June 1994 — Features

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CARAS: A School-Based, Case Management System for At-Risk Students

Students and Families: With CARAS in use, students and families benefit by having their case history kept in a single place, organized and available to them. A complete record of services received and progress attained can be generated with the click of a button. Case notes entered by the case manager allow for records to be kept on the effectiveness of the different interventions by school and agency personnel. All of this increases the efficiency of case managers in helping at-risk students and families in attaining long-term benefits. Teachers: Teachers, who often generate referrals as well as provide services to the targeted students, benefit by having progress reports instantly created on their at-risk students. In addition, CARAS helps identify who is a drop-out risk, with the degree of "riskness" defined by school personnel. School Administrators: Schoolwide identification of who is at risk is greatly facilitated, as is later identification of those still at risk and others who may have become at risk. CARAS also allows school staff to enter and update other special services' data to aid in state reporting requirements such as Chapter 1, Migrant Education, etc. Allied Agencies: Outside social and health agencies benefit by having a school-based system that can instantly provide a profile of each student and family with which they work. Information in the profile is continually updated, allowing more effective monitoring and follow-up. Involved agencies are indexed in a separate menu, offering an up-to-date directory.
As a Program Evaluation Tool Program evaluation is an area in which CARAS greatly enhances the efforts of case managers and other school-based service deliverers. Sometimes these personnel may shy away from formal program evaluation; either they feel they lack the time to collect the necessary data or they may see it as focusing on punitive employment ratings, rather than increasing the effectiveness of their efforts with students and families.