Good teachers are our most valuable commodities. Unfortunately, for the Roswell Independent School District, Special Education teachers have been getting lost in the paper trail—taking up much of their precious time that could be spent teaching. Nearly a third of over 9,000 students participate in Special Education or Gifted programs. From elementary through high school, this education system was primed and ready for a big-time online capabilities upgrade.
Each student has a state-mandated Individual Education Plan (IEP) on file specifying the appropriate Special Ed courses to take in the program. Keeping these files current can be a very time-consuming obligation—not to mention the possibility of these file folders accidently getting lost in the shuffle.
Technology
“We were looking for a more efficient way of handling this information, and considered developing a system of our own—but we didn’t want to reinvent the wheel,” explains Barbara Norfor, Roswell’s School District Coordinator for Special Services. Word was spreading like wildfire that another area school district had developed a Web-based IEP system. And all trails led to MightyData. Kirk Bowman, Visionary of Value, introduced Roswell to a single online database with cross-platform capabilities that could house thousands of student IEP records, be easily accessible, and mobile for teachers and school administrators throughout the school district.
Transformation
More than 110 Special Education teachers were quickly singing the praises of the new IEP documentation system. “Teachers at home can pull up their class lists and review and update IEPs without having to handle paper documents,” adds Barbara, “and they can do this work anywhere at any time that’s convenient for them.” Both PC and Mac users were united under the simple cross-platform capabilities that allowed unrestrictive use of program features, without any doubt or user frustration that potentially follows complicated technology.
The system really cuts down on paperwork, and I can see where by next year we’ll have eliminated a lot of the paper simply because we can do all this on the computer, exclaims Barbara.
There’s an old saying that goes—”the job’s not over ’til the paperwork’s done”—well it couldn’t be truer for the teachers of the Roswell School District. Until now. As they begin to see the end of the paper trial.