Plenty of parents logging in to check student grades

As of early March, every school in the parish that serves 3rd grade or higher is fully equipped with a Parent Portal.

The portal allows parents to access real-time data about their child’s grades and attendance.

“Communication between parents and teachers is always an important thing in St. Charles Parish,” said Stephanie Steib, director of information technology services for the school district.

On the portal, parents can find live attendance data, real-time grades, and school bulletins and announcements.

“The parents have access to live attendance data, so if their child is absent this morning and they went online right now, they would see that absence already in the system,” Steib said. “And instead of waiting until progress report or report card time to find out how your child is doing in a class, you can keep up with their grades all along.”

So far Steib and her partner Colleen Charles, director of instructional technology for the district, say that they are pleased with the participation from parents and students.

While logins to the portal by elementary school parents is the lowest, middle and high school parents are showing a good amount of use.

Over 75 percent of Destrehan and Hahnville high school students’ records have been accessed by parents since the portal was made available.

“The middle school and high school parents are looking for ways to see that information and you can see that in their numbers,” Charles said.

Students can also access their own records through the portal with a separate username and password – this allows the technology department to keep track of how many student and parent logins there are each day.

A Parent Portal Kick-Off Meeting that included a brief product demonstration and trial login was held at each school when it was able to use the portal.

Parents were also given their usernames and password at the meetings.

“Some parents missed the meeting…if (they) have not already gotten their logins, they may go to the school’s secretary at any time the school is open and pick up their logins,” Charles said. “We are also providing computer access for (parents) at the schools, so if they don’t have internet access at home or they’re too busy, they can stop in at the school and log in to the Parent Portal there. We’re trying to give them as much access to this as possible.”