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Natural Disaster: Planning and District Recovery

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This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Managing School District Records.

Natural disasters are a part of life. And while they can’t be prevented, they really need to be planned for. When your district undergoes a fire, flood, or earthquake, you may lose vital records for both students and employees. Losing student records can have detrimental effects on the students continued education.

By digitizing all student and staff records, your district can focus on what is most important—making sure that education is not delayed.

The destruction of a student’s paper records can exacerbate the other effects of a devastating natural disaster. In addition to the disruption of friendships, mentorships, and plans, the students family may have suffered personal and financial losses.

When records are destroyed but the student has to resume school, it’s possible that he or she has to retake exams, or redo class assignments. Worse still, if the student uses special services, those services may be delayed or even stopped until the district completely recovers. So when you put all of this together, it creates an environment that just isn’t conducive to productive learning, and the ultimate goal of disaster recovery should be to help your students continue their education without a misstep.

Because you can’t prevent natural disasters from happening, the best thing that you can do for your district now is to plan ahead. Always have an emergency preparation plan!

To prepare an emergency plan, you should:

1) Assess the possible hazards that your district may face. If you’re in an area that is susceptible to flooding and earthquakes, prepare for flooding and earthquakes specifically, but also be sure to be prepared for the unexpected.

2) Plan for how to reduce those risks. Again, while you can’t prevent them, the effect can be reduced by safety planning.

3) Test your plan. By putting those plans and practiced skills into action, you can see if that plan is effective and well-thought out.

4) Revise your plan based on the test. If you found areas of weakness or areas where the plan is not totally airtight, fix them and keep testing until it is.

A huge part of this planning is making sure that student records are as secure as possible, and the best way to do it is to scan and store them digitally.

When you scan with Datamation, not only can all of the records be scanned quickly and efficiently, but they can also be placed into a document management system that allows you to access any record with just a few clicks, and can place any record into a workflow.

When it comes to disaster recovery, scanning student and staff records means that each and every record will be impervious to physical damage, virtually eliminating the need to recover records. This allows your students to continue their education seamlessly—one less thing on their plates when disaster affects their lives in so many other ways.

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2018-03-21 00:00:00

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Freedom of Information Act: What Can be Accessed?

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This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Managing School District Records.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a piece of legislation that grants public access to certain documents that are in the possession of a government agency or public authority, unless some information is specifically excluded from that legislation.

Some examples of information that cannot be accessed under the FOIA are school transcripts, and school district records of attendance, though what can and cannot be released differs by state and local policies.

Here are some other examples of what may not be released under the federal FOIA law:

● Information involving the CIA

● Internal Agency Memoranda

● Personnel Matters

● Trade Secrets

● Classified Documents

● Law Enforcement Activities

● Litigation

● Confidential Government Sources

● Any information that violates an individuals privacy interests

● Civil Service Examinations

The federal FOIA law counts personnel and medical files as exempt from disclosure, but some state policies may not consider all parts of a personnel file exempt from disclosure.

What this means is that depending on your state and local policies, some information contained in a personnel file may be legal to disclose to the public. Information can be released as long as it is approved for release by state laws, local policies, and school board rules. If information would be considered an outright invasion of privacy by the average person, then it is generally not allowed to be released to the public.

Additionally, school officials and board members fall under the same category as the public in that they must follow the same policies to obtain information. As a school employee or member of the public, it is important that you understand your local and state policies regarding what can be released and what cannot be released.

If you are requesting information by filing an FOIA request, you may have to pay a fee to have the information compiled. Fees are only waived for members of the media and educational institutions whose true purpose is to educate the public on whatever information they believe should be released. When information is denied, the requester must be told why within 10 days of the request being made.

The bottom line is that there are some states that have different standards as to what should be kept private and what can be released to educate the public under the FOIA. It is important that school staff are aware of what these different stipulations are in their state or district in order to fully know their rights.

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2018-03-20 00:00:00

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School Business Managers: Quick Access to Every Record

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This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Managing School District Records.

As a business manager, it’s your job to manage the financial, legal, and project matters that confront your district on a daily basis.

Because many of the documents you deal with are financial in nature, you need the most secure system possible, but one that allows you to access any record in a moment’s notice. You also need an efficient workflow that allows you to process information requests, invoices, and more.

Scanning all of your vital documents with Datamation gives you that comprehensive, organized system that you’ve always wanted to help you juggle all of your daily tasks. Keep reading to learn how we can help you with the different kinds of documents you need to manage.

Drawings, Blueprints, and Project Manuals

Documents like large format blueprints and drawings can be difficult to have scanned, as many ordinary scanners don’t have that capability. This means that all of these unwieldy documents have to be stored in paper form, making them difficult to access and maintain. But as these documents need to be kept for as long as the building is standing, it’s important that they are stored securely.

Datamation has both the experience and the equipment to scan any documents that are wider or longer than usual, giving you immediate access to any building or property blueprints.  Datamation can also scan lengthy project manuals that are crucial in providing guidance and reference when planning or implementing a new project.

Accounts Payable/Vendor Records

A huge part of your job is handling the financial matters of your district, and this includes processing invoices, vendor contracts, and more. These documents can be scanned and posted to your accounting system simultaneously.

Datamation can help you take those documents and form a seamless workflow, eliminating the need to manually enter, match, and approve the information on invoices. This also means having immediate access to vendor records, past invoice payments, FOIA request invoices, and bid documents. You can even find a record with a keyword, date, or payment amount rather than having to dig through a filing cabinet or box.

Having immediate access to these important records is vital when it comes to answering questions posed by vendors, staff, or the community.

Payroll Records

Most districts have have payroll records and reports going back for decades, and if they are being stored in paper form, the probability of them being intact and in a single location is low. But if you scan all of these records, you can have them be accessible, secure, and searchable with a few simple keystrokes.

Let’s say that you need to provide proof of employment for an employee that worked in the district 25 years ago. Would you be able to find that record in paper form? When documents are stored digitally, these records can be text searched so you can verify employment within just a few minutes, while keeping them private and safe.

Financial/Banking Records

When it comes to storing banking, district financial, and bid records, the biggest necessity is access. When finances are being questioned, not being able to find a contract or record can damage your district’s reputation irrevocably. How long would it take you to find a three year-old-bank statement if you needed to? Even if you do find it, the amount of time that it would most likely take would also show poorly on your district.

It’s also important to ask yourself if you are keeping up with retention dates. If you are storing records in paper form, it’s likely that you’re not. When you scan your records and implement them into the system, you always know what documents (e.g. check registers and check copies) can be destroyed, and when.

Legal Files

Like financial and banking records, maintaining legal records securely ensures that your district is never caught unprepared during litigation or general investigation.

Datamation allows you to complete FOIA requests in seconds, keep grants on file for later reference, and access legal records when they are needed.

All records are entirely searchable, including that record of a specific case or request from 15 years ago. You can simply type in a name, price, or date and the exact file that you need will come right up.

Save space, time, and trouble with Datamation scanning and management systems.

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2018-03-20 00:00:00

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Superintendents: Do What’s Right for Your District

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This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Managing School District Records.

As the superintendent of a public school district, we know that you wear many hats. You are the CEO of a multi-million dollar company. You have to balance the responsibility to your community and compliance with state and federal regulations. You oversee complex labor negotiations, intensive record-keeping, and a workforce of hundreds of professional educators and support staff all while maximizing taxpayer resources.

Datamation understands that in such a high-pressure environment you need solutions that save money and make life easier. As a leading record-keeping and workplace automation software vendor, our education specialists understand a wide array of software options that accomplish these goals for school districts of every size. We will learn your needs and, with access to all the leading industry software, design a system that satisfies them.

The easiest way to earn the trust and confidence of so many stakeholder groups, school board members, taxpayers, parents, teachers, and students is to demonstrate efficiency and competence in your day-to-day operations.

Here’s how we can help with that.

Government compliance and document security

Superintendents know better than anyone the amount of work school districts must do to remain in compliance with federal and state education law, including the new updated SOPPA guidelines. Eliminate costly and time-consuming filing mistakes by clerical staff by converting your existing paper archive to a secure paperless student record database. Paperless record retention also makes fulfilling Freedom of Information Act requests simpler and less time-consuming.

In addition to the simpler compliance and open records, one of the benefits of a paperless database is the ability to secure your districts documents from accidental loss or destruction. You don’t have to live in the path of a major storm like Hurricanes Harvey or Irma to face the kind of disaster that can wipe out years of legally required documents. The unfortunate reality is a fire or flood can happen anywhere. Protect your districts crucial information with a paperless document archive that will survive any accident or natural disaster.

Meet tight deadlines for grants and other application deadlines

Grant applications that supplement your district’s budget can often come with short deadlines and require lots of information in order to be considered. Help your staff meet those deadlines and improve your districts bottom line by providing simple document storage and recall. No more fishing through a dark cold storage warehouse for a decade of records to fulfill a grant application. With just a few clicks, your employees will be able to gather the data necessary. What used to take a week can take a day or less with automated workplace solutions and electronic student records.

Increase employee morale and save money

Too often, superintendents are faced with a trade-off: Boost employee morale or implement difficult budget cuts. By implementing the various automated workflow solutions we offer school districts, you don’t have to make that choice. Eliminate the tedious record-keeping that teachers and support staff dislike, reduce your paper costs dramatically, save space in your buildings, and free up employees’ time to focus on the core mission of educating children.

Seamless implementation and customer support

Datamation’s education specialists provide in-person support for every step of your software implementation. We listen to your needs, work with you to design a software solution that functions within your existing IT infrastructure, and train building staff on how to use it.

Some companies hand you their software and training amounts to a few tutorial videos and a 1-800 number you don’t have time to call and they don’t have time to answer. Our customer support is unparalleled, so even after you implement a paperless student record system, if there’s ever a problem, we’re there to help solve it.

In addition, there is no up-front cost, no long-term commitment, and no licensing fees, so you can have unlimited users for any of the software solutions we offer.

Have any other questions or ready to get started? Contact Datamation today!

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2018-03-19 00:00:00

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Human Resources Directors: Go Paperless

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This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Managing School District Records.

As your school district’s human resources director, you have an immense amount of paperwork that passes through your office, much of it vital to the district’s critical functions and all of it sensitive in nature.

Whether its employee files that include results of criminal background checks or drug tests, information about the districts pension fund or 401(k), or disciplinary matters these important documents must be handled with care. Furthermore, you never know when you will need to access the information you’ve received.

With full access to the best programs on the market, Datamation’s education specialists will work with your HR office specifically to design a software system that meets these diverse and important needs.

Here’s what you can expect from all of our solutions:

Going paperless saves time and space

If your district is still relying primarily or entirely on paper record keeping, Datamation can revolutionize your HR workflow and create a paperless archive of everything you have on file. From there, we can work with you to design a software system that automates much of this workflow, saving your employees time.

That means the file room teeming with records can be cleaned out, and there will be no more tedious half-hour trips to hunt down a piece of paper from 10 years ago. Instead, you’ll have fast and reliable access to all your HR records.

Privacy and security

Datamation understands one of the most critical responsibilities of any human resources department is securing the private information of your district’s employees. From health records to a personnel file, these files need to be safe and secure.

Datamation works with districts who prefer cloud storage and those who maintain their own on-site database to help ensure these files are protected. We will design a system that ensures only the appropriate employees in your district have access to the files you keep.

Compliance with state and federal regulations

School districts are required to keep more paperwork on file than your average private sector business. That includes things like required teacher evaluations, paperwork related to public sector unions, and pension and retirement fund contributions to name but a few.

Failure to maintain these records can turn up in periodic state audits and cause public concerns if regulators find your office is not in compliance.

Datamation will work with you to create a human resources records processing system that meets all state and federal regulations for record retention. Our education specialists understand those rules and the best way to navigate them. That way, when auditors come knocking, you’ll be able to wow them with the ease and organization of a well-kept HR database.

Document retention and disaster recovery

There are two parts to maintaining a top-flight HR database: making sure the information you need is safe and purging the documents you no longer have to keep on hand. An electronic database of HR records can help with both.

There are any number of ways important information can be left inaccessible. Poor filing habits are an obvious culprit, but even the most studious clerks can’t prevent documents from being damaged in the event of a flood, fire or another natural disaster. Your district doesn’t have to be in the path of a major hurricane for important information to be put at risk.

And then there’s the other problem: keeping too much information you don’t need. Failure to purge old records takes up space and improper disposal of those documents can expose your district and its employees to identity theft and other forms of fraud.

An automated HR database solves all these problems. Cloud storage or off-site database backups are the most secure way to prevent records from being lost, damaged, or destroyed. And that very same database will tell you when records are able to safely be deleted.

Ready to learn more? Contact Datamation today!

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2018-03-19 00:00:00

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Special Ed Directors: Providing the Best Service for Special Needs

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This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Managing School District Records.

As the special education director, there is perhaps no one in your school district more aware of the challenges paperwork can present to day-to-day workflow. A single special needs student’s IEP can generate a file inches thick with government-mandated reports, health records, and counselor assessments. Proper maintenance of those files is subject to government auditors.

But more even more importantly, those files are a critical tool used to ensure the most vulnerable and challenging students to educate are getting the attention and care they deserve.

Here’s how you can cut down on the paper with Datamation’s help.

Save space and time with digital IEPs

Anyone who works with special needs students knows their IEP, or Individual Education Program, is everything for that student’s educational history and future goals. That means it must be accessed by every member of your staff who is responsible for interacting with that student. This includes teachers, counselors, psychologists, teacher aides, building administrators, and parents or guardians.

By nature, a single paper file is not really helping the goal of information sharing. Digital IEPs offer all stakeholders a chance to access needed records without having to chase down a single file. Additionally, many special needs students spend a portion of their school day outside the regular school class schedule. Digital IEPs are accessible from building to building and teacher to teacher, eliminating the possibility files can be lost or misplaced.

In addition to the convenience of digital IEPs, your school district can drastically reduce the amount of physical space dedicated to paper files.

Specialized software for special needs

At Datamation, our education specialists work with all of the industry-leading software companies. Other competitors try to offer a one-size-fits-all approach, but we understand that the special education department faces unique challenges and has precise needs to service children with physical or developmental disabilities.

We offer the right software solution for your districts specific needs and make sure that all of our software can work within the existing IT and digital framework in place. Additionally, we can convert every existing file you have into the software solution we design for you, eliminating the frustrating carryover period.

Caseworker support

A district’s special education department is only one facet of the larger infrastructure needed to help some disabled children. Many are also paired with government caseworkers or social workers to assist them in their home life. Oftentimes there can be a disconnect between outside caseworkers and the child’s school district that exists simply because those individuals do not have access to the same records you do. That is an easy solution, and one Datamation can help implement.

Caseworkers can be given select access to relevant portions of a special needs students file to help assist caregivers who are responsible for the child in the home. This solution allows you to remain in compliance with student privacy laws but can be an invaluable tool for the others entrusted with your students’ care when the school day ends.

In-person software implementation and training

On top of everything you already need to get done, learning new software is probably not your immediate priority. That’s why our education specialists conduct in-person software implementation and staff training. Other companies hold generic one-way webinars plopped into the middle of an educator’s already hectic workday that are impersonal and do not offer the ability for individual questions to be answered. With Datamation, you will receive the personal attention of someone who’s trained specifically to show you the benefits your new software can provide.

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2018-03-19 00:00:00

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Assistant Superintendent: Helping you help the district

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This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Managing School District Records.

Assistant superintendents are the jack of all trades. If the superintendent is responsible for the overall vision and goals of your school district, its your job to help implement it. Youre also the day-to-day operational manager for several important functions, from records retention to human resources and the districts physical space.

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How Does FERPA Work?

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This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Managing School District Records.

FERPA refers to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which is designed to protect the rights to privacy that a student has over their school records. This act applies to all schools who receive valid federal funding under the U.S. Department of Education.

Before a student turns 18, the parents or guardians of the student are entitled to determine the privacy of their child’s records, but these rights transfer to the student at age 18 or if the student pursues education beyond high school.

In order for schools to release a student’s educational information, the law requires that the school have written permission from a parent or the eligible student. The only occasions in which the school can release information without written consent are as follows:

● When a school official is showing genuine educational interest in a student

● When the records are released to the school the student is transferring to

● When the party requesting the records are doing so to provide the student with financial aid

● When an organization is conducting a study for a school

● When the records are needed to comply with a judicial order or lawful subpoena

● When they are needed by appropriate officials during a health or safety emergency

● When they are needed by state or local authorities of the juvenile justice system

Maintaining compliance with FERPA is difficult and time-consuming when your district is working with paper records. Finding the right records among thousands takes time that you often don’t have. Paper records are also a huge security liability, highly susceptible to fire and water damage, and easily accessed by those who don’t have permission. When you scan and digitize student records with Datamation, your district becomes the perfect candidate for some of Datamation’s FERPA-compliant programs.

We work with a program called Scriborder that makes it easy and incredibly secure to request and send transcripts and other student records. Each request can be fielded directly from your school website through one portal. When the records are sent digitally, if there is a security or other issue in transit, that private student data is immediately captured. This way, student information is safe, even while it is being sent. Scriborder eliminates the worries that accompany sending out private student information.

ImageSilo is a program that allows your district to store all of your records in a digital cloud, making it safe, accessible, and organized. With five levels of security, only those with strict access can see student record information. Because the information is being stored digitally, it is also always protected from floods, fires, and any other natural disasters. At the same time, any record can be accessed with a simple keyword search, making them easy to find in the event of an emergency.

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2018-03-18 00:00:00

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Keep Your Student Records More Secure Than Ever

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This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Managing School District Records.

Keeping your student records secure is of the utmost importance for your district. Under FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), students have the right to privacy concerning their records, and with new changes to the Student Online Privacy and Protection Act (SOPPA), it is the school’s responsibility to keep those records safe. Many districts still maintain their student records in paper form, which makes them susceptible to physical damage and prying eyes. Datamation can ensure that student records will be as secure as possible, and accessible to the right people.

Because paper records are, well, paper, if there were to ever be a fire, flood, or natural disaster in or around your school, those records would be badly damaged or even destroyed completely. Attempting to recover these documents would involve extensive time and effort that could have been directed elsewhere. Because these records are stored in filing cabinets or boxes all in one room, no one can be sure who has accessed what record, and at what time.

The first step in making these records as secure as possible is to digitize them. Though that may seem like a daunting task to have thousands of documents scanned, Datamation can pick up these files and scan them either on-site or at our own secure facilities. You can also have access to these documents as they are being scanned, if need be. Your district can even track the progress of the scanning process.

Beyond having your records scanned and digitized, Datamation offers many more ways to manage your digital documents. ImageSilo is a great example of a storage and management system that keeps your records both safe and organized. Because your documents are stored in a digital cloud, they can’t be harmed by fires or floods, and with five layers of security, records are safe from human threats as well. Unlike paper records, access to digital records with ImageSilo can be tracked—you can see exactly who accessed the records and when.

Scriborder is also a great program that can be implemented to more securely send requested academic documents like transcripts, diplomas, certificates, and more. Scriborder enables school districts to manage all requests through one portal. Orders are made online, and the document is sent digitally rather than by mail. If there are any issues detected during the mailing process, the student’s private data is automatically captured before it can be seen by anyone. Because the data is sent digitally, it is much more secure than if the transcript was sent by regular mail.

Scanning your student records with Datamation is just the first step in making the records more secure than ever. Paper records and their storage are outdated, risky, and inconvenient, especially where sensitive records are concerned.

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2018-03-14 00:00:00

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How Do Schools Determine Compliance?

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This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Managing School District Records.

It is legally necessary that student records are kept for a certain amount of time, often until long after the student graduates or leaves. These records contain information like the student’s name, address, contact information of the parent or legal guardian, grades and test scores, health and discipline records, attendance records, and more personal, vital information. How long this information needs to be kept often differs by state or even by school district.

Most public schools are required by law to have some kind of records management policy in place. With the help of administrators and the school’s legal counsel team, the school board makes a plan that stipulates how long it is appropriate to keep student records, often based on state standards. Making and following this kind of plan prevents schools from being penalized for destroying a record too soon.

It is necessary to keep records in the event of an investigation of a student or a lawsuit against the school. If either of these scenarios occur and there is no documentation to support either events, the school itself is liable to punishment.

When your district is working with paper documents, having to remember the right date to destroy old records can be tedious and prone to error. These files also take up huge amounts of space when stored in boxes and filing cabinets, not to mention that they are extremely susceptible to fire and flood damage. Recovering these documents after a disaster is difficult and painstaking, and can take time that your district doesn’t have.

Digitizing your records with Datamation can make document compliance effortless. After your documents are scanned, you can use one of many enterprise content management (ECM) systems offered to implement retention policies that keep track of compliance dates for you, eliminating the need to manually keep track of the dates and the worry of non-compliance. Besides compliance, scanning your records allows for quick access, organization, and storage in the digital cloud or a single disk. Your records are also always safe from physical harm and natural disasters.

Maintaining compliance is lawfully necessary, and more practically, it helps protect your school from being unprepared during student or employee investigations and lawsuits. It’s up to your district to create a compliance and retention plan, but that plan will always be optimized when your district scans student and employee records.

Make compliance organized and effortless with Datamation.

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2018-03-14 00:00:00

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