Okaloosa County parents may notice an influx of calls and texts from third-party numbers inviting them to re-enroll their child in an Okaloosa County school. Though it may look like spam at first glance, the messages are actually part of an initiative by the Okaloosa County School District to recruit students and invite parents who’ve chosen alternative schooling, like homeschooling or private school, back into the public school system.
But what does this campaign cost the taxpayer, how much information did the district give these third-party companies, and has it worked?
“As part of our ongoing commitment to serving families, OCSD has partnered with Caissa K12 to enhance enrollment outreach and communication,” OCSD Public Information Officer Catherine Card said via email. “This partnership allows us to connect with current, prospective, and returning families through phone calls, emails, and text messages to provide accurate information about enrollment, school choice options, academic programs, student services, and available resources.”
Caissa K12 is a student recruitment firm based in Memphis, Tennessee. On their website they say they “Competition for students is inevitable but falling behind isn’t,” and that they “Put students in seats and enhance positive enrollment trends with Caissa K12’s proven student recruitment and retention strategies.” The firm’s several dozen employees specialize in student recruitment as well as district branding.
The Partnership
OCSD entered into an agreement with Caissa Public Strategies, LLC. on May 2, which aims to combat what the district called “a severe decline in student enrollment” noticed with the advent of school choice vouchers for all students..
“What we’re most known for is our student recruitment, where we go out and we recruit students that have left the district to attend charter, private, home schools, while also running a concurrent campaign where we’re targeting families that have never attended that traditional public school,” Adrian Bond, President of Caissa K12, said.
In the first month of the campaign, Card said Caissa K12 sent 11,251 phone calls, 43,304 texts and 51,117 emails to local parents.
OCSD allocated $99,110 from General Fund money for the initiative, but Caissa K12 will receive $935 for each student recruited, according to public records obtained by Mid Bay News.
According to OCSD, each student enrolled “will generate approximately $9,000.00 in funding to the school district.”
Your Personal Info
Since the recruitment campaign targets parents with kids who aren’t enrolled in the district, OCSD agreed to “provide student data for former OCSD K-12 students over the last three (3) year period” with Caissa K12. According to meeting minutes, this data includes:
- OCSD student ID numbers
- Parent/guardian first and last names
- Student first and last names
- Phone numbers and email addresses
- Mailing addresses
- Current or last-known school and grade level
- Preferred language
- Any relevant comments or exit information
Bond said Caissa K12 takes precautions to protect student and parent information once the district shares it.
“Our primary host system is HubSpot, and so these sort of entities, you know, they must have all the latest safeguards, and we are in compliance with all of those as set by the district as well as our insurance provider,” he said. “So that is something that we take very seriously, and I will still say that a lot of the information that we do have, we don’t need personal information. Like we don’t need social. We don’t need a lot of those kind of things.”
According to Caissa K12’s privacy policy, your information will “not be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Information may be shared with subcontractors in support services, such as customer service. All other categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.”
Bond said OCSD also oversees communication between Caissa K12 and local parents.
“Anything that is front-facing to the family, the district approves prior to it going live. So, all of our phone scripts, our text messages, emails, anything that will go out, the district will approve prior.”
Results
With $99,110 allocated for the campaign, at $935 per recruited student, OCSD estimates it will recruit approximately 106 students.
As of August 6, Card said OCSD has recruited 33 students since the campaign with Caissa K12 launched on May 1.
