In an effort to get parents more involvedin school and keep student attendance levels high, Lincoln CountySchool District officials allow parents to access certain studentinformation through the district’s website.

    Active Parent is a component of the SAM7 student management programthe school uses to keep up with information like grades anddemographics, according to Technology Director Kenneth Wallace.

    “Active Parent is an add-on module that gives parents the abilityto see their students that are actively enrolled,” Wallaceexplained.

    According to the district’s website, parents who sign up can haveaccess to their student’s information, including term grades, classschedule and attendance record.

    By providing this access to parents, Wallace and AssistantSuperintendent Letha Presley agree that it helps get parents morein the loop with the school and what is happening with theirchildren. They both said the system also helps to keep attendancenumbers up.

    “It’s always a positive whenever we can increase parentinvolvement,” Presley said. “Parents can have access to monitor achild’s attendance. Anything we can do in that arena we try todo.”

    “If anything on their child’s record seems out of the ordinary,”Wallace added, “they can see that listing. The idea is to try andhelp parents stay involved with the school and their students tosee what they’re doing on a school basis. It’s just a better wayfor them to keep track.”

    Wallace explained a parent could see every attendance action thatinvolves their student, like when a student checks in or out. Andgrades can be kept up with throughout their child’s attendance sothat there are not any surprises when the end of the semester comesaround.

    “As always we’re looking for ways to get parents better involvedand in touch with the school and keep up with what their studentsare doing,” Wallace added. “This really helps in keeping the kidsin school.”

    Presley said this is the second full year the system has beenavailable to parents through SAM7. While she could not commentexactly on the number of parents who are enrolled, she thinksnumbers are increasing with the rising availability of the Internetand computers.

    The officials also explained the Active Parent module is used tonotify parents of emergency weather alerts, school closings andother relevant district news and announcements.

    “It creates another form of communication and an additional way toreach parents if the need calls for it,” Presley said.

    Central Access Corporations, out of Jackson, is the company thatprovides the district with the SAM7 software that the schools usefor student management, according to Wallace.

    When the educational software provider offered the Active Parentmodule to the district, Wallace said there was basically nohesitation in taking the opportunity.

    “Any time you can involve parents better with school, it’s a must,”he said.

    Parents can register by downloading the form off of the schooldistrict’s website, www.lcsd.k12.ms.us, or pick one up at theirschool counselor’s office. For security reasons, a student’s parentor legal guardian can create only one account per household.

    After providing the required information on the form, parents canreturn the form to the school’s office or mail it to the schooldistrict office.