“Based on Verizon’s proposal, these wouldn’t necessarily count as ‘K-12 organizations.’ “

“Many of you may also be part of the large and growing base of students, parents, and educators who rely on Remind every day in organizations like preschools, day cares, colleges, churches, and youth organizations across the country,” Remind CEO Brian Grey said, in a written statement released last week. Using the hashtag #ReverseTheFee, educators explained why the app was an indispensable tool in their work.įollowing the social media outcry, Verizon offered Remind a deal: The carrier wouldn’t charge the messaging company a fee for any messages sent between families and educators at K-12 organizations.īut Remind said not all of their users would be covered by that offer. In response, teachers, school districts, and parent-teacher organizations took to Twitter, urging Verizon to rethink the change. The carrier had said that the fee would underwrite the costs associated with protecting against spammers, who use these same mass messaging capabilities to send unwanted robotexts. Remind wasn’t the only company facing this fee-Verizon had planned to impose the additional cost on all app-to-text services. Remind estimated that 7 million of their users would be affected. The company has a free version of the app for individual teachers and classrooms to use, and a paid model for entire schools or districts.Įarlier this month, Remind announced that it would no longer be able to offer texting on its free plan for any customers using Verizon networks, as the phone carrier planned to charge an additional fee to the company for those messages. Users can send in-app messages or updates via email, but they also have the option to receive SMS texts from the platform. Businesses and other organizations looking for intel on the school marketplace should check out EdWeek Market Brief, a service that provides news, analysis, and original data on the ever-changing needs and priorities of schools.

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