Managing student records, attendance, and grades across spreadsheets and disconnected systems while parents email teachers directly for updates?
Running a network of schools where each campus uses a different system and getting a consolidated view of enrolment or attendance requires a manual data pull every time?
Custom school management software built for your enrolment workflows, grading model, compliance requirements, and parent communication -- not built for the generic school that doesn't exist.
100+ products shipped since 2019. We've built school management systems for individual campuses, school networks, and multi-country education groups across K-12 and early childhood.
Student enrolment, records management, and annual re-enrolment workflows
Daily and period-based attendance with parent notifications
Grade book, weighted grade calculation, and automated report card generation
Parent and guardian portal with grade access, fee payment, and direct messaging
RaftLabs builds custom K-12 school management software (SMS/SIS) for individual schools, school networks, and education groups. Custom school management systems cover student enrolment and registration, daily and period-based attendance tracking, grade book and report card generation, timetabling and scheduling, parent and guardian portals, fee management, and government compliance reporting. Custom school management software is appropriate when your curriculum structure, grading model, or compliance requirements don't fit generic SaaS tools. Most projects deliver in 12--16 weeks at a fixed cost with full source code ownership.
A state school in Australia has different attendance rules, report card formats, and compliance obligations than an independent school in the UK or a charter school in the US. Off-the-shelf school management platforms make design decisions that fit no one particularly well: grading schemas they can't configure, compliance reports they don't generate, enrolment workflows that don't match your intake process, and per-student pricing that compounds as your rolls grow.
Custom K-12 school management software is built around your curriculum structure, your grading model, your compliance jurisdiction, and the way your school actually operates.
Digital enrolment forms for new and returning students, document collection and verification workflows, and student profiles with full academic history. Medical information and allergy records with staff alert access. Sibling linking for families with multiple children enrolled. Annual re-enrolment workflow with pre-filled data from the previous year. Bulk import from a previous student information system for schools migrating to the new platform.
Daily and period-by-period attendance entry for class teachers and subject teachers. Biometric and RFID integration for automated gate or entry marking. Absence notification sent to parents via SMS or push notification as soon as a student is marked absent. Attendance reporting by class and by individual student across any date range. Threshold alerts for chronic absenteeism so pastoral staff can act before the problem escalates.
Teacher mark entry by subject and assessment type with configurable assessment weightings. Weighted grade calculation that follows your grading schema -- percentage, letter grade, GPA, or narrative descriptors. Automated report card generation at the end of each term, formatted to your school's layout and comment requirements. Grade distribution reporting for department heads. Parent access to individual student grades through the guardian portal.
Class schedule building with conflict detection across teachers, rooms, and student groups. Teacher allocation to periods with subject and qualification matching. Room assignment with clash prevention for specialist spaces. Exam schedule management with seating plan generation. Schedule publishing to teacher and student portals so everyone has the current timetable in one place.
Web and mobile portal giving parents access to their child's attendance records, grade results, fee statements, and payment history. Direct messaging to the class teacher or subject teacher without going through a school email chain. School announcements and event calendar with RSVP. Absence reporting by parents before the school day starts. Push notifications for key events including absence alerts, grade releases, fee due dates, and school closures.
Fee schedule configuration by year group, fee type, and payment period. Online payment via Stripe or local payment gateways with receipt generation on payment. Outstanding fee tracking and automated reminder sequences before and after due dates. Government compliance report generation for your jurisdiction -- enrolment census data, attendance statistics, NAPLAN or equivalent data exports. Multi-school network reporting for school groups requiring consolidated data across campuses.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Multi-campus school management is a common requirement. We build network-level administration so a central team can view consolidated enrolment, attendance, and compliance data across all campuses, while each campus retains its own administration interface, staff access, and reporting. Campus-level data stays separate for operational work; network-level reporting aggregates across all campuses. We've built this for school groups ranging from two campuses to large regional networks.
The parent portal is a web and mobile interface for guardians. Access is tied to the student record -- parents see data only for their own children. Standard access includes: attendance records with absence history, grade results and report cards, fee statements and payment history, school announcements and event calendar, and direct messaging to the class teacher. Parents can also report absences before the school day, make fee payments online, and receive push notifications for key events. Access permissions are configurable -- schools can choose which features to enable and whether to give parents real-time grade access or term-end-only access.
Yes. School management software and a learning management system serve different functions -- the SMS/SIS manages the student record, attendance, and administration; the LMS manages learning content and assessment. We build integration between the two so student enrolment data flows automatically into the LMS, single sign-on works across both systems, and reporting consolidates data from each. We've integrated with Moodle, Canvas, Google Classroom, and custom LMS platforms. If you're building both, we can scope and build them together.
A core school management system covering student enrolment, attendance tracking, grade book, report card generation, and a parent portal typically runs $30,000--$70,000. A full-featured platform with multi-campus network management, timetabling, fee management, compliance reporting, and mobile apps for teachers and parents typically runs $70,000--$150,000. Cost depends on the number of modules, compliance jurisdiction complexity, integrations required, and whether you need native mobile apps or a mobile-responsive web portal. We scope every project before pricing it.
Tell us your school structure, student roll size, compliance jurisdiction, and what your current system can't do. We'll scope the right platform and give you a fixed cost.