Hundreds miss school in Wake County mix-up

Monday, July 16, 2012

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Joel Brown
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RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A mix-up in the Wake County school system caused hundreds of students to miss their first week of school.

At least 200 families, many with children at East Wake Middle School, were notified from Wake County Schools that their children were absent for the entire first week of school.

Rosalyn McDougal said her rising sixth grader, Nahla, was assigned to track four of Wake's year-round program, which is scheduled to start July 30.

McDougal got a call from a guidance counselor at East Wake Middle School Thursday that Nala was actually supposed to begin school July 9.

The school system had mistakenly labeled Nahla track four when she was actually assigned to track two.

Now Nala, along with at least 200 other students, has missed over a week of school, and parents are venting their frustration with the school board.

"It's very discouraging knowing they spend all the time that they do meeting, that they cannot come up with something as simple as when to tell a child to report to school," McDougal said.

School system officials admit there was a mix-up. Amidst the annual scramble to balance the tracks of its year-round schools, leaders said there was a breakdown in communication.

"The schools are responsible for balancing out tracks and communicating tracks to parents. We want to make sure we're reaching out to them in multiple ways. This is one more opportunity to take a look and make sure we're reaching out appropriately," WCPSS Chief Family and Community Engagement Officer Cris Mulder said.

As of Monday, 103 students were still absent from school.