ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – High school seniors across Central Florida are in the process of sending out college applications but students in Orange County Public Schools have a big problem with an important part of the application: high school transcripts.
Recently, the Orange County Public School District merged all of its academic data to a new system called Skyward, causing some delays.
News 6 spoke with one parent mom worried about how this will affect her daughter's college prospects. She says the county has let students down.
Natalie Montijo said her 17-year-old daughter Maria has worked hard for her entire Edgewater High School career, completing dual enrollment college courses.
But if the district doesn't provide the teen's transcripts in time, she can't complete applications to colleges.
"She was stressed out and devastated thinking that ‘I may not get into a school that I want to because I don't have a necessary and key piece of information,'" Montijo said of her daughter.
Montijo said when she contacted the school district about her daughter's transcripts she was told "they don't have a date currently when transcripts will be available and can't give a date at the moment."
The district suggested the school should send a letter to the colleges, explaining the issue and delay, but Montijo fears colleges will bypass her daughter as a result.
"They're going to say, ‘Nope, next, we don't even want to consider your daughter,'" she said. "I mean the transcript is a key piece they need to see what have they done in school."
As a parent, Montijo doesn't blame her daughter's school, saying she feels Edgewater High School is caught in the middle.
According to the school district website, Skyward is used by more than 30 districts in Florida, but Orange County is the largest customer.
During a presentation last week, the district showed graduation requirements and high school GPA's are not yet visible on Skyward.
In response to the issue, an OCPS official sent out this statement Monday afternoon:
"The issue only affects students with a grade change or transfer of credits from outside of OCPS and has not impacted every transcript. We are actively working with Skyward to resolve the issue quickly. Skyward has indicated that this issue will be resolved in time for the October early application deadline. We understand the concerns of our families and want to honor the hard work of our students. The application process is an important step in deciding what college to attend. We will continue to work closely with our students to make every effort to avoid any delay in meeting the early application deadlines."