Want to keep better tabs your child during school? Well, the Oak Harbor School District may have the tool to help.

The school district has been installing a new computer program, called Family Access, that will allow parents to access their child’s information over the Internet.

“I think this is going to revolutionize communication between school and home,” said Rick Schulte, superintendent of the Oak Harbor School District, during a recent school board meeting. “It’s going to make progress reports obsolete.”

School district officials estimate that between 80 and 90 percent of the district’s families are connected to the Internet. Schulte, however, pointed out the district will have to maintain an alternative format for folks that don’t have access to the Internet.

To provide access to the new system, each family is given a password for their child which will enable them to monitor the children’s progress through school.

“I just see it as a very positive communication tool,” said Ray Cone, assistant principal at Oak Harbor Middle School who is helping install the software for the school district.

Currently the Family Access program is available to parents with children in both middle schools and the high school. Grades and attendance records can be accessed.

“Parents are using it and are checking it out,” Cone said this week, emphasizing that the district is still working the bugs out of the system.

One parent with three children attending Oak Harbor schools agreed.

“I think it’s grand,” said parent Margaret Livermore who has children attending Hillcrest Elementary School, Oak Harbor Middle School and the high school.

Livermore likes the program because it provides easy access to all of her children’s records and can track everything from assignments to attendance.

“It’s important because if they’re absent, you’ll know what assignments they missed,” Livermore said.

The school district is currently working to bring the service to the elementary schools but first must alter the program to accommodate the grades teachers there use, said David Peterson, assistant superintendent of the school district.

Cone said he isn’t sure when the service will be available for all elementary school parents, but he hopes to have something available in time for parent-teacher conferences in November.

In addition to attendance and grades, the school district is planning to offer some additional online features for parents.

The school district wants to put information about fines, fees and the lunch program on the Internet.

That way, parents can track what their child is eating and how many lunches remain on their account, Cone said.

Peterson said that the food service module isn’t available yet.

The Family Access program is the latest software upgrade taking place in the Oak Harbor School District.

In the next 16 to 24 months, the school district will be integrating its financial and personnel system into the system being used for its student records system.

The school district is required to change its software to conform with the Northwest Regional Data Center which provides information services to 41 school districts in Washington.

Peterson said once the conversion is complete, the administration will run more efficiently.

Even though the school district didn’t have to pay for the new software, Peterson said the district had to use time and energy to train the staff on the new system.