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Some parents who tried to get ahead by registering their children early for Prince George’s County schools in Maryland were greeted with headaches the week before classes even started.
The problem: the school system switched to a new system, ParentVUE, a few months ago for registering students, and some parents were not aware. Compounding the problem, as parents resubmit their registration, an old record from the old system was preventing their application from being approved.
Julia Saladino, of University Park, said she registered her daughter for kindergarten at University Park Elementary back in May and assumed they were all set. She became concerned last week when details about her daughter’s orientation never came in.
“I called the school, and they said she was not enrolled,” Saladino said.
Erin Thompson said she registered in October of last year but found out this week that her son is not registered for their neighborhood elementary school, Rosaryville Elementary.
“I did not receive any communication from the school, from the county, or anything about this new system,” Thompson said.
Thompson said even though she’s using the new portal, her application is not going through.
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In an email to WTOP, PGCPS’ director of communications Meghan Thornton claimed, “There was no mistake in implementing the new student information system,” and that there was a process in place to prevent duplicate records, which can stall the registration process.
Thornton said the registration issues are not widespread and is only impacting three to four students per school. The issue she said is part of “typical, year-to-year enrollment challenges.”
“Duplicate records can occur if families inadvertently attempt to register the same student twice; the student information system will stop the process to ensure data quality and accuracy. When this happens, PGCPS staff merge the duplicate records and release the process to continue,” Thornton wrote.
She also said parents who used the old system, ScribOrder, to register their child and receive a student ID should select “Yes” to the question “I am an existing parent” in ParentVUE.
On a Facebook group for parents of Prince George’s County parents, one poster who claimed to be a PGCPS registrar said errors by staff that were learning the new system led to the issues. The school system said it is looking into that claim.
Thompson said she has been back to the school several times and was told about registering as “an existing parent” after the fact. Despite the advice, she said her son’s registration remains stalled.
“I can’t believe that there’s not some backup (system) to put my child in the school that he has a right to go to,” Thompson said.
Saladino, a parent, has had a little more success after sending multiple emails to staff at the school and others at the administration office for the school system.
“It was very stressful as a parent to think that my daughter wasn’t going to be able to start with her class,” Saladino said.
Thornton said for parents still experiencing issues, their child will not be sent away on the first day of class.
“Our team is actively working to ensure all families are successfully registered, and want to reassure impacted families that they can complete registration at their school in-person next week if it is still being processed,” she said.
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