Web checking of high school grades come to Delaware Valley

District provides new internet based oversite for parents WESTFALL - The Delaware Valley School District debuted a new and apparently revolutionary home-to-school communication tool. Known as K12 Planet, the Web-based database allows parents to access their child’s schedule, grades, disciplinary records, and attendance. Although K12 Planet has been around for many years, parents were, up until last week, limited to seeing only grades that went on progress reports and report cards; now, grades are updated every Thursday evening and provide an exact copy of teachers’ grade books. Gina Vives, the director of technology in the school district, explained that the grade breakdown will include every quiz and test, labs, and even class participation grades. “Research tells us that the more we involve parents, the better students will do,” Vives said. Wanda Holzer, guidance councilor for students in grades 11 and 12, agreed and said K12 Planet is “a great tool and I encourage all parents to get involved … we want our parents to be as informed as possible.” Parents who want to sign up for the program must go to the main office of their child’s school with photo ID to apply for a username and password. Vives noted the necessity for security in the system, and stated that upon signing up, parents will receive a detailed packet of information about using the database and keeping it secure. As of now, the resource is only available to families of students in grades 7-12 and 6th grade in the Dingman Delaware Middle School. “Nothing can replace verbal communication,” Vives acknowledged. “But it is more immediate results and is very beneficial … it saves teachers and parents time.”