April 2008 — Features
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Meet the Parents
Challenges Ahead
Despite all of these beneficial applications, this new wave of services that facilitate communication with parents comes with potential pitfalls. One of the biggest problems is access. Systems such as CellTrust and TeleParent make the act of delivering information to parents a cinch, but many parents-especially those in poorer school districts-may not have access to the necessary technology to receive the information in a timely fashion.
While most parents have telephones to receive automated audio blasts, not all cell phones are equipped to receive text messages, and a significant number of middle- and lower-class Americans still don't have computers in their homes.
Wayne Morgan, vice president and COO of Netchemia, says that many of his company's education customers work with parents who don't own computers. He says that for these people to interface with the company's NetIEP system, they must use public terminals at libraries or the local FedEx Kinko's.
"Just because you put your product online doesn't mean that everybody will be able to use it," he says, noting that in most states, parents of special education children are required to meet with teachers in person anyway.
Another potential trouble spot is acceptance-getting parents to embrace these new methods of communication. Particularly for older parents who have grown accustomed to receiving notifications by paper or telephone, the notion of being contacted by different means can be disconcerting.
CellTrust's Moshir says that in school districts, sometimes the biggest hurdle is getting tech-skittish parents to embrace text messaging and the internet as means of information exchange. Still, he predicts that over time, as notification systems become more prevalent and greater numbers of parents are exposed to them, these methods will become the norm.
"Once [parents] realize the value of being connected, these challenges are resolved fairly quickly," he says, adding that in all scenarios, however the information is delivered, "when parents are involved in their children's education, the child prospers."
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Matt Villano is a freelance writer based in Healdsburg, CA.
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