Hundreds of students in St. Louis area miss school after tech issues, registration delays (2024)

ST. LOUIS COUNTY — Hundreds of St. Louis-area students still need to be registered for school several days into the academic year, and some are missing classes because of the registration glitches.

The bulk of the complaints from parents have come in the Hazelwood and Ferguson-Florissant school districts.

A student information system widely used by local districts is no longer supported by its provider, prompting several districts to use new registration software this year. That has led to technological issues and confusion among parents, who are scrambling to get their kids registered.

Some parents say they registered their children weeks in advance, only to be told the process was never completed. Others said their students never received schedules or teacher assignments, even after the first day of school.

Nearly all blamed the new system, Infinite Campus, and inadequate staffing to address backlogs that have grown into the hundreds.

Alecia Bradshaw said she registered her two children, who are in the 10th and 7th grades in the Hazelwood School District, five weeks ago. But on the first day of school on Monday, Bradshaw said, her children had yet to receive their class schedules or bus routes. She said her calls and messages to the district went unanswered.

“They missed their first two days of school,” Bradshaw said.

Ferguson-Florissant School District parents have faced similar issues.

They say they waited hours in line at the district’s admissions center to register or re-register their kids this week. Some said they didn’t know about the district’s transition to the Infinite Campus registration portal; others said the portal didn’t work.

Kathryn Bryant said she had to make seven trips the Vogt Welcome Center over the last three days to successfully register her son. Many parents waited hours in line for their names to be called, she said.

Bryant needs to transfer her son from St. Louis Public Schools to McCluer North High after moving into her sister’s home. Her son still isn’t registered, even after Bryant and her sister uploaded all the necessary documents into the Infinite Campus system.

“I’m aggravated because my son’s sitting in school,” Bryant said. “He doesn’t have a schedule. He’s just sitting at McCluer North.”

Sykeena Wilson received a call from the district on Wednesday saying her granddaughter “hadn’t been approved to be in school.” Her granddaughter had already spent the previous two days in pre-K, but school officials said Wilson’s daughter needed to come to the admissions center to speak to a social worker about their lease.

Wilson had registered her granddaughter two weeks ago.

“Everything was good to go,” Wilson said. “They said she was able to start school, but now she might not be able to go back tomorrow.”

In a statement Tuesday, Ferguson-Florissant officials said the district had 1,200 families who still needed to log in and complete registration, despite numerous communications about the switch in systems.

Admissions staffers extended their hours over the summer and offered incentives, such as tennis shoes and backpacks, for families to complete registration early. And notices about the switch were sent daily over the summer.

“We’re doing everything we can to help make this transition as smooth as possible for everyone,” the district said in a statement.

Tyler Technologies announced in July 2022 that it would phase out its student information system, Tyler SIS, by summer 2025. Ferguson-Florissant started looking for a new system in February 2023 and began migrating student information into the new system last summer.

Hazelwood approved the purchase of Infinite Campus in July 2023. At a Board of Education meeting Tuesday night, Superintendent Nettie Collins-Hart said communications about the switch to Infinite Campus were “obviously not enough” and the transition required additional time for staff.

She said the majority of students had received schedules. Those who haven’t are “in the queue.”

“This is not acceptable,” Collins-Hart said. “It is not the way we want to do business. Fortunately, Infinite Campus transition will not occur each year.”

Bradshaw detailed her problems with registration at Hazelwood’s board meeting Tuesday night. Two administrators spoke with her after.

“They said they’re going to make sure (my kids) don’t miss any more school,” Bradshaw said in an interview.

On Wednesday morning, Bradshaw said her children had received their schedules and were in school.