Starting this school year, the Catholic Schools Office will require all diocesan schools to process student information through an online program meant to facilitate communication among teachers, parents and administrators.

Cheryl Canfield, assistant superintendent, is currently overseeing the transition to the new program, though she said superintendent Chris Mominey has conducted research into the options available for over a year. The Schools Office has decided to use a California-based company called MyStudentsProgress.com.

Canfield said the transition to this new system may take some getting used to, but it will benefit everyone involved in the long run. “This is everything. It’s for teachers, it’s for parents, for school administrators. It’s a whole comprehensive program,” Canfield said.

The program includes 20 different modules, which are online notification or tracking portals to provide information for teachers, parents and administrators.

Modules include access to a student’s homework assignments, report card, conduct reports, attendance, after-school activity schedules, lunches and lunch account balances, as well as school calendars and bulletins. Teachers will process their gradebook information online, and teachers and administrators can communicate with parents through group e-mail announcements.

Canfield said another feature will be the ability to send out text message alerts to parents. This will send an alert to parents’ cell phones if school will be let out early due to snow, if there is a change in the bus schedule or the time of an after-school practice, or if there is an emergency that requires a school lock-down.

The information on students is locked and can only be accessed by each child’s parents. Parents will need to set up an account with an e-mail address and a password in order to access their child’s information. “It’s not just open to the public. You’re only able to see your children,” Canfield said. “It’s very secure. Each page is specially encrypted like a bank’s web site would be.”

An added benefit to this is that if students transfer from one school to another, all of their necessary records will be able to transfer with them. “It’s right there; you don’t have to wait for ‘snail mail,’” Canfield said.

The program also tracks information for donors, alumni and tuition payments.

There is a yearly cost of $20 per student, and according to the program’s web site, there is no start-up or maintenance fee.

Teachers and administrators will begin training this semester on how to use the different modules and upload information.

“Some schools are ready to make the leap and some are coming nice and slow,” Canfield said. “Different schools will have parent portals open before others. I would imagine the high schools will probably have them up before some of the elementary schools.”

Most city school districts have been using computerized programs like this for years. Canfield said the program will help her report schools’ progress to the state, a process that once required her to contact each school and wait for them to send her their collected data.

“With this system I’ll be able to see all the information for our students at all of the schools,” she said. “It’s amazing what this does.”