Parents say long lines for registration still at school on 2nd day of school

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Thousands of students returned to class for the first day of school Monday in DeKalb County.

But some parents complained to Channel 2's Kristen Holloway about registration problems that kept their children out of the classroom. And those problems continued on Tuesday.

“I’ve called the county so many times. They kept putting you on hold, transferring you when you call the online center number. It says the network is busy. I’ve been calling since last Wednesday," Janee Dixon said.

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Dixon told Holloway her son Alex Leverett is new to the district and was turned away from Princeton Elementary School Monday morning.

She said she received a submission email when registering online last week and showed Holloway the paperwork.

Dixon said school officials told her at the open house that her son would be able to register at Princeton on the first day of school.

“They were saying the system could possibly be down now. Where does that leave parents who did everything and registered online and have been waiting on confirmation emails and still haven’t received them?" Dixon said.

Frustrated parents said they’ve been getting the runaround after submitting paperwork online in the last few weeks to register their children for school.

“I submitted all my paperwork. I was locked out of the system,” said Madeline Ugbodgo, whose daughter is in kindergarten.

Parents who had issues were told to come to the DeKalb School of the Arts to register their students. Holloway saw a line of cars stretched down the street and a full parking lot.

Both Ugbodgo and Dixon said their kids missed the first day of kindergarten but by lunchtime, they were eventually registered.

A district spokesman told Holloway it receives high volumes of applications during the two weeks leading up to the first day.

"Applications are being processed in the order in which they were received. The district portal has been open all summer for the processing of applications. District staff has been processing the applications," he said.

The district said they had 376 new applications in the system Monday and half of them were submitted on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

"There are 796 applications that have been processed, but require parental review because they are missing required documentation. The biggest category of missing documentation is proof of residency. Parents of these students received an initial notification as well as a reminder that their application status was pending.  As documents are received, applications are continuously being approved. The Online Registration Center will be working non-stop to process applications. Right now, DeKalb County School District's No. 1 goal is to get students into school," the district said in a statement.

They said the online system is not backed up and is operating appropriately.

On Channel 2 Action News This Morning on Tuesday, we saw parents lined up at the school to register their children.

Cox Media Group