I’m from Maine, and one thing cuts across its diverse geography: an incredible commitment to the local community. At the heart of these communities are its public schools, where teachers are usually your friends’ parents, and your parents are actively involved in or lead your extra curricular activities. The state is finally receiving national recognition for its “One Laptop per Child” initiative, and a company based in York, Maine is now looking to further put the state on the map for integrating technology into districts.

HomeworkNOW , an education 2.0 company, has created a platform that allows administration and teachers to communicate and share files with parents and students. The portal allows teachers to post and syndicate content, meaning parents can stay current on what is expected of their child and remain up to date on their homework assignments, classroom news and even school updates and emergencies. And over 1,000 schools are already on-board.

Uh-oh, kiddies: this means you won’t be able to fib to your parents that you don’t have homework in math today so you can stay outside and play. And parents: this means there’s no excuses for not understanding why your child is failing math at your next parent-teacher meeting.

Participating schools can use a school or district-wide administration dashboard where administrators can send school-wide alerts, student-specific notices, and school news to parents and students. The dashboard integrates with existing student information systems (e.g. Powerschool) and the school’s current website. The fact that the platform is web-based — with no servers, equipment or consultants needed — means HomeworkNOW delivers its solution to schools at a low price point.

Current schools in Massachusetts using the solution include middle schools and high schools in Attleboro, Bridgewater, Brookline, Byfield, Longmeadow, Mendon, Newton, Swampscott, Upton, Waltham and Westin.

Within each school’s portal are classroom pages, where teachers can communicate what is happening in each of their classes: from homework assignments and files to student of the month announcements and news. With the solution, teachers can now spend less time with one-to-one communications with parents managing their children’s education and instead push updates to the broader group (something my mother, who is a teacher, will be very happy about).

And for parents and students, all they need to do is create an account and subscribe to the student’s classes to stay in the know (check out a screenshot below). Better yet, just yesterday HomeworkNOW announced a new iPhone, iPad and Android apps that will allow parents — particularly those on the go or who are often on the road — to manage their child’s education right from their hands, including push updates.

We asked founder Nick Rago a few questions about the company’s background and what it has in store for growth in 2011:

When was HomeworkNOW born?

The product was actually launched as part of my computer science senior project at Plymouth State College in Plymouth, NH. A cousin of mine was student teaching and wanted to have a way to use the Internet to better communicate homework with parents. HomeworkNOW.com was then born. Since then the service has evolved in many ways.

How many schools are using the platform today?

Over a thousand schools have used the service as its school to home communication solution for communicating school alerts (such as closings, emergencies, announcements), back pack notices and more. In addition to those schools, who also have their teachers using the service. There have been tens of thousands of k-12 teachers that use or have used the service to communicate classroom happenings, such as homework, newsletters, and more.

How does HomeworkNOW compare to other solutions in the market?

There are companies out there. Some focus just on the district/school-wide alerting aspect. Others focus on websites for teachers or communication tools for teachers to stay better connected with parents and/or students. HomeworkNOW.com delivers both and across the most the most communication channels. Through a browser, email, text messages, Apps for iPhone Android, & Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, and more, HomeworkNOW.com makes it possible for schools to easily communicate school alerts and classroom information with parents and students in the manner the parents and students prefer.

How are you getting the word out about HomeworkNOW?

We have relied mostly on word of mouth and direct marketing efforts in the past while we revamped the platform over the last couple years. But this year we are looking to move the product offering to the masses so that will change.

What’s in store for you in 2011?

The latest was the launching of the Android and iOS My HomeworkNOW and School Alerts apps. For parents and students, we are now focused on moving the apps to other interactive platforms as well in 2011 (can share more about what those are soon!). The main business focus is that we are looking for channel partners/VAR’s/education consultants in the K-12 space to work with HomeworkNOW.com. We are also privately funded to date, so outside investments in 2011 may also be a possibility.

Check out all the HomeworkNOW solution offers on their website, and, safe to say, keep your eye on this education 2.0 company in 2011!