Our East Coast BS just eliminated parental access to the school directory. It was suddden and there is no explanation.
It makes is very hard to see what other kids/families are from your area, or plan travel with nearby-kids, or connect with other local families - or even send Christmas cards! It’s very frustrating.
Have parents from other schools had this happen? Are there any solutions schools have implemented? Any ideas on another kind of directory - one that’s “parent-run” or ideas on bulletin board - such as this one that the school could “host”.
Welcome any comments and suggestions Thanks in advance for any comments.
I’ll hazard a guess that someone used the information inappropriately… sent solicitations for a charitable event (which had nothing to do with the school), shared the information with outsiders/outside organization, someone with nefarious intent is using the information, etc.
I know several private schools have recently had to tighten up their data practices. No organization wants the liability or the headache if there is a problem with their privacy controls.
My suggestion is to approach the administration to ask if there could be an opt in/opt out process? So that parents who want to participate have their information showing- and likewise, can see the information of others who also don’t mind?
For all you know, someone’s famous parent is being stalked or harassed by a stranger and law enforcement suggested that they remove all publicly accessible personal information…
But the administration may be willing to help you with a workaround…
Our public schools didn’t have directories, then some parents volunteered and set up one at our elementary school, opt in or out, that lasted a few years and then it was no longer allowed. I get it, giving out your cellphone number to a bunch of strangers might not be the best idea. I ended up on a bunch of email lists for parents selling things. I think addresses should be okay, that information is more public.
our kids BS lists emails and name of city, but no phone and address. First year, so don’t know if that’s a change or not. Sibs’ day schools give out full information.
Can confirm that both of these have happened and are most likely the reason for the change of access. Doubtful the school will change the policy, but the OP/student can organically build their own private directory of the student’s friends as time on campus and at family-oriented school events happen. Should you need to get in touch with another family in your area, contact the school with the reason, and they will help you make the connection. Did any local family reach out to you during decision days? DH and I were given a list of local/regional admitted students after M10 to contact in order to answer questions and make ourselves available in the future for just such things as travel planning. Most likely, your child’s school has a list of parents who are willing to help local families.
And, you can always use this forum to make great friends with helpful parents here. I reached out to this hive once when our son faced a two-day gap during spring break between when Florida crew training ended and dorms re-opened. It didn’t make sense to fly him back to AZ for 48 hours. One of the wonderful posters here offered to pick him up at Bradley, keep him at her farm over that weekend (it was sugar season, and he helped collect sap from the tapped trees!), and deliver him back to Choate. We’re still friends today.
One of 2 things: a glitch due an update, or a measure against misuse.
I had a few experiences with glitches when my kid was in BS. A fun one was where parents were assigned user names, but the the system would only allow us to login with our email address. Another was when suddenly I couldn’t toggle between the alumni directory and the parent directory. And somehow I now have 2 entries in the alumni directory.
As for misuse… In 4 years of BS the ONLY time another parent used information from the directory to contact me was when there was some faction of parents that had copied EVERY PARENT’S email address into a google group and tried to undermine the administration during COVID restrictions. And I really <3 directories and playing with their information. But, even when I was on a fundraising committee, I was more likely to use my kid’s class roster than the directory. (I’ve heard that it helps to personalize an ask.)
The admissions office or family life office equivalent should be able to facilitate an email list for the logistical purposes you described. For holiday cards though, your kid will probably need to do the legwork.
We had a big (huge!) Hollywood star move to our town to send her kids to my D’s school during covid. The school directory went private that year, but they did have it set up where people in each grade level could access other grade level parents’ email through the portal (but not directly if that makes sense).
Our school went to just a general list of names and state or country after our first year due to privacy reasons (solicitation or people searching out parents’ jobs/ famous parents, etc). If you wanted to get in contact with someone else from your area they would facilitate it by reaching out to the other family and seeing if it was okay to send you their information.
Some schools have existing parent groups on FB. They won’t include everyone of course, but a fair number of people tend to find their way there in our experience.