The School District of Philadelphia now offers a new, convenient way for families, students, staff, and community members to engage with the District through a new platform called Let’s Talk — a cloud-based, AI-powered customer service platform by K12 Insight.

“Partnering with parents and families is critical as we Accelerate Philly, and Let’s Talk serves as the essential platform for providing families timely, accurate, and accessible information,” said Tony B. Watlington Sr., Ed.D., Superintendent for the School District of Philadelphia. “More engaged parents, guardians and community members can promote student achievement, so we are pleased about the work we are doing with Let’s Talk to improve communication and customer service.”

In June 2023, the Board of Education approved the School District of Philadelphia’s new five-year strategic plan, Accelerate Philly, which lays the foundation to improving outcomes for all students and achieving the Board’s Goals and Guardrails.  The District partnered with K12 Insight to launch Let’s Talk and improve the district’s culture, communications and customer service, which aligns with one of the priority areas of Accelerate Philly. This partnership has automated key processes within the District’s workflows and trained more than 600 staff members to use Let’s Talk to deliver superior customer service.

“Prior to implementing Let’s Talk, we heard frustration from families and community members that their concerns and issues were not always addressed in a timely manner. In an effort to provide a timely and accurate response, in line with our five-year strategic plan, Accelerate Philly, we are excited about launching this two-way communication system with multilingual capabilities,” said Alexandra Coppadge, the District’s Chief of Communications and Customer Service. “Introducing Let’s Talk to our District supports our goals and K12 Insight was a valuable partner in shifting our District’s culture, enhancing our efficiency, and transforming our customer service strategy.”

As the eighth largest school district in the nation, the School District of Philadelphia serves nearly 200,000 students between district and charter schools. Among those students, approximately 20% are English Language Learners. Let’s Talk offers automatic translation features in the District’s ten key languages including Arabic, Albanian, Chinese (Mandarin), English, Khmer, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese and Hindi.

In September 2023, the District piloted the program within the Office of the Superintendent and the Board of Education. By the end of the 2023-2024 school year, the platform was implemented across all District Central Offices. In December, Let’s Talk was expanded to include all District schools. For the 2024-2025 school year, the District received nearly 35,000 messages. The District currently has an average customer service score of 7.9/10 and an average response of 3.2 business days, surpassing its goal to respond within four business days.

“SDP truly exemplifies a new standard with its commitment to real-time, districtwide communication through Let’s Talk — which is designed to eliminate the barriers families face when accessing crucial information,” said K12 Insight’s Chief Customer Officer, Krista Coleman. “Our mission at K12Insight is to unify school communities with our solution set of technology, training and services, and we are honored to be part of SDP’s journey in taking their customer service and communications to new heights.”

To see Let’s Talk in action, visit philasd.org/contactus. To learn more about Let’s Talk and K12 Insight, visit k12insight.com.