The MISD Special Education Department and Océ/Agular, a leading provider of digital document management technology, recently collaborated their resources to create less paperwork and stress for employees, students and parents within the MISD community.
MISD has more than 2600 Special Education students. Over 2600 files are held in approximately 70 filing cabinets, not to mention the MISD warehouse that holds files for seven years after students leave the district. Fortunately for MISD’s Special Education department, those files can now fit on 50 Compact Discs.
“To our knowledge, this has not been done before,” said Director of Special Education Jane Melms. “Before, we would average at least one ream of paper per student a year.”
The goal was to create new software and a database to resemble the old filing system that Special Education was familiar with. A team of people from Agular spent over a month completing the demanding task, which included scanning over 750,000 pieces of paper.
With the collaboration of the new database and Diagnosticians’ daily use of the Toshiba Tablet computers, the margin of error has fallen drastically. This user-friendly database is updated immediately and daily. For compare and contrast purposes, the database allows for lists to be compiled quickly.
Today, clerks are able to send about 30 files a day, when three weeks was the normal deadline. The system is beneficial because it eliminates wasted time writing and making copies. “Before, 70 percent of a Diagnostician’s day was spent doing clerical work,” said Melms, “It is going to help people get to do more for the kids.” |
