Increasingly, schools are using sites such as Zangle, School Loop and Power Schools to give parents access to almost real-time, online information about their children's attendance, grades and homework.

"We are finding teachers are feeling pressure from parents," said Trinette Marquis, spokeswoman from Twin Rivers Unified School District. "Our parent community is getting empowered with more information."

In the fall, Twin Rivers, Sacramento City Unified and San Juan Unified all began using computer programs that give parents access to student information.

Twin Rivers uses School Loop, which offers parents a glimpse at class-by-class attendance and can e-mail daily or weekly updates directly to families.

The district of about 27,000 students got 5 million hits within the first 10 weeks and to date has had 13 million hits, according to district data.

While some school districts are seeing heavy use, others are struggling with technical glitches and a segment of teachers who say the sites just create more work.

Sacramento City Unified schools are using Zangle, but most campuses haven't yet set up the parent-access portion.

Acting Chief Academic Officer Mary Shelton said Zangle could save teachers time – offering parents information online instead of having to return individual phone calls.

"We definitely want that parent connection piece," Shelton said. "We think parents nowadays get a lot of information from the Internet, and this is an easy way to connect with parents and keep them connected with their student."

Three Sacramento City Unified schools began using the parent portal before winter break. The rest have been rolling it out at their own pace, Shelton said.

John F. Kennedy High School, which began using the program early, has issued more than 700 parent logins so far, and 85 percent of Kennedy teachers voluntarily post assignments and grades, Shelton said.

"We haven't talked about making it district mandated," Shelton said. "We hope it will be self-fulfilling. I think once people get used to it, it will be the preferable way of getting out information."

The district has met resistance from the teachers union.

"Our teachers are not data entry (personnel)," Sacramento City Teachers Association President Linda Tuttle said. "Unless they want to reclassify the position and increase our pay …"

Tuttle also said the sites create fairness issues since not all parents have computer access at home.

"What seems like a simple thing is causing frustration with teachers," Tuttle said.

Hiram Johnson High School math teacher Jerry Kushner said he doesn't mind the added work, but he does worry about someone hacking into the system and changing grades. Because of that, Kushner uses Zangle for report card grades and attendance, but not daily grades.

Science teacher Mike Moyer, who teaches at Inderkum High School in Natomas Unified, said he uses Power School for just about everything, including daily assignments and weekly grades. Moyer said he gets several calls a week from parents who see online that their child is struggling and want to know what they can do.

"I got a call like that today, actually," Moyer said on Wednesday. "Ultimately, it's a tool. If people don't use it, it's not helpful."

Natomas Unified, which began using Power School in 2000, requires teachers to use the site for grades, attendance, assignments and report cards.

Parents can see if their child is absent or tardy as soon as the teacher marks it.

More than 90 percent of parents at Inderkum High have accessed their child's records on Power School, said district database specialist Cathie Hamilton.

The lowest participation rate for a middle school or high school in the district is 60 percent, Hamilton said. Elementary schools use the site only for attendance, although that may change in the fall.

Hamilton said that, as a parent of three boys in the district, she and her husband use the site almost daily. Students also have access to review grades and assignments.

"It gives you an opportunity to catch a potential failure before you get a report card," Hamilton said. "It is nice to see a kid going downhill and catch them before they hit bottom."

Over two years, Vicom Wireless designed and built a forest fire surveillance and detection system for use throughout El Dorado County.

"Our system now helps protect over 31 million acres of private and public forests in California," said James Cinquini, Vicom's president. The Vicom system employs multiple high-definition pan, tilt and zoom cameras connected to wireless broadband Ethernet radios that transmit high-speed video surveillance data to a command center in Camino.

Compass and elevation information from camera sites enable fire-dispatch crews to pinpoint a fire site. Vicom's system is billed as a cheaper, high-tech alternative to lookout towers and aircraft surveillance.

Brian Peterson, Frontier's vice president of engineering, said the upgrade provides for "customers who increasingly demand more bandwidth to handle online banking, shopping, distance learning, communication and entertainment tasks with ease, even during peak usage times."

Frontier said it serves about 30,000 high-speed Internet customers in the Elk Grove area.

Customers with questions about the network upgrade can call (916) 686-3112.