It may not be Big Brother watching, but Lawrence school children soon may have more parents looking over their shoulders.

Lawrence school board members are being asked to approve the purchase of a new student information system called Skyward. The lines of communication the software package could open between teachers and parents seem to make the system well worth the $472,000 purchase price.

Parent-teacher conferences are an important way to update parents, and notes sent home sometimes provide key information, but it’s difficult for parents to keep up on their children’s day-to-day performance. The Skyward system would allow parents to do that by logging onto a school district Web site. There, they could look up such things as their child’s grades and attendance. They also would have access to information about school assignments and when work is due.

It may not be as personal as talking to the teacher, but it’s far easier to access and provides an easy way to obtain school information that is helpful both to parents and students.

As common as Internet access is these days, school district officials still must be aware that not all parents have computers at home. To help remedy that situation, schools could provide kiosks at each school where parents could look up their children’s records. It also would help to have a staff member assigned to help parents who may have difficulty with the computer technology.

In a perfect world, every child would come home with a clear understanding of his or her homework assignments and an honest evaluation of his or her grades, attendance record and when assignments are due. In the real world, most parents probably will welcome the opportunity to monitor their child’s progress in a non-intrusive way.

Assuming that the system is set up in a way that won’t create an undue burden for teachers who must enter data, the addition of the Skyward seems like a great way to increase communication between parents and the schools, which should also increase the parental involvement that is so important to a student’s success.