New LAUSD Computer System Scrambles Students' Schedules

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — On the first day of school, Los Angeles Unified School District officials say it was the new computer system that ate students' schedules.

Schedules that were chosen at the end of the last school year were mixed up, and middle school students were placed in the same classes as high school students because of error messages teachers have been receiving from LAUSD's new data system nicknamed MISIS – My Integrated Student Information System.

At Robert F. Kennedy High School, students were frustrated by the computer glitch.

"They made me choose the classes I wanted last year, but today, they gave me a schedule of completely different classes," one student said.

"We have several, numerous actually, reports of students just leaving campus and parents actually not enrolling their kids because the lines are too long," UTLA Secondary President Colleen Schwab said.

LAUSD implemented the data system to comply with a lawsuit settlement to make information readily available to parents. But the teachers union says Superintendent John Deasy ignored their concerns.

"The superintendent isn't learning from mistakes," UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said. "That could've been said about the iPad debacle. Our members remember very painfully the payroll system debacle, which took months and months and months to clear up."

The teachers union says they want the district to scrap the program and use the old system until a better solution can be found.

The superintendent and district did not respond to a request for comment. But during a recorded address to students, Deasy defended the program.

"With any new system, I'm sure there will be bumps along the road. I am confident we will solve every one of these issues," Deasy said in the recording.