Opening day of DCSD school choice online registration has been characterized by many as an EPIC FAIL. Get Schooled Maureen Downey’s note to DeKalb Schools reads, “This is unacceptable. Fix this today.”
DCSD Chief Information Systems Officer, Gary Brantley, and team have been working around the clock. I recommend giving it a couple days and check back on Monday. Online registration is open through Feb 27.
The Superintendent released a statement saying,
“As a result of the new online ePortal application integration with Infinite Campus, we are experiencing issues that are typical when we have a high volume of applicants accessing the system simultaneously. In preparation for the implementation of the new software, we have incorporated the following to assist our parents:
• Parent Technical Support Center that is available daily from 8:30 AM
to 7:00 PM EST.
• The Support Center is open with 10 phones lines to address any
parent concerns.
• The contact information for the Parent Technical Support Center is
posted on the website: http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/school-choice and
on the ePortal.”
The letter below summarizes the frustrations of parents.
Mr. Jester,
I am writing this morning to ask for your help and to express my deep, yet not surprising, disappointment, that the online registration system for this year’s School Choice program has suffered a series of technical issues in the past few weeks, culminating with the failure to HAVE an online registration process working today – the first day available to register.
The background here, in case you are not familiar with the School Choice operations, is that there is an enrollment period every year in February, followed by a lottery in March or April. Parents who wish to apply for a spot at a school – theme, magnet, charter, etc. – for the following school year are required to sign up for the lottery.
This year, the enrollment period opened on Feb 2 for paper applications. Online applications were to be accepted beginning today, Feb 9. I and many other proactive parents tried to use ePortal, the existing lottery registration program, to get their students ‘ set up’ in the system, so that today, they could complete the online application – this was the process in previous years and worked when I did it for my older student. However, ePortal only gave a vague error message informing them that their account did not have the authority to add students. When I called the School Choice office to follow up, I was told that this message was due to the fact that ePortal was offline until today, the start of the lottery program, but that I would be able to enter the information and enroll my student starting on the 9th. At no point was there any mention of a change in technology.
Today, we learn that Dekalb is implementing a NEW system for online enrollment. However, there is NO new system available, NO information on what the system is, and NO information about whether it will be available for the lottery. The only information provided is the PDF – when calling the listed numbers, there is NO human being to answer, the messages at the numbers are different and conflicting, and there is no way to leave a voicemail. (Read the PDF at “Parent Technical Support” here http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/school-choice.)
This is a tremendous failure in so many ways – once again, parents are given every reason to be suspicious of the competence of DCSD staff. I have 15 years of experience in IT, and it boggles the mind to consider how a system change-over would be 1) implemented at the same time as the system is expected to be available 2) not communicated to any end users beforehand and 3) not working on go-live. Indeed, the lack of communication extends also to the schools themselves, which have been inundated with calls by parents and which were as surprised as the parents to learn that a new system was going to be used (and for which they had no information).
I have called all available numbers for Pat Copeland’s office in School Choice, as well as the numbers listed on the PDF file. Nowhere can I find any instructions for how to proceed other than to come in person to the tech lab in Lawrenceville and dire warnings that anyone who fails to register will not be in the lottery. I have zero confidence in filling out any paper forms and leaving them at the county office – though in the end, inclusion in the lottery whether by paper or online seems to be completely unassured at this point. Again, it is this sort of fiasco that causes parents to completely distrust the work of DCSD employees and degrades our trust in the system overall.
I am requesting your reply with any information available regarding this technology changeover, instructions on entering the lottery electronically, or any other feedback.
“Classrooms First for Georgia” – Requires, at a minimum, 65% of a system’s total operating funds to be spent in the classroom. The statute was enacted in FY2008 and DeKalb Schools has never been in compliance.
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”