CCSD Rolls Out Back-to-School Gateway Online System

CANTON, GA — The Cherokee County School District has rolled out its Back-to-School Gateway, an online system that will reduce paper waste and "wasting parents’ valuable time," it said. The gateway is an online registration system for students already enrolled in CCSD schools that replaces the dreaded stack of first-day forms with a quick digital check and update of students’ existing contact and emergency notification information in CCSD’s records system.

“We have heard parents’ and front office staff’s concerns, and thanks to the hard work of our Office of Technology & Information Systems’ staff, we have found a better way,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian Hightower said, adding that staff spent two years to find and customize the system. “This system is much better for parents, but it also increases the accuracy of vital information, and saves taxpayer dollars by eliminating paper costs and staff time spent processing paper forms.”

To use the system immediately, parents will need to use their child’s student ID number (which he or she also uses in the lunchroom and for computers at school) as the username, and the student’s GTID number (this is on your child’s report card and high school semester transcript) as the password. These are the same two ID numbers parents used to create Canvas learning management system accounts last year.

If you don’t remember these numbers, you can ask your child’s teacher for them at the Walk-Through/Open House event. Your child also will bring home an information sheet with these numbers on the first day of school. Parents will want to have their emergency contacts’ and pediatrician’s phone numbers on hand as they use the system.

Through the simple and quick process, parents will click through screens to confirm or update contact information and will have the opportunity to apply for free or reduced-price lunch (beginning July 25) and print out special forms such as for medication or allergies. Required state and federal information forms also have been incorporated into the paperless system. We ask all parents to complete the Back-to-School Gateway forms by Friday, Aug. 3.

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The only paper needed in the process for most users will be for students in Grades 4-12 to sign a receipt of their student handbook and discipline code.

The Back-to-School Gateway, which can be viewed here, is the final step in an online transition that CCSD successfully began earlier this year with kindergarten registration and new student enrollment. The enrollment system, called the New Student Gateway, remains open year-round.

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