Parents now have access to more student information

Thu, 08/21/2008 - 2:42pm
By: The Citizen

Parents of Coweta County School System students now have the opportunity to follow their children’s daily attendance, grades and other school matters online, with the opening of the Parent Portal.

Parents can visit their child’s school and receive an Activation Key code which will allow them to set up a Parent Portal online account through the Coweta County School System’s Infinite Campus database system. 

The Parent Portal lets parents access the most current information for their children’s class schedules and assignments, courses, grades, daily attendance, testing information, student fees and other records, and includes other features such as school calendars and notices and teacher email links.

“We have never been able to offer this kind of communication tool for parents before now, and I think parents are going to find it very useful,” said Superintendent Blake Bass. “We hope that this system will significantly improve communication between schools and parents, and help them become even more involved in their children’s education.”

A letter was sent home from schools on August 14 and 15 notifying parents of the new system and letting them know that schools would begin issuing the Activation Key codes beginning August 18. Parents may come by the school that day or anytime afterward to receive their Parent Portal account code.

Parents will then be able to go to a Parent Portal link on the school system’s website – at www.cowetaschools.org/campus – to establish their account and their password.  A user’s guide, technical support information and other information about the system is also available at the site.

The Activation Key that parents will receive consists of a series of numbers assigned only to individual parents or guardians on record at the school.  The account it establishes will allow them to only view their own child’s records.

Parents with children at multiple Coweta County schools only need to visit one school, since the Activation Key is assigned to them uniquely and will access the school records of all children in their household.

To maintain security of student information, the passwords will only be given out to custodial parents or guardians when they visit the school in person. Parents should be prepared to show identification, and complete a Parent Portal Acceptable Use Agreement, which outlines rules for use of the system.  Parents are asked not to share their household’s unique code or the password codes that they choose.

The new online system is possible because of the Coweta County School System’s new Infinite Campus student information system, which debuted last January.

Infinite Campus is a web-based student information system which replaced Coweta’s older student database.  The new system maintains student records and transmits statistical reporting to the state of Georgia., but is a more flexible web-based system.  The school system’s launch of Infinite Campus allowed the district to establish the Central Registration Center at their Werz Drive Central Office last January, rather than continue registering new students at multiple school sites.

The data system allows teachers and schools to enter daily attendance reports, grades, and other information directly in a digital format. That capability allows the school system to offer parents access to their child’s information through Parent Portal.  Parents who establish their Parent Portal account can, in turn, keep up with their child’s daily and weekly progress at school through any computer linked to the internet, at the home, office or a public library.

Coweta County teachers made the transition to online grade and record-keeping through Infinite Campus last spring.  To test the system and work out bugs, the Parent Portal system was opened to teachers who had children in the school system throughout the last semester of the school year.

“It worked very well,” said David Thibadeau, Director of Coweta County School System’s Information technology department.  “We had a period of testing and transition, but the system worked well and teachers and schools have done a good job switching over to it.”

“I think parents are going to really appreciate this system,” said Thibadeau.  “Our experience last year with our own teachers was that they really liked Parent Portal because they were privy to so much information about their own children’s school experience. Sometimes their children didn’t like it so much, for pretty much the same reason.”

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