District reveals new feature on Focus Parent Portal
Parents now have the opportunity to fill out beginning of the year paperwork through the Lee County School District’s Focus Parent Portal.
Executive Director of Infrastructure Services Dwayne Alton said although the district has offered the Focus Parent Portal for quite some time, a new feature has been added for the beginning of the school year.
“What we have added this year is the ability for parents to fill out all the beginning of the year paperwork online instead of at the schools,” he said.
The new online feature saves parents time, as they do not have to fill out the same information over and over again, but rather update information for areas such as emergency contacts and health information.
“You only have to update it if it changes, so you don’t have to fill out the forms,” Alton explained. “We are trying to provide parents with the ability to update as much information online as possible, instead of going into school.”
With many parents working full-time, it is hard for them to get to a school within office hours to update important information. Now, it’s a click of a button at their convenience.
He said imagine a parent that has children in elementary, middle and high school trying to have to hit all those schools and get in during office hours.
“It’s very difficult. We know parents have a hard time with that,” Alton said.
An account can be created by parents at lee.focusschoolsoftware.com/focus/auth/. Information needed includes a valid email address, their child’s student ID number and date of birth. Those parents who have their email, and last four digits of their child’s Social Security number on file with the district, will have immediate access.
For those parents that do not have this information on file, the child’s school will verify information and provide access as soon as possible.
There only needs to be one account per family, as all students in the household can be added. Both parents can have accounts if they prefer.
“Creating a Focus account is simple and takes just a few minutes,” IT Infrastructure Coordinator Darryl Eldon said in a prepared statement. “We encourage all parents to sign up now before school starts so their paperwork is on file and they can track their student’s progress once classes begin.”
The Focus Parent Portal, Alton said, is a way to improve the parents’ overall experience, while getting a higher level of parent involvement of how their child is doing in school.
Alton said the portal provides parents with the ability to see how their child’s attendance, grades and test scores are online.
“We have to get the parents to register the account first. The best time to do that is in open house at the beginning of the school year. It’s hard to get their attention throughout the school year,” he said.
The Focus Parent Portal will continue to release new features throughout the year, such as being able to pull up a copy of a report card. Alton said they want to roll the new features out in phases, so the parent does not become overwhelmed.