Hamilton public school board extends deadline for elementary registration

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Published August 18, 2020 at 3:11 pm

Hamilton’s public school board has extended the deadline for elementary school parents to register their children for in-class or remote learning in September following some technical difficulties

Hamilton’s public school board has extended the deadline for elementary school parents to register their children for in-class or remote learning in September following some technical difficulties with the board’s new online Parent Portal.

On Monday (August 17), the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) launched their new Parent Portal, a new system through which parents and students will access school and board information, and will enable communication between all parties.

Early in the day, however, the board announced that their planned launch of the portal had been delayed until later in the day due to technical difficulties.

Parents of elementary students, who were being asked to indicate their preference for students’ return to school through this new system, grew anxious. It wasn’t until after 6 p.m. Monday that the email went out informing families that the portal was up and running.

Even then, parents were frustrated with continued technical issues, including the link to the portal contained in the board-wide email which was not working.

As a result, HWDSB announced later in the evening that the deadline for registering students for the 2020-21 academic year has been extended from August 21 to Tuesday, August 25 at 12 p.m.

Secondary students who opt for remote learning are asked to contact their school between August 31 and September 4.

Also available on the new portal is the attestation form that parents must submit signed before their child returns to school.

The attestation commits families to health screening children before sending them to school every day.

Classes are set to return on September 8, and while there are no plans to delay the start of the school year at the HWDSB’s last emergency meeting, held last week, trustees have not ruled it out if it’s deemed unsafe to move forward with opening.

On Tuesday (August 18), the HWDSB noted that parents might experience continued technical difficulties due to the high volume of traffic to their website and they’ve provided some troubleshooting guidelines for those who continue to experience problems.

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