In light of public outrage from FCAT scores drastically plunging this year, the Florida Department of Education launched two websites Monday as part of its campaign to communicate with parents. One website, floridapathtosuccess.org, provides them with information about the department’s goal of transitioning to tougher standards, while the other, parents.fldoe.org/home, serves as an outlet for them to ask questions and express concerns on a discussion board. In less than 24 hours of its debut, three topics were posed by parents on the discussion forum, with a FLDOE representative already replying to two of them.

This response by the Florida Department of Education showcases how the organization is taking steps to communicate better with its core audience and increase transparency in the communication process. At a time when many parents are up in arms about recent headlines, creating these channels to interact directly with parents is a smart move on FLDOE’s part to take control of the situation. Instead of letting all the worry and frustration from parents fester, the department is tackling this challenge head on and trying to remedy the situation by supplying an appropriate space for them to vent and get answers to their questions from an authorized source – a commendable effort by the FLDOE and certainly a good public relations example of using online resources to foster two-way communication.