In Washington, D.C. Public Schools, an automated Digital Attendance Postcard intervention reduced absenteeism by eight percent.
A spring 2021 research study found an instant eight percent reduction in absenteeism across all grade levels tied to Kinvolved’s tools. Kinvolved has reported that school staff, students, and families have exchanged more than 110 million text messages through KiNVO, and the company has reached nearly one million users across 50 communities in 18 states. Districts considering the tool should still confirm current figures directly with PowerSchool, since usage numbers grow over time.
Who Uses Kinvolved’s KiNVO App?
Kinvolved describes its mission as helping school systems improve family engagement and attendance to raise student outcomes. Its client list has included the NYC Department of Education, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and Los Angeles Unified School District, along with smaller rural districts.
The app is built for a range of school staff, not just classroom teachers. The tool also appeals to working parents who want to stay involved in their children’s education but lack time to be physically present, since the original Attendance Tracker let teachers and after-school leaders record attendance and immediately notify a student’s kin. Kinvolved has also partnered with rostering providers such as ClassLink so districts can access KiNVO alongside their other classroom applications through a single sign-on.
Conclusion
Kinvolved built its reputation on a simple idea: attendance improves when families get clear, translated, real-time information about it. Its KiNVO software turned that idea into a tool used across major U.S. school districts, and since January 2022 that technology has continued its work as part of PowerSchool’s K-12 platform. For administrators researching attendance and family engagement software, Kinvolved’s track record offers a useful benchmark for what the category can deliver.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Kinvolved still an independent company?
No. PowerSchool signed a definitive agreement to acquire Kinvolved in January 2022. Kinvolved’s attendance and communication technology, including its KiNVO software, now operates as part of PowerSchool’s larger K-12 platform rather than as a separate standalone company.
What is KiNVO used for?
KiNVO is Kinvolved’s software for tracking student attendance and messaging families. Teachers log absences and lateness, then send translated texts, emails, or calls to parents, while administrators view attendance trends and set up automated alerts based on a student’s attendance pattern.
Does Kinvolved’s app translate messages for parents?
Yes. KiNVO translates two-way text messages, emails, and voice communications into more than 80 languages in real time. This lets teachers and parents communicate in each person’s preferred language without either side needing to type in a second language.
Which school districts have used Kinvolved?
Kinvolved’s client list has included the NYC Department of Education, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and Los Angeles Unified School District. Before its acquisition, the company reported reaching nearly one million users across 50 communities in 18 states.
Who founded Kinvolved?
Kinvolved was founded in 2012 by Miriam Altman, a former New York City public school teacher, and Alexandra Meis, a former parent advocate. Both were graduates of NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
