photo by: Nick Krug

Lawrence Public Schools district offices, 110 McDonald Drive.

Lawrence school district officials are encouraging parents or guardians having difficulty registering with the district’s new student information system to visit the district website or to call the district office for instructions on completing the 10-step registration.

The district last weekend posted a message on its home page stating that parents had been having difficulty registering for PowerSchool, the new student information system that the Lawrence school board approved last year for a price of $334,000. The new system allows students and their parents to use computers, tablets or smartphones to communicate with district teachers and to keep current on attendance, schedules, assignments and academic progress.

Julie Boyle, district communications director, said the registration difficulties weren’t the result of problems with the new software but were simply part of the “learning curve” of the new system. She said the district was making progress and as of about 9:30 Tuesday morning had registered 1,888 parents on PowerSchool, which was about 500 more than Monday morning.

Those needing assistance can visit www.usd497.org/powerschool for step-by-step instructions on how to complete the registration, Boyle said. Parents and guardians can also call 785-832-5000 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday to get assistance, she said. Once the process is complete, the registration will be active as long as the child is a student in the district, she said.

The registration process does require parents to know and enter their child’s access code, which they were to have received in the mail by Aug. 17, Boyle said. Those who haven’t received the access code should call the child’s school.