by Madeline Kempf | Staff Writer
Parent Portal is about to become mobile. Though not an app, Parent Portal Mobile is automatically brought up when the original address is accessed directly or through the North East Independent School District homepage on any mobile device. Parent Portal is a secure website for parents, allowing them view their child’s progress. It gives users access to see their student’s grades and attendance.
Now, it can be seen more quickly and easily from a mobile device. For the next week, it will continue to stay in beta testing. It has been released to district staff so far, and once officially released, it will become available to all parents and students. Parent Portal Mobile is a free service provided for the parents of NEISD (For those on a mobile phone, it may be worthwhile to contact the provider in case any charges apply). It updates grades as well as absences nightly, and is very manageable even for those parents who have yet to understand the concept of texting. It is accessible through most mobile devices with internet access. To access Parent Portal Mobile, the username and password are the same as for the regular service.
“The point of Parent Portal Mobile is to become more convenient. It’s formatted specially to be easier for parents and students. We were asked to program it to be a lot easier versus the regular full site. It’s easier to look at and doesn’t have to deal with zooming so often,” Sterling Rohde, the Applications Development Manager said.
On the new mobile version, the page is formatted to let parents view their child’s’ grades and attendance. For security reasons (i.e. if the device was stolen), only the students’ first names are displayed. This has been done with the intent to protect the child’s identity, even if the device should fall into the wrong hands.
“We haven’t heard of any kinks so it’s gone smoothly. We plan to add more features to it, like lunch balances and library resources. Our next feature, though, is the alerts. Were also working on the student logins; were changing it so the students don’t have to have the parents set up the accounts for them. This way, they can login using their ID passwords, making it easier access for them,” Rohde said.
However, a few things should be recognized regarding the site. If the user forgets their password/username, the only way to regain either is to go onto a computer, enter https://portal.neisd.net and click on the “forgot user name or password” link. Also, no student can be added onto the Portal from a mobile device; they must be added from the online account, and from there it will be automatically added to the mobile account.
