When the 380,730 students showed up for the first day of class at the Chicago Public Schools little did they know that the $60 million computer information system that records attendance would go kaput forcing the staff to resort to manual methods of taking attendance. CPS officials maintained that the new system (which was tried in a few schools in 2004 but finally made a citywide debut Tuesday) was working, although slowly, due to “peak usage.” Faster access is expected soon, they said. The main reason behind the ‘slow working’ of IMPACT or the Instructional Management Program and Academic Communication Tool is that a large number of students were being enrolled, creating high school schedules, giving attendance or simply taking transfers at the same time. The resultant chaos made some kids miss classes and many schools opted for taking attendance on paper, something they hadn’t done for many years. The authorities concluded that though IMPACT is capable of handling all of CPS’ demands for most of the days, but two to five peak days a year (including the first and last days of school) the system may go slow.

“Anything you need to do, you can’t,” said Amundsen High programmer Cecilia Farfan.
At Barry Elementary, Principal Odette Langer said some students “just disappeared” from electronic rosters, then mysteriously reappeared by the end of the day. “I just take it as it comes,” Langer said. “I expected worse.” Senn High computer teacher Berhan Kassa tried 10 times to record his attendance on IMPACT but couldn’t gain access. One error message said IMPACT was “out of memory.”