Web smarts

www.asd.com

WHAT: Do you have trouble remembering to give your child money for lunch, school photographs, or field trips? Consider using the new student payment center at the American School Directory's (ASD) Web site.

BEST POINTS: ASD allows parents to pay school fees online with the use of a credit card. However, the school principal must first activate the payment center for his or her school.

In addition, you can find every one of the more than 100,000 K-12 schools in the US. Simply enter the state and the first few letters of the school's name to start your search. You'll find its individual Web page, provided free by ASD. The pages include each schools' address, phone and fax numbers, and enrollment figures, as well as a map to the school, links to official school sites, guest books, alumni communities, and more. Principals and teachers can also add information on their schools' pages. The site also provides free, lifetime, Web-based e-mail addresses.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: To use the payment service, parents must pay a nominal "convenience fee" of 5 percent. ASD is sponsored by Vanderbilt University, IBM, Computers for Education, and Innisbrook Wraps.

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