Category Archives: Document Management

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

While there are numerous benefits to digitizing student records, one of the biggest benefits is that communication between schools within a district, and even between different districts, is vastly improved. Datamation offers a time-tested and secure solution to the growing number of student records as students enroll into and transfer from your schools.

Datamation can take every single record from the schools in your district and digitize it. Depending on your preference, they’ll either pick them up and bring them to their secure scanning facilities, or scan them on site. Because our barcode system allows you to track the progress of the scanning process, you’ll always be kept in the loop. You can even access the documents digitally during the scanning process, if needed.

The real benefits begin when the scanning is finished.

Rather than having to dig through piles of paper to find that one specific record, any record can be found within seconds with a simple keyword search. This is ideal for medical emergencies, or any other instance in which a students records would been to be accessed quickly.

Digitizing student records also protects them from physical harm, like fires or floods, and from being seen by unauthorized personnel. Under FERPA, or the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, student records must be kept private and secure with few exceptions. Datamation offers FERPA-compliant storage programs that keep student records safe, and also ensures that your district is compliant.

If your district is finding that its difficult to manage and send requested transcripts or other records, Datamation offers Scriborder, a program that allows your district to manage all record requests (transcripts, transfer requests, etc.) from one portal on your schools website.

Scriborder allows your school to send out records to students requesting any document that they need for college or employment reasons. Students or alumni may request their records directly on the school website, which can be processed and sent out electronically.

Once the record is sent out, the requester is immediately notified. If there is an issue or the record is intercepted as it is mailed, the students data is immediately captured before it can be seen.

Because Scriborder works out of your schools current website, it doesn’t take much to train staff how to use it. Scriborder even sends out their own employees to train your staff, making the transition painless.

While digitization and Scriborder with Datamation generally make communication within a school or district more efficient and smoother, being able to quickly access and send records has the potential to make any kind of student transfers easier.

With paper record keeping, finding those student records can take an unnecessary amount of time that could be spent bettering your district. When records are immediately accessible and can be sent electronically, it also makes sending them from one school to another much more efficient. What took days before the records were scanned now only takes seconds, simplifying student and record transfers. Scanning your student records with Datamation not only improves communication within your own district, but also allows for effective exchanges between neighboring districts.

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2018-03-14 00:00:00

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

Digitizing and storing records doesn’t just apply to student and personnel records. Managing and storing School Board meeting minutes electronically gives your district reliable access to a comprehensive record of important district decisions.

And where do those important district decisions happen? School board meetings. These meetings include decisions like appointments to new offices, donation approvals, vendor contracts, treasury reports, project progress reports, the announcement of new programs, and changes in policy. The minutes taken from these meetings are vital records of each and every decision made by the School Board, and can be referenced if one of the decisions is questioned.

Meeting minutes can also be referenced in order to identify patterns in voting. For example, voting patterns can be examined over a period of 5 years, identifying patterns with board members individually, or the Board as a whole. In short, these records may protect any decisions made by the school and the Board.

Because these records are so important, storing them in paper form makes them susceptible to fire, floods, or just getting lost in the fray. It also takes considerable time to find the correct paper document, digging through filing cabinets or boxes. If something came into question from the meeting that needed to be resolved quickly, it may take hours or days to find the correct file and that wastes a lot of time.

When these minutes are scanned and stored electronically, you can be sure that they will be safe from harm, and can be accessed within a few seconds with a simple keyword search. If a record needs to be sent, there will be no need to worry about making copies, printing, or mailing, saving both time and money. Every single important record will be saved for as long as is necessary, and can be referenced and shared quickly and efficiently.

Preserve every important decision for your district today with Datamation.

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2018-03-14 00:00:00

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