TPS Surprised By Lines of 1,000-Plus Parents At Enrollment Center

The first day back at school was chaotic for some Tulsa Public Schools families; some parents thought their children were enrolled for class when they really weren't.

Hundreds of parents waited in line Wednesday for hours to fill out enrollment forms at Tulsa Public Schools' new Enrollment Center.

It was supposed to centralize and streamline the enrollment process, but the combination of parents waiting until now to enroll, and a mix-up in the records led to long lines at the Enrollment Center.

The lines stretched from one side of the counter to the other and from one end of the building to the other as hundreds of parents waited up to two hours to start, or straighten out, the enrollment paperwork on their children.

For every parent there was a least one child who should have been in class on the first day but wasn't.

“And so they had my kids enrolled at the wrong school, so only one of my kids was able to go to school on the first day,” said parent Kierra Harris.

Plenty of parents said there was nothing unusual about their situation, but the district had somehow deleted their records from the school they were supposed to be attending.

Some had transfers revoked when they shouldn't have been or transfers cancelled when children moved from one school to the other.

“So even though she hasn't gone to any other school or home school, we had to re-enroll her, again,” said one student's aunt, Linda Thompson.

The wait was longest on Wednesday, but the crowd was building over the last few days. The district said 500 parents enrolled their children Monday, and about 1,000 enrolled Tuesday.

TPS Spokesperson, Chris Payne said, "I think the big message here to people is try not to wait until the first day of school to enroll and try to hit it ahead of time."

TPS brought in extra help to get people through the process so children could get to class.

Near the back of the line, Lori Watkins was waiting with her daughters Macy and Lilly. They were some of the few students enrolling because they were actually new to the district and not just lost in the system.

“Stressful, honestly, it's just been a headache. Not an easy transition at all, but it'll be better," Watkins said.

TPS plans to have an online enrollment system running by next year, so some of the business that now has to be done in person can be done online instead.

They think that will at least thin out the crowds for the first day next year.