Ahern Middle, Foxborough HS Report Cards Going Digital

FOXBOROUGH, MA — Say goodbye to the days where a student would come home with a report card and a parent had to sign an envelope to confirm that they saw their kid's grades.

Superintendent Amy Berdos told the school committee last Monday that Ahern Middle School and Foxborough High School report cards will be digital-only starting this fall. Parents may request a paper copy of their kid's grades, but no paper versions will not be sent home without asking.

"We see that parents go on to PowerSchool and check grades. They already have access that's there. By the time the report cards come home, they've already seen it online," Berdos said.

Assistant Superintendent Alison Melo said the idea came from a middle school teacher who noted that the process of students returning to homeroom to pick up their grades takes away from instructional time.

School administrators had no objection to the change.

"To be honest I think more people use PowerSchool and find the envelope an annoyance. I don't see any pressing need to have (the paper copy). In the fifth and sixth grade where it's a two-person team, there's a lot of communication so none of it is a surprise when a student gets a bad grade," Ahern Middle School Principal Sue Abrams said.

Melo also said that she has received emails from parents indicating that parents are regularly looking at their kids' grades and get alerts on their phones as soon as a grade is posted.

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