September 2002 — Applications

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North Carolina School District Streamlines Its Special Education Management System

The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools' (WS/FCS) special education program was experiencing problems common in many special education programs: personnel shortages, training issues, legal challenges and data collection difficulties. We needed a way to comply more effectively with federal standards and lessen the paperwork burden for special education. We also needed the ability to track or identify students with special needs, and provide them with appropriate services. It was clear that we could use customized data and automated processes to provide the administrative support we needed, but the data management system we were using didn't allow internal audit support or user-friendly manipulation of data fields.

Because of this, our district, located in central North Carolina, faced the challenge of upgrading its special education management system in a way that facilitated program evaluation, compliance monitoring and accountability tracking. After an extensive search, we chose 4GL School Solutions, a technology company focused on special education management software and services. Built around their Special Education Tracking System (SETS), 4GL helped us implement improved processes and a series of technology solutions.

Improving the Administrative Process

SETS is designed to aid in the administration of special education programs and provide automation of routine tasks, such as writing individualized education programs (IEPs). SETS also supports complex processes, including tracking team-meeting outcomes, monitoring the internal compliance of document completion and managing periodic reports. SETS is a thin-client solution that allows us to use a wide range of hardware platforms throughout the district without having to upgrade every computer in the system. It uses Microsoft Windows NT servers running Citrix with client software written in Microsoft Access and Visual Basic, so the bulk of the processing is done at the servers. This diminishes the bandwidth requirements, allowing us to use existing equipment, centralize technical support and work within our existing system area network.

At WS/FCS, we have found that the SETS applications improve the administrative process by identifying time line violations and their causes. The system also has the potential to identify overlapping and/or underutilized programs and caseload inequalities between teachers. Given time and full implementation, the system can help administrators know when budget dollars are being effectively spent, by determining whether students are improving as a result of the services provided.

IEP Solutions

SETS can serve two functions: It can help the school district improve recovery of Medicaid money, Special Education Child Count money and other funding by identifying students who were served but not counted. In addition, it can clean up inappropriate or inaccurate records to remove students who should not be counted; thus avoiding liability. SETS performs both of these functions by improving data collection processes and automatic internal auditing functions, creating audit trails to verify that IEP specified services have been received. The system then cross-checks these IEP components against the submitted Medicaid reimbursements to verify the submission of all billable events and program services provided.